The 2024 Yankees had been American League champions. It’s a eternally designation. It is not going to traditionally include footnotes.
But, I can’t shake that the group’s first pennant in 15 years owed one thing to a weak AL. The nemeses Astros and anticipated burgeoning energy Orioles took a step backward, and the defending champion Rangers, Rays and Blue Jays retreated greater than that. That opened a door to a great AL Central postseason cakewalk to the World Sequence for the Yankees.
I don’t, for instance, suppose the 2024 Yankees had been higher than the 2017, ’19 or ’22 variations, who all misplaced within the ALCS to the Astros. There simply was not an AL foe nearly as good as these Astros this time.
Nothing that has occurred up to now this offseason has radically upgraded the AL. The truth is, the third-place MVP finisher (Juan Soto), fifth-place Cy Younger (Corbin Burnes) and Kyle Tucker shifted to the NL. The favorites to land the largest worldwide prize this offseason (Roki Sasaki) are the Dodgers and Padres. The AL group that has accomplished finest importing NL expertise is the Yankees — Cody Bellinger, Fernando Cruz, Max Fried, Paul Goldschmidt and Devin Williams (all however Fried from the tepid NL Central).
