2022 MLB predictions – From the expanded playoffs and the World Series to MVPs and Cy Youngs

Better late than never, we have arrived at opening week of the 2022 MLB season.

With — among other changes — more playoff spots available, is this the year your favorite team will make a run in October? Will your favorite player win a postseason award?

No one can know for sure, which is why we put 38 ESPN writers, analysts and editors on the spot to predict what will happen in baseball this year, from the wild-card contenders all the way up to the World Series champion, plus the MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year in both leagues.

For each category, we’ve asked a contributor or two to explain why they chose what they chose. Were they on the mark … or way off? We’ll know about seven months from now, if they post this page on social media — or pretend it never existed.

Here goes!

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AL picks | NL picks | AL awards | NL awards

AL East

Our pick: Blue Jays (29 votes)

Who else got votes? Rays (5), Red Sox (2), Yankees (2)

The Blue Jays are heavy favorites among our voters in the AL East. You picked the Rays. Tell us why.

The name of the game in 2022 is pitching depth and power hitting. You need lots of pitching to get through a season and you have to hit home runs to score — and that’s how the Rays won 100 games in 2021. No team has the pitching depth to match Tampa Bay’s — and young arms Shane McClanahan, Luis Patino and Shane Baz can improve or, in Baz’s case, once he returns from arthroscopic surgery on his elbow, make an immediate impact as a rookie. The Rays, oh by the way, scored more runs than the Blue Jays last season. Maybe the offense overachieved a bit, but it will benefit from a full season from sophomore Wander Franco, the rising superstar who might win the batting title. — David Schoenfield

AL Central