Sure, two games of the 2,430 scheduled games have already been played for the 2025 Major League Baseball season, with the Dodgers taking both games against the Cubs in Tokyo. Everything else is still to come, though, and MLB is sticking with the Opening Day branding for Thursday, March 27. That means we’ll just pretend the season hasn’t actually started. It’s now time to get to the predictions.
As is always the case, there will be surprises and, unfortunately, some predictable things will happen. Having unpredictable occurrences unfold during the course of our marathon season is part of the fun. If everything were as obvious as the White Sox finishing last in the AL Central, we wouldn’t bother watching.
Here at CBS Sports, our MLB staff has put together our 2025 season predictions. Here are our individual attempts to nail it down for the standings in each of the six divisions. We’ll hit on the postseason predictions Tuesday and player awards on Wednesday. Then it’s Opening Day. Let’s have some fun.
American League predictions
R.J. Anderson: I’m higher on the Red Sox than the forecast models, though I am hedging a little here because of the uncertainty surrounding Garrett Crochet (health) and Walker Buehler (performance). I feel most confident in the Orioles, so they get the top slot. You could tell me that basically any combination of these teams make the playoffs and it wouldn’t surprise me.
Mike Axisa: Any margin of error the Yankees had coming into 2025 is gone now that they’ve lost Gerrit Cole for the year, Luis Gil for at least two months, and Giancarlo Stanton for who knows how long. Depth wins division titles and they’re already at the limit of theirs. The Red Sox are the division’s most improved team thanks to Garrett Crochet and Alex Bregman, and I love their offense. They have contact, they have power, they have speed. And also an excellent farm system they can use to upscale their roster (through call ups and trades) in a way the Yankees and Orioles can’t. Someone has to finish in last place and that’s the Blue Jays for me, though I expect them to be better this year. I could see all five AL East teams finishing at least .500.
Kate Feldman: I liked the Yankees’ offseason. I really did. (At least as far as offseasons where you lose Juan Soto can go.) But they needed to do more. Max Fried was a good pickup but all of a sudden he needs to be an ace with Gerrit Cole out for the year. They still don’t have a third baseman. Are we supposed to think Aaron Judge can just carry an entire offense again? The Red Sox opened the winter by trading for Garrett Crochet and finished it by signing Alex Bregman. It just feels like a better team (riveting analysis, I know). The Orioles are good but GM Mike Elias just won’t take them over the hump and the Rays always find a way. Are the Blue Jays going to trade Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at the deadline after failing to reach a contract extension? Maybe!
Dayn Perry: I’ll be honest, I don’t know what to do with this division. I think the Jays, while they aren’t necessarily a bad team, are the weakest in the division. The other four I could put in any order with some level of justification. I think the Red Sox have the most balanced roster and increasing levels of upside as the impressive young talent trickles in. I don’t feel strongly about this pick, though. If the O’s had done anything more to address the rotation, they’d be my easy pick here.
Matt Snyder: I think this is the strongest division in baseball, top to bottom. I thought my Red Sox pick would be an outlier, but instead several of us agree. I really like the look of their roster and they always seem to play above their heads anyway. The Orioles and Yankees are also decent bets to win the division, though the Gerrit Cole injury really sours me on the latter.
Anderson: Again, another division where the top four is tough to discern. The Twins have the widest error bars, particularly as it relates to health. I have them winning the Central, but they could just as easily finish third or fourth, depending on the availability of their best players. I do agree that the White Sox feel like the only team “locked” into their spot here, with the other clubs being neck and neck.
Axisa: As long as the White Sox are at the bottom, I think you could put the other four teams in any order and defend it. This division will come down to which team stays healthiest. I don’t love Cleveland’s rotation depth or lineup — trading Josh Naylor’s bat for Carlos Santana’s glove doesn’t make sense to me — and I wish the Tigers had done more to address their pitching. The Guards and Tigers are right there with the Twins and Royals though. Royce Lewis is already hurt, so putting Minnesota first after saying the division will come down to the team that stays healthiest is kinda silly, but I think it’s the highest upside roster in the division.
Feldman: The Tigers proooooobably aren’t actually as good as they were down the stretch last season, but…what if they are? Or what if they’re close to that good? Nobody is going to run away with this division and nobody particularly did anything over the winter. Why can’t it be Detroit’s turn? The Twins can’t stay healthy, there’s no way the Guardians’ bullpen is going to be that great again and the Royals have Bobby Witt Jr. but that can’t be it. I won’t write about the White Sox. You can’t make me.
Perry: Again, I can squint my way to almost any non-White Sox outcome here. I think the Tigers are a nice blend of star power (Tarik Skubal and Riley Greene) and young upside (especially since Jackson Jobe has cracked the rotation). I also like the Gleyber Torres signing, and Alex Cobb when healthy gives them some rotation depth.
Snyder: With regard to the Twins and Guardians, here are the things that I trust: 1. The Twins will have injuries that impact them greater than any team here (it’s already started with Royce Lewis) and 2. The Guardians always seem to be better than they look on paper. I like the Royals a lot and think they are ready to win their first division title since 2015 (did anything cool happen that season?). The Tigers absolutely have a chance to win the division, but I see some backslide coming. Just some. Not a lot. I also don’t think the White Sox are going to have nearly as bad a season. Sure, they’re still gonna finish in last, but they won’t get beat up on to the extent that this division gets multiple wild cards again.
Anderson: As with the other AL divisions, I wouldn’t be shocked by any of the top three prevailing. I think Seattle’s offense is due for positive regression. I also have fewer concerns about the Mariners’ best players staying healthy than with the Rangers. The Astros still look like a solid team on paper to me, but there’s more downside risk than usual with that bunch.
Axisa: There hasn’t been a division winner with fewer than 87 wins since the 84-win Dodgers won the 2008 NL West, and I think there’s a chance the AL West does it this year. The Alex Bregman departure and Kyle Tucker trade give the Astros a lower ceiling and a lower floor, and also a lower payroll, which seems to have been a priority. Still, I’m not going to bet against them, especially with Texas already having pitching injuries. The Mariners seems incapable of seizing the moment and good grief, what a disappointing offseason. I kinda sorta like the A’s. They could be fun. Mostly, I don’t want to pick the division to finish in the exact same order as last year, so I’ll flip the Mariners and A’s.
Feldman: The reign of the Astros is over. I’m calling it. That leaves the AL West pretty wide open, but I think the Rangers have the best shot to get back to their peak (remember when they won the World Series two seasons ago?). Corey Seager and Marcus Semien still have it and I’m high on Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but Jacob deGrom could win the Cy Young if he just stays healthy. Mariners barely woke up this winter (sorry, Donovan Solano) and while the Angels and Athletics may have improved, it wasn’t by enough to matter.
Perry: The Mariners yet again mailed in the offseason, which is to the discredit of ownership and lead decision-maker Jerry Dipoto. However, the deep and imposing rotation is a difference-maker in this balanced division. I’m also betting on a big year from Julio Rodríguez. Is Cal Raleigh the most underrated player in baseball right now? That’s a plausible question to ask. No team in this division gets to 90 wins.
Snyder: I’m all over the Rangers this season. Their offense had nearly everything that could possibly go wrong happen last season and there’s better personnel in a few spots this year. The rotation has a few pitchers who need to bounce back from major surgery, but there’s depth. I still don’t like the Mariners’ offense enough to ride with them and the Astros are gonna have to prove they aren’t a playoff team before I truly write them out of the postseason.
American League wild-card teams
National League predictions
Anderson: Once more, this is a coin flip at the top between the Braves and the Phillies. I just feel a little better about those teams at the onset of the season than I do about the Mets — mostly with respect to their rotations, though it’s quite possible (if not probable) that the Mets get things sorted out by midseason. The Nationals feel like a lock to finish fourth.
Axisa: The Phillies have the division’s best rotation (by a lot, I think) and the healthiest lineup heading into the season, so I have them atop the division. Spencer Strider’s spring debut was eye-opening. He was electric. If he comes back from his UCL surgery with minimal rust/performance decline, that’s a game-changer and potentially a division race changer. I really want to see the Nationals take a step forward this year. It’s time. The Marlins? Well, when the most interesting thing about the team is figuring out where they’re going to trade their best player, they’re in a bad place to be.
Feldman: The Mets are already having rotation injury problems. The Mets are relying a lot on Mark Vientos actually being a breakout star. The Mets have no idea what to expect from Edwin Díaz any given year. But I’ve learned better than to doubt Juan Soto. The Phillies are still great but they’re getting older and one of these years employing that many power-only sluggers is going to catch up with them. That leaves the Braves, who need to bide some time before Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuña Jr. are back but who are entirely capable of doing so. The Nationals should have spent more over the winter to subsidize their young, possibly great core and the Marlins are, well, they’re in this division too.
Perry: The Phillies have an aging roster, but they’re primed for one more run. The trade for Jesús Luzardo deepens an already impressive rotation. The Braves will be healthier in 2025 — how could they not be — but they still have question marks, particularly when it comes to the rotation. Much depends upon having a healthy and vintage Spencer Strider.
Snyder: I’ve got the Phillies and Braves neck-and-neck with the Mets a clear No. 3 among the three playoff contenders here. I could squint my way to the Nats getting into contention, too. I think the separation between the Phillies and Braves before we get to the Mets is in the rotation. I know David Stearns likes to go cheap with his rotation and get the most out of those more cost-efficient arms, but it’s the wrong division this time around. Similar to the Rangers, I think the Braves’ offense had so much go wrong last year and there will be some correction. That gives them the edge.
Anderson: Clearly I’m dumb enough to again doubt the Brewers. I think they’re much closer to the Cubs than the projection models say, if that’s worth anything to the Milwaukee residents reading along. Frankly, I struggled with the third- through fifth-place rankings here. The Reds and Pirates would seem to have more upside and momentum going for them, but the upshot of the Cardinals’ inactive winter is that they have most of an 83-win team back. That could help them have a surprisingly good year.
Axisa: You’d think I would have learned to stop betting against the Brewers by now, but nope. Consider this a good omen, Brewers fans. I like the Cubs more on paper, especially now that they have a bona fide star in Kyle Tucker. He’s the kind of player who can change the balance of power in a division race. The Cardinals are in a weird place. POBO John Mozeliak said they’re entering a “reset,” then they did nothing in the offseason, yet I can still see a path to 89-ish wins and a postseason berth just by being a league-average team with runners in scoring position rather than one of the league’s worst. The Pirates should be ashamed of the offseason they had. They’ve been given a top 2-3 starter making the league minimum, and their big offensive addition was Spencer Horwitz. Those fans deserve better.
Feldman: Even as I’m typing this, I’m not convinced of those top two, which makes this fun. The Cubs had a good offseason, primarily for adding Kyle Tucker, while the Brewers’ most notable move was shipping off Devin Williams. Is that enough to reverse their standings? Check back in September. The Pirates did next to nothing to supplement their stellar rotation and the Reds should benefit from better health but it’s a lot of mediocrity at the bottom of the division. The Cardinals’ are-we-still-supposed-to-call-it-a-reset was supposed to be led by trading Nolan Arenado. Oops.
Perry: The Cubs should be solid favorites in this division. This, though, is mostly a reflection of the surrounding mediocrity. Chicago profiles as the best team in the NL Central, especially with Kyle Tucker on board, but ownership continues to refuse to press their massive revenue advantage over the rest of the division. As such, it’s still going to be a competitive circuit.
Snyder: This is going to be the closest division, 1-5, in all of baseball. I wouldn’t be surprised if my predicted standings end up reverse from the final finish. It’s that close. I have the Cubs here by a nose, but I’m not confident. It would be foolish at this point to bet against the Brewers, which is why they found their way to second. I like the Reds’ potential to be much better and the Pirates could move the needle with great pitching (though the Jared Jones injury is worrisome). And on the Cardinals, who knows? They have the talent to win the division and I still have them last.
Anderson: No real surprise at the top here. I went back and forth on the Padres and Diamondbacks. In the end, I landed on the Padres second. I don’t think this is the Rockies’ year.
Axisa: I would pick the D-backs to win three of the other five divisions. I don’t expect them to be the game’s highest scoring offense again, but they have power (even without Christian Walker) and speed (lots of it), and Corbin Burnes improves an already strong rotation. Arizona is stuck in the wrong division. The Dodgers are the class of baseball right now. The Padres lost a lot of depth over the winter and didn’t really replace it. It’s a shame ownership has pulled back on spending following Peter Seidler’s death. The fan base is energized and they’re a few small moves away from World Series contention, not several nine-figure players. Alas. The Giants seem destined to finish in the 77-81 win range for the fifth time in the last six 162-game seasons.
Feldman: You know how we’re always supposed to take the field against any one team for World Series odds? I’m not even sure that’s true for the Dodgers at this point. Everything else is a race to come in second place behind them and hope for a wild-card spot.
Perry: This is a tough division, but there’s simply no competing with the Dodgers right now. Are the D-backs the second-best team in the NL? It’s a fair question. The Padres have a real shot at returning to the playoffs, but right now the assumption is that ownership forces a damaging trade of either Dylan Cease or Michael King.
Snyder: There is nothing in baseball in 2025 of which I’m more certain than the Dodgers winning the NL West. I still love the D-backs and think there’s a chance the Padres or even the Giants could be formidable playoff teams, but the Dodgers are 100% winning this division. I just can’t envision any realistic scenario where it doesn’t happen.
National League wild-card teams
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