After five long months to the date, baseball is finally back in full swing as Opening Day 2019 is officially in the books.

This off-season has been crazy, as free agents signed new contracts, veterans (Ichiro Suzuki) played in their last action and three players signed the biggest contracts in sports history.

Following Boston’s 4-1 World Series victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers, the major league spotlight changed from the World Series and started to shine on said new free agents. Questions surrounded players such as Manny Machado, Bryce Harper and Mike Trout as to where they would be playing this year.

These three players will be under a high amount of pressure as all three set the record for the highest paid free-agent sports contract of all-time. It all started with Machado finding his new home two and a half hours south of Los Angeles, settling in San Diego for the Padres. The new contract was an astounding ten-year, 300 million dollar contract signed on Feb. 21.

Just eight days later on March 1, Harper blew past that, becoming the largest contract in sports, signing with the Philadelphia Phillies for a 13-year, 330 million dollar contract. But Bryce Harper only held that title for just under three weeks. That was due to Mike Trout signing a 12-year extension worth 430 million dollars to take the title for the highest paid athlete.

Having opening day already passed, we start to project who is looking to bring home the World Series title this year. Will Boston be able to go back-to-back? Could the Dodgers make it for the third year in a row? Could anyone dethrone the two baseball powerhouses?

Following Boston’s 108-win season last year, there is the existing question as to if the reigning champs will fall into a slump in 2019, but no doubt they are looking to be an all-star performance team. They may win their division, but I do not believe they will be returning to the title.

The Dodgers seem to be playing great every year. . . until they make the championship game, that is. They have won their division the past six years, appeared in the World Series the last two years, but still end up empty-handed at the end of the season.

The squad seems to be falling apart, trading away Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig and Alex Woods and then losing Machado in free agency. Clayton Kershaw is also starting the season on the disabled list, so it will be interesting to see where they end up in this year’s title race.

For the American League, the Astros are coming in off a 103-win season and I think that will roll over into this season. They shouldn’t have too much of a struggle in the regular season with their schedule and running into the postseason with a lethal Justin Verlander and Jose Altuve. The future looks bright for the Astros.

In the National League, watch out for the Phillies. No, they have not had a winning season since 2011, but that will change this year. They added five players during free agency including the speedy Andrew McCutchen and already mentioned big hitter Harper.

This year could be a big season for Philadelphia, and they will have a tough schedule in their division, but should be able to handle it well.