The MLB “Did you Weather the Storm through April?” Test

“April Showers, bring May Flowers!” is the old saying.

In baseball, it’s the first month of the season, and the saying for the 162-game sport is that you can’t win a season in the first month, but you can lose it.

One of the great separators of the game that is the ultimate chess match is the capability to be faced with early adversity, be able to address it, and move forward; we can go back to previous March and Aprils and see some of the overreactions of a phony team having a great first month and a competent organization looking like it isn’t the year only to make adjustments and laugh at it.

Let’s take a look at some of the teams that have encountered various forms of April Showers and categorize them into two different buckets: the teams that have had an umbrella for when the rain comes pouring in, and those that are soaked.

It may reveal a little about how genuine or not a team is going forward in their early responses, simply by asking: “Did you weather the storm through April?”

Yes, I Had an Umbrella // Milwaukee Brewers

Following the offseason in which they imploded in the first round of the postseason again, they traded Devin Williams to the Yankees, and failed to sign Willy Adames, the Brewers began the season 0-4 and got outscored 47-15, including a game where they lost 20-4 and we were wondering if the New York Yankees and their torpedo bats were bad for baseball. The 20-year-old face of the franchise, Jackson Chourio, had a 0-5 game with 5 strikeouts, and all was lost for a team on the downswing in the NL Central.

PHOTO: D. Ross Cameron/Imagn Images

What happened next? They won 8 of their next 10, Chourio returned to NL MVP candidate form and hit 5 home runs, Brice Turang went on a 12-game hit streak, and they’re back above .500 for 2nd place in the NL Central as if nothing happened.

No, the Brewers are not a team that operates within the same realm as the big markets that re-up their top-end talent; that’s why the young pitchers (and Nestor Cortes) went out with little experience and got absolutely rocked in the first series by the

Yankees. However, they develop talent like a factory, stealing bases and finding ways to work out kinks within the margins. The Cubs look like a perennial candidate in the division in what’s going to be a loaded National League, but the Brewers have proven they can take punches all season long.

I’m Soaked // Minnesota Twins

The story of the Minnesota Twins’ preseason? “Well, their core can never stay healthy, but ON PAPER, they’re the Vegas favorites to win an up-for-grabs AL Central.”

We’ve been burned by the on-paper Twins preseason once again. #1 overall draft pick Royce Lewis suffered another injury in Spring Training and has never played more than 82 games in a season. Pablo Lopez and Matt Wallner were both put on IL. However, the reality is that, at the end of last season in September, they’ve had a worse record than the White Sox, and we deluded ourselves into a Twins team that was 40-58 against teams with winning records and 41-18 against losers. 

This Twins roster has been more of the same with a 7-15 start; they’re bottom-5 in essentially every hitting metric, to where their touted back end of the bullpen can’t keep up, and Byron Buxton leads the team in average at just .244. It’s a team that didn’t do anything differently in the offseason, and rosters that need pitching are just waiting to pounce on their pitching staff in the trade market already.

Yes, I Have an Umbrella // Cleveland Guardians

On the other side of the AL Central, the Cleveland Guardians, a team that made the ALCS last year and decided to cut payroll aside from bringing in Paul Sewald and Carlos Santana, have been the same factory that we continue to say they’ve finally taken a step back only to still be towards the top of the division. They’ve had a lot of turbulence to start the year: they started the roster with no more Andres Gimenez. Emmanuel Clase was a near-perfect closer last season, and this year, while he’s 3-0, he has an ERA that is almost 8, has only struck out 9 batters, and has given up 9 runs in spots where they’ve needed him most. Also, we’re far past the “Jose Ramirez is the most underrated player in baseball” conversation; he’s the most under-MARKETED for his deserved stardom.

Yes, the Tigers look like they may be the new top dogs of the AL Central from what we’ve seen so far, but they’re coming off of sweeping the Pirates and quite frankly just win by not having any weaknesses; last year the bullpen was used at a historic rate, and they’ve only had 1 quality start from the rotation, but the offense of Steven Kwan getting on base. Kyle Manzardo, being the surprise slugger of the season, has been enough for them to keep treading just like last season.

I’m Soaked // Atlanta Braves

When the Braves first got swept by the Padres, it was “Don’t worry about it. It’s the Braves. They’re injured and will get Strider and Acuna back and are too big to fail.” Then, when the Braves started off 1-8 with a sweep by the Dodgers, it was “Well, should we worry about the Braves?”

Well, we’ve tended to always trust the Braves after their one World Series title in this era came when they faced the most adversity, but the Braves have remained in last place, and the vibes have still been entirely off. Strider looked fine in his return before hitting the IL after one start. They did just sweep the Twins, and it may have been the most-depressing sweep ever according to their fan base with the since-deleted tweet from Ronald Acuna Jr. that makes it look as if the locker room may be divided; it may not mean nothing at all, but the Joc Pederson’s and Jorge Soler’s of the world that brought the group back together are gone.

Whether it’s Matt Olson, Sean Murphy, Austin Riley, Michael Harris II, or Ozzie Albies, it just feels as if the entirety of the Braves core can never all get it together and stay healthy at the right time, and the Triple Crown-winning Chris Sale that carried the rotation last season now has an ERA over 6. It got dark quickly, and the time to turn back on the lights may have run out.

Yes, I Have an Umbrella // New York Yankees

Nothing can make up emotionally for following up losing a World Series and having the departure of Juan Soto, but having to make up for it in the aggregate this offseason and remaining the team to beat in the AL East has kind of solidified the team as immune to the World Series hangover thus far..? Max Fried has looked like the ace they paid him to be, Paul Goldschmidt has done nothing but get on base, and the “I can’t believe these guys are now Yankee fans cult favorite” heroes of the season that hit behind the best pure-hitter in Aaron Judge are now Trent Grisham and Ben Rice somehow.

They’re without Giancarlo Stanton, Devin Williams is off to his traditional slow start, Jazz Chisholm has been invisible, and the team has only slugged more than the league leaders, and has a pitching staff that is top-10 in WHIP. 

Are we on a collision course for another October run (only for them to melt down again and for the haters to relish in it)? Well, the Yankees have passed a plethora of tests so far.

I’m Soaked // Pittsburgh Pirates

Tragically, this is merely beating a dead horse at this point, but for some reason it needs to be yelled louder and louder at billionaire owner Bob Nutting that owns a franchise in one of the best sports cities with possibly the most-aesthetic park in baseball: the Pirates have the odds-on favorite to win the Cy Young on a rookie deal in Paul Skenes whose stardom has transcended the sport. Arguably, no one should have more of an urgency to add hitting than anyone in the league as soon as possible.

Tommy Pham was their biggest signing.

We thought the rotation of Skenes, Jones, Keller, and Andrew Heaney might be enough so that the offense didn’t necessarily need to do too much, or there could have been some Elly-esque rise of O’Neill Cruz this offseason, but it’s just been more of the same at the bottom of the Central. The only team that hits for average worse than the Pirates currently are the historically bad Chicago White Sox and Ben Charington and Derek Shelton look on paper to be on completely opposite wavelengths.

The “Should Paul Skenes request a trade” speculation after he put pressure on the front office at the beginning of the season is already looking like the next MLB Network clickbait topic for the foreseeable future.

PHOTO: D. Ross Cameron/Imagn Images