The 5 players in the NL East who matter the most

This column has had many names in the past. It used to be the “bellwether players” of every division, which is accurate, but research has proven that the world “bellwether” is one of the least clickable words in the English language. Then it moved on to the “most interesting players” of each division, but it turns out that is, ironically, the very least interesting headline construction.

These are the players whose individual performances mean an awful lot to their respective teams. You should be able to look at each one in July and get a pretty good idea of where their team is at. If you could condense that into a word for the series next year, I would be extremely grateful.

These are the players who mean a lot more to their teams than their 24 teammates.

The Bartolo Colon/R.A. Dickey strategy is a lot of things. It’s fun, for one. You have baseball’s jolliest corner-shaver, a behind-the-back flipping and dinger-swatting marvel, on one side. You have the angry-knuckling, bearded, Gandalf-quoting 42-year-old on the other.

The strategy is pragmatic. They could have been, I don’t know, Bud Norris and Kyle Lohse, and it would have been almost fine. The Braves need innings, and they need to be competent innings in order not to sour the fans who will spend three hours in a car to get to and from the stadium. Here are league-average innings, found in a market where they should have been tough to come by. Well done.

The strategy trolls Mets fans. So damned hard.

What the strategy isn’t, though, is permanent. The Braves will need to transition from scrappy, sorta-interesting team to legitimate contender soon. They have the minor league system of the gods, but that doesn’t mean they’ll have the major league rotation of the gods. It’s not like five minor leaguers are going to show up in the same season after advancing a level each year.

They’ll need a bridge, someone who’s half-veteran and half-potential bomb. Someone who could win awards in the best-case scenario, but absorb innings in the medium-case scenario.

That would be Foltynewicz. If you look up in July and see him having the breakthrough year he’s absolutely capable of, the Braves are probably feeling pretty comfortable about 2018 and 2019, which is all they could have asked.

Obvious? Yes. It’s unavoidable. The Mets were pennant-winners with a healthy, right Harvey. They were wild-card winners with an off, creaky Harvey. Those aren’t coincidences. With him at his best, the Mets have an elite rotation. With him scuffling and hurt and mixing blow-up starts in with his brilliant outings, they have a very good rotation. Sometimes, those very good rotations don’t make the postseason.

The early returns? Outstanding. His fastball was in the mid-90s again this spring, but only if it wasn’t in the upper 90s. That means there will be less of this ...

... and more of this:

If you can’t click on this links, huh, that’s weird, keep trying, you’re bound to get through. Anyway, Harvey was hearing a smattering of boos last year, and everything about the season was a disappointment. An All-Star return would make the Mets one of the best teams in baseball again, even if they don’t hit much more than last year.

On Opening Day, the Nationals’ new closer, Blake Treinen, got an easy, boring save. The Nationals’ old closer, who made millions, blew his first save opportunity with the Giants. Everything was fine. Everything was hilarious. This is going to work.

Unless it doesn’t! And it’s worth remembering that Treinen is ...

That isn’t to say that he’s had a poor career thus far. But he’s not a rising star, and he doesn’t have the traditional profile of a dominating — or even average — closer. Walks too many, strikes out too few. Could be fine, but remember these red flags if he isn’t.

But I can’t just choose the closer because teams come back from failed ninth-inning experiments all the time. It’s not like they’re going to just keep throwing the same pitcher out there if he’s struggling mightily. So if not Treinen, then Shawn Kelley ... a two-time Tommy John survivor who left the postseason last year with his trainer.

If not Kelley, then Joe Blanton ... who arose from the graveyard of veteran starters just last year.

If not Blanton, then Koda Glover, who was touched up in nearly half of his 19 outings as a rookie.

It could all work. But bullpens are a fickle thing, and it’s not like you have to tell Nats fans that. It’s why they had Mark Melancon in the first place. And with a nearly peerless roster, if this isn’t working by the middle of the season, you’ll hear and read an awful lot about it.

This is cheating, and I promise I won’t use another minor leaguer in this series. But if Freddy Galvis ends the season as the Phillies’ starter at shortstop, the whole organization should be biting its collective nails. There is, perhaps, no clearer path for a top prospect in baseball. Here, toolsy shortstop in the upper minors, is a rebuilding team with Galvis ahead of you. As far as obstacle courses go, this is a yardstick on a traffic cone, and it should be easy to avoid.

If Crawford stalls, though, and somehow plays his way out of the Phillies’ 2017 plans, then he might play his way out of their 2018 plans. And if he leaves the organization wondering about 2018, they might not be one of the most aggressive teams in free agency, because while they can use money to fill in the gaps between three or four burgeoning young stars, it’s hard to fill every last hole on the fly.

So if Crawford (and Maikel Franco) can join players like Odubel Herrera and Cesar Hernandez as players who will be around for the next good Phillies team, they might steal your favorite player in free agency. If there’s a lineup filled with Galvis and a bunch of shrugging emojis, it’ll be harder to justify.

The odds are good that Crawford will squeeze his way into the lineup by the summer. It’s what the organization is hoping or. What this scenario presupposes, though, is ....

He’s still just 27. That seems important to keep in mind when hyper-analyzing his ups and downs. His 118 OPS+ last year was disappointing, and the injuries were even more so, but he’s still so young and obviously talented.

He’s still owed $277 million through his age-38 season, too. There’s a chance he’ll opt out after the 2020 season, but I’m not sure he’s on an opt-out pace right now. This contract could define the Marlins, even under a new ownership group.

And for 2017, he’s pretty danged important. Pretty sure no one had him as the third-best outfielder on his own team before last year started, and they probably shouldn’t have him there right now. But another season like the last one, and not only are the Marlins not contending the way they thought they would be, but the entire future of the franchise starts to make everyone just a little nervous.

There might not be a more important player to his organization in baseball right now. It’s not that he’s at a crossroads, but he’s certainly not on the rainbow road directly to where everyone thought he would be by now. You’ll be able to look at his stats by the All-Star break and guess the Marlins’ record without knowing anything else.

Now that’s a bellwether player. He’s an obvious one, but he’s probably the most extreme example in the game.