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The Yankees are targeting Cody Bellinger and eying Japanese right-hander Tatsuya Imai and other free agent stars, and despite owner Hal Steinbrenner’s obvious ongoing concern about the bottom line, they will almost surely work hard to improve their postseason team. The bigger issue may actually be their strong competition in the AL East, which is gearing up for a fight that could dwarf the spirited regular-season battle that ended with a pair or 94-win teams (the division and American League champion Blue Jays, and the Yankees) and a third playoff team (the Red Sox).
Boston and Toronto already struck early blows, and things are expected to ramp up from here. The Red Sox went first, landing excellent starter Sonny Gray, who’s been terrific everywhere but The Bronx. And Boston is far from done.
The Red Sox are considering signing up to two of these five big-time lineup enhancements: uberpopular Kyle Schwarber, plus Pete Alonso, Kazuma Okamoto and J.T. Realmuto, as well as last winter’s big pickup Alex Bregman.
With the quarter-billion dollars saved from the smart midseason dumping of Rafael Devers, Boston looks like a huge player this winter in what shapes up as a battle royal in baseball’s only division featuring three legit big-market teams. Bregman seems the most likely fit, but they’d love another big bat, with righty hitters preferred, although Schwarber is strongly in the mix following his brilliant 56-homer season, excellent clubhouse rep and familiarity from his cameo there in 2021.
