Every team has begun their Spring Training schedules, and while there could be some free agent action left, MLB’s 2025 landscape is mostly set for the pre-season. Teams have begun ramping up their rosters for the full 162-game season, and there are plenty of teams who have new faces or even completely different identities.
Projecting a team’s performance for a season is incredibly difficult; one pitch could put a team’s rotation in crisis, and a couple of well-placed hits could be the difference between a deep October run or missing the dance altogether. In a sport of margins, baseball presents the unique opportunity for almost any team to get hot and win the World Series, which in turn makes the bottom half of this list extremely difficult to put together.
Using a mixture of personal perceptions of the roster and projections, here are my top 10 MLB teams for 2025.
10. Boston Red Sox
By adding Alex Bregman and Garrett Crochet, the Boston Red Sox had one of the most productive offseasons in baseball, reinforcing both their lineup and pitching staff. Healthy seasons from Triston Casas and Trevor Story should keep what has been a shaky infield intact, and their young talent is ready to finally contribute at the Major League level. Kristian Campbell is the do-it-all bat who can fill any hole on the roster, Marcelo Mayer looks like the shortstop of the future, and Roman Anthony is poised to become the face of their franchise.
Young teams can be dominant, but they can also be inconsistent, and some warts on this roster could hinder their win total in 2025. The lineup still has some question marks in terms of depth, and that could result in teams being able to attack the bottom of their order. Furthermore, the bullpen has some massive question marks due to the lack of surefire options that Alex Cora can trust from the jump. There will be growing pains and there will be tough stretches, but this is a good team that has an even brighter future.
9. Chicago Cubs
The addition of Kyle Tucker immediately places the Cubs firmly in the contention tier, as their offense is both well-rounded and bursting with upside. Matt Shaw and Pete Crow-Armstrong could have big seasons in 2025, providing the spark they lacked on offense last season, and they still have a returning group of good veteran bats to reinforce their lineup. Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ are middle-of-the-order bats with good power and plate discipline, Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner are elite defenders, and Michael Busch can mash.
Bench additions like Carson Kelly, Justin Turner, and Jon Berti provide both depth and some defensive versatility, but their pitching staff is where the questions begin to arise. Shota Imanaga and Justin Steele when healthy are a devastating duo, but their rotation after that is pretty suspect at the moment. They have depth but don’t have enough star power on that side of the ball, and the same sort of rings true in that bullpen. What I do like is they have a strong track record with pitching development, so they could close some of their gaps there.
8. Houston Astros
The Houston Astros are a weird team, they’ve built an offense capable of scoring tons of runs in 2025, but they lost two of their four best players in Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker. Christian Walker and Isaac Paredes are good players, but they cannot compare to the value their two homegrown stars produced, and they haven’t done much to improve the other aspects of their roster either. Still, a weak American League coupled with some interesting young talent leave them in a position to win the World Series.
Hunter Brown and Framber Valdez are a devilish combination of aces capable of winning the Cy Young, Josh Hader could return to his uber-dominant form, and Yordan Alvarez is still an MVP candidate. This team should still score runs with the best of them and prevent runs at a decent clip, but their defensive alignment could be a nightmare with Jose Altuve in left field and whatever they plan on doing in CF. Firing the intelligent people who got them to the World Series will remain the most perplexing example of self-sabotage I’ve ever seen in sports.
7. Texas Rangers
The Texas Rangers are coming off of a tough World Series hangover, missing out on the playoffs entirely as a result of their lineup falling off a cliff. You can’t deny what these guys can be when healthy, sporting a rotation with Jacob DeGrom and Nathan Eovaldi at the top and a barrage of high-upside starters who can fill out the remaining three spots. They also have a plethora of young players that could have big years, with Evan Carter, Wyatt Langford, and Kumar Rocker each possessing the potential to become All-Stars.
It comes down to health, something the Rangers have not been able to rely on with their top guys and an aspect of this team that will be closely monitored all season. Corey Seager and Marcus Semien could have some more rest built into their playing schedules to keep them fresh, and their strong bench will come in handy when guys go down throughout the season. They have the depth and star power, but they need to put both together for a full 162 before I fully trust them again.
6. Arizona Diamondbacks
The Arizona Diamondbacks missed out on the postseason after making it to the World Series, but they were not nearly as disappointing as the team who knocked them out in the Fall Classic. Their season came down to the wire, with the Mets and Braves’ doubleheader ultimately closing the book on their 2024 season, and they’ve responded with some big additions. Corbin Burnes joins the D-Backs on a funky contract, bolstering a rotation with Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly already on it.
Losing Christian Walker and Joc Pederson stings, but adding the electric Josh Naylor while having a more normal Corbin Carroll season should offset those losses. This team has a dynamic pitching staff to go with an offense that can crush the long ball, it’s a dangerous combination that could lead to plenty of wins this season. It will be tough to aim for the NL West crown with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the division, but this team is built to win and they could both reach the World Series and finish the job in 2025.
5. New York Mets
The New York Mets had both a busy and productive offseason, bolstering their offense with the addition of Juan Soto while retaining Pete Alonso on a team-friendly deal. Sean Manaea is also back on a team-friendly deal, and they look poised to go on a deep run in October once again in 2025. Their offense is loaded as they have seven hitters to open their lineup who posted a wRC+ at or above 100 in 2025, while Jeff McNeil and Jose Siri provide much-needed defense and some occasional offense (maybe more for McNeil).
I expect this team to finish in the top 2-3 in run scoring in 2025 barring some unforeseen wave of injuries, but the pitching staff is where the reservations begin. Both PECOTA and FanGraphs hold the belief that the Mets are going to average in terms of run prevention, with their bullpen being good and their rotation being slightly below average. They don’t take into account how well the Mets optimize pitching talent, but how much can they reasonably overperform and how healthy will those starters end up being?
4. New York Yankees
The Yankees would be better with Juan Soto, but that doesn’t mean they’re currently a bad team either, and they should be right in the middle of the World Series conversations. Health is obviously a big factor, but their pitching staff is excellent in both the rotation and bullpen, adding Max Fried and Devin Williams to supercharge both of those groups. The Yankees are also hoping a full season of Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt could make a difference, alongside some internal improvements from pitchers who showed flashes in 2024.
On the flip side, the additions of Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt shouldn’t blow anyone away, but they improve the team defense which was a priority for the Yankees this winter. Jasson Dominguez and Austin Wells could also provide some boosts on offense as young emerging starters, but there’s a glaring hole on the roster still. Without a third baseman, the team puts itself in a situation where DJ LeMahieu gets a good chunk of at-bats, and it’ll feel as if they’ve built an incomplete roster while simultaneously losing a generational talent.
3. Philadelphia Phillies
The Phillies are in a weird spot, as their contention window is continuing to shrink as their best players get older, but that core is still largely intact. Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estevez are tough pitchers to lose, but they’re also relievers so I have a hard time seriously dinging them for it. They added Jesus Luzardo in a trade with the Marlins, slotting him behind their dynamic quartet of starters and giving them the best rotation in baseball arguably.
At the Minor League level, arms like Andrew Painter and Moises Chace could provide some starts, or they could find themselves helping Philadelphia in the bullpen. Their reliever group is a question mark, but the savvy additions of Joe Ross and Jordan Romano could keep this group somewhat afloat after the aforementioned departures of Hoffman/Estevez. The offense is a bit top-heavy, but they have enough to platoon some of their bottom-of-the-lineup bats and I think Max Kepler will be one of the best-value deals of the winter.
2. Atlanta Braves
Atlanta didn’t have much going for them this winter until they signed Jurickson Profar to a pretty cheap deal, bolstering their outfield and offense with a solid all-around hitter. When they break camp they won’t have the best roster in the NL East, but once they get Ronald Acuna Jr and Spencer Strider back, they’ll have a team that can go toe-to-toe with the Dodgers. I expect a lot of improvements up and down the offense; no one can convince me that Austin Riley, Sean Murphy, and Ozzie Albies will combine for only a 100 wRC+ and 39 HRs.
When they have their healthy lineup together, they’ll be near the top of the league in run-scoring, but that might not end up being their most stacked unit. Spencer Strider, Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach, and Reynaldo Lopez are all capable of making the All-Star team, and Grant Holmes isn’t the worst fifth starter in the world either. Maybe a healthy Hurston Waldrep shines in his second full season as a pro to anchor that pitching staff, as he could be either a starter or reliever for them in 2025.
1. Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series and proceeded to drop even more money to try and win their third title in seven years. Joining NL MVP Shohei Ohtani are 2023 NL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, NPB phenom Roki Sasaki, and star closer Tanner Scott to bolster a pitching staff that ran out of steam in the postseason. Teoscar Hernandez, Blake Treinen, and Clayton Kershaw are back in LA to try and go back-to-back, and minor additions like Michael Conforto and Hye-Seong Kim hope to round out this roster.
You can try and poke holes in this roster, but the Dodgers are as good as you can possibly be entering the season, and their wave of returning injured players make them even scarier. Shohei Ohtani is set to pitch again in 2025, and Tony Gonsolin aims to re-capture his pre-injury form this upcoming season as well. The Dodgers just have to stay somewhat healthy in order to cruise to another NL West title, and come October they’ll have the biggest target on their back.