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2026 AL EAST PREVIEW
Jays have uphill battle to defend AL crown

By MLB.com staff
03/20/2026

Moving over to the AL side of the ledger, the AL East is inarguably the best division in baseball, with three playoff-caliber teams in Toronto, New York, and Boston. Baltimore should also be better, and both they and Tampa Bay have the rosters to compete in any other division outside of the NL West.

While most prognosticators have the Blue Jays as the favorite to win the division, and one of the two biggest favorites to represent the AL in the Fall Classic again, Boston did quite a bit to help their case, and the Yankees still have one of the most fearsome lineups in the league. Baltimore could also be good enough to siphon off a few more wins against all three of those teams again, making it a potential four-team race.

Of the three, the Blue Jays have the thinnest rotation, and that's including the Yankees' current injury situation. However, all three of the aforementioned Yankee starters (Cole, Rodon, Schmidt) are all expected back either at or just prior to the All-Star break, giving them a potential boost around the trade deadline.

Tomorrow, the NL and AL Central are up.

1. TORONTO BLUE JAYS

ADDED: 3B Kazuma Okamoto, OF Jesus Sanchez, RHP Dylan Cease, RHP Cody Ponce, RHP Tyler Rogers
LOST: RHP Chris Bassitt, SS Bo Bichette, RHP Seranthony Dominguez, OF Joey Loperfido, RHP Max Scherzer

The defending AL champions enter the 2026 season as the favorites to win the division and are one of the biggest favorites to head back to the World Series as the AL rep, along with Detroit. This is all despite losing out on re-signing Bo Bichette and failing to land either Kyle Tucker or Alex Bregman in free agency, and losing key contributors like Chris Bassitt and Bo Bichette.

The rotation isn't deep, as they are at best six-deep currently with the injuries to righties Shane Bieber and Bowden Francis to begin the season, but they stack up against anyone's in the division as currently constructed. 2025 World Series hero Trey Yesavage is probably on the outside looking in with Dylan Cease now in the fold, but has had a strong spring and will get more opportunities to start and stay stretched out down in Triple-A instead of a bullpen role with the Blue Jays.

Offensively, they have some understandable concerns. Anthony Santander is now out for the first half of the season due to shoulder surgery, taking away one outfield option. That led them to trade Joey Loperfido to the Astros for Jesus Sanchez in a pure salary dump move by Houston. Okamoto is a solid player, but he's probably going to give you about 75% of what a healthy Bregman would have done. They'll be solid defensively up the middle over last year, as Andres Gimenez will slide over to shortstop and Ernie Clement is penciled in as the everyday second baseman.

Even without Santander, who really didn't do much in the limited time he played a season ago, they should be well-positioned to do some damage. Addison Barger is going to shift to being a full-time outfielder with the acquisition of Okamoto, and Sanchez should get plenty of at-bats against righties with George Springer splitting DH and right field duties against lefties.

2. BOSTON RED SOX

ADDED: LHP Ranger Suarez, 1B Willson Contreras, INF Caleb Durbin, INF Isiah Kiner-Falefa, RHP Sonny Gray, RHP Johan Oviedo
LOST: 3B Alex Bregman, RHP Dustin May, RHP Richard Fitts, RHP Lucas Giolito, RHP Jordan Hicks, LHP Kyle Harrison, INF David Hamilton

Perhaps no other team made as many big moves, as Boston made attention-grabbing move after attention-grabbing move. They struck first with the Sonny Gray deal, before acquiring Johan Oviedo from the Pirates. Combining those two trades with the Ranger Suarez signing, and they very effectively turned over 60% of their rotation from a season ago. They'll unfortunately be without Suarez for possibly the first couple of months of the season, as he left his most recent start with shoulder stiffness that was eventually diagnosed as bursitis that will not require any procedure, other than having it drained while the injury heals. But if there's a place on the roster they can afford to take a few hits, it's in the rotation as they can legitimately go seven-to-eight deep when healthy.

This is a team with a few real questions in their lineup, though. Alex Bregman signed with the Cubs in January, and it was long-thought that he'd return to the Red Sox, albeit on a more expensive deal. When that didn't come to fruition, it did leave them scrambling a bit which is when they acquired Durbin from the Brewers, although it cost them Harrison and Hamilton; whom the Red Sox really liked, but needed more proven production in the infield. They also brought in veteran Isiah Kiner-Falefa, although he's likely ticketed for a rotating bench role, where he'll play mainly second, third, and short. Marcelo Mayer has all the tools to be great, but has yet to put it together at the major league level, and Trevor Story is too oft-injured to be relied upon in an everyday role.

If Roman Anthony can take the next step and get something, anything out of Triston Casas later in the season when he returns from injury, Boston might be the favorites to win it all. The bullpen has a few question marks, but they could utilize more fringy starter candidates like Patrick Sandoval, Connelly Early, Kutter Crawford, or even Rule 5 pick Ryan Watson out of the pen in the meantime until injuries strike or they need reinforcements at the deadline.

3. NEW YORK YANKEES

ADDED: LHP Ryan Weathers, IF Max Schuemann
LOST: RHP Devin Williams, RHP Luke Weaver

There was a lot of grumbling around Yankees fans that they didn't do enough this offseason (and it's reflected in this ranking), but for Brian Cashman and the Steinbrenner family, it was more about retaining the talent they already had, rather than put out too much new money in the market. The biggest news was the re-signing of Cody Bellinger, who will return as the everyday left fielder. Trent Grisham is back on the $22.025 million qualifying offer to play center, and Aaron Judge is back to patrol right. Even Paul Goldschmidt is back on a team-friendly, $4 million deal to split time at first base and DH with Ben Rice. The majority of the free agents they brought in are on minor league deals, and the only major acquisition in Weathers was a five-player trade with the Marlins. Schuemann should also provide some additional depth with Anthony Volpe out to begin the season.

The lineup returns intact from last year, an offense that was a top-five unit in the league in 2025. Max Fried and Luis Gil are a solid one-two punch at the top of the rotation to begin the season, but after that they're going to have to rely on Weathers and a combination of vets and youngsters alike, with Ryan Yarbrough, Will Warren, and Cam Schlittler all vying to fill out the rest of the rotation while they wait for Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon, and Clarke Schmidt to return, hopefully by the All-Star break. They have a fairly forgiving early schedule, so perhaps they could weather the storm, but they'll need some starters to step up early.

4. BALTIMORE ORIOLES

ADDED: OF Taylor Ward, RHP Jackson Kowar, RHP Ryan Helsley, RHP Shane Baz, RHP Chris Bassitt, INF Blaze Alexander, 1B Pete Alonso
LOST: RHP Grayson Rodriguez, RHP Kade Strowd, C Alex Jackson, C Gary Sanchez

After a 75-87 season and a last-place AL East finish in 2025, which fell well short of expectations, both incumbent manager Brandon Hyde and interim manager Tony Mansolino are out. Enter first-year manager Craig Albernaz, who will go into 2026 with a largely overhauled rotation with the additions of Chris Bassitt and Shane Baz, along with the re-signing of Zach Eflin. They should also hopefully get a full season out of ace Kyle Bradish, who returned towards the end of last season and was brilliant, posting a 3.24 FIP and 3.34 SIERA, which closely tracked with his 3.18 ERA over 22 2/3 innings (four starts).

Albernaz also have one of the premier offensive forces in the game with Pete Alonso at first base, signed to a five-year deal in the offseason as one of the first big free agent signings of the offseason. Taylor Ward, who hit forty-six homeruns a season ago, was brought in via trade from the Angels, dealing away talented but oft-injured righty Grayson Rodriguez. The bullpen is not as talented or as deep as New York's, but Ryan Helsley is a top-tier closer with some good depth in front of him, as set-up pitchers Yennier Cano, Keegan Akin, and Andrew Kittredge are all back.

For the Orioles to break through the three-headed monster of the Yankees, Blue Jays, and Red Sox, however, they'll need a resurgence from their current homegrown stars in Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman. Rutschman battled injuries for most of the 2025 season, while Henderson struggled early and had a few strong weeks here and there, but struggled to a 110 OPS+ over 639 plate appearances. Still solidly above-average, but a far cry from the 157 OPS+ he posted the previous season. Losing Jackson Holliday to a hamate bone injury from early in the spring won't help either, although he's only expected to be out through April or possibly into early May.

5. TAMPA BAY RAYS

ADDED: INF Ben Willamson, OF Cedric Mullins, OF Jake Fraley, OF Jacob Melton, LHP Steven Matz, RHP Nick Martinez, INF Gavin Lux
LOST: RHP Shane Baz, 2B Brandon Lowe, OF Josh Lowe, RHP Adrian Houser, RHP Pete Fairbanks

Tampa re-configured their outfield mix, bringing in Mullins and Fraley in free agency and nabbing Melton in a three-team trade with the Astros and Pirates, the trade that saw long-time Ray Brandon Lowe head north to Pittsburgh. The Rays were also part of two other three-team deals, one with the Reds and Angels that moved Josh Lowe to the Angels for Gavin Lux. Lux is expected to man second base with Taylor Walls back at shortstop, unless they ultimately decide to keep Carson Williams. He has not been re-assigned to minor league camp, so perhaps they are giving him an extended look, but it is more likely he is re-assigned in the next few days.

The third and final three-team swap brought Ben Williamson to Tampa, where he'll seemingly play a reserve role, sliding between third, second, and potentially shortstop. The signings of Matz and Martinez round out what could be a potentially upper-tier starting rotation, but that is dependent on the health of Shane McClanahan, who hasn't been on a big-league mound since 2023. Matz's transition back to starting after serving as a reliever last year is also a big concern for the Rays, although he's looked impressive in the spring with increasing pitch counts.

Despite all of that, they play in what is overwhelmingly looking like the toughest division in baseball, with three teams that all could lay legitimate claim to winning the World Series this year, and a potential bounce-back team in Baltimore. Tampa Bay actually looks pretty good on paper; and would be a wildcard contender in any other division, but they have a pretty low ceiling in the East.