If we’ve learned anything through nearly three months of the 2016 MLB regular season, it’s that much of what we thought we knew in spring training was flat-out wrong.
Teams like Colorado, Milwaukee and Philadelphia haven’t been nearly as bad as expected. Cincinnati’s Jay Bruce, who was widely thought to have become a mediocre all-or-nothing slugger, has returned to the form that made him one of baseball’s best run-producers only a few years ago.
On the flip side, we’ve seen preseason contenders look more like pretenders, big free-agent additions struggle in their new homes and some of last year’s major award winners, who were expected to build on that success, take a step back.
There’s no shortage of intriguing narratives to follow as baseball heads toward the All-Star break and, shortly thereafter, the nonwaiver trade deadline, which is indisputably one of the most exciting times of the season. But things outside anyone’s control could find that excitement arriving earlier than expected.
Have injuries forced a first-place team to make a trade? Is a former All-Star about to return to the team with which he had the most success? Will a contender’s disappointing season find them selling off valuable pieces before the trade deadline?
We’ll hit on all of that and more in this week’s edition of Fact or Fiction.