Opinion

It's too obvious to call Boston Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts an X-factor (get it?). And it's an understatement to simply call him a factor in Boston's rise to the top of the American League East standings.

Bogaerts has been much more than a mere factor. He's been a revelation. And he might just be the best of the Red Sox's current, enviable crop of homegrown impact players.

Psst, may I have your Delta frequent flier number before we begin, please?...

1. Of Emails, One-Way Flights and Fredi Gonzalez & Friends

Knives are never sharp enough when the suits decide to ax the manager, but what the Atlanta Braves did with a painfully dull piece of cutlery last week was major league awkward.

We're nearly two months into the 2016 MLB season, and several under-the-radar offseason moves have paid huge dividends beyond reasonable expectations.

With the way clubs spend for top talent, a star free agent will virtually never become a bargain. Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija are pitching like aces after shaky 2015 seasons, but the San Francisco Giants paid them accordingly.

Aledmys Diaz has already done one thing that's hard to do in today's MLB: emerge as a surprise star.

Now all he needs to do is prove this is for real. 

Matt Harvey, the one they call the "Dark Knight of Gotham," has become a riddle in need of a solution.

For the New York Mets, that should involve taking him off the mound. At least for a little while.

Carlos Correa is going to get paid like a superstar. That much we can stipulate.

The only question the Houston Astros shortstop has to answer is, when and by whom?

Not even the best young ballplayers can escape humility forever. For proof, look no further than the wall Corey Seager hit in his first April as a major leaguer.

But Seager must have gotten his fill of humility, because now he's looking more like the player the Los Angeles Dodgers and everyone else expected him to be.

Yoenis Cespedes has been many things in his brief but eventful New York Mets tenure: trade-deadline savior, key lineup cog, National League champion.

A shade under two months into the 2016 season, we can officially add MVP candidate to the list.

It's normally unfair to put the struggles of any MLB club at the feet of a single player. It's a team sport, there are nine men on the field, etc.

But if you're a Houston Astros fan looking to play the one-man blame game with your squad's dismal start, look no further than Dallas Keuchel.

The San Francisco Giants were coming up short for a while there. After going into 2016 amid loads of hype, they were under .500 as recently as May 10.

But all of a sudden, the Giants are making it look suspiciously like an even year.