One takeaway for each team after season's first week

Sure, we're only one week into the regular season. But while there are certainly some overreactions this time of year, there are also some interesting -- and often surprising -- developments around MLB.

With the help of all 30 MLB.com beat writers, here's a look at one key takeaway for each team from the first week.

Jump to: AL East | AL Central | AL West | NL East | NL Central | NL West

American League East

Blue Jays: The boom-or-bust offense
The Blue Jays were about to be shut out by the Astros on Tuesday, just 24 hours after being no-hit by them … until Davis Schneider saved the day with a two-run homer. Toronto was then shut out on one hit in the series finale against Houston. The Jays have also had some outbursts, too, showcasing the power we heard so much about over the offseason. Last year’s lineup had to scrape out wins, which put too much stress on this pitching staff, but Week 1 has shown us an offense with a much wider range of outcomes. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is for the next six months to determine, but something certainly looks different. -- Keegan Matheson

Orioles: Jordan Westburg is ready for everyday action
Last year, Westburg served in a platoon-type role for the O’s after reaching the big leagues in June. He typically was in the lineup against left-handed starters, but he often sat when opposing righties took the mound. So far this season, the 25-year-old infielder has started every game. He’s made appearances at second base, third, shortstop and designated hitter, and he’s handling the increase in action quite well. -- Jake Rill

Rays: They have depth, but need to get healthy
Zach Eflin’s performance against the Rangers, plus the overall work of Aaron Civale and Zack Littell, should ease some concerns about the top of the rotation. But seeing slugging second baseman Brandon Lowe exit Wednesday’s game, even if it is just day-to-day left side tightness, was a reminder that injuries have put a dent in the Rays’ remarkable depth. They have a full rotation of high-end arms -- Shane McClanahan, Jeffrey Springs, Drew Rasmussen, Taj Bradley, Shane Baz -- on the injured list. Their lineup is missing two important left-handed hitters, Josh Lowe and Jonathan Aranda, plus key role players in the infield (Taylor Walls) and outfield (Jonny DeLuca). Even top prospect Junior Caminero is now on the IL in the Minors. -- Adam Berry

Red Sox: Pitching staff much improved
Under new pitching coach Andrew Bailey, Boston’s rotation looks much improved. In the first seven games of the season, each starter went a minimum of five innings. In the rotation’s first 38 innings, there were three walks and 46 strikeouts. Considering that all five starters are holdovers from a rotation that struggled last season, the improvement is a testament to the guidance of Bailey and the buy-in from the pitchers. The improved defense, keyed by the return to full health of shortstop Trevor Story and a standout rookie center fielder in Ceddanne Rafaela, has also made life easier on the pitching staff. -- Ian Browne

Yankees: Juan Soto is incredible
OK, this shouldn’t be a surprise, considering one of the game’s top left-handed hitters has already been decorated with plenty of individual awards and a World Series championship. But it’s difficult to imagine a better Yankees debut for Soto, who made a game-saving outfield assist on Opening Day while delivering at least one hit and RBI in each contest of a four-game sweep of the Astros. The “Soto effect” on the lineup has been real -- Oswaldo Cabrera stops his daily routine just to watch Soto in the cage, hoping to learn. As Marcus Stroman said of Soto: “He’s going to be one of those guys that I’m talking about when I’m a granddad, that I got to play with him.” -- Bryan Hoch

AL Central

Guardians: Shane Bieber is back
Bieber hasn’t been quite as dominant over the last few years as he was in 2020 and ‘21. His velocity dipped. His curveball wasn’t as effective. He stopped throwing changeups to righties. He wasn’t missing many bats. Plus, he battled elbow trouble for half of the season last year. Well, all of that seems to be a thing of the past. In his Opening Day performance, his fastball velocity was up a tick, his changeup was the best it’s been in his entire career and he racked up 11 strikeouts in six innings -- his first double-digit strikeout game since '22. In start No. 2, he picked up nine more Ks in six scoreless frames. Bieber is trending back in the right direction. -- Mandy Bell

Royals: The rotation is improved
The Royals spent the offseason revamping their pitching, and we’re seeing immediate results with the rotation. The starting rotation -- Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo, Brady Singer, Michael Wacha and Alec Marsh -- has posted a 1.45 ERA with six earned runs in 37 1/3 innings, as well as 40 strikeouts compared to just nine walks. There will certainly be some slumps with pitchers throughout the season and spot starts that need to be made, but the Royals couldn’t have asked for a better start with their rotation. -- Anne Rogers

Tigers: The bullpen is deep
Detroit’s rotation garnered most of the attention heading into the season, led by sneaky Cy Young Award candidate Tarik Skubal, but the relief corps has done its best to match, allowing one run on six hits over 17 1/3 innings entering Thursday. Jason Foley has emerged as a legit closing option, having added a high-powered four-seam fastball to complement a sinker he has bumped up to 100-101 mph. Shelby Miller has tossed four perfect innings and finished two of Detroit’s first four victories. Alex Faedo has transitioned from back-end starter to multi-inning relief weapon with a nasty changeup to complement his devastating slider. Tyler Holton and Andrew Chafin are a nice lefty duo. If Alex Lange can hone his command, this group is dominant and deep. -- Jason Beck

Twins: Where’d the offense go?
The cold weather in April can’t necessarily be cited as a factor because the Twins have played series in Kansas City and under the roof in Milwaukee -- and even in those environments, the Twins’ offense has struggled to find its power stroke in particular, having hit only two homers through five games. In fact, between Royce Lewis’ Opening Day blast and Ryan Jeffers’ go-ahead shot in the seventh inning on Wednesday, they’d gone 41 innings without a homer, a callback to the slow offensive start from last season. -- Do-Hyoung Park

White Sox: Garrett Crochet is a starter
It’s a little early to use the “ace” word, but the southpaw has been truly impressive in his move from the bullpen to the rotation. This change first began as an offseason conversation between Crochet and general manager Chris Getz, with Crochet set on being a featured starter and not just a guy to take the ball for three or four innings. Mission accomplished against the Tigers and the high-powered Braves, with Crochet striking out 16 against one walk with two earned runs allowed over 13 innings. His fastball is topping out near 100 mph, while he’s incorporated a cutter to produce a four-pitch repertoire. Innings eventually could be a concern, but there’s no issue with his elite talent level. -- Scott Merkin

AL West

Angels: Mike Trout is still an MVP-caliber player
Trout, a three-time AL MVP and 11-time All-Star, has been limited by injuries in recent seasons, including playing in just 82 games in a down season by his standards last year. But the 32-year-old has been looking like his old self early this season, displaying his incredible power with three homers, including a two-homer performance on Monday in Miami. One of those homers went a projected 473 feet, which shows he’s healthy again and primed for a big year. He still needs to cut down on his strikeouts and improve against elite velocity, but the early returns have been promising. -- Rhett Bollinger

Astros: Yainer Diaz has star potential
Diaz, who spent last season backing up catcher Martín Maldonado and still finished fifth in AL Rookie of the Year voting, flashed some impressive offensive skills and is now emerging as a real threat by being in the lineup daily. Through seven games, he's slashing .462/.517/.731 with two homers and four RBIs, and he has more walks (three) than strikeouts (two). Diaz had multiple hits in six of the first seven games, including a three-hit game on Opening Day against the Yankees. Last year, Diaz posted an .846 OPS with 23 homers and 60 RBIs in 377 plate appearances. -- Brian McTaggart

Athletics: Defense needs to improve
Oakland’s Major League-leading 13 errors through its first seven games show that while a lot of the young players that make up the majority of the roster got their feet wet in the big leagues last season, there are still some growing pains to be had. You can point to the slow start by several key contributors on offense or lack of quality outings from the starting rotation, but if the A’s are going to take that big step forward in 2024, the defense will have to shore things up and play fundamentally sound baseball. -- Martín Gallegos

Mariners: It's early, but K's remain high
Seattle's well-chronicled strikeout issues from last season were front-and-center throughout their season-opening homestand, with 74 in seven games. It's way too early to sound the alarm, especially given that there was underlying evidence of an improved approach at the plate throughout Spring Training. But given how pronounced those whiffs were last year -- and that they missed the postseason by one game -- it's reasonable for fans to expect to see improvement. -- Daniel Kramer

Rangers: Wyatt Langford is the real deal
The Rangers’ 2023 first-round pick quickly shot through the Minor League ranks and made his way onto the Opening Day roster out of camp less than a year after playing for the Florida Gators. He’s reached base in five of his first seven big league games while hitting in the heart of the Rangers' lineup more times than not. He doesn’t need to do too much in a lineup full of All-Stars, but he’s quickly proven he belongs here. -- Kennedi Landry

National League East

Braves: Record-setting offense could be even better
When the Braves compensated for Max Fried’s ugly season debut by regularly frustrating Aaron Nola on Saturday, they strengthened the belief that their offense could be even better than the one that matched an MLB record with 307 home runs and became the first AL/NL team to slug .500 or better. Jarred Kelenic is the lineup’s only newcomer. His early success has highlighted the length of a lineup that includes three top MVP candidates in Ronald Acuña Jr., Matt Olson and Austin Riley. -- Mark Bowman

Marlins: Injured pitchers can’t return soon enough
Miami has the pitching depth to replace four starters, but it's hard to adequately do so when it's the caliber of Sandy Alcantara, Eury Pérez, Edward Cabrera and Braxton Garrett. A big reason for the Marlins' 0-7 start -- the first time in MLB history a postseason club has been winless through seven games to open the following season -- is the rotation's 5.93 ERA and MLB-high 20 walks. -- Christina De Nicola

Mets: Starting pitching could be an issue
Luis Severino wasn’t great in his first start. No rotation member other than Sean Manaea was, in fact, and the Mets have already burned through a ton of depth with injuries to Kodai Senga, Tylor Megill and Max Kranick, as well as poor performance from Joey Lucchesi. A week into the season, they have a rotation opening with no clear idea who will fill it. If the Mets don’t start receiving better performances from their veteran starters, the early season could be a slog. -- Anthony DiComo

Nationals: Young future ready to play
Trey Lipscomb, the Nationals' No. 16 prospect, was called up to make his Major League debut in just the second game of the season after third baseman Nick Senzel was sidelined. He became the first player in Nationals history (2005-present) to record a hit and a stolen base in his debut. The next day, Lipscomb connected on his first big league home run. He joins fellow 23-year-olds CJ Abrams and Luis García Jr. in the infield as the Nationals develop their young talents for the future, with top prospects including James Wood and Dylan Crews working their way up in the Minors. -- Jessica Camerato

Phillies: A few games doesn’t make a season
FanGraphs projected the Phillies to have the best bullpen in baseball this season, so, naturally, the bullpen struggled in the season’s first few games. It allowed nine runs on Opening Day. It allowed five more in the second game. Then, it imploded in a 10-inning loss to the Reds on Monday. The Phillies have a slew of hard-throwing, talented arms in the back of the bullpen, including Jose Alvarado, Jeff Hoffman, Matt Strahm, Seranthony Dominguez, Gregory Soto and Orion Kerkering, once he returns from the IL on Tuesday. The Phillies’ bullpen should be fine in time. Everybody has a bad week. Bryce Harper provided evidence of that on Tuesday, when he broke an 0-for-11 start to the season with a three-homer game against the Reds. -- Todd Zolecki

NL Central

Brewers: It will be an aggressive brand of baseball
Organizational newcomer Rhys Hoskins called the Brewers’ athleticism “eye-popping,” and after the young Crew went 8-for-8 on stolen base attempts while sweeping the Mets in the opening series in New York, it was clear they plan to use that to their advantage. Most days, half the starting lineup consists of players in their first or second Major League season. They've been led by 20-year-old outfielder Jackson Chourio, the youngest player in MLB. On Wednesday, Chourio also became the youngest Brewers player to homer since Gary Sheffield in 1988. -- Adam McCalvy

Cardinals: The defense is back to Gold Glove level
A year after struggling mightily in the field, the Cardinals recommitted themselves to be much improved defensively and it has paid off handsomely so far. Through their first seven games, the Cardinals are one of just two teams -- the Guardians are the other -- to not commit an error. Willson Contreras, No. 30 last season in getting borderline calls for strikes, has made tremendous strides thus far and entered Wednesday getting 51.5 percent of borderline calls. Also, right fielder Jordan Walker made the defensive play of the season with a diving catch and is much more confident in the field. Factor in the return of defensive ace Brendan Donovan and it’s easy to see why the Cards are much-improved defensively. -- John Denton

Cubs: Seiya Suzuki is hitting the baseball HARD
During Spring Training, Suzuki hit .459 with six homers and a 1.593 OPS in Cactus League play, offering hope that the Cubs right fielder was picking up where he left off last season. If Suzuki’s early hard-hit numbers are any indication, this could be a big year for him. Suzuki recorded the hardest-hit homer of 2024 so far (115 mph) on Tuesday and entered Wednesday with an average exit velocity of 95.1 mph. For perspective, Aaron Judge led qualified MLB hitters last year with a 97.6 mph mark, followed by Ronald Acuña Jr. (94.7). Suzuki was in the 83rd percentile in the category last year (91.4), but the hope for the Cubs is that he discovered a new gear during his scorching two-month finish to '23. -- Jordan Bastian

Pirates: Henry Davis can catch
There was plenty of concern this winter about whether Henry Davis would be able to assume starting catching duties after he caught just two innings in the Majors last year, but so far, he’s shown better receiving skills and is continuing to build relationships with his pitchers. The question is: Will he still be the starter once Yasmani Grandal returns from the injured list? -- Alex Stumpf

Reds: Will Benson could be poised for a breakout season
Getting a chance to play every day, Benson is taking full advantage. The outfielder has already picked up four doubles and a homer and is seeing a lot of pitches with his game-tying, two-out, two-run home run in the ninth inning on the first pitch Sunday vs. the Nationals being an exception. It was also part of a thrilling come-from-behind walk-off victory. Normally a corner outfielder, Benson is getting more chances in center while TJ Friedl (fractured right wrist) is on the injured list. Defense was one of his weaknesses in 2023, but Benson looks smoother making plays so far this season. -- Mark Sheldon

NL West

D-backs: Their depth is better this year
The D-backs opened the year with OF/DH Randal Grichuk and lefty Eduardo Rodriguez on the injured list, and then saw outfielder Alek Thomas go down Monday with a strained hamstring. Arizona seemed poised to be able to withstand those injuries with Blaze Alexander filling in nicely for Grichuk as the right-handed platoon DH, and Jorge Barrosa looking good initially as Thomas' replacement in center. The D-backs also went out and signed lefty free agent Jordan Montgomery, who is expected to join the rotation in the next couple of weeks. Injuries happen over the course of a 162-game season and the D-backs seem well-equipped to be able to handle them. -- Steve Gilbert

Dodgers: Mookie Betts is going after another MVP Award
What Betts has done over the first week of the regular season is nothing short of remarkable. On defense, he's making the transition to shortstop -- arguably the most challenging position on the diamond. Not only did Betts make the switch to short midway through Spring Training, but he is also starting to look like a natural. But as impressive as his versatility is defensively, he’s posting the best offensive start of his career, hitting five homers along with a 1.686 OPS through nine games. Betts ran away with the AL MVP trophy in 2018, and after a runner-up finish in '23, he has his eyes set on the second of his career. -- Juan Toribio

Giants: Jung Hoo Lee could be a star in the making
Lee’s ability to adjust to big league pitching was a big question mark entering the season, but the former KBO star has enjoyed a smooth transition thus far, going 7-for-28 (.250) with four RBIs over his first seven games out of the leadoff spot, along with a meager 12.1% strikeout rate (lowest on the team, min. 20 PA). While Lee is known primarily for his contact skills, he also flashed impressive power by crushing his first Major League home run in a left-on-left matchup with Padres reliever Tom Cosgrove on Saturday. It’s still early, but Lee is looking like he has the potential to develop into a dynamic presence atop the Giants’ lineup for years to come. -- Maria Guardado

Padres: The bottom of the order is producing
The Padres’ lineup was extremely top-heavy in 2023, and it appeared to be more of the same going into this year. But Luis Campusano batting seventh, Tyler Wade/Graham Pauley/Eguy Rosario batting eighth and Jackson Merrill ninth, the bottom of the order has made plenty of noise. Campusano, in particular, is showing signs he belongs in the middle of the order, posting a slash line of .400/.400/.600 through his first seven games. -- AJ Cassavell

Rockies: The starting pitching has to be better -- immediately
No. 1 starter Kyle Freeland has a 27.00 ERA through two starts. Through seven games there were no quality starts and just one decent start -- Dakota Hudson went 5 1/3 innings against the Cubs but was done in by errors. Defense has been shaky, but even being airtight in the field would not have made a major difference given the poor starting pitching. And the Rockies haven’t played their first series at offense-friendly Coors Field. With a lack of prospect depth, the current rotation has no choice but to pitch its way out of the early hole. -- Thomas Harding