What we learned in MLB this week: The Rays are for real

Every Thursday, Jordan Shusterman takes a look at one thing from each MLB division that we’ve learned from the past week of action. 

Two weeks down, a little more than 24 to go in the 2023 regular season, and we’re all starting to settle into this new era of Major League Baseball. It's one that's been quickly defined by the game’s three new rules that have sped games up significantly, increased stolen base attempts and altered the way teams play defense. As a fan, it’s all begun to feel normal faster than expected and the lack of pitch-timer violations in particular suggest players are adjusting quickly, as well. 

Beyond the new rules, what — and who — else has stood out in the early going? Let’s dig into what we learned from Week 2. 

AL East: Rays are contenders, schedule be damned

Did the Rays open their season by playing the three teams who very well may finish the year with the three worst records in MLB? Yes, they did. Did they also dominate those teams to a historic degree and follow up a 9-0 start with a four-game sweep of division rival Boston to tie the post-1900 MLB record for consecutive wins to open a season? Yes, they sure did!

A 13-0 record is a 13-0 record. Heck, 12-1 is 12-1! It’s impossible to shrug off a start like this, not just because the Rays are still unbeaten but also because it’s April 13 and they already have a five-game lead in the gauntlet that is the AL East. Any amount of cushion the Rays can build against their divisional foes this early should be considered a tremendous accomplishment. Plus, the individual performances up and down the roster clearly back up the gaudy record. Brandon Lowe is healthy and back in All-Star form, Wander Franco looks ready to make his first All-Star game, and Randy Arozarena is doing postseason Randy Arozarena things in the regular season. On the pitching side, Shane McClanahan continues to tell hitters to sit down (respectfully), while Jeffrey Springs and Drew Rasmussen have allowed one run in 29 combined innings. And what a luxury to have your big free-agent signing Zach Eflin hit the IL, forcing you to call up one of the best pitching prospects in baseball in Taj Bradley, who debuted on Wednesday and struck out eight while allowing three runs over five innings. 

The Rays will not go undefeated in 2023. You can quote me on that. But it’d be foolish to dismiss this hot start as entirely meaningless in our grand understanding of just how good this team is and could be moving forward. They belong in the conversation of legitimate contenders in the AL, not just for their record, but for how they’ve amassed it. 

AL Central: Twins’ pitching is headliner for once

Rewind four years to the juiced ball extravaganza that was the 2019 season and recall a Twins team that earned the "Bomba Squad" moniker for their MLB record 307 dingers in the regular season. Home runs were their thing, though it didn’t lead to any postseason success despite 101 regular-season wins and an AL Central title thanks to a troublingly underwhelming pitching staff that promptly got torched in the ALDS by the Yankees. 

It’s still early, of course, but we may need to work on a new pitching-focused nickname for this year’s Twins team that currently ranks 11th in MLB in homers (11) and a remarkable second in ERA (2.50). Perhaps even more surprising is Minnesota ranking fourth in strikeout rate (10.25). Even when they’ve had competent pitching staffs in recent years, you’d almost never associate Twins pitching with nasty bat-missing stuff, but so far, they’ve been racking up the whiffs with ease with all five starting pitchers averaging at least one strikeout per inning. Offseason addition Pablo López has been splendid and Kenta Maeda hardly looks rusty coming back from Tommy John. The bullpen depth behind Jhoan Duran and Jorge López remains sketchy, but this pitching staff appears to be more than just improved from last season — it might just be really good.  

AL West: Nobody’s elite …

Or even close to it. With the Astros coming off a World Series title, the Mariners trying to carry the momentum from snapping a long postseason drought, and two teams in the Rangers and Angels desperate to return to contention for a variety of reasons, the AL West was primed to be a hard-fought battle in 2023. So far, you can find both silver linings and serious concerns within the four postseason chasers, while rebuilding Oakland has looked just about as rough as expected. 

While the defending champion Astros may have entered the season as the clear favorite, the departure of Justin Verlander and the broken thumb of José Altuve left this roster looking a tad less intimidating. Yordan Álvarez looks every bit as dominant as he did last October and Kyle Tucker isn’t far behind, but slow starts from free-agent acquisition José Abreu and third base stalwart Alex Bregman have this lineup treading water. The pitching, meanwhile, has been more solid than spectacular. Seattle has uncharacteristically struggled in close games and has already suffered two key pitching injuries to Robbie Ray and Andrés Muñoz. On a positive note, Luis Castillo looks like a Cy Young candidate and Jarred Kelenic may finally be figuring things out. Texas currently sits in first place due to stellar run prevention, but hasn't gotten consistent offense from those not named Corey Seager (who's now on the shelf for at least four weeks) and is enduring yet another frigid start from Marcus Semien à la 2022. And then there’s the Angels, looking oh-so-much like the Angels we’ve come to know all too well: Mike Trout looks amazing, Shohei Ohtani looks amazing, and they’ve still already had several maddening losses that make it difficult to trust that this year will be any different than every other year. The good news is that their 7-5 record is still right in line with the rest of their division rivals — for now, anyway. 

All of which is to say: It may be a while before a clear favorite emerges here. It’s gonna take a lot for me to bet against Houston, but this could be a fascinating race to monitor. 

NL East: Phillies "Daycare" growing up fast

Before the Bryce Harper heroics in October, one of the biggest storylines of Philadelphia’s magical 2022 season was the group of young players known as the "Phillies Daycare" that infused a special kind of energy into the veteran-laden roster. Two of those players, Matt Vierling and Nick Maton, are no longer around, having been shipped off to Detroit in a trade for reliever Gregory Soto that doesn’t look particularly good as things stand. But the three key remaining Daycare members in Bryson Stott, Alec Bohm and Brandon Marsh have each been scorching hot at the plate to start the season, which has proven crucial in the absence of Harper and Rhys Hoskins.

Bohm was the most established of the bunch, having always hit the ball hard since his 2020 call-up, albeit rarely in the air where dreams of SLG% are made of. But Bohm is already at three homers — that includes an opposite-field blast against Jacob deGrom on Opening Day — a mark he didn’t reach until May 21 last season. Stott’s raw numbers in his 2022 rookie campaign didn’t match the eye test, which hinted at a player with advanced contact ability and plate discipline that far exceeded his experience level. His 21 hits lead not only the Phillies but rank third in baseball. It’s been a fantastic start for the sophomore second basemen upon sliding over from shortstop to make room for Trea Turner, who has yet to heat up after his epic showing in the WBC. Marsh’s eye-popping 1.280 OPS is by far the most stunning development among this trio. The trade of Vierling might have hinted at greater confidence in Marsh’s bat on an everyday basis, and it’s paid off outrageously well so far. A version of Marsh that plays plus defense in center field while hitting at a league-average rate against righties is a solid player. A version of Marsh that’s slugging .839??? That’s, uh, more than a solid player. I’d still bet on the Phillies hiding him against southpaws as much as possible, but this is one hell of a start and a huge boon for the lineup awaiting Harper's return and veterans J.T. Realmuto and Kyle Schwarber to heat up.

NL Central: Brewers’ rookie trio is good and fun

While Bohm, Stott and Marsh have all graduated from prospect status in recent years, another trio of exciting NL rookies has arrived that may be having a similar impact on a team in search of an offensive spark. Twenty-four-year-old Garrett Mitchell (first-round pick in 2020), 23-year-old Brice Turang (first-round pick in 2018) and 24-year-old Joey Wiemer (fourth-round pick in 2020) have infused a fresh blend of power and speed that the back half of the Brew Crew lineup has sorely lacked in recent years. Outside of a shockingly hot start from veteran Brian Anderson and star shortstop Willy Adames, Mitchell has been Milwaukee’s most productive bat. Like Bohm, oddly enough, the rap on Mitchell since his time at UCLA has been his ability to actualize sizable raw power into extra-base production rather than pounding the ball into the ground, and he seems to be starting to do just that. Turang won the Opening Day second base job after the offseason trade of Kolten Wong and has looked plenty comfortable on both sides of the ball, and projects as a J.P. Crawford-style OBP-heavy infielder with a plus glove. Wiemer is more of a wild card as an ultra-athletic, freakishly strong outfielder who looks like he could be Milwaukee’s version of Tyler O’Neill (in a good way), but will need to manage the strikeouts to continue getting everyday playing time. None of these guys were necessarily the sexiest names on prospect lists entering the season, but their contributions thus far have undoubtedly helped fuel Milwaukee’s 8-4 start. 

NL West: Maybe Padres did need Xander Bogaerts

Not that adding awesome players is ever a bad idea, but the Padres signing of Bogaerts despite already employing a horde of talented infielders appeared curious on its face. Yet while we continue to await the return of Fernando Tatís Jr., and amid oddly cold starts for both Manny Machado and Juan Soto, Bogaerts has been exactly what San Diego needed. The X-Man leads the team in hits, homers and RBI and has the "Xan Diego" tweets flying with reckless abandon, and deservedly so. It’s almost hard to believe how normal he already looks in the brown and gold after spending his whole career in Boston (and I apologize to Red Sox fans for saying that), but he really has fit in wonderfully. Tatís' return is just a week away, but his transition to the outfield already makes a lot more sense with Bogaerts excelling in all phases as the shortstop.

Jordan Shusterman is half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He has covered baseball for his entire adult life, most notably for MLB.com, DAZN and The Ringer. He's a Mariners fan living in the Eastern Time Zone, which means he loves a good 10 p.m. first pitch. You can follow him on Twitter @j_shusterman_. 

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