1. What will the Cubs do following their historic 2016?
The Cubs have a young core that is poised to have a sustained run of success. It will be interesting to see if the reigning World Series champs can follow up with another dominant season.
2. Will the Indians be able to bounce back from their heartbreaking World Series loss?
The Indians had some tough breaks at the end of last season, losing Danny Salazar and Carlos Carrasco to injuries and forcing Tito to use Corey Kluber, Josh Tomlin and Trevor Bauer on short rest. It will be interesting to see how the Indians perform in 2017. Did I mention they signed Edwin Encarncion?
3. Will the Mets rotation survive?
It wasn't enough for the Mets to have several giant question marks heading into the season with Steven Matz, Jacob DeGrom and Matt Harvey all undergoing surgery in the off-season for various reasons, but then it was announced that Matz had a strained flexor tendon and might not be back until June. On top of all this it was revealed just days into the season that Seth Lugo had a partially torn UCL. Although surgery isn't an option right now, he will be sidelined for a lengthy bit of time. Noah Syndergaard will also have his second start of the season pushed back due to a blister, and it's easy to see how their rotation is already a mess on April 5th.
4. How will the baby bombers fare in 2017?
Luis Severino made the rotation, Aaron Judge was the Opening Day right fielder, Gary Sanchez is their catcher, Greg Bird their first baseman, and Ronald Torreyes was their Opening Day shortstop (due to Didi Gregorius suffering a shoulder injury late in spring). It will be interesting to see how the youth movement holds up. Regardless, it looks like the Yankees have their next core with even more on the way.
