The Dodgers and Cubs will open the 2025 season with the two-game Tokyo Sequence on March 18-19. We’ll be counting all the way down to that date with our annual preview sequence, with every story waiting for the approaching season by breaking down a selected matter, division by division.
Right now: The must-watch participant in every division
The definition of a must-watch participant is self-evident: It’s a participant you completely should watch. In case you’re at house, you don’t dare flip away from the published when this participant is coming to the plate. In case you’re on the recreation in particular person, you maintain off on hitting the concessions or going to the lavatory till after they’ve batted or completed an inning on the mound.
They’re, in any case, typically the very participant you confirmed as much as see. They’re why you purchase tickets or tune in to start with. These are the fellows who present up in all of the promos, whose jerseys everyone seems to be sporting, those your children are all pretending to be of their Little League video games.
Thus, at present, we check out one in every of these gamers from every division getting into 2025.
AL Central: Bobby Witt Jr., SS, RoyalsIn his second season, in 2023, Bobby Witt Jr. turned a star at age 23, ending seventh in AL MVP voting, and few doubted he would proceed his ascent. However did anybody see it taking place so shortly? Witt put up his second straight 30-30 season in 2024, and his numbers jumped up all over the place as he led the Majors with each 211 hits and a .332 batting common.
Not simply that: He has develop into, very swiftly, among the best defenders in baseball, culminating within the first Gold Glove Award of his profession. Mainly, you’ll be able to’t cease watching Witt at any level as a result of he’s among the best in baseball in all phases of the sport: When it comes to Statcast run values in 2024, he was 99th percentile in batting, 96th percentile in baserunning and ninety fifth percentile in fielding.
If he hadn’t run into Aaron Decide — who may need produced the most effective offensive season by a right-handed hitter in baseball historical past — Witt would have gained his first MVP Award, too. Better of all: He carried the Royals to their first postseason look (and postseason sequence victory) in practically a decade. Additionally: Have you ever seen how briskly he’s? He’s so quick!
NL Central: Elly De La Cruz, SS, RedsYou can see De La Cruz getting higher proper earlier than our eyes, making the changes essential to go from a prime prospect with eye-popping instruments to an precise celebrity. He’s at all times including one thing new to his recreation, discovering new methods to dominate and take over. His rookie yr confirmed off his top-of-the-charts energy and pace, however he was plagued with strikeout points, inconsistent protection and problem taking a stroll.
So, in 2024, De La Cruz slashed his chase price, trimmed his strikeout price (whereas nonetheless main the Majors in Ok’s, it must be stated), raised his stroll price, cleaned up his protection and didn’t lose any of that energy or pace. Even enjoying at what everybody agrees continues to be a fraction of what he’ll sometime be able to, he was eighth in NL MVP voting. At age 22.
De La Cruz’s bodily skill is otherworldly, and now he’s actually determining all of the little stuff. When all of it clicks, he may win a number of MVPs. That click on could effectively occur from the get-go in 2025. There’s a motive he’s one in every of three cowl athletes for MLB The Present 25, and starred (in Claymation type) in a brand new MLB commercial.
AL West: Julio Rodríguez, CF, MarinersYou may go along with Mike Trout right here if you need — and he could be at some of the fascinating pivot factors in baseball proper now — but it surely’s onerous to select somebody we haven’t truly been capable of, you already know, watch a lot the previous few years. It’s additionally troublesome not to decide on the electrical Rodríguez … significantly as a result of he’s form of at a pivot level himself.
For all of the success that J-Rod has loved within the first three years of his profession, he has but to match his AL Rookie of the Yr-winning season in 2022 which, maybe not coincidentally, is the one time the Mariners have made the playoffs in his profession. (Or within the final 23 years, for that matter.) However he’s nonetheless solely 24 years previous, and we’ve seen what sort of injury he can inflict when he’s on one in every of his sizzling streaks.
Rodríguez stays some of the purely pleasurable gamers to cheer for in all of baseball, and he is an ideal match with this Seattle fanbase. Now it’s time for that MVP season we’ve all been ready for …
NL West: Shohei Ohtani, DH/RHP, DodgersAll proper, clearly, Shohei simply gained his third MVP Award — you don’t want me to inform you to observe him. However the glory of Shohei has at all times been that he’s two Corridor of Fame-caliber gamers in a single package deal. In 2024, we noticed the man who can put collectively a 50-50 season when he’s taking a yr off from being a Cy Younger Award contender.
Effectively, this season, we get to see that pitcher for the primary time since August 2023. In response to Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts, Ohtani gained’t return to the mound till Could, however jeez, will there be a extra anticipated occasion than his first begin again? It’ll be mesmerizing from the primary pitch. Although, all instructed: Each Shohei begin can be like that.
Oh, and his plate appearances will proceed to be appointment viewing, too.
AL East: Aaron Decide, RF, YankeesIt gained’t be like this eternally, you already know. It may not even be like this that for much longer. Decide is older than you notice, turning 33 in April, and he has struggled with accidents up to now. (And is in fact big, with the kind of physique that many worry may break down.)
What all of us do when Decide involves the plate — go silent, put down our telephones, hop up and down on our ft, stare like we’re witnessing the historical past we’re — just isn’t one thing we’ll be capable to do eternally. You’ve acquired to understand it whilst you can. Which is to say: Savor each Decide at-bat. You’ll be capable to inform folks about it for the remainder of your life.
NL East: Francisco Lindor, SS, MetsFrancisco Lindor has been an unmissable participant since breaking into the Majors with Cleveland in 2015. However there are specific gamers who, once they find yourself in New York Metropolis, really feel like they’d been enjoying there the entire time. Juan Soto would be the finest participant on the Mets this yr — and for a few years to return — however Lindor would be the one you’ll be able to’t take your eyes off. He’s the chief, the spark plug, the man with out whom the Mets can be fully misplaced.
Lindor was clutch consistently down the stretch final season, and within the postseason. He rallied his teammates at each alternative and, oh sure, he had the most effective season of his profession on the plate and within the discipline. The Mets are ascendant proper now for lots of causes. However none are larger, and brighter, than Lindor.
