AL East

The Boston Red Sox's outfield has this whole "team defense" thing figured out. 

After Jonny Gomes lost a fly ball in the light in left field against the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night, Brock Holt—who was playing center field for the first time in his professional career—bailed him out with a ridiculous diving catch he had no business making.

The writing had been on the wall for several weeks.

On Tuesday afternoon, that writing finally spelled the end of Grady Sizemore's unlikely comeback story, as the Boston Red Sox designated the 31-year-old outfielder for assignment to make room for prospect Garin Cecchini, as tweeted by Alex Speier of WEEI.com.

The international prospect market opens on July 2, and the New York Yankees are gearing up to spend a whole lot of money.

Despite a 32-38 record, the Boston Red Sox are still only 5.5 games back of a playoff spot in the American League.  Barring a complete collapse, the Red Sox figure to be buyers when the July 31 MLB trade deadline arrives.  With that in mind, what are Boston's greatest needs going forward, as they look to stay alive in the postseason race?

Despite their recent struggles in June, the Toronto Blue Jays still hold the top spot in the American League East and have a 4.5 game lead over the second-place New York Yankees.

While the Blue Jays have looked like a playoff club for the most part this season, there have also been instances where their lack of depth in certain places has been exposed and cost them games. This doesn’t bode well for a team with aspirations to play in October.

The New York Yankees have come to terms on a minor league deal with former San Diego Padres closer Heath Bell, according to Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News.

For the New York Yankees, star power always trumps the success or failure of top prospects. In the case of 21-year-old catcher Gary Sanchez, a difficult start to the 2014 season could be a prelude to another bust emanating from general manager Brian Cashman's farm system.

Life clings to the Boston Red Sox like a disease.

At 30-36 and eight games behind the first-place Toronto Blue Jays, they are unlikely to make the playoffs this season. Yet they keep winning just often enough to keep them on the periphery of relevancy at 4.5 games back of a wild-card spot, and this is a team with enough natural talent to make a run.

The Tampa Bay Rays have set a new record for offensive futility after getting shut out by the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night, per SportsCenter:

The defeat is Tampa Bay's 14th in its last 15 games, per Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times:

Let's travel back in time to 2011 and ponder what was then known about Edwin Encarnacion.

Having posted a .787 OPS two years in a row and holding a career .789 OPS, the Toronto Blue Jays slugger looked like a good, but not great, hitter. Heck, given Encarnacion's .453 career slugging percentage and 2008 high-water mark of 26 home runs, the term "slugger" barely applied.