Pat’s-NL East 2021 Prediction

While the AL East has my personal interest as a Red Sox fan, the NL East is the most intriguing this year from a pure baseball standpoint. With the moves made by each of the five division teams over the last few years, there’s a lot to consider about who may turn out on top.

1. New York Mets

The Mets spent over $80 million on free agents this past year, and that’s not including trades and resigning key players of their own. Their starting rotation is highlighted by Jacob DeGrom, Carlos Carrasco, and Marcus Stroman (with Noah Syndergaard on the way come midseason). On offense, Pete Alonso and newcomer Francisco Lindor should carry a strong lineup. All together, this team is strong, but not unbeatable, on both sides of the game.

2. Atlanta Braves

MLB.com’s own standings predictions (based on PECOTA) put the Braves in fourth in 2021. That’s bonkers to me. This team is led by Ronald Acuna Jr, Freddie Freeman, and Marcell Ozuna, plus the expected bounce back of a severely maligned pitching staff in 2020. And, they added Charlie Morton to that staff. Outside of more injuries, there’s no way this team finishes outside of the top two.

3. Philadelphia Phillies

With the resignings of J.T. Realmuto and Didi Gregorius, the Phillies have decided to (mostly) run it back with the team from last year. There have been some strong disappointments for this team, such as Rhys Hoskins, but prospects Alec Bohm and Roman Quinn should help bolster the offense for this team. This team has underachieved since going all-in 2019, but I think they can even out some this year and rise to their competition on some level.

4. Washington Nationals

The Nats added Kyle Schwarber, Josh Bell, and Jon Lester this offseason. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s enough to put them over the top in such a competitive division. Yes, Juan Soto is still great, as are Max Scherzer and Stephen Strausburg. However, I just don’t see them having the overall firepower to beat some of the other teams. It will definitely be close between them and the Phillies, though.

5. Miami Marlins

Last year was a cute Cinderella story for the Marlins, but let’s be real: this team is still two or three years away from actually being competitive. Barring a big leap from multiple players, like Brian Anderson and Corey Dickerson, there’s not enough on this team to really challenge for anything other than the bottom of the barrel. The future’s still bright for this team, though, and 2020 showed it.

That’s my NL East predictions! Over the coming weeks I’ll post my predictions for the rest of the divisions in preparation for the 2021 MLB season. Let me know what you think!

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– Pat Shuman (@PShu1996 on Twitter) Check out my other articles here!