Opening day has passed and already the 2019 Major League Baseball season has made history. The league has never seen the top two vote-getters for the previous year’s Cy Young, MLB’s best pitcher, face off on opening day. 

This year, both the top two pitchers in the National and American League met on opening day. Jacob deGrom, the reigning NL Cy Young, of the New York Mets went up against Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals. 

The game lived up to its potential, as both the aces made even more history, striking out at least 10 batters each. deGrom edged out Scherzer in a 2-0 Mets win.

The reigning NL MVP Christian Yelich has also made history of his own. As of Sunday, he had homered in each of the first four games, the first time a reigning MVP has done that and tying the record for homerun streaks to start a season.

With the new season, there appears to be a change to the NL’s hierarchy but the AL has stayed the same. 

The NL East was the most active division this offseason and has turned itself from the worst division in baseball to arguably the best. The Mets built their bullpen up by bringing in Edwin Diaz, Jeurys Familia, Justin Wilson and Luis Avilan. They added the veteran presence of Robinson Cano and Wilson Ramos along with the rise of highly touted first base prospect Pete Alonso. 

The Phillies made the biggest splash, reeling in Bryce Harper for 12 years and $330M while also getting Andrew McCutchen and Jean Segura. 

Washington added Patrick Corbin, and despite the departure of Harper, the Nationals are showing confidence in their  the young replacements Juan Soto and Victor Robles Jr. All of the additions for those teams are to try and dethrone Ronald Acuna, Freddie Freeman, Ozzie Albies and the Braves, who did not make many moves during the winter.

The NL Central saw the Brewers emerge as champions last year but with the Cardinals and  Cubs there could be another new king in their division.

The NL West, AL West and AL Central all look to be the same after a quiet offseason.

The AL East will be interesting as the Yankees and Red Sox continue the greatest rivalry in all of sports at the top of the division and the young Rays emerge under the leadership of highly touted manager Kevin Cash.

I believe the Mets and the Phillies are going to be the top teams in the NL East this season. The Phillies lineup with Harper, Segura, Rhys Hoskins, J.T. Realmuto, Maikal Franco and McCutchen are going to be hard to deal with but outside of Aaron Nola, they don’t have a dominant starting pitcher.

The Mets lineup appears to be dangerous as well with Brandon Nimmo, Alonso, Cano, Ramos, Michael Conforto and Rosario. The lineup is improved but the strength of the team is its starting pitching. With deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Zach Wheeler and Steven Matz, the Mets boast one of the league’s premier staffs.

In the highly competive NL East, the Mets and Nationals have the edge in starting pitching as they are miles ahead of the Braves and Phillies.

The Phillies have the best lineup, but the Mets, Nationals and Braves are right behind them, with very talented lineups of their own.

The bullpen edge goes to the Mets, despite Washington’s efforts to retool theirs. The Nationals bullpen has already cost them one game and came close to losing another after giving up four runs on Sunday before Turner’s walk-off home run.

Compared to the rest of the league, the Mets, Nationals and Phillies are capable contending for a World Series, but they are also in a tough division where they have to play eachother, and may not be all able to make the playoffs.

Ben Mandell

Co-Sports Editor

National League                       American League 

East

New York Mets                             Boston Red Sox

Central

St. Louis Cardinals                      Cleveland Indians

West

Los Angeles Dodgers                    Houston Astros

Wild Cards

Milwaukee Brewers                   New York Yankees

Philadelphia Phillies            Los Angeles Angels

Kirsten Peters

Co-Sports Editor

National League                       American League 

East

Philadelphia Phillies                       Boston Red Sox

Central

Chicago Cubs                          Cleveland Indians

West

Los Angeles Dodgers                    Houston Astros

Wild Cards

Milwaukee Brewers               New York Yankees

Washington Nationals         Los Angeles Angels