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Tight AL Central leaves room for potential deals
- Updated: May 25, 2016
It’s time to hit the reset button in the American League Central.
With the Indians taking three of four from the White Sox — and beating Chris Sale and Jose Quintana on consecutive days — the AL Central is back to being almost anybody’s division to take, just as it was expected to be in Spring Training.
We’ve confirmed that the Twins likely need a little more time to give their young players on-the-job training. But as for that six-game lead that Chicago had on May 9, when it was 13 games over .500, there’s only one-half game left after a 4-11 stretch than includes the 3-7 homestand that ended with Wednesday’s 4-3 loss to Corey Kluber.
Had the Royals and Tigers won against the Twins and Phillies, respectively, there would have been only two games between the top four teams. This is setting up as a great race, even if the computers powered by FiveThirtyEight.com currently project that 87 wins will be enough to win the division.
The White Sox have led for 35 consecutive days, but it wouldn’t be a bit surprising if the lead passed back and forth on a regular basis between all four teams the rest of the season. They’ve all shown attributes to build around.
Despite their losses to the Indians, Sale and Quintana have carried the White Sox to a .789 winning percentage in their starts, and the bullpen and fielding are much improved. Cleveland has played around significant injuries to Michael Brantley and Carlos Carrasco, among others, in part because 22-year-old shortstop Francisco Lindor has been as terrific in April and May as he was last August and September.
Greg Holland is no longer in the Royals’ bullpen, but it remains as good as any in baseball and you know a lineup that features Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain and Salvador Perez isn’t going to finish the season 14th in the league in scoring, where Kansas City is now. Miguel Cabrera and his Tigers teammates still can intimidate pitchers, with Ian Kinsler as the best leadoff guy in the AL (as long as the Astros keep hitting Jose Altuve second, that is).
It’s not too early to look ahead to the midseason trades that could wind up …
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