Roger Arrieta
Alas, after four months of waiting and wondering if we would ever see baseball in 2020, Opening Day is upon us! So what will a 60-game season, with a universal designated hitter, and scheduling conducive to limited travel look like in the National League West this summer? We’ll take a quick look at the rest of the division and how the seven-time defending champion Dodgers stack up in this Opening Day preview of the season.
Los Angeles Dodgers
There’s not a whole lot of parity when it comes to having an opinion on who will reign supreme in the NL West in 2020. As the consensus favorite to win their eighth straight divisional crown, the Dodgers have not let up. The blockbuster trade that brought the 2018 American League MVP Mookie Betts and the former Cy Young Award winner David Price to the Dodgers was the big deal of the offseason. To make matters worse for their division foes, yesterday, the Dodgers and Betts agreed to a 12-year/$365 million extension ensuring their newly acquired generational talent would roam the outfield in Chavez Ravine for well over the next decade. The Dodgers continuously re-tool their big league roster thanks to a farm system consistently ranked within the top-10 in baseball. A lineup that boasts talent from top to bottom features consecutive MVP winners Cody Bellinger and Betts, established big-leaguers Justin Turner and Max Muncy, and a group of young stars headlined by Corey Seager and Joc Pederson primed to go off at any time. Their pitching rotation is anchored by three-time Cy Young Award winner and 2014 MVP Clayton Kershaw and the electric Walker Buehler who looks to acquire some hardware of his own. This complement of big leaguers and what seems like an effortless stockpile of young talent has provided the Dodgers with a window of contention like no other team in recent memory.
Arizona Diamondbacks
Credit should be given where credit is due. Since the San Francisco Giants’ five year dynasty from ’10-’14 came to a close (with three second place finishes and two third place finishes) Arizona has been the Dodgers’ closest contender dating back to 2013. However, this is not where Arizona deserves credit. Following the D-backs’ third place finish in 2018, and a trade that sent their homegrown, perennial All-Star, Paul Goldschmidt to St. Louis, it all but seemed like they were entering a dreaded, but necessary rebuild. Not so fast. Prior to this year, General Manager Mike Hazen made multiple moves including, the acquisition of the four-time All-Star and 2014 World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner. The emergence of super-utility man Ketel Marte and veterans Eduardo Escobar and David Peralta, along with the acquisition of long-time Pittsburgh Pirate, Starling Marte, provide Arizona with a respectable core. While their rotation remains suspect, young arms Zac Gallen, Taylor Clarke, and Jon Duplantier show upside anchored by veteran southpaws Bumgarner and Robbie Ray. While postseason aspirations remain limited at best, there is something to be said about an organization still looking to compete.
San Diego Padres
It’s been fourteen years since the Padres won the NL West in 2006 and over ten years since they even came close to competing for the division crown. That being said, things are finally looking up in San Diego. Former Baltimore Oriole and Dodger, Manny Machado, signed a $300 million deal before the 2019 season, ending his brief stint in Los Angeles, and making him the new face of the Padres. But maybe the brightest spot of all has taken shape in the form of twenty-two year-old Fernando Tatis Jr. The electric shortstop and son of former big-leaguer Fernando Tatis (most famous for hitting two grand slams in the same inning in 1999) looks to be just what San Diego needed to jump start their trek to contention. Fernando Jr. slashed .317/.379/.590/.969 and hit 22 homers in 84 games in 2019, leading many to believe he is the future in San Diego and shortstops across the league. A young, but very talented pitching staff is headlined by right-hander Chris Paddack. Surrounded by a strong supporting cast of veterans and young talent, Tatis Jr. and San Diego are poised to continue improving in 2020.
Colorado Rockies
Recently, the Rockies have been one of the most intriguing teams in baseball. A team flush with offensive talent continues to struggle to find the pitching to succeed over the course of an entire 162-game season. It was only in 2018 that the Rockies won 91 games and lost Game 163 against the Dodgers before being swept by Milwaukee in the NLDS. Colorado boasts arguably the best left side of the diamond in baseball, featuring perennial MVP candidate Nolan Arenado and two-time All-Star shortstop Trevor Story. The aging yet, ever-producing Charlie Blackmon is always a threat in the batter’s box. The Rockies consistently show off their young talent in the likes of David Dahl and Raimel Tapia, but inconsistent production at the big-league level continues to stymy their yearly progression as a team. German Marquez had a strong start to 2019 before fading in the middle of the year, while left-hander Kyle Freeland finished fourth in Cy Young voting in 2018 before falling off a cliff statistically in 2019. Colorado seems to be the classic example of the old saying “One step forward, two steps back.” One thing to note specifically in a sixty game season is that anything can happen. Through 58 games in 2019, Colorado was 31-27 and just a half game out of a Wild Card spot before finishing the year 20 games below .500.
San Francisco Giants
The Giants enter 2020 squarely in the middle of a rebuild. Having just said goodbye to their manager Bruce Bochy, after 13 seasons and three successful World Series trips, the Giants welcome new manager Gabe Kapler into the fold. Kapler is fresh off an underwhelming two-year stint in Philadelphia as he takes the helm in the Bay Area. A team hardly resembling the core of the early 2010s, begins the season with little expectation to do much in 2020. Brandon Crawford and Brandon Belt remain staples in the Giant lineup, while the return of veteran Hunter Pence (after a quick stint in Texas) provides a familiar face. Last week, former 2012 MVP and Giant all-time great, Buster Posey, opted out of the 2020 season after announcing that he and his wife would be adopting premature twins. The upside for the Giants can be attributed to their farm system. An organization that ranked at the depths of baseball over the last few years has climbed inside the top-10 according to MLB.com headlined by catching prospect Joey Bart.
In summary… anything short of a full 162-game season is a bummer. However, a sixty game season gives us all something new and exciting to follow. Each game in 2020 is essentially worth 2.7 games relative to a normal 162-game season. Division and wild card races should be closer than ever and we may even see teams with low expectations find themselves in contention deep into the year. As for the NL West, it is in my unprofessional opinion that the Dodgers will handily win their eighth divisional crown in a row. A combination of playing forty of their sixty games in a rather underwhelming division, while penciling Mookie Betts into an already lethal lineup, will be all the Dodgers need to wrap up yet another division title. Arizona, San Diego, and Colorado will fight for position in the middle of the division while San Francisco is relegated to the cellar. In a year where anything can happen, the National League West will remain relatively mundane.
