Final Regular Season Record: 94-68 (18-15 for Sep/Oct)
First place AL East, #2 overall seed
We closed out the regular season and coasted to the division title without much incident or injury. There was a stretch when we had whittled our magic # down to 1 but couldn't clinch for three days as the Yankees swept us while Baltimore kept winning but we were only delayed, not denied. There were a couple of roles up for grabs -
Mason Auer reclaimed CF from the short side of a platoon with
Daulton Varsho by hitting 313/352/631 in the final month with 7 HR, 15 RBI and 10 SB, and
Garrett Lambert claimed the 4th starter role for the playoffs over
George Kirby, who was terrible down the stretch.
This is how we played at the end, clinching the division with over a week to spare:
The final MLB standings, where all the playoff spots were clinched going into the final weekend of the season so a complete lack of drama:
Auer took the SB crown but Pepiot lost out on the wins lead. Here's how the playoff tree shakes out:
Our final team stats:
Nothing to complain about here as we were pretty good in all facets of the game and deserved our 94-68 record.
Final batting:
Elly had a great season but had an ordinary September which caused him to lose a fair amount of ground to Gunnar Henderson in the WAR race and may have cost him a second straight MVP. Can't say enough about
Jeffry Rosa, who would have easily cleared 5 (if not 6) WAR had he not missed a month from mid-August to mid-September but still came back to hit 8 HR and 20 RBI in 83 AB after returning from injury and for the year hit a homer an amazing every 9.1 at-bats. As mentioned Auer closed strong and nearly reached the 3-WAR mark despite hitting .213 for the year.
Overall the pitching was really good even if outside of Pepiot and Alvarado we didn't have any pitchers having well above-average seasons. Skenes was a victim of a high BABIP (.344) in his two months with us and will hopefully show ace form in the playoffs and he and Pepiot will be our 1-2 starters with Teodo and Lambert following.
Not the most exciting prospect list with just all the top guys at least a few years away.
Owen Paino (who hit really well in a brief callup) and
Bralier Guerrero look like the most likely 2031 contributors.
On to the playoffs where we'll try once again to bring our first title home. We've made the World Series in two of the previous three seasons only to lose so we've been getting close.