Up now: the AL East. 

MORE: Five big questions in the NL East

How big of an issue will vaccination status be for the Yankees? 

At the moment, it seems like a pretty big deal. Because at the moment, Yankees players who are not vaccinated are only eligible to play in 70 games this year. Read that again. It’s not that they’ll have to miss 70 games, it’s that they’re only eligible to play in 70 games. Because of COVID restrictions and mandates, they’ll have to miss 92 games. They’re not eligible to play at Yankees Stadium (81 games) or in Toronto (nine games) or in Citi Field against the Mets (two games). 

One of the players widely believed to be unvaccinated is Aaron Judge. And let’s just tell it like it is: If Aaron Judge is only eligible to play in 70 games, the Yankees are not winning the AL East. The division is just too damn tough. And their chances of making the postseason drop significantly, too, even with the extra playoff team. Remember, last year the 91-win Jays and the 90-win Mariners missed the playoffs; under the new format, Toronto would have been in but Seattle still would have missed. 

So what happens? The simplest thing would be for Judge and the other unvaccinated Yankees to get vaccinated. Then the problem immediately disappears. But other than that, it would take a change in public policy to carve out an exemption for ballplayers, so that the rules that apply to everyone else do not apply to them. It seems unlikely that politicians and health experts will change vaccination mandates because a couple of players don’t want to get the safe and effective vaccination that millions of Americans have. 

The Yankees open their season at home on April 7 against Boston, so I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

(UPDATE: It looks as if unvaccinated players will get to play a full season, after all. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is expected to announce Thursday that he is exempting athletes and some entertainers from the city’s private-sector vaccine mandate.)   

The Jays already have the best roster in the division, but are they done?

The lineup is ridiculous. The rotation is outstanding. Three of their best players are entering their Age 23 or Age 24 seasons: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (23), Bo Bichette (24) and Alek Manoah (24). The mix of youth and still-young veterans is just picture perfect.

And yet, we still hear rumors about moves the Jays might make. The biggest one, the one Jays fans are really hoping will happen but are trying not to get too excited about, is the one about Jose Ramirez. It’s a certainty that Cleveland will trade its perennial MVP candidate at some point — maybe not immediately, but the Guardians are not going to extend him long-term and they’re too smart to just let him walk away as a free agent — and the Jays have an opening at second base. Well, not so much an opening as a potential to upgrade. Cavan Biggio, the scheduled starter, had an on-base percentage of .368 with 24 homers and 20 stolen bases combined in 2019-20 but struggled last year and opened up the position to consideration. 

MORE: Trading for Matt Chapman a better move for Jays than signing Freddie Freeman

And, yeah, if their infield looks like this in 2022-23 …

1B: Vlad Guerrero Jr 2B: Jose Ramirez SS: Bo Bichette 3B: Matt Champan

… well, that’s just silly. But it’s possible. The Jays are very motivated to not just make the postseason, but to win the World Series. And this absolutely is a roster capable of doing that. We’ll see whether trading for Matt Chapman was the big deal or just the warm-up. 

Are the Rays going to be ‘The Rays’ again?

Yes. Of course. 

Are people sleeping on the Red Sox? 

Yeah, probably. On one hand, it seems weird to say the BOSTON RED SOX aren’t being talked about enough. On the other hand, find someone picking them to win the division. Hell, find someone picking them to finish second. Go ahead, we’ll wait. 

Why is that? This is a team that won 92 games in the regular season, made it all the way to Game 6 of the ALCS, brings back pretty much every key piece to last year’s team — swapping Hunter Renfroe’s bat for Trevor Story’s — and could easily have six players hit between 25 and 40 home runs. It’s a team with a 25-year-old third baseman (Rafael Devers) coming off a season of 38 homers. It’s a team with youngsters Tanner Houck and Jarren Duran poised to make a huge impact in the bigs in 2022 and a young veteran in Nick Pivetta who seemed to unlock the secret to his success in the 2021 postseason.

It’ll be interesting to see how Story fits into the equation. The Sox showed last season that they weren’t afraid to take a chance with a big bat at a new position. And bless Kyle Schwarber’s heart, he tried his best to play first base in the heat of a pennant race with a new team. He really did. Here’s what I feel we can say for certain: Trevor Story will be better at second base than Schwarber was at first. 

Can four teams from the AL East make the postseason? 

Maybe this isn’t a spring training-specific topic, but it’s going to be a question all season. Now that the AL has an extra playoff spot — a third wild-card spot, to go with the three division winners — it’s certainly possible for the East to take four of the six berths. If the expanded playoff bracket had been in effect last year, that’s what would have happened.

And you can bet some fans of AL East teams will be rooting for this to happen, as a way to solidify the division as the best in baseball. I mean, you’re not going to hear “AL EAST! AL EAST!” chants and solidarity like you’d get with SEC football fans. But you’ll get Yankees fans happy for the Red Sox to qualify for the playoffs — and vice versa — as long as they immediately get swept and embarrassed once they reach October.