Every day, Pinstripe Alley offers updates on what the Yankees’ top American League opponents are up to through the Rivalry Roundup. The AL East is well-trodden ground there, but with the season’s final month upon us , we’re going to take a peek around MLB as a whole and check in with each of the other five divisions. Who’s surprising? Who’s underwhelming? Who’s simply mediocre at the moment? Read on and find out.
(Note: Records and standings are up to date through games played on Sunday, August 31st.)
First Place: Houston Astros (75-62)
Top Position Player: Jeremy Peña (4.7 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Hunter Brown (4.3 fWAR)
These guys again. And Yordan Alvarez is now back. And Carlos Correa has been raking since his return to Houston at the deadline. Houston’s slightly below .500 month (13-15) isn’t exactly inspiring—especially after dropping two of three to the Angels at home to end it—but it’s still enough to retain a thin grasp on the AL West lead. Right up there with Correa, the hitter who has helped carry this Houston offense in August is Christian Walker. After a highly underwhelming start to his career in the American League—one that led fans of this club to have déjà vu of José Abreu—Walker is finally heating up, leading the team with eight homers this past month.
On the pitching side of things, Jason Alexander has been the man to step up and help mitigate the damage done by Framber Valdez’s worst month of the season, posting an ERA well north of 5.00 in five starts. Added to the rotation in late July, a waiver claim from the Athletics, Alexander has led the Astros to wins in each of his last six starts.
To think this is where this team is at after getting no production from Alvarez the whole year, that’s pretty daunting. Alvarez has returned after missing way more time than originally expected in another murky, potentially mishandled injury scenario of a star hitter for the Astros. Originally, the star hitter was diagnosed with a muscle strain and wasn’t expected to miss that much time, but it turns out that he had a small fracture, and that period of absence ultimately reached nearly four months.
Second Place: Seattle Mariners (73-64)
Top Position Player: Cal Raleigh (7.3 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Bryan Woo (3.2 fWAR)
Seattle has managed to feel what it is like to be the hottest team and the coldest ballclub of the Junior Circuit in the same month. The Mariners combined a run of nine wins in 10 games with one of seven losses across eight matchups in a few weeks. One might point out that the positive sequence came against below-.500 teams (Orioles, Rays, and White Sox), and most of the losses came against NL playoff contenders (Phillies and Mets), but it’s never quite that simple.
The MLB leader in home runs, Cal Raleigh, has shown no signs of slowing down in that department, also leading his team in August homers with eight — two more than deadline acquisition Eugenio Suárez and franchise cornerstone Julio Rodríguez. Raleigh has already set a record for the most homers in a single season by a catcher, challenging Aaron Judge for AL MVP while becoming the first Mariner to reach 50 bombs since no less a luminary than Ken Griffey Jr.
Looking at the Mariners’ current situation, I’m reminded of a Brazilian saying that goes like this: “You keep one eye on the cat and the other one on the fish.” It basically says that you should pay attention to both parties involved, and as much as Seattle may concern itself with trying to chase down Houston for the division lead, it ought to be mindful of the looming threat of the Texas Rangers.
With the Rangers finishing August on an 8-2 run, the gap between them and the Mariners is almost as small as the one between Seattle and Houston.
Third place: Texas Rangers (71-67)
Top Position Player: Corey Seager (3.9 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Nathan Eovaldi (3.8 fWAR)
It only took him nearly a full season, but Joc Pederson has finally decided to properly introduce himself to Ranger fans. After being one of the worst hitters, and consequently overall players since all he does is hit, through the end of July, Joc has finally heated up and is slugging a team-high .567 in August. The Rangers’ primary DH is providing some depth to a lineup with Corey Seager and Wyatt Langford currently hitting the cover off the ball.
The offense as a whole has picked up the slack and will need to do so even more with the prolonged absence of Nathan Eovaldi, who seems to be done for the season with a rotator cuff injury despite a sterling 1.73 ERA in 22 starts. The ever-concerning Jacob deGrom, on the other hand, appears to have survived the scare of having his turn skipped once due to shoulder inflammation and has since pitched again with his regular efficiency and quality.
Pederson and deGrom were actually the stars of the show in the Rangers’ final win of the month, securing a sweep of the last-place Athletics. deGrom pitched five scoreless, and Pederson went yard as Texas survived a late rally to beat the A’s 9-6. They are currently the first team out in the AL Wild Card picture, 2.5 back of Seattle, half a game up on Kansas City, and one ahead of Cleveland.
Fourth Place: Los Angeles Angels (64-72)
Top Position Player: Zach Neto (3.4 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: José Soriano (2.9 fWAR)
Imagine venturing a guess as to how many AL teams have had not one, but two different hitters with at least nine home runs in August. The answer is only one, and not only is that team the Los Angeles Angels, but the players involved are neither this team’s RBI leader (Taylor Ward) nor the most prolific player this franchise has ever known (Mike Trout). Zach Neto and Jo Adell are behind this surprising yet futile effort, seeing as this team is 11-16 in August.
On a positive note, Adell and Neto are the type of young building blocks that this team needs to see thriving and taking steps forward to eventually form a competitive nucleus. While Neto has established himself from a very early stage, you might be wondering what changed for Adell, given we’ve been hearing about him for approximately 27 years. The young outfielder is still striking out a lot, and a sub-300 OBP is unsettling, but he is getting to enough power to make it work despite that, reaching the 30-homer threshold for the first time.
Overall, this Angels lineup has done a fine job as of late, but there is only so much you can accomplish when every starting pitcher in your staff finishes a month with an ERA over 5.00. This has been a normal down month in solid years from Yusei Kikuchi and José Soriano. Still, the fact that the Angels are filling the rest of their rotations with veterans performing well below the league average speaks to the quality of this team’s farm, lacking any sort of developmental arms to give these innings to.
If nothing else, the Angels did the funny thing and managed to sweep the Freeway Series this season, taking all three from the reigning champs at Dodger Stadium in a three-game set in May before doing the same in Anaheim a few weeks back.
Last Place: Athletics (63-75)
Top Position Player: Nicholas Kurtz (4.2 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Luis Severino (2.2 fWAR)
Speaking of intriguing offenses going nowhere due to atrocious pitching, we move our attention to the Athletics, who possess Nick Kurtz, one of the most exciting young players in the sport and one of two A’s in AL Rookie of the Year contention (alongside shortstop Jacob Wilson, who just got back following a month on the IL). After continuously making a mockery out of AL pitching, Kurtz has embraced the fear he evokes in the opposition and is posting a 21.2-percent walk rate in August. And the funny part is that he’s only second in the AL in that department, behind one Aaron Judge.
With Kurtz taking all of these free passes, it has been up to other high-profile members of this offense to pick up the slack, and they’ve done just that. Shea Langeliers has 11 homers in August, making him the hottest American League catcher, and Tyler Soderstrom and Colby Thomas have also done quite well as of late.
Unlike the Angels, the A’s have had a few starting pitchers stand out in Jacob Lopez and primarily Luis Morales, the latter of whom shut down the Tigers for seven scoreless innings in his last appearance. That Morales’ performance capped off a series sweep of the AL Central leading Detroit Tigers, the highlight of the A’s second winning month after a disastrous May that basically ended their hopes this season.
