The AL East has been a gauntlet for several years now, but last season two of the division’s longtime heavyweights took a step back. That left an opening for the Red Sox, who finished third with an even 81-81 record after finishing last the prior two years.

Now Boston looks poised to take another step forward.

Coming off their most productive offseason in years, the Sox enter 2025 with a legitimate chance to win the club’s first AL East title since 2018. Boston has improved on offense, defense and in the clubhouse, but the Red Sox will still have to contend with what should remain among the best divisions in baseball. Here’s how each team stacks up entering the season.

Baltimore Orioles

Key additions: OF Tyler O’Neill, OF Dylan Carlson, C Gary Sanchez, RHP Charlie Morton, RHP Tomoyuki Sugano, RHP Andrew Kittredge

Key losses: RHP Corbin Burnes, OF Anthony Santander, C James McCann, LHP Danny Coulombe, RHP Jacob Webb

Coming off a second straight playoff appearance and with one of the most talented young rosters in baseball, the Baltimore Orioles entered the winter with high expectations. But new Orioles owner David Rubenstein did not open the checkbook as fans had hoped, so while the offseason can’t be labeled a bust, it certainly was a disappointment.

The Orioles could not re-sign ace Corbin Burnes, who left to join his hometown Arizona Diamondbacks, and the club filled that void atop the rotation with 41-year-old Charlie Morton and 35-year-old Japanese veteran Tomoyuki Sugano, who has never pitched in MLB. The Orioles swapped out one power-hitting outfielder (Anthony Santander) for another (Tyler O’Neill), but didn’t do much else to improve the lineup.

Baltimore is still a playoff caliber club with an elite position player core and several more young standouts on the way, but the Orioles may have missed an opportunity, especially with the Yankees and Red Sox both adding aggressively this offseason.

Boston Red Sox

Key additions: INF Alex Bregman, LHP Garrett Crochet, RHP Walker Buehler, LHP Aroldis Chapman, LHP Justin Wilson

Key losses: RHP Nick Pivetta, OF Tyler O’Neill, RHP Kenley Jansen, RHP Chris Martin

This was the offseason Red Sox fans have been waiting for. The club checked off every item on its to-do list without losing anyone the Red Sox are likely to miss.

Garrett Crochet is a 25-year-old ace who could plausibly contend for an American League Cy Young Award in the coming seasons, and Walker Buehler was one of the best young pitchers in baseball for many years before his recent injury setbacks. The bullpen should also be much deeper, and Alex Bregman gives the club both a proven right-handed bat in the middle of the order as well as a game-changing, championship-proven leader in the clubhouse.

All of that alone could be enough to push the Red Sox to the top of the division, but beyond that Boston also has three of the top prospects in baseball in Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell and Marcelo Mayer, all of whom should make their debuts by early summer.

New York Yankees

Key additions: LHP Max Fried, RHP Devin Williams, OF Cody Bellinger, 1B Paul Goldschmidt

Key losses: OF Juan Soto, LHP Nestor Cortes, RHP Clay Holmes, 2B Gleyber Torres, 1B Anthony Rizzo

The Yankees endured a colossal setback early in the winter when star slugger Juan Soto spurned the club to sign with the New York Mets, and then another when ace Gerrit Cole was lost for the season. Soto is the type of superstar who is impossible to replace, but all things considered the Yankees did a good job pivoting once they missed out.

New York made two of the biggest moves of the winter by signing left-hander Max Fried and trading for former Brewers closer Devin Williams. Fried should team with Carlos Rodon to give the Yankees a strong 1-2 punch even without Cole, and Williams will be an upgrade over Clay Holmes, an All-Star performer who was occasionally prone to frustrating bouts of inconsistency.

Offensively New York added a pair of former MVPs to help fill the void left by Soto, including outfielder Cody Bellinger and first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. Those two should help raise the floor of New York’s lineup, which still features MVP favorite Aaron Judge at its center, to ensure the Yankees remain a contender to repeat as AL East champions. But the Yankees do still have question marks and will likely have to rely on their pitching.

Tampa Bay Rays

Key additions: SS Ha-Seong Kim, C Danny Jansen

Key losses: LHP Jeffrey Springs, OF Jose Siri

Last season the Rays finished fourth in the AL East, snapping a streak of five straight playoff appearances. This year looks like it could be another rebuilding year, but while the Rays didn’t do much to bolster their roster, the club could still benefit from getting several key players back from injury.

Ace Shane McClanahan and Drew Rasmussen are both set to rejoin the starting rotation after completing their recoveries from elbow surgery, fortifying a group that includes Zack Littell, Taj Bradley and Shane Baz. Newly signed Ha-Seong Kim should also help bolster Tampa Bay’s defense once he returns from shoulder surgery in May, and the club always finds a way to help transform under-the-radar arms into bullpen monsters.

Tampa Bay also has a potential star in the making in former No. 1 overall prospect Junior Caminero, but overall the Rays look like they could struggle to score runs. The Rays will also play their entire season at Steinbrenner Field, the Yankees’ spring training ballpark, with Tropicana Field still unusable after its roof was torn off by Hurricane Milton last fall. It’s impossible to say how that will affect the club, but not having the dome during the peak of Florida’s hot, humid summer surely won’t make things any easier.

Toronto Blue Jays

Key additions: OF Anthony Santander, RHP Max Scherzer, 2B Andres Gimenez, RHP Jeff Hoffman, RHP Yimi Garcia

Key losses: INF Spencer Horwitz, RHP Jordan Romano

Last year was a disaster for the Blue Jays, who crashed from perennial playoff contenders to last place thanks to a series of injury setbacks, disappointing performances and bad luck. This year’s group could be better, but with much of Toronto’s core growing older, the Blue Jays won’t have much room for error.

Anthony Santander was the club’s biggest offseason addition, giving the Blue Jays a formidable power bat after hitting 44 home runs with the Orioles last season. Toronto also signed three-time Cy Young winner Max Scherzer, though the future Hall of Famer is coming off a difficult 2024 in which he was limited to nine starts and 43.1 innings due to injury.

Looming large, however, will be the upcoming free agency of star slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. The soon-to-be 26-year-old is expected to hit free agency next winter after failing to reach a new deal with the Blue Jays this spring, and if things go poorly for Toronto again this summer, the club may have to consider trading the four-time All-Star to jumpstart its rebuild.