Booms, Busts, And Teams Still Not Certain: American League

We are about a third of the way through the 2022 season, and Memorial Weekend is often considered a milestone in the season that marks when we can start to get a sense for which teams are for real and which ones are not. By now, the teams that started hot early have cooled off, and the good teams who scuffled have started to rise back to the top of their divisions.

With that in mind, this is a good time to check in on who might be legit, and who clearly is not, along with who we’re still wondering about. Here’s how the American League looks:

Boom: Los Angeles Angels (27-22, second place in the AL West)

If the Angels can keep up the pace they have been on through the first two months of the season, they will take one of the three American League wild card spots. That will mean the nation gets a long overdue look at Mike Trout in the postseason. Other than the 2014 American League Division Series, we have been deprived of Trout every October.

What looks to be key to the Angels’ success this season is that they are getting quality pitching. There’s no question that with Trout and Shohei Ohtani in the lineup the Angels are going to score (235 runs scored ranks third in all of baseball), but this year they are coupling that with a team ERA (3.68) that ranked 10th in the league going into the last days of May. That’s not spectacular, but it’s enough when the batters are plating plenty of runs.

With a $190 million team payroll, the Angels also have room to get creative at the trade deadline. They could stand to upgrade in the outfield to supplement Trout, for starters.

Bust: Seattle Mariners (20-28, fourth place in the AL West)

Few teams had a more promising offseason than Seattle. They added Eugenio Suarez and Jesse Winker from the Cincinnati Reds in a March 14 trade, looking to bolster their offense. Unfortunately, they still rank 21st in the league in runs scored (191) and 17th in batting average (.237). It would help if prospect Jarred Kellenic would start living up to the hype. He hit .181 but with promising power in 93 games in 2021, but Kellenic is down to .140 in 86 at-bats this season and was optioned to Triple-A on May 13.

The Mariners’ pitching has fared even worse. They rank 22nd in ERA (4.14) so far, and the rate that they are giving up home runs is currently behind only the Reds. For what it’s worth, the Mariners won a series against the Astros over the weekend, but that was only their second series win in May. If they are going to turn a corner, their upcoming series in Baltimore could help get the ball rolling.

Seattle has never been much on investing a lot in their payroll, but if they are going to improve this season, getting help for the pitching staff would be the place to start.

Too Early to Tell: Chicago White Sox (23-23, second place in the AL Central)

It seems like very season contains at least one team that becomes the cautionary tale against getting too excited about past performance and/or preseason hype. The White Sox were hands-down the preseason favorites to win their division again, and they are — on paper — still the strongest team in the AL Central. But the upstart Minnesota Twins are sitting atop the division for now while the White Sox continue to scuffle through the first two months.

In a way, their level of play is just a continuation of what they did in the second half of the 2021 season. After coming out of the gate nice and hot early on, the White Sox played roughly .500 ball after the All-Star break. That was enough last year to win the division anyway and put them in the playoffs for the second straight year for the first time in franchise history.

What’s to blame for the .500 ball this year? Injuries have not helped. Tim Anderson is the latest to go down; he suffered an apparent groin injury against the Cubs on Sunday and will most certainly hit the injured list. Eloy Jimenez started a rehab assignment on Saturday night only to leave the game early as a precaution when he felt something off in his surgically repaired hamstring.

Good news might be on the way, though. They finally designated Dallas Keuchel for assignment, and Lance Lynn is set to return from the injured list soon. Keuchel was brilliant for the White Sox in 2020 but started to struggle in the second half of last season, and he has only shown brief flashes of his old self this year.

There are still well over 100 games to be played, leaving plenty of time for surprises, but through the first third of the season, the Angels look like they could be for real while the Mariners are likely doomed to another losing season. As for the White Sox? Getting fully healthy might be the key to them flipping their 2021 performance and putting together a strong second half.