10 Biggest Takeaways from MLB's Regular Season
We made it. The end is here, and all that remains is the ever-entertaining postseason that never disappoints with its drama and intrigue.
Major League Baseball’s marathon season concludes Sunday. It has given us plenty of feel-good, fluffy stories, as well as a fair share of controversy and ugliness. And both themes were prevalent right up until the end—the Minnesota Twins were the refreshing storyline, and Jonathan Papelbon gave us the despicable.
With a couple of days until the official postseason starts on Tuesday, most of the talk will be looking forward into October at how the rest of the month might play out. For now, though, it is time to take a look back at the regular season’s biggest narratives.
Not all of them are covered, but the ones you’re about to read are all significant and helped shape the last six months. So, before we transition to the best part of the baseball season, here are the events that got us here.
National League’s Historic Cy Young Race
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It is not an enviable job to have, voting for the NL’s Cy Young Award winner this season. It is an incredibly painstaking decision that requires a good amount of research.
Then again, the top three candidates are so good, it is difficult to argue against any of them. So picking the winner out of a hat isn’t such a bad way to decide.
We won’t pore over all the stats in this space, but Los Angeles Dodgers co-ace Zack Greinke has been the most consistently dominant pitcher in baseball this season. His 1.66 ERA is the best since Greg Maddux’s 1.63 mark 20 years ago, it has never risen above 1.97 at any point this season and his 0.844 WHIP is one of the five lowest in the Live Ball Era (1920). He also had a streak of 45.2 scoreless innings, the fourth longest in the expansion era (1961).
Chicago Cubs ace Jake Arrieta has a no-hitter in the books and a 0.75 ERA in the second half. Greinke’s co-ace and the undisputed best pitcher in the game, Clayton Kershaw, is going for 300 strikeouts this season, and his ERA might not be sub-2.00, but it is fractions off the pace with much better strikeout and fielding-independent numbers than either of the other two.
“What I like about Greinke is it’s been tape-to-tape, April to today,” ESPN analyst Doug Glanville said on Baseball Tonight on Wednesday. “Greinke has been an under-2.00 ERA the entire season, at home, on the road. I like the fact that he’s had 25 starts where he’s given up two runs or less.”
Said fellow ESPN analyst Keith Law on the same show: “I would go with Kershaw, because ultimately what do we focus on with pitchers? Do you miss bats? Do you avoid walks? Do you keep the ball in the park? Kershaw has been the best at those three things.”
Arrieta has the “what have you done for me lately?” factor working in his favor, and that could be enough to overcome the Dodgers duo. But no matter who wins this thing, the pick will be difficult to argue, as these three have shut down the National League for the better part of six months.
Cespedes Trade, Harvey’s Limits Make Mets Major Second-Half Story
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The New York Mets proved to be a team worth paying attention to early in the season after snatching 15 wins in their first 20 games. But then, the team finished the first half five games under .500 and with an offense better suited for a Quad-A league than the major leagues.
After a drama-filled week leading up to the July 31 trade deadline, the Mets took off and became a legitimate National League contender. They acquired Yoenis Cespedes, got healthy, got some great starting pitching and went 37-17 in a 54-game stretch to help them clinch the NL East title last week.
The one dark cloud hanging over the second half ended up being the surprise innings limit on co-ace Matt Harvey, who was expected to be one of the team’s horses going into the postseason, and his unwillingness to commit to the team over his agent. But after agent Scott Boras set that limit around the end of August after consulting with doctors, it turns out Harvey will also be limited in the playoffs to one start in the NL Division Series.
The Mets are back to being relevant, and they re-emerged with a bang in 2015.
Bryce Harper Emerges While Nationals Fail
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The Washington Nationals were supposed to be a superteam, one capable of a triple-digit win total because of a dominant rotation and powerful lineup. And if Bryce Harper finally lived up to the hype in this fourth and age-22 season, then there was no limit to what this team might accomplish.
Harper lived up to his billing and should be the league’s MVP. The Nationals, though, learned the hard way that being a preseason superteam means nothing once the games count. They fought to stay above .500 in the final month and produced enough drama to win an Academy Award.
The defense was atrocious early, the sense of urgency was absent later, the bullpen management lacked all year, and clubhouse disharmony and an in-house altercation stole the headlines down the stretch.
Manager Matt Williams’ misuse of his bullpen, along with the clubhouse no longer backing him, will likely cost him his job a season after winning NL Manager of the Year. And Jonathan Papelbon, part of the team for all of seven weeks, choking Harper in an attempt to assert his veteran presence after Harper called him out for intentionally hitting an opponent could lead to him being moved over the offseason.
By the end of it all, the Nationals lost seven games in a nine-game stretch to complete their utter failure of a season.
The Nationals have holes to fill and questions to answer this offseason. Free agency will change their lineup and rotation, and Papelbon’s tenure with the club could be short-lived after the incident with Harper. This team will undoubtedly look different next season, but that does not mean the results will.
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A-Rod Becomes Vital Piece in Yankees Lineup
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Alex Rodriguez went into this season, going on age 40, with few positive expectations and the stench of a yearlong suspension resulting from the Biogenesis investigation oozing from his pores. The New York Yankees would not even come right out and say they were giving him a job out of spring training. He had to earn every at-bat, the team said.
It did not take very long for Rodriguez to force his way into the middle of the order and earn the role of the team’s No. 3 hitter. He had a great first half and established himself as one of the best hitters in the league. Then, after a slowdown in the second half, he has emerged again and is arguably the team’s most valuable offensive asset.
He leads the team with 33 home runs and a .356 OBP and is second with a 129 wRC+, according to Fangraphs, cementing himself as one of the pieces that has helped the Yankees get back to the postseason for the first time in three years.
“They would not be there without Alex Rodriguez,” former player and current analyst Carlos Pena said on MLB Network on Friday. “When you see him go out there and be the best run producer on that club, … Alex Rodriguez, the MVP of the New York Yankees.”
Love him or hate him, A-Rod in 2015 was back to being one of the more productive players in the American League.
Blue Jays Go from Mediocre to AL Favorite
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Going into the week before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, the Toronto Blue Jays were again playing below expectations. At 50-50, they were a mediocre team with a strong offense but not much pitching, and they were in danger of missing the playoffs for a 22nd consecutive year.
Then, a couple of blockbuster trades shifted the organization’s trajectory. General manager Alex Anthopoulos pulled off a deal for shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and reliever LaTroy Hawkins, and another for ace David Price. Immediately, the Blue Jays transformed from a team trudging its way through the summer to a club capable of winning the World Series with a 40-16 record since Aug. 1.
“It was pretty obvious,” manager John Gibbons told reporters this past week after the Blue Jays clinched the AL East title. “We liked our team, but we weren’t getting a lot of traction up to that point. Alex pulled off a couple big deals and it just took off.”
The Blue Jays have the pitching and offense to get through the Junior Circuit, and if they play as they have for most of the second half, they certainly have enough to do what they did 22 years ago—win the World Series.
Offseason Failures Result in Red Sox Disappointment
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The Boston Red Sox flashed their cash last offseason, signing Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez to big-money contracts that were part of the plan to take the team from worst to first for the second time in a few seasons.
The problem was while the Red Sox were signing those two declining players, they could not lock up reliable starting pitching, and it led to them having one of the worst rotations in the American League for much of the season.
Meanwhile, Ramirez and Sandoval ended up being arguably the two worst players the franchise employed in 2015.
The bright spots were young players like Mookie Betts, Blake Swihart and Jackie Bradley Jr. proving they are the future of the franchise. And with Boston’s willingness to spend to acquire pitching, it might not be long before they contend again with those players at the core of it all.
Los Angeles Angels Saga, Albert Pujols’ Resurgence
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The Angels soap opera started before the regular season did with their handling of Josh Hamilton’s relapse admission, which eventually led to the team trading him to the rival Texas Rangers and picking up more than $60 million of the remaining money on his contract.
Media and players within the Angels clubhouse criticized how the team handled the Hamilton situation, as it came off cold, callous and only about money.
But that was not the end of the Angels’ dramatic storylines. The next one came as June rolled into July and GM Jerry Dipoto and manager Mike Scioscia were at odds, which was nothing new for this organization since Dipoto took over before the 2012 season. This time, though, Dipoto felt he was unable to work within the organization’s hierarchy, one that seemingly put the manager above the GM.
This saga ended with Dipoto walking out on the team. He has since been hired in the same capacity by the Seattle Mariners.
Things were not all bad for the Angels, though. Aside from Mike Trout again being one of the best players in baseball, the Angels got good production from Albert Pujols, who hit 39 home runs, his most since 2010.
Pujols will be 36 next season and still has six years and $165 million remaining on his contract, which will undoubtedly turn bad in the near future, but if he can give them that kind of run production for another few seasons, the deal might not end up being as bad as once thought.
Year of the Prospect
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The influx of young talent injected into the game was one of the earliest and biggest storylines of the season. Several of baseball’s best prospects were promoted to the big leagues in 2015, and many of them made significant contributions to contending teams, while others showed themselves to be foundations for teams planning to contend in the near future.
Results for the entire group have varied from All-Stars to those needing more time to evaluate, but it is undeniable that the game’s future is now upon us, and it is led by youthful seasoned veterans like Mike Trout and Bryce Harper (who is still younger than some of the prospects called up this year).
Players like Kris Bryant (All-Star), Miguel Sano, Carlos Correa, Noah Syndergaard, Francisco Lindor, Kyle Schwarber, Joc Pederson (All-Star) and Corey Seager have had significant impacts on their clubs, and some will continue to do so during the postseason.
“But I think it's good for baseball, too, because there's a lot of guys in the minors that are going to have very good careers,” Bryant, the Chicago Cubs’ Rookie of the Year candidate, told Joe Lemire of USA Today. “Especially in our system, there's a lot of guys down there. I follow along with it, too. I'm just like any other fan. I'm rooting for them and want them to be up here as soon as possible. I think it's good for the sport."
This season, arguably more than any other before it, used its best prospects to show the game is in good hands, and should be for a generation to come.
Astros and Cubs Prove to Be Best Young Teams
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Most preseason playoff predictions for 2015 did not include the Astros or Cubs, but both clubs were seen as up-and-coming rosters full of young talent that were not far off from contention.
Six months later, both teams hit the fast-forward button and made the playoffs. The Astros did it with an average positional-player age of 26.6 years old, while the Cubs’ average age was 26.9 years. Both pitching staffs had an average age under 30.
“There’s just such a good vibe around our team,” Astros ace Dallas Keuchel told reporters during the All-Star break. “We got off to a good start, and when we did, I think we kind of realized that this isn’t too soon. We’re ready.”
The Astros core is built around Keuchel, shortstop Carlos Correa and several other players under team control for the next several years. The Cubs, built much the same way through high draft positions, are led by ace Jake Arrieta, Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Addison Russell and a host of other young, blossoming players. The difference is the Cubs will have more long-term money to spend to supplement their roster going into the offseason, putting them on track to contend for a World Series quicker than the Astros, although paths can always veer off course.
Both rosters are ripe with current and potential superstars, and with them playing in separate leagues, an Astros-Cubs World Series is no longer so improbable.
National League Central’s 3-Team Dominance
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For the first time, a league’s three best records are coming out of the same division. And for only the second time ever, three teams from the same division have won at least 95 games.
The St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs will finish in that order in the NL Central, and even though the Pirates and Cubs have better records than the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers, they will face each other in the do-or-die Wild Card Game on Wednesday.
"I've said that from the beginning," Cubs manager Joe Maddon told reporters. "One and done is very harsh, and I say that having been on the good side of it [in 2013]."
This might be a fluky season where the three best teams all come from the same division, but what is not is that all three teams are far from flash-in-the-pan kind of clubs. Each should contend for several more seasons, making the Central one of the best and most tightly contested divisions in the game.
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