The AL Central should be baseball’s easiest division to predict. The Cleveland Indians have captured three division titles in a row; last year, none of their competitors finished within a dozen games of first place. And so far, there hasn’t been any seismic winter activity to change the divisional landscape.
But there have been a few small tremors—most of them coming out of Cleveland, though none have been particularly promising for the team. The Indians have let essentially all of their free agents walk (Michael Brantley, Andrew Miller, Lonnie Chisenhall), and executed trades primarily to cut costs (Yan Gomes, Yonder Alonso, Edwin Encarnacion).