Written by Joe Messineo at No Coast Bias
Last year, the New York Mets won the National League pennant and played in the World Series. In that same 2015 season, the Philadelphia Phillies lost 99 games and won only 63, making them the very worst team in all of Major League Baseball. Together, both of those teams perfectly represented the NL East, which may be the most unbalanced division in all of baseball right now.
And it’s not just the Mets and Phillies. Every team in the National League East is one of two things: a legitimate 2016 competitor, or one of the worst teams in all of baseball. Let’s take a look at the bipolar NL East.
The Disasters
Atlanta Braves
The Braves are rebuilding, and they don’t care who knows it. They were putrid last year: their 67-95 record would have been good for last place in any division besides the NL Central (perhaps the only division as polarized as the NL East) and their own. They’re showing no signs of slowing down the rebuilding project this year, as they’ve already traded SS Andrelton Simmons for pitching prospects. Expect them to be even worse next year than they were last year.
Miami Marlins
The Marlins were a trendy pick to disrupt this division last year, thought at this point it’s hard to remember why. The Marlin’s final record of 71-91 would have been good for last place in two other MLB divisions (the AL East and AL Central) and second-to-last place in two more (AL West and NL West). Instead, they were third, the best of the worst in the NL East. This offseason, rumors are already flying that the Marlins could trade some of their best players. There’s even a report that the Marlins could trade Marcel Ozuna because – and we swear we’re not making this up – owner Jeffrey Loria just can’t stand the guy. The Marlins are the worst run franchise in all of baseball, but they’re not the worst 2016 team in the NL East.
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