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 collection, with every story waiting for the approaching season by breaking down a specific matter, division by division.
At this time: Every division’s prime new acquisition
With apologies to, say, David Robertson, now that Alex Bregman has signed, all the key free brokers have discovered their groups. There nonetheless may very well be a stray commerce or two, however on the entire, rosters are principally set. After an offseason of intrigue and uncertainty, we now know the place the important thing gamers shall be suiting as much as begin 2025.
Thus, in the present day, as a part of our ongoing season preview collection, we check out the highest newcomer to affix every division — the gamers whose arrivals might make the largest distinction. A few of these are big names, a few of them simply match a crew completely, however the division races have been unquestionably altered as a result of these guys switched groups.
NL East: Juan Soto, RF, MetsThis one is self-explanatory, however let’s illustrate it this fashion: The Mets have dedicated to paying Soto no less than $51 million in 2039. Evidently, you don’t spend that kind of cash on a participant should you don’t plan on competing for a World Sequence. That implies that yearly between now and 2039 — when your present 5-year-old shall be in faculty — the Mets are going to be making an attempt, full-tilt, to win a championship. Now that’s seriousness of objective.
NL Central: Kyle Tucker, RF, CubsTucker has been referred to as “probably the most underrated participant in baseball” for therefore lengthy that the phrase itself is beginning to really feel slightly overrated. However nobody’s going to be overlooking Tucker this 12 months, not enjoying in that historic ballpark — in entrance of these followers — for that crew. When the Cubs traded for Tucker, they made it clear that they have been planning on profitable the NL Central, one thing they now haven’t finished in a full season since 2017.
In any case, why else would you usher in Tucker, who is because of attain free company on the finish of the 2025 season and is extensively anticipated to check the open market? Now, the truth that they didn’t signal Bregman (who would have stuffed a necessity) and traded away Cody Bellinger (who would have stuffed a number of) argues that they’re not all-in, even when maybe they need to be. However bringing in Tucker nonetheless gave this crew the high-ceiling star it’s been lacking for the previous a number of seasons, and that adjustments the dynamic on this division.
NL West: Corbin Burnes, RHP, D-backsWe all spend a lot time within the offseason making predictions, mixing and matching potential team-and-player mixtures, that it’s tough to shock us anymore. You search for logical matches, and groups and gamers are likely to act logically. Which is why it was so pleasant when, seemingly out of nowhere, Burnes, the highest free-agent pitcher in the marketplace, signed with the Diamondbacks — a crew nearly nobody had as certainly one of his prime suitors.
Looking back, it does make sense. Burnes will get to remain near residence — he and his spouse, who’ve three younger kids, stay within the Phoenix space. For his or her half, the Diamondbacks get a very powerful factor you must problem the Dodgers within the NL West: a completely stacked rotation. With Burnes becoming a member of Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez and Brandon Pfaadt (and Jordan Montgomery nonetheless within the combine as nicely), Arizona has a gaggle that might transform the envy of any crew in baseball, together with the Dodgers. And if the D-backs can attain the postseason — as they’re now very prone to do — there isn’t anybody you need on the mound extra for Recreation 1 than this man.
AL East: Max Fried, LHP, YankeesYou actually could not criticize the Yankees if that they had hoarded the cash that they had deliberate to spend on Soto. As an alternative, they obtained proper to work inside hours of studying he was heading to Queens. They added loads of guys — Yankees followers are going to like new nearer Devin Williams — however no transfer was greater than bringing in Fried.
It speaks to how a lot the Yankees have reworked their rotation lately that Fried could also be their No. 2 (and even No. 3?) starter, a reasonably wonderful factor to say a couple of man who has completed within the prime 5 of Cy Younger Award voting twice up to now 5 years. The AL East is stuffed with groups that plan on profitable this division proper now, and with Fried within the fold, the Yankees should still be one of the best outfitted to take action, even with Soto now enjoying throughout city.
AL Central: Jonathan India, IF/OF, RoyalsYou can’t assist however really feel just like the Tigers — the crew that took all of baseball by storm down the stretch and have been this shut to creating the ALCS — missed a possibility by not bringing in Bregman. (Nonetheless, bringing in Gleyber Torres and bringing again Jack Flaherty will definitely assist). However the Royals, the opposite shock crew on this division in 2024, very a lot wanted a leadoff man, and so they could have discovered the right one in India.
True, he hasn’t repeated the numbers he posted in his NL Rookie of the 12 months season in 2021, and his addition will result in a defensive shakeup in Kansas Metropolis. However most significantly to the Royals, India can get on base from the highest of the lineup, a major problem for the crew for some time now and definitely final 12 months, when it completed useless final within the Majors in OBP out of the leadoff spot (.270). The Royals aren’t sitting nonetheless after final 12 months’s dramatic turnaround, and India is proof.
AL West: Christian Walker, 1B, AstrosKnow that it was very tempting right here to go along with Luis Severino to the A’s, and even Yusei Kikuchi (or Kenley Jansen!) to the Angels. It’s undeniably constructive information that these two groups made the quite a few additions that they did, and they’re going to make this division extra attention-grabbing, prime to backside.
However think about the way you’d be trying on the Astros if that they had waved goodbye to Tucker and Bregman and never introduced in anybody to exchange both of them. With the addition of the perpetually underrated Walker, in addition to bringing in Isaac Paredes within the Tucker commerce, the Astros did what they wanted to do to stay the ostensible favourite within the AL West … or on the very least give themselves a puncher’s probability. All informed, this may be probably the most fascinating division in baseball.
