With less than a week to opening day, let's move on to the American League Central:
The Chicago White Sox will be without prized outfielder Eloy Jiminez until August or September, if that at all, after he tore his Achilles tendon in a preseason game earlier this week. A terrible blow to a team hoping to contend with prodigal son Tony LaRussa returning to the dugout after being many miles away the last 35 years (Oakland, St. Louis, front office job with Arizona). With a pitching staff fronted by Lucas Giolito and Dallas Kuechel, the ChiSox should still be able to contend. The ChiSox also welcome back Adam Eaton (Washington) to patrol the outfield, so Jiminez's absence won't be as noticeable.
Defending champion Minnesota picks up pitchers Matt Shoemaker & Hansel Robles from the Angels, and JA Happ from the Yankees, with Shoemaker & Happ set to be in the rotation behind Kenta Maeda. The offense is for all intents and purposes the same. Cleveland is talking about doing away with the "Indians" monicker, following in the footsteps of the Washington club in the NFL. They get Terry Francona back in the dugout after a year off, but time will tell if they made a mistake dealing free-agent-to-be Francisco Lindor to the Mets for Amed Rosario & Andres Giminez. They tried Rosario in the outfield the other day, and he committed three errors. Keep in mind the Mets wanted to try him in the outfield, but never pulled the trigger.
Detroit stupidly let shortstop Jose Iglesias walk (Angels), but they welcome AJ Hinch as their new manager after he served a year's suspension for the 2017 Astros' cheating scandal. There's a reason they finished last in 2020. Kansas City thinks they've got the solution after Alex Gordon retired. They signed Michael A. Taylor (Washington), a faster, younger athlete who was under-used in DC.
Projected order of finish:
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