In the Giants and Dodgers, the NL West had the two best records in the 2021 regular season and going into 2022 this looks to be another interesting battle. The Padres were a major disappointment last year, finishing below .500 and 28 games back from the Giants. Will they be more competitive this season?
Here's how we think the division will finish -
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Francisco Giants
San Diego Padres
Colorado Rockies
Arizona Diamondbacks
The Los Angeles Dodgers made the postseason for the 9th straight year in 2021 and for good reason. They have one of the best line-ups, best rotations and best bullpens in the game.
They lost Corey Seager and Kenley Jansen in the offseason but brought in Freddie Freeman and Craig Kimbrel, so are likely to be at least as strong in 2022 as they were last season.
The Dodgers get a full season of Trea Turner, and while Mookie Betts had a relatively down year, we expect him to bounce back in a big way. It's no surprise that Los Angeles will be World Series contenders.
The Giants were one of the surprise packages of the 2021 season, winning the division with the best record of all MLB teams. We certainly didn't see that coming and we aren't going to bet against them doing well again this year.
They will be without Kevin Gausman but Logan Webb who had a ridiculous 17 K: BB ratio and Alex Wood return. They're joined by Carlos Rodon who makes their rotation better, maybe not quite as good as last year; but still very, very good.
Other than Joey Bart who takes over from the retired Buster Posey, very few of their projected Opening Day line-up are under 30 years old. But when you look at how they performed in 2021, we're comfortable calling them experienced rather than old.
San Diego had an awful season last year. There's no two ways about it. We thought that they would go deep in the playoffs, but instead finished well below .500. As a result there are far too many question marks with this team for us to predict that they finish any higher than 3rd.
Can Fernando Tatis Jr. stay healthy (who is already missing a large chunk of the season resulting from an offseason motorbike accident)? Will Yu Darvish & Blake Snell bounce back after a relatively poor 2021? We aren't anywhere near as confident as we were last season.
The Colorado Rockies genuinely confused us this offseason. The team which traded Nolan Arenado in something of a salary-dump and let Trevor Story & Jon Gray leave as free agents made a big signing in Kris Bryant.
They don't look to be in a good position to challenge for the division, particularly with their rotation and bottom half of their line-up. Yet they signed one of the top free agent bats this offseason. The mixed messages that their front office appears to be sending just doesn't make sense to us.
That's not to say that we don't think there'll be some bright spots this season; Randal Grichuk could hit 30 HR and German Marquez and Antonio Senzatela could put up good (for Coors) numbers and Brendan Rogers could emerge as a player of real quality.
Finally, the Arizona Diamondbacks who had the joint worst record in baseball last season look likely to finish in 5th place once again. Zac Gallen, Daulton Varsho and Ketel Marte will be bright sparks in what appears to be a team which will struggle in 2021.
Alek Thomas looks promising and will likely make his debut this year, as does Corbin Carroll who is still a few years away from the Majors.
But Arizona will likely be dreading playing the Dodgers and Giants a combined 38 times this year. Probably with good reason.
Who do you think will win the NL West? Let us know in the comments and on twitter.
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