It's time to recognize that last year in baseball never really happened

One quick way to fathom the false read of 2020 is to study baseball's current leaders in RBIs. (And, nope, no Yankees.) 

1. Trey Mancini, Baltimore 41
2. Rafael Devers, Boston 39
3. Adolis Garcia, Texas 38
4. Yuri Guriel, Houston 38
5. JD Martinez, Boston, 37
6. Randall Grichuk, Toronto, 36
7. Vladimir Guerero Jr., Toronto 36
8. Jose Abreu, Chicago, 35
9. Eduardo Escobar, Arizona, 35
10. Shohei Ohtani, LAA, 35

Congrats to all: They stand as Leaders Heading into Memorial Day. 

Of this group, two - Abreu and Devers - finished in last year's top 10. Three - Mancini, Garcia and Ohtani - barely played in 2020. Two more - Martinez and Escobar - basically sucked.

I believe 2020 shall be remembered as the Las Vegas of seasons: 

What happened in 2020... stays in 2020.

At this point last year - in games played, that is - pennant races were ending, a handful of games to play. Boston was dead last - yes, below even Baltimore - and Minnesota possessed the AL's second-best record. This year, both have flipped those scripts (though Baltimore remains awful.)

The 2020 season ended with DJ LeMahieu batting .364 and Luke Voit hitting 21 HRs, both leading the majors. They'll always hang framed certificates of achievement on their bathroom walls, but neither number is realistic. LeMahieu is a fine hitter - he's now won two batting titles - but .364? Nah. Voit has decent power - 30 HRs, sure - but he was collapsing physically at the end of last season. Another HR crown? Nah. 

On the flip side, Gary Sanchez hit .147 - was that even possible?- and Aroldis Chapman notched three saves. Three. Eric Kratz finished third on the team in batting average - he hit. 321 - and James Paxton - remember him? - started five games, with an ERA of 6.64.

Last year was a ghost, a Mulligan, and everything that happened - did Jose Altuve really suffer the yips?, did Andrew Benintendi really drive in just one run? - was a drug hallucination, a trick of the mind.  

I say this because we - as thinking, empirically-minded Yank fans -have a natural tendency to add last year's nothingness to the first two months of 2021 and seek conclusions. Aint gonna work.

We must come to grips with the fact that Boston was smart to tank last year. Once Chris Sale went down, they played rope-a-dope and went with youngsters. They are probably far better than we figured them to be. (But they are sliding, currently tied with Tampa, which is even better than in 2020.) 

Last year, Gleyber Torres was - look: there is no nice way to put this - a mediocre shortstop. He hit .243 with three HRs, and he botched routine plays. The slump carried over into the first month of 2021, and we rightfully grew terrified.

I now say 2020 should be expunged from Gleyber's permanent fossil record. It never happened. 

Last year, Aaron Hicks was a veritable Yankee iron man - he played in 54 of the 60 games. This happened because the early season, when he was recovering from Tommy John surgery, was canceled due to Covid. Well, it never happened.

Domingo German never threw a pitch. That never pitching never happened.

Corey Kluber's lost year? (He pitched one inning.) Never happened.

Jameson Tallion? Jordan Montgomery? Giancarlo Stanton? None of them happened.

We are about to move into the third month of 2021 - with three more months to come after that. Pitchers are about to start throwing far more innings than they did in all of 2020. (Gerrit Cole has thrown 64; last year, he threw 73.) 

All bets are off.