American League East News

The National League Central won't be any easier. Or anybody else the new Cubs pitcher faces.

That tumbling tumbleweed you heard rustling by was the sound of silence in the non-New York locales of the American League East this offseason.

The Yankees had a down year last year. Plagued by injuries, they finished the 2013 season 12 games behind the Red Sox and out of the playoffs.

The Toronto Blue Jays made the biggest trade of the winter last season, acquiring Jose Reyes , Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle in a mega-deal with the Miami Marlins .

He knows what is coming from the way the mail feels in his hands. About two of three letters to R.A. Dickey have the telltale pieces of cardboard inside.

He rejected a qualifying offer from the Kansas City Royals , but now Ervin Santana is willing to take a one-year deal.

October 10, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Detroit Tigers players celebrate in the clubhouse after game five of the American League divisional series playoff baseball game against the Oakland Athletics at O.co Coliseum.

Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Drew Hutchison warms up before the second inning of a spring training baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles in Sarasota, Fla., Saturday, March 1, 2014.

Preparing for another 162-game grinder in the American League East meat market, the Tampa Bay Rays are eager to prove themselves once again.

Feb 18, 2014; Port Charlotte, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price at spring training at the Charlotte Sports Park.

Everything seems to be going the Rays' way this spring, from the team's health to the way it is playing.

Although the highly touted right-hander can't patch up all of New York's issues, his immense potential and early success this March bodes well for the Yankees' postseason hopes next fall.

That's when the Cubs head north to visit the Blue Jays in the Rogers Centre, and I'd give better-than-even odds that if Jeff Samardzija has a start in that series, it will be in the blue-and-white uniform of the Blue Jays.

We all got a good chuckle out of yesterday's lovely complaint by the Marlins , who are totally a major-league franchise and shut up guys, why are you laughing? In honor of that, we here preview the next several weeks of stories that will fill up pages and gain clicks while we wait for the real season to begin.

Friday offers another full slate of Spring Training action in both the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues, featuring several high-profile pitching matchups and some notable debuts.

With Brian Roberts moving to the Bronx the Orioles will lean on Ryan Flaherty to man second base.

The defending World Series champion Boston Red Sox are not putting many games in the win column to kick off Spring Training, but what they are doing is getting ready to defend their title with many of the same faces that won it a year ago.

His address has spanned the country, playing in Los Angeles, Cincinnati and Chicago since leaving Tampa Bay after the 2010 season.

Orioles 101 provides 24/7 obsessive sports coverage of the Baltimore Orioles as a part of Sports Media 101 .

Of all the things that didn't go quite right for the 2013 Orioles , first base wasn't one of them.