Eovaldi, Rodriguez, Richards. Decent arms, but a lot of injury risk. Pivetta, Perez, Houck at the back end don't inspire much, but is this the year Pivetta takes a leap forward?
It's easy to understand why people would discount Boston going into the season. The top of the lineup can hit. JD isn't going to slug .800 this year the rest of the way though. If things break right and you get a healthy Eovaldi and Rodriguez and somehow get a solid back end starter out of Pivetta the Sox definitely give me angst with Sale coming back. The whole point was for the sox was to dig a big enough hole that once Sale came back they couldn't climb out. Now that they're off to a hot start the shot of confidence a Sale could bring them when he returns makes them a scary team for sure.
I still don't think the Sox win the division, but any team not named the orioles could win. It's a shame they didn't expand playoffs. No dominant teams in the AL. That 6th or even 7th place team might not be that far back from the 2nd or 3rd place teams in the AL. The competitiveness will make for a fun year, but some team is going to feel slighted missing out by a game. Hope it isn't the Jays!