The 10 Biggest Story Lines in MLB’s Second Half
The MLB schedule resumes Thursday. There are 70 games left for each team. The top 10 story lines to monitor between now and October are:
The Yankees are on a record-breaking pace. They are 13 games clear in the AL East. The team has a chance to break the all-time MLB record of 116 wins in a regular season. Aaron Judge has the chance for a 60-homer season, which would be a new record for him. The Yankees might not push all the way to the regular-season finish line. It's possible they might have to play with Triple-A players. A player like Matt Carpenter could be the difference between winning and losing. He's hitting 13 home runs. His team is 4.5 games ahead of the Astros.
The Nationals are considering a trade for Juan Soto. The 23-year-old is the best pure hitter in the majors. He is under team control through 2024. Only a few teams have the prospect capital to make a big-money deal for him. The deadline is August 2. Nationals have two weeks to decide whether to aim for a blockbuster or let him go. Ted Williams and Shoeless Joe Jackson are the only players with a better career on-base percentage than Sato's .427 through age 23.
Soto is the best player who might change teams this month. Other players worth pursuing are Willson Contreras, Josh Bell, Andrew Benintendi, Ian Happ, Bryan Reynolds and Martín Pérez. Luis Castillo and Frankie Montas are the most likely starters to be traded.
The Seattle Mariners are on a 14-game win streak. They are hoping to reach their first postseason since Ichiro Suzuki was a rookie in 2001. The last time the Mariners reached the playoffs, Julio Rodríguez was less than a year old. General manager Jerry Dipoto has already made one trade this summer by landing Carlos Santana.
The Orioles are on a 10-game winning streak. They are within single digits of their best win total in half a decade. The team has a lot of young talent. Gunnar Henderson is Baseball Prospectus' new no. 1 prospect.
The defending champion Atlanta is on a 14-game winning streak. The team is 2.5 games behind the division leader New York Mets. After Joe Girardi was fired, the Phillies went on nine-match winning run and are now in the playoff race. Bryce Harper is injured and the team has a long postseason drought. The Phillies have the longest postseason absence outside of Seattle.
The Mets are on pace for their best record since the 1980s. They are 58-35, but they have received just 11 starts from Max Scherzer and none from Jacob deGrom. The team is looking for a catcher to improve their catching situation. The Mets could follow up on the upgrades they made in the offseason.
The Dodgers are 10 games ahead of the Mets in the National League West. The Padres are 8-15, while the Giants are in a tight race just to make the playoffs. There are eight teams in National league, so there could be as many as three teams from the NL West making the postseason. . . The Giants have fallen from a 107-win juggernaut to a team in tight races just for making it to the post-season.
There will be six playoff spots in 2022. The top two teams in each league will receive byes. There will also be a third division winner plus three wild cards. Byes incentivize each division leader to push hard in September. In practice, the division leaders in the East and West are far ahead of their Central counterparts. FanGraphs’ playoff odds give all the teams from the AL Central just a 0.5 percent combined chance to win a bye.
Shohei Ohtani is the player of the year in MLB. He's a two-way player who won the MVP award last season. His team, the Angels, are struggling. They are 15-40 and tied for the division lead. Ohtsani's team is 39-53. Last season, Ohtis was worth a league-leading 8.1 fWAR. This year, he's at 4.7 f WAR.
