Mookie Betts wearing Dodger blue, Gerrit Cole in pinstripes. A wild sprint from start to finish. Here’s what we’re most excited to see when the 2020 season finally begins.
It appears that there is going to be a baseball season after all, one of 60 games, following a month of ugly public negotiations between the players and owners over how to navigate through the money of the shortened season. In the words of Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer, “COVID-19 already presented a lose-lose-lose situation and we’ve somehow found a way to make it worse.”
Anyway, we can at least briefly turn our attention once again to the upcoming season and pretend we’re back in the middle of March, talking about baseball and baseball players and the wonder and joy of the best sport on the planet. A season of 60 games? Fine, here are 60 storylines to watch once those first pitches are thrown:
1. Mookie Betts in a Dodgers uniform
The February trade that sent Betts and David Price to the Dodgers for Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs and Connor Wong might have been done to spark a rebuilding of sorts in Boston, but that doesn’t make it any less of a blockbuster. Now we’ll get to see Betts in a Dodgers uniform — and you have to admit, it looked like a perfect fit back in spring training. Of course, Betts would look good in those awful White Sox uniforms from the 1970s with shorts and collars.
Betts is arguably the second-best player in the majors, trailing only Mike Trout in WAR over the past four seasons. Then again, he might be just the second-best player on the Dodgers given that Cody Bellinger was the National League MVP in 2019. Betts makes the Dodgers an even better defensive team — and they might have been the best in the majors already, after finishing second to the Astros last year in batting average allowed on balls in play and first in the majors in defensive runs saved. Bottom line: Whether it’s 60 games or 162 games, the Dodgers are still the World Series favorite.
2. Gerrit Cole with the Yankees
You might not remember all the offseason signings, but you remember this one: nine years, $324 million. Cole will enter our new season with a regular-season winning streak of 16 games after 16-0 with a 1.78 ERA over his final 22 starts with the Astros. That stretch featured 16 games of double-digit strikeouts, including his final nine in a row. He did lose a game in the postseason but went 4-1 with a 1.72 ERA in five starts, holding batters to a 1.65 average. Signing him makes the Yankees the consensus American League favorite, so maybe we’re headed for our first Dodgers-Yankees World Series since 1981.
3. Mike Trout has protection!
The second-biggest free-agent signing of the offseason was Anthony Rendon heading to the Angels on a seven-year deal. Trout won his third MVP Award in 2019, and now Angels fans can salivate on Rendon hitting third and following Trout in the lineup. Angels No. 3 hitters batted .265/.323/.464 in 2019, ranking 21st in the majors in wOBA. Nationals No. 3 hitters — that’s mostly Rendon — ranked first.
4. Mike Trout!
He is now in what is regarded as his age-28 season and will turn 29 in August. So he is theoretically entering the decline phase of his career. I hope not.
5. The Nationals try to repeat as World Series champs
Remember, the Braves and not the Nationals won the NL East, and now the Nationals are minus Rendon. The Nationals obviously can’t afford to get off to a slow start like last season, when they went 19-31 their first 50 games. You’ll hear that mentioned often as evidence of the wild results that can happen in a short season, but note that 19-31 is an extreme result for a playoff team. In fact, over the past three years, that’s the worst 50-game stretch for any — that’s any 50-game stretch at any point in the season. So, yes, a bad stretch could happen to a good team, but it’s not as likely as you might think.
6. How much will people hate the Astros?
Before the coronavirus shutdown, this was bound to be an ongoing story throughout the season. Now, not so much. Maybe teams will pipe in loud boos over the stadium sound system when the Astros are the visiting team.
7. How will the Astros hit?
The Astros led the majors with a.274 average last year. They had the highest walk rate. They led in slugging percentage. They’ll be fine. Replacing Cole and Wade Miley is the bigger concern as they aim for the equivalent of a fourth straight 100-win season — which, by the way, had never been done before.
8. Dingers!
You might recall that there were many home runs hit in 2019 — a record 6,776 in total, or 1.39 per team game. Fifty-eight players hit at least 30 home runs, shattering the previous high of 47 in 2000. In 1998, the year Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa broke Roger Maris’ record of 61 homers, just 33 players hit 30. So will we get the same lively ball in 2020? The 60-game equivalent to 30 home runs would be 11.
9. The universal DH
Get over it. It’s time. Pitchers hit.128 last year. They struck out in 43.5% of their plate appearances. Then again, they hit.115 in 2018, so maybe they’re getting better.
10. New strategies!
Sure, the baseball season is in limbo, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have Power Rankings. How does your team stack up? Power Rankings
No, we won’t suddenly see more bunting, but we could see a little more creativity in the way pitchers are deployed — not just openers, but maybe something like tag-team starters early on, with two starters each pitching three innings or so before handing games over to the bullpen.
The most obvious strategic change over a short season will be aggressive usage of a team’s best relievers and longer outings for closers. Managers won’t have to worry about keeping relievers strong over 162 games; and with each game having a larger impact on the standings, they will want to concentrate as many innings as possible to the best bullpen arms. For example, there were 1,180 saves across the majors last year, with 195 of those (16.5%) being more than three outs. That percentage had already been on the rise (13.8% in 2018), but I suspect we’ll see a lot more four- and five-out saves.
11. Juan Soto’s next level
He turned 21 in the middle of last year’s World Series — a series in which he hit.333/.438/.741 with three home runs and seven RBIs and introduced himself to a wider audience. Unfortunately, the short season will deprive him of the chance of becoming just the third player to hit 40 home runs in his age-21 season. Your all-time age-21 leaderboard:
Eddie Mathews, 1953: 47 HRsRonald Acuna Jr., 2019: 41
Cody Bellinger, 2017: 39Albert Pujols, 2001: 37
Hal Trosky, 1934: 35
Soto’s 34 home runs in 2019 put him fourth on the age-20 list, behind Mel Ott, Frank Robinson and Alex Rodriguez. After hitting.282/.401/.548 with 108 walks, Soto already is a proven on-base machine. Only 11 players have hit 40 home runs with a.400 OBP before turning 24. He won’t do it 2020, but he won’t turn 24 until after the 2022 regular season.
12. Ronald Acuna Jr.’s encore
That’s a perfect transition to Acuna, who not only hit 41 home runs last year but led the NL with 37 steals and 127 runs and finished fifth in the MVP voting. He might be the game’s most exciting player, and at 22, he could be an MVP candidate. (Cut down on those strikeouts!) Instead of aiming for a 40/40 season, however, maybe he can set his sights on 20/20. The only player to do that in the first 60 games of a season? The man, the myth, the legend: Eric Davis, in 1987. The last to go 15/15 was Bobby Abreu in 2005.
13. Pete Alonso and Yordan Alvarez, super sophomores
If Soto and Acuna were last year’s super sophomore sluggers, this year’s were going to be Alonso, coming off his rookie-record 53 home runs, and Alvarez, who slammed 27 in 87 games. Alonso has the charisma to be a star beyond whatever numbers he puts up. Alvarez has the talent — he also hit.313 — to be one of the best hitters in the game. Tune in, my friends.
14. Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton
For a third straight season, we won’t get the full demonstration of what the smash brothers might be able to do over 162 games. In 2018, Judge missed 50 games. Last year, Judge played 102 and Stanton just 18 — and the Yankees still hit 306 home runs. And it’s possible we won’t see the duo healthy together this year, either, as Judge is reportedly still battling a stress fracture in his rib suffered in September.
15. Bryce Harper’s second year in Philly
Contrary to what one national pundit opined, Harper did not “stink” in his first year with the Phillies. It’s also true that Harper will forever play in the shadow of his otherworldly MVP season in 2015. Still, the Phillies have bigger concerns than Harper.
16. The White Sox and Reds “won” the winter. Will it matter?
The White Sox signed Yasmani Grandal, Dallas Keuchel, Edwin Encarnacion, Steve Cishek and Gio Gonzalez as free agents, while also re-signing Jose Abreu. Throw in rookie outfielder Luis Robert and rookie second baseman Nick Madrigal and the White Sox have one of the most exciting lineups in the game:
3B Yoan Moncada
SS Tim Anderson
1B Abreu
DH Encarnacion
C Grandal
LF Eloy Jimenez
CF Robert
RF Nomar Mazara
2B Madrigal
The Reds, meanwhile, signed Mike Moustakas, Nicholas Castellanos, Wade Miley and Japanese outfielder Shogo Akiyama.
