Angels and Dodgers vs. Mets and Yankees – Which MLB town would you take right now

Lee: Jersey sales don’t boost numbers on the field. Since 2018, the three pitchers in baseball with the highest FanGraphs WAR are Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Gerrit Cole. And among hitters, Francisco Lindor ranks fourth and Judge 11th in fWAR. And that’s before you start thinking about All-Stars on both Mets and Yankees rosters, like Giancarlo Stanton, Pete Alonso, Starling Marte, Anthony Rizzo, Josh Donaldson, DJ LeMahieu, Joey Gallo, Taijuan Walker, Jeff McNeil, Edwin Diaz, Aroldis Chapman, Chris Bassitt, Eduardo Escobar, James McCann and Gleyber Torres.

If you could make a roster taking players from the Dodgers and Angels and another roster from the Yankees and Mets, which would be better (including injured players)?

Gonzalez: I do this stuff for fun all the time — yes, I’m a massive dork — so I’ll take it a step further and present my team as a lineup.

Mookie Betts, RF
Freddie Freeman, 1B
Mike Trout, LF
Shohei Ohtani, DH
Trea Turner, SS
Max Muncy, 2B
Anthony Rendon, 3B
Will Smith, C
Cody Bellinger, CF

I’d go with Walker Buehler as my starting pitcher but can also go with Kershaw. Raisel Iglesias would be my closer, but Kimbrel is obviously a worthy candidate. That lineup is balanced. The outfield defense would be electric. Five of those players — Betts, Trout, Ohtani, Turner, Bellinger — bring freakish speed-power combinations. Four others — Freeman, Muncy, Rendon, Smith — combine elite power with elite patience. Suerte.

Lee: I’ll match Alden’s lineup.

DJ LeMahieu, 2B
Aaron Judge, RF
Francisco Lindor, SS
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Pete Alonso, 1B
Joey Gallo, LF
Brandon Nimmo, CF
Josh Donaldson, 3B
James McCann, C

Most notably, the rotation would be absolutely stacked, between Scherzer, deGrom and Cole — three pitchers who would be the aces of every rotation in baseball. This team would be hitting the ball to the moon, and have a bullpen that would feature Chapman, Jonathan Loaisiga, Michael King and Diaz.

How confident are you that your town’s teams will stay high in the standings?

Gonzalez: The Dodgers are the best, most well-rounded team in the majors and the favorites — once again — to win the World Series. Consider this: The rotation was supposed to be their biggest weakness heading into the season, and yet their starters lead the majors in ERA. Their historically talented lineup has yet to fully click, and yet the Dodgers already lead the National League in run differential. The question, of course, is the Angels, who might finally have an adequate supporting cast around Trout and Ohtani. They have legitimate depth and talent in their lineup and in their bullpen. The question, as always, is starting pitching. But two of their most highly touted young arms, Patrick Sandoval and Reid Detmers, have emerged, and Noah Syndergaard has looked like a wonderful addition, outside of Monday’s dud against the Texas Rangers. They have to stay healthy, perhaps more so than any other team. But if they do, the Angels should remain in contention.

Lee: Absolutely confident. I’m confident the Yankees will be in contention for the division title year-round while the Mets seem primed to make a strong run at the playoffs this season. The Yankees and Mets both have top-10 offenses in all of baseball at the moment and top-five pitching staffs. The Mets have a slightly thinner bullpen than the Yankees, but this team is performing well even with deGrom currently on the injured list. If he makes a healthy return sooner than later, watch out for the Mets.

Why is your city most likely to win a World Series this year — and which team would you take?

While we may be only a month into the 2022 regular season, certain stars have already jumped ahead in the races for baseball’s biggest individual awards.

Lee: I’ll go with the Yankees here. This roster has depth up and down, from the lineup to the starting rotation to the pitching staff. Judge will be motivated to perform in a contract year and I think the top-end talent on the Yankees’ roster exceeds the Mets by a smidge. Especially if Nestor Cortes continues to pitch the way that he has so far this season, the Bronx Bombers will be a threat in October given their combined experience in the postseason. This isn’t an easy choice, however, and I think I could wake up tomorrow and feel better about the Mets than the Yankees. It’s hard to go wrong with either team.

Forget 2022: Why is your city most likely to keep contending for years to come?

Gonzalez: Trout was the predominant player of the 2010s — by a lot — and might be on the verge of his best season right now. The Angels will employ him through 2030. If they can find a way to extend Ohtani, a free agent after 2023, they’ll have two foundational pieces to at least keep them relevant for what remains of this decade. The Dodgers have the following players through at least 2024: Freeman, Betts, Buehler, Smith, Taylor, Gavin Lux and Dustin May. Several important players will be eligible for free agency before then — Bellinger, Muncy, Turner and Julio Urias among them — but their farm system is ranked eighth in the industry by ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel. The Dodgers have deep pockets, but they’re also astonishingly good at churning out elite young players. No team can match that combination.

Lee: Money, money, money. Between the Steinbrenners and Steve Cohen, both teams are primed to spend enormous amounts of money for years to come. And you can combine that with solid young cores on the Mets with Lindor and Alonso, along with the rising prospects in the Yankees’ system like Anthony Volpe and a foundation that includes Cole, LeMahieu and Stanton (and maybe Judge?). The Mets don’t have a farm system at the level of the Dodgers, but a willingness to spend can patch those issues. The Yankees? They finished one notch higher than the Dodgers on McDaniel’s list.