Under-the-Radar MLB Teams Poised to Impress in 2016 Spring Training
It's OK to admit you're excited to watch the Kansas City Royals, New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox or any other high-profile team this spring. We all are, man. Just let it out.
But for anyone who wants to sound like a real baseball know-it-all around the nearest water cooler, we happen to have a list of under-the-radar clubs that can steal the show in spring training.
The list consists of five teams, with four coming from the American League and one coming from the National League. These clubs are being overlooked from a national perspective, but they have their reasons for why they could stand out this spring. Some have especially strong lineups. Others have especially strong pitching. Some have both.
We'll begin with a team that's merely intriguing and work our way toward the team that could be both intriguing and really good.
5. Minnesota Twins
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Not many are taking the Twins' surprising 2015 season as an excuse to hop on their bandwagon. Certainly, it doesn't help that the projections at Baseball Prospectus and FanGraphs shrug in the Twins' general direction.
But the truth of it is, the Twins are actually more interesting now than they were a year ago. In particular, their lineup has the makings of a real humdinger.
Young slugger Miguel Sano made it clear with a .916 OPS and 18 home runs in just 80 games that he's a rising star to watch, and the Twins are champing at the bit to add another young hitter to their lineup. Byron Buxton is considered by Baseball America and others as the American League's top prospect, and the Twins have all but handed him their starting center field job.
Left fielder Eddie Rosario is another talented young player in the lineup. Between Brian Dozier, Trevor Plouffe and a possibly/finally healthy Joe Mauer, there's also a good veteran presence. And after several power-crazy seasons in Korea, Byung-ho Park could quickly make the leap from curiosity to star.
OK, so, it's not as easy to have high hopes for Minnesota's pitching staff, which doesn't seem to have a true ace. But Jose Berrios could at least provide a glimmer of hope. He's another well-regarded Twins prospect, and his stuff is already drawing comparisons to a Twins legend.
“That changeup, from the right side, reminds me of Johan Santana’s, the action that it has,” said Stu Cliburn, the pitching coach at Double-A Chattanooga, to La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
In the AL Central, all the attention is on the reigning champion Kansas City Royals and newly refurbished Detroit Tigers. Although the Twins may indeed have a hard time competing with them in 2016, what they could hint at this spring is the same thing they hinted at last season: They're a team on the rise.
4. Miami Marlins
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With the National League split down the middle between great teams and bad teams, the Marlins come the closest to being an overlooked gem. They may be the David to the NL East's two Goliaths in New York and Washington, but they're also not totally without talent or potential.
This spring will be the first time in a while that ace right-hander Jose Fernandez and slugging right fielder Giancarlo Stanton will be healthy at the same time. Because they're two of the brightest and most entertaining young stars in the sports, this goes into the file marked "Good Things."
Also in Miami's rotation is steady-as-they-come lefty Wei-Yin Chen. The Marlins will also be staging an intriguing closer battle: A.J. Ramos will duke it out with Carter Capps, whose (literally) jumpy delivery helps make him a master of perceived velocity, as Ben Lindbergh noted at Grantland last year.
There's also some pretty good talent around Stanton in Miami's lineup. Second baseman Dee Gordon established himself as a superstar in 2015. And with their respective hot finishes, left fielder Christian Yelich and center fielder Marcell Ozuna once again look like rising stars going into 2016.
And who's overseeing Miami's lineup? None other than all-time home run king Barry Bonds. The Marlins hired him as their hitting coach, making it all too easy to wonder if he could draw the same sort of rave reviews this spring that he did at San Francisco Giants camp a couple of years ago.
Of course, Bonds has to report to Miami's new manager, Don Mattingly. And though his facial hair ban invites obligatory The Simpsons jokes, it sounds like he made the right impression with his opening speech.
“I went out to practice like I wanted to eat the world,” Fernandez said, via Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald.
Can the Marlins go out and top the Mets or the Nationals this season? Probably not. But as they should show this spring, they might at least be able to make life hard for both clubs.
3. Seattle Mariners
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The Mariners let down many experts (and at least one dingbat) when they fell flat in 2015. That plus the rise of the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers explains why they're keeping a lower profile this spring.
But could the Mariners actually be...good?
They certainly have the stars for the task. Felix Hernandez heads Seattle's rotation and is once again backed by Hisashi Iwakuma. Anchoring the club's lineup is Kyle Seager, Nelson Cruz and Robinson Cano, who had a huge second half in 2015 and is now, per Greg Johns of MLB.com, "98 percent" healthy after struggling with a bad stomach last year.
The Mariners are also bringing some solid young talent to camp. Ketel Marte is ready for his first season as an everyday shortstop. Hard-throwing right-hander Taijuan Walker may build on the experience of his first full season in 2015. James Paxton, a hard-throwing lefty, could benefit from being in better shape.
But the real intrigue lies with Seattle's many new additions. New general manager Jerry Dipoto added Wade Miley and Nate Karns to the club's rotation, as well as Joaquin Benoit, Evan Scribner and Steve Cishek to the bullpen, and Nori Aoki, Adam Lind, Chris Iannetta and Leonys Martin to the lineup. All of them fill areas where the Mariners were weak in 2015, giving them considerably upgraded depth.
Leading the troops is a new manager in Scott Servais. He's our pick for AL Manager of the Year, and he already likes what he sees.
"We're off to a good start," Servais said Wednesday, via Johns. "I'm really happy with the way camp has gone and the interaction between the players and coaches and among themselves. Tomorrow will be a big day. Everybody will be excited and getting the whole crew together and getting the plan laid out and make sure they all understand what the vision is."
How good are these Mariners? According to Baseball Prospectus and FanGraphs, they're good enough to project as the AL West's second-best team. That is, better than many are making them out to be.
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2. Tampa Bay Rays
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From the biggest experts on down to the nearest passerby, it seems everyone expects the AL East race to be won by the Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays or New York Yankees.
Or, it could be won by the Rays. That's the message that Baseball Prospectus is sending, anyway, and the Rays could show this spring that might not be a new definition for the term "crazy pants."
If nothing else, the Rays have a sneaky-good starting rotation. Buster Olney of ESPN.com put the Rays rotation in his top 10 for 2016, and that checks out. Chris Archer had his awakening as an ace last year, and he's joined by Jake Odorizzi, Drew Smyly and a healthy Matt Moore.
"The one thing that really sticks out is watching Matt Moore right now," Rays manager Kevin Cash said of Moore this week, per Michael Kolligian of MLB.com. "It's pretty exciting to see him throwing his sixth, seventh, eighth bullpen and the way it's coming out of his hand."
After they struggled to score runs for a good portion of 2015, one area where many may feel skeptical about the Rays is with their offense. But said offense actually turned into a top-five unit in the second half, and it now has some new toys in Brad Miller, Steve Pearce and Corey Dickerson.
Per Baseball Prospectus' defensive efficiency ratings, the Rays were also an excellent defensive team last season. Kevin Kiermaier had a lot to do with that, and he could be primed for yet another show-sealing season as baseball's best defensive center fielder.
After two straight rough seasons, this Rays team basically has the chance to be a throwback. Maybe it doesn't have the star power of other teams in the AL East, but it's a well put-together team that has the potential to sneak up on everyone.
1. Cleveland Indians
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Just because the Twins aren't likely to take the spotlight from the Royals or Tigers in the AL Central doesn't mean there's a team that can't. For your consideration, here are the Indians.
Though Baseball Prospectus and FanGraphs project the Indians to win the division, one gets the sense that many are chalking that up to the projections drastically underrating the Royals and Tigers. But, the projections could actually be on to something.
Cleveland definitely has the starting pitching to do the team justice. Olney rates it as the American League's best, and it could be just that if 2014 Cy Young winner Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar live up to their potential. Trevor Bauer also has plenty of potential of his own, and he may be ready to realize it after a winter of soul-searching.
"I've been overloaded mentally on [baseball] for many years," Bauer told Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. "I kind of got away from it."
And though they're not exactly the Blue Jays, the Indians also have a solid lineup.
Michael Brantley will need time to recover from shoulder surgery, but the Indians have an excellent double-play combination in Francisco Lindor and Jason Kipnis, a good catcher in Yan Gomes and a trio of hitters in Carlos Santana, Lonnie Chisenhall and new arrival Mike Napoli who are all heading into 2016 with momentum after finishing strong in 2015.
The Indians lineup also has something of a well-kept secret, which is that it could be good on defense. Catching the ball was a struggle for the Indians in 2014 and early in 2015, but they got squared away well enough and quickly enough to finish among baseball's 10 most efficient defenses.
Add it all up, and you get a team that doesn't really have glaring weak points. Anyone who hasn't already noticed could soon find out.
Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.
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