American League Lineup Analysis
After just going over the National League lineups, it’s time for the American league. Again, my analysis was to focus on the lineups used, not manager speak.
Note: This article was submitted late on Wednesday for editing so the second Oakland-Seattle lineups were not available to analyze.
Baltimore
- The Orioles will have Cedric Mullins II and Jonathan Villar in the top two spots. The other spots are a mess of unrosterable players.
Boston
- With Devers hitting a .975 OPS in Spring Training, the Red Sox have been batting him 2nd or 3rd in the lineup. The rest of the lineup seems similar to last season.
Cleveland
- With Francisco Lindor out, there is quite a bit of Hanley Ramirez (.621 Spring Training OPS) near the lineup’s top couple spots.
- Kevin Plawecki has been consistently batting 5th or 6th. He could be a sneaky catcher buy.
Chicago
- Leury Garcia (.900 Spring Training OPS) has been leading off for the White Sox with Yoan Moncada batting second and Jose Abreu third.
- Weirdly, James McCann has been batting 5th.
- Tim Anderson is getting buried in the lineup’s last couple spots.
Detroit
- The top-four spots for the Tigers are Josh Harrison, Nicholas Castellanos, Miguel Cabrera, and Jeimer Candelario. They are the only four mix-league relevant hitters besides John Hicks.
Houston
- The Astros lineup is stacked and seems to be trending towards an order of George Springer, Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Michael Brantley, Carlos Correa, and Yuli Gurriel for the top six spots.
Kansas City
- Another team trending towards a set lineup of Whit Merrifield, Adalberto Mondesi, Alex Gordon, Jorge Soler, and Ryan O’Hearn/Hunter Dozier (first base platoon).
- Billy Hamilton seems to be batting 9th.
Minnesota
- The only consistencies seem to Max Kepler leading off, Nelson Cruz batting third, and Eddie Rosario as the cleanup hitter.
New York
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- With Aaron Hicks missing some time, Brett Gardner has been leading off with Aaron Judge batting second and Giancarlo Stanton batting third. The rest of the lineup never seems to be the same.
Oakland
- With the A’s, a regular season lineup exists against a lefty:
- Some intriguing takes such as Stephen Piscotty batting 3rd, Chad Pinder batting 5th, Jurickson Profar batting 7th, and no Robbie Grossman.
Orange County
- There are some unknows for sure with Justin Upton not being available but on Tuesday he led off. Check up on it in a few days to see any consistency emerges.
Seattle
- Besides Oakland, the Mariners have given everyone a peek under the curtain sans Mallex Smith lineup.
- I’m not really surprised by anything.
- Possibly Gordon and hold the leadoff spot this year.
Tampa
- I hate figuring out the Rays this year is no different. Only Tommy Pham is set in the #2 spot.
Texas
- The Rangers seem to be settling in on a Joey Gallo-less lineup of Shin-Soo Choo, Rougned Odor, Elvis Andrus, Nomar Mazara, Asdrubal Cabrera, and Ronald Guzman with Delino DeShields battling 9th.
Toronto
- The Blue Jays seem to only have Teoscar Hernandez batting 3rd and Justin Smoak set as the cleanup hitter.
Every other spot seems completely random with even Dalton Pompey leading off a few games.
Jeff, one of the authors of the fantasy baseball guide,The Process, writes for RotoGraphs, The Hardball Times, Rotowire, Baseball America, and BaseballHQ. He has been nominated for two SABR Analytics Research Award for Contemporary Analysis and won it in 2013 in tandem with Bill Petti. He has won four FSWA Awards including on for his Mining the News series. He's won Tout Wars three times, LABR twice, and got his first NFBC Main Event win in 2021. Follow him on Twitter @jeffwzimmerman.
For the A’s Matt Olson is now out with hamate surgery for about 7 weeks. Mark Canha is expected to take his slot and play first. You’ll see more Grossman because the A’s lost their only LH hitter. They might call up Fowler for another lefty bat.