By Staff Writer Ryan Hogan The American League East is arguably the toughest division in Major League Baseball.  Red Sox Nation and the Yankee Empire, alone, are enough to earn that reputation, but now you can add the pennant winning Tampa Bay Rays to the A.L. East’s impressive resume.  If you’re still not convinced, after a mid-season managerial change, the Toronto Blue Jays finished 10 games above .500 to become the best 4th place team in the wildcard era.  As for the Baltimore Orioles…well, someone had to finish last.

The Tamp Bay Rays are young and inexpensive—they have less than $50 million in 2009 commitments.  They also have a farm system overflowing with talented prospects, giving the defending A.L. Champs plenty of options to fix weaknesses. 

Their biggest weakness is hitting left-handed pitching (see the World Series).  With Rocco Baldelli, Eric Hinske and Cliff Floyd testing the free agency waters, Tampa Bay will try to add a bat that can improve the league’s third-worst OPS against lefties. 

Since he’s a franchise favorite who can hit southpaws, Baldelli might be brought back.  While a mitochondrial disorder prevents him from playing everyday, he can platoon at DH and right field. 
Speaking of pitching, the Rays would also like to add depth to the closer position.  Current closer Troy Percival is old and injury prone.  If Rays don’t want to promote an arm from within, they will take a long hard look at what’s available on the free agency market.

The Tampa Bay Rays were forced to a Game 7 of the American League Championship Series by a wounded Boston Red Sox squad.  Despite being just one game away from returning to the World Series, the Red Sox have already started to close the gap between them and the upstart Rays.

The Red Sox bolstered their bullpen and thinned out a log jam in centerfield by trading Coco Crisp to the Kansas City Royals for right-handed reliever Ramon Ramirez.  This makes Jacoby Ellsbury the Red Sox’s starting centerfielder.

The Red Sox offered arbitration to catcher Jason Varitek, meaning he’s unlikely to be back with the team next year.  To fill the void behind the plate, the Red Sox will likely pursue Taylor Teagarden or Jarrod Saltalamacchia, both with the Texas Rangers.

Any trade Boston makes will probably involve highly touted pitcher Clay Buchholz.  Red Sox can part with pitching prospects since they have a solid four-man rotation.

With Manny Ramirez gone and slugger David Oritz another year older, the Red Sox would love to land the 29-year-old switch-hitting free agent Mark Teixeira to their lineup.  And so would the New York Yankees.

The Yankees have a lot of two things: money and old age.  Look for baseball’s richest franchise to spend some of its money to get younger, both at the plate and on the mound. 

The Yanks have $75 million in 2008 salaries coming off the books thanks to the free agencies of Bobby Abreu, Jason Giambi, Carl Pavano, Andy Pettitte (although Abreu and Pettitte might be back with the team) and to the retirement of pitcher Mike Mussina.

Besides Teixeira, the Yankees have also been salivating over starting pitcher CC Sabathia.  The former Brewer ace wants a nine-figure salary and the Yanks can afford to write that check.  However, the Bronx Bombers will have stiff competition from several other Sabathia suitors.

Also look for the Yankees to go after pitchers Derek Lowe and A.J. Burnett.  If the Yankees can land two of the three aforementioned hurlers, they’d be happy.

The Toronto Blue Jays finished the 2008 season with 86 wins, the league’s best ERA, and the league’s fourth-best run differential—all good enough for fourth place in the division. 

So can these birds really compete with the top flyers in the AL East?  The answer is probably not.
Last year, the Blue Jays had one of the league’s best four-man rotations with Roy Halladay, Burnett, Jesse Litsch and Shaun Marcum.  Two of those four pitchers are already gone for next season.  Burnett opted for free agency and Marcum will miss all of 2009 with Tommy John surgery.

Toronto will attempt to sign a pitcher like Ben Sheets or Canadian Ryan Dempster.  They will also make a run at short stop Rafael Furcal.

The Jays would like to improve 1st base, shortstop and 3rd base but the remaining $26 million left on Scott Rolen’s deal means he’s an albatross around the their necks.

The problem with the Blue Jays is they don’t have the Red Sox’s or the Yankees’ money, but are stuck in their division.  It might be prudent for Toronto to think beyond 2009 and start preparing now to dump salaries before the trade deadline.

The Baltimore Orioles had the fifth oldest lineup in the majors, only two players were south of 30.  The good news for the Birds is most of their veterans are entering the final year of their contracts. 

Last off season, the Orioles pillaged the Seattle Mariners of numerous prospects for the hugely disappointing Erik Bedard.  Anticipate Oriole GM Andy MacPhail to try and repeat that transaction.  While it will be difficult to find a team as stupid as the Mariners were a year ago, it’s not out of the question for MacPhail to make several solid trades that make the Orioles younger and competitive.

2nd Basemen Brian Roberts should be one of the first to go followed by Aubrey Huff, Melvin Mora and Ramon Hernandez.  In return, Baltimore should aim to improve its pitching staff.  In 2009, the Orioles had the league’s worst ERA.

The upcoming 2009 MLB season is going to be very exciting and the A.L. East is going to be extremely competitive. Look for the off season changes to make a big difference for each of the teams in the A.L.

Copyright 2008 ClickitTicket