AL East

The Tampa Bay Rays are about to embark on a new era. After Joe Maddon opted out of his contract with the organization and signed with the Chicago Cubs, the team was left with a major void at the manager position. 

Now, the Rays have announced their list of potential replacements via Twitter:

The Boston Red Sox figure to be active players in the free-agent market, and they'll need to be if they hope to compete once more in 2015.

The Red Sox need to add significant pieces to their starting rotation. They need to shore up their bullpen. And they must seriously considering pursuing upgrades at the hot corner and at backup catcher, too.

The Toronto Blue Jays have had internal discussions about signing free-agent catcher Russell Martin, per Jeff Blair of Sportsnet.ca.

After a short league-championship round, this year's World Series is a matchup between the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals.

That might as well read Madison Bumgarner vs. James Shields, as no two players are more vital to their  teams' success than the two projected to start Game 1 of the Fall Classic.

It rained all day yesterday in Kansas City, so much that Game 3 of the American League Championship Series between the Royals and Orioles was postponed.  The rainout gives both teams an extra day of rest, but which team does the rainout help most?

On October 8, Shortstop J.J. Hardy agreed to a contract extension that will keep him in black and orange until 2017, per John Perrotto of USA Today. The deal contains a vesting option for 2018, assuming Hardy reaches a predetermined number of at-bats.

Derek Jeter's final series as a member of the New York Yankees could end with a whimper. The soon-to-be retired star was taken out in the fifth inning of Saturday's game against Boston at Fenway Park for undisclosed reasons. 

You might have tuned into NBC Sports last night and thought, “Damn, this is a long Derek Jeter commercial.”

And you wouldn’t have been entirely wrong. Reality twisted into fiction at Yankee Stadium on Thursday night, with real life taking on the facile shimmer of an advertising fairy tale.

Ah, yes. The old switcheroo.

The bait-and-switch is a mainstay of old ballpark cons, but one young ball boy wet his feet in the art at Yankee Stadium on Thursday night. 

The Baltimore Orioles have secured their spot in the 2014 MLB playoffs as they clinched the AL East division crown last Tuesday against the Toronto Blue Jays.

While the Orioles have lost a few vital pieces, the club has embraced the "next man up" mentality. It's not a question whether someone may be a good replacement—he needs to be.