As the first month of the MLB season comes to a close, it’s worth looking back at what’s played out on the diamond so far. Nothing is definite — not at this stage. Over the course of a 162-game campaign, winning streaks and batting slumps tend to even out.
But in April, there have been plenty of surprises, beginning with presumed World Series contenders starting out in the gutter and enough Jekyll-and-Hyde performances in the first four weeks to leave onlookers wondering what’s real and what’s illusion.
Here’s a look at five major storylines early in the 2021 MLB season:
The Yankees look like the Orioles
When the Yankees showed up at Camden Yards on Monday night, they had shown a hint that a turnaround was possible. New York opened the season 5-10, the franchise’s worst start since 1997. But after winning three of four games against the Cleveland Indians, the Baltimore Orioles dropped the Yankees back to last place in the American League East on Monday night.
Entering the season, New York was considered one of the World Series challengers, with starting pitcher Gerrit Cole and outfielders Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton as dominant stars. The Yankees still could be, but the pieces haven’t aligned yet. Entering Tuesday night, the Bronx Bombers held a .348 slugging percentage — the worst in the league — and led only the Detroit Tigers with an OPS of .650.
While Cole has performed in his five starts, the rest of the Yankees’ rotation has been less of a sure thing. And for the most part, the lineup has been listless.
In the opposite dugout, meanwhile, the Orioles have been better than expected. Entering the season, FanGraphs gave Baltimore a 0% chance of making the postseason while handing New York a 91.6% chance.
The Orioles aren’t making a run for a pennant any time soon. But there have been several standout performers that make the team competitive on a nightly basis. Outfielder Cedric Mullins led the league with 31 hits entering Tuesday’s game, and starter John Means is boasting a 1.50 ERA in five outings — tied for fourth lowest in baseball.
The Padres and Dodgers are must-watch
Take Sunday’s series finale between the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers as an example of what this National League West battle could be like all season.
The Padres trailed by six runs entering the seventh inning. But with two runs each in the seventh, eighth and ninth, San Diego forced extra innings, then won the game in the 11th.
“Definitely a good preview of what should come in October,” the Padres’ Eric Hosmer said.
Because that’s what this looks like: playoff baseball. In seven games over a 10-day span, San Diego and Los Angeles captivated baseball’s attention with close games, big moments and high tension. Both clubs spent the winter loading up on reinforcements, and that has created a compelling divisional clash.
The first meeting of the year included the benches emptying after Dodgers reliever Dennis Santana hit Jorge Mateo with a pitch.
Fernando Tatis Jr., the rising face of baseball, hit four home runs in the latest series against the Dodgers, and he made sure to celebrate those long balls in style. Four of the first seven matchups have been decided by two runs or fewer.
And there are still 12 more meetings between the teams before October arrives.
The Athletics’ turnaround
Will the real Oakland Athletics please stand up?
The Athletics started the season in the dumpster, outscored 50-13 in six straight losses. And then everything changed. The hits started falling. The starting pitching worked deeper into games. The bullpen held leads.
So after an 0-6 start, Oakland rattled off 13 straight wins. The Orioles ended that streak Sunday, but the Athletics still enter Tuesday’s games in first place in the AL West and on a tear. Surging to the top of the division standings isn’t a surprise; Oakland won the AL West in the shortened 2020 season.
But it’s the way the Athletics have gone about the turnaround, flipping a switch from bad to good, riding out a storm and entering a blue-skied nirvana.
For how long Oakland can keep the good times rolling remains to be seen, but the performances from Matt Olson, Jed Lowrie and Mark Canha have gone a long way — each have an OPS above .800. And on the mound, Oakland’s starters have stabilized after several rough outings to begin the year. They surrendered 28 runs combined in the six-game losing streak before allowing just 22 over the 13-game winning streak.
Shohei Ohtani is proving himself
For much of the first two seasons Shohei Ohtani played for the Los Angeles Angels, the two-way star stuck to one talent on any particular night: pitching or hitting, but not both. That was mainly due to elbow injuries limiting his time on the mound.
Ohtani is healthy this season, though, and he’s proving to be the two-way star the Angels expected when they signed him from Japan. And when he took the field Monday, he became the first player since Babe Ruth nearly 100 years ago to be lead the league in home runs while also serving as a starting pitcher.
Ohtani has hit seven homers with a .300 batting average in 80 at-bats through Monday’s games, and he’s also made three starts on the mound. The 26-year-old has been less dominant while pitching, lasting 4⅔ innings in his first start and four frames in his second — although he surrendered one earned run between those two.
On Monday, he drove in two runs on two hits while allowing four runs in five innings, striking out nine batters.
NL Cy Young race has two early front-runners
Between Jacob deGrom of the New York Mets and Corbin Burnes of the Milwaukee Brewers, the race for the NL Cy Young Award has two clear front-runners.
deGrom already has two Cy Young Awards to his name, and he’s making an early case for a third. In his last three starts, deGrom has struck out 14, 14 and 15 batters, respectively. He holds a 0.31 ERA with 50 strikeouts, three walks and a 0.552 WHIP in 29 innings.
Burnes, meanwhile, is showing his breakout 2020 campaign wasn’t an anomaly. After posting a 2.11 ERA in 59⅔ innings last year, the 26-year-old right-hander finally ran into his first trouble of the season Monday night, when he allowed eight hits and four earned runs in a loss to the Miami Marlins.
But before that blemish, Burnes had allowed one run in 24⅓ innings to begin the season while striking out at least nine batters each appearance. He still hasn’t walked a batter, either.
Keeping that pace for 30-or-so starts this season is the next challenge. But Burnes and deGrom are preparing Cy Young-worthy resumes so far.
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