Although Major League Baseball’s spring training generally isn’t a haunted house environment, even would-be contenders never know when something is going to pop up and say, “Boo!”
It’s on this note that we’re going to comb through 20 presumed contenders and pick out one big fear each of them should have this spring. And because it would be too easy to suggest that maybe the best players could suffer devastating injuries, we’re going to stick to practical concerns.
For instance, the Los Angeles Angels have more reason to worry about Albert Pujols than they do about Mike Trout. Also, the Boston Red Sox have more reason to worry about Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez than, say, David Price. And so on.
We’ll begin with the team that has the lowest projected win total, according to Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA projections and end at the team with the highest projected win total.