Bold predictions for every MLB team in 2025: Blockbuster trades, surprise All-Stars, breakout seasons and more

The 2025 Major League Baseball regular season is upon us. Well, technically the regular season is already underway — the Cubs and Dodgers played the two-game Tokyo Series last week — but this Thursday, March 27, is the traditional Opening Day. Almost every team in the league will start their season that day. To mark the occasion, here is one bold prediction for all 30 teams heading into 2025. Some will be oddly specific and some will focus more on the big picture. Come with me, won’t you?      

Despite a sluggish start to 2024, Corbin Carroll led baseball with 14 triples last season. He led the league with 10 triples in 2023. No player has finished with 20 triples since Curtis Granderson (23) and Jimmy Rollins (20) had their 20-20-20-20 seasons in 2007. Heck, no player has had even 15 triples since Eddie Rosario in 2015. This year, I’m boldly predicting Carroll will join the 20-triple club. There have been 103 20-triple seasons in history (by 80 different players), though it’s been done only six times in the Expansion Era (since 1961). There are few things in this game as electrifying as Carroll motoring around the bases when he finds a gap or hooks a ball into the right field corner.

Some teams are bad and miserable. Last year’s Athletics won only 69 games, but they were a sneaky fun team, thanks largely to Lawrence Butler, Brent Rooker, and Mason Miller. The A’s also went 39-37 in their final 76 games despite a single ply-thin rotation. They spent a little money and added some arms this winter (Luis Severino and Jeffrey Springs, most notably), and the lineup has upside with Butler, Rooker, JJ Bleday, Zack Gelof, Tyler Soderstrom, and others. Do I think the Athletics will be a particularly good team in 2025, their first season in Sacramento? No, I do not. But I do think they’ll be more competitive than I think a lot of people expect. Competitive enough that when the calendar flips to July, the A’s will be sitting in a postseason spot. It has been foretold.

Atlanta Braves: Murphy will get Wally Pipped

The Braves will be without workhorse catcher Sean Murphy to begin the season after an errant pitch cracked a few ribs earlier this spring. That opens the door for Drake Baldwin, Atlanta’s top prospect, to start behind the plate. Baldwin hit .298/.407/.484 in Triple-A last year and has made strides with his glove. For this bold prediction, I’m saying Baldwin performs so well during Murphy’s absence that he remains maybe not the full-time starter when Murphy returns, but get the lion’s share of the playing time. He’s a left-handed hitter, so he’s on the heavy side of the platoon, and the fact of the matter is Murphy has hit .181/.294/.323 since the 2023 All-Star break. The Braves owe the veteran quite a bit of money, but they’re all-in on the World Series, and if Baldwin gives them a better chance to win, they’ll stick with him, or so I predict. Wally Pipp got hurt and lost his job to Lou Gehrig once upon a time. Murphy got hurt, opening the door for Baldwin to take over as the No. 1 backstop.

Baltimore Orioles: Kjerstad will get traded for a pitcher

I’m having a hard time seeing the plan with Heston Kjerstad, the No. 2 pick in 2020 draft. He turned 26 last month, he’s done all he’s needed to do in Triple-A, and yet he’s blocked every which way in the outfield (Colton Cowser, Ramón Laureano, Cedric Mullins, Tyler O’Neill) and at DH (Ryan O’Hearn, Gary Sánchez). Are the Orioles waiting until O’Hearn and Mullins (and Laureano) become free agents after the season to open a lineup spot for Kjerstad? That’s silly. GM Mike Elias doesn’t seem to like trading his top prospects (who does?), though it kind of feels like Kjerstad is more useful to the Orioles as a trade chip than as a bench guy. So, for this bold prediction, I say Elias will give in and trade Kjerstad for a starting pitcher this summer, specifically one with control beyond 2024. Who that is, I do not know, but there are a few guys in South Florida who would make sense.

Boston Red Sox: They’ll hit a grand slam on Opening Day

Did you know the Red Sox, a team with Rafael Devers and Jarren Duran and 31-homer man Tyler O’Neill, did not hit a single grand slam last year? Granted, their 109 plate appearances with the bases loaded were the sixth fewest in baseball, but still. You’d think a team with this much offensive talent would have run into one with the sacks full last year. Alas and alack, they did not. You know what that means, right? This has “the Red Sox hit a grand slam on Opening Day after hitting zero grand slams last year” written all over it. I’ll take it a step further and boldly predict they’ll hit a grand slam in their first plate appearance with the bases loaded of the new season. Alex Bregman in the fourth inning on Opening Day. It’ll happen.

Chicago Cubs: PCA will get an MVP vote

I’m not saying Pete Crow-Armstrong will win NL MVP, just that he’ll get at least one vote. Even just one measly tenth-place vote, which is still an MVP vote. There are questions about Crow-Armstrong’s bat and last year’s .286 on-percentage percentage and 88 OPS+ were both comfortably below average even for a center fielder. His glove is superlative though — he might be the best defensive player at any position in the sport — and he has enough juice to get 15 homers. Plus, there’s enough speed to steal 30 bases (27 last year). The batting line won’t be great, though Crow-Armstrong figures to be a WAR monster thanks to his defense, and there will be enough power and speed to be at least a nuisance at the bottom of the lineup. I could see him putting up a 5-WAR season and reeling in an MVP vote in an “Ezequiel Tovar got a ninth- and tenth-place MVP vote in 2024” kind of way.

Chicago White Sox: They won’t have the worst record in baseball

A low bar, I know, but this team lost a modern record 121 games in 2024, then they traded their best player (Garrett Crochet) and lost their best reliever to free agency (Michael Soroka). Their offseason additions were largely low-cost pickups who were good 2-3 years ago (Mike Clevinger, Brandon Drury, etc.). There is every reason to believe another long, loss-filled season is coming for the South Siders. This team will be bad. There is no arguing. My bold prediction says the White Sox will be bad, yes, but not the worst team in baseball. There’s a certain team in Florida, and maybe one that plays a mile above sea level, that I could see finishing below the ChiSox in the standings. We’re talking about going from 121 losses to, say, 108 losses, which ain’t good, though it will be enough to get the White Sox out of the league’s basement, I boldly predict.

Cincinnati Reds: De La Cruz will cut his strikeouts to 180

For my money, Elly De La Cruz is the most exciting player in the game. He is electric. At the plate, on the bases, in the field, everywhere. You can’t take your eyes off him. De La Cruz’s biggest flaw is that he strikes out a lot. His 218 strikeouts last season led baseball and were the fourth-highest single-season total in history. For this bold prediction, I’m going to say De La Cruz reins in the whiffs a bit this year, and cuts down to 180 strikeouts this year. Going from 218 strikeouts to 180 strikeouts is one fewer strikeout every four games or so. It’s not that much. De La Cruz struck out in 33.7% of his plate appearances in 2023. He trimmed that to 31.3% in 2024. Get it down to 27.0% or so in 2025, and that’s 180 strikeouts. Which is still a lot! But it would represent major progress. Experience level goes up, strikeouts go down. De La Cruz would hardly be the first to do it.

Remarkably, Cleveland has not had a full-time outfielder hit 20 home runs in a season since Michael Brantley back in 2014, when he hit exactly 20. Before him, the last to do it was Shin-Soo Choo with 22 homers in 2010. Naturally, after one (!) Guardians outfielder had a 20-homer season between 2011 and 2024, I will boldly predict two will do it this season. One will be Lane Thomas, who came over at the trade deadline last year and slugged 28 homers as recently as 2023. That’s the obvious one. The second 20-homer outfielder? I’ll go with Steven Kwan, who is most certainly not a power hitter. Kwan did do a better job ambushing inside fastballs last season, leading to a career-high 14 home runs in only 122 games around an oblique injury. That’s after Kwan hit 11 home runs total from 2022-23. I don’t think it’s that crazy to suggest Kwan will get to 20 homers with good health in 2025. This will be his age-27 season, an age at which lots of guys have career years.

Since joining the league in 1993, the Rockies have sent only eight pitchers to the All-Star Game, five fewer than any other team. That includes the Diamondbacks and Rays, who did not join the league until 1998. Colorado’s last All-Star pitcher was Germán Márquez in 2021. This year, Ryan Feltner will end that little drought and become the ninth Rockies pitcher selected to the Midsummer Classic. You’re forgiven if you do not know who Feltner is. He threw 162 ⅓ innings with a 4.49 ERA last season, and there are some promising things going on under the hood. Feltner is a personal favorite and I’m going to make him my bold prediction. Besides, have you seen the Rockies these days? Not a whole lot to get excited about there.

Detroit Tigers: Four pitchers will get five saves

Manager A.J. Hinch’s bullpen chaos led the Tigers to a postseason berth in 2024. The pitching chaos won’t continue to that extent in 2025 (or at least I don’t think it will), though Detroit’s bullpen roles are pretty wide open, and not in a bad way. The Tigers have a lot of quality late-inning relievers and they’re not married to one set closer. Because of that, I’m boldly predicting four different Tigers relievers will pick up at least five saves this season. That wouldn’t be unprecedented, just rare. Six teams have had four pitchers each save at least five games in a single season, most recently the 2022 Rays. Before them, it hadn’t been done since 1991. Surely Beau Brieske, Jason Foley, Tyler Holton, and Will Vest can each finish with five saves given Hinch’s bullpen usage, right? Heck, we could add Tommy Kahnle here too. The Tigers could have five relievers each save five games. That has never happened. I’ll stick with four five-save guys though, not five.

Houston Astros: Altuve will be a positive defender in left field

All signs point to Jose Altuve moving to left field on a full-time (or close to full-time) basis this year. His second-base defense has become a liability, and Minute Maid Park Daikin Park’s cozy left field is a good place to hide an inexperienced outfielder. Altuve’s inexperience definitely showed at times this spring, and that was to be expected. Regardless, the Astros seem committed to him there, and I’m boldly predicting he will be a net positive in left. Houston’s left fielders have posted a positive defensive runs saved total every year since 2017 even though the majority of those left field innings were played by Yordan Alvarez and late-career Michael Brantley, two great hitters and iffy defenders. My theory is the Crawford Boxes mess with defensive stats a bit and Astros’ left fielders get a boost, which will work to Altuve’s advantage this year. He’s finish in the black in defensive runs saved.

Kansas City Royals: Witt will not lead the Royals in HR

Bobby Witt Jr. is the closest thing to a perfect player in the game today. He could maybe stand to take a few more walks, otherwise he’s great at everything. Elite at everything, really. Witt led the Royals with 30 homers in 2023 and 32 homers in 2024, and I would not be completely surprised if he makes another leap and hits 40 homers in 2025. Despite that, I will boldly predict Witt will not lead the 2025 Royals in home runs. Not because he’ll have a down season. Hardly. I expect him to be firmly in the AL MVP mix. I’m just a big Vinnie Pasquantino fan and think he’ll have a full-fledged breakout this summer, swat 35 or so homers, and lead Kansas City by a small margin over Witt. So, really, this is not a Witt bold prediction. This is a Vinnie P. bold prediction. A full, healthy season and lots of dingers are on the way.

Los Angeles Angels: Trout will be a Gold Glove finalist

This is more of a hope than a prediction. Mike Trout is moving to right field this season and being a Gold Glove finalist would mean he stayed healthy most or all of the season, something he’s been unable to do the last few years. A variety of injuries have limited Trout to 266 of 648 regular season games the last four seasons, or 41%. That includes only 29 games last year due to meniscus surgeries (plural). Trout is only 33. It’s not like we’re talking about a 38- or 39-year-old player staying healthy for a full season. And, when he has been on the field, Trout has continued to perform exceptionally well. We haven’t seen a full 162-game season of Trout since 2019. I hope we get it in 2025. This bold prediction is an attempt to will it into existence.

Los Angeles Dodgers: Ohtani will steal no more than 15 bases

A year ago, the singular Shohei Ohtani became the first 50/50 player in baseball history. The first 54/59 player, to be precise. It was the most remarkable power/speed season in history. Prior to 2024, Ohtani averaged 20 steals per 162 games, and he’d never stolen more than 26 bases in a season. He was free from the workload of pitching and able to run wild last year. This year, I’m boldly predicting Ohtani will cut back on the stolen bases once he returns to pitching because folks, that’s a lot for one man. Stolen bases seem like a reasonable place to slow down in the name of self-preservation. Remember, Ohtani is coming off shoulder surgery for an injury he suffered stealing a base in Game 2 of the World Series, and he tweaked his sliding technique this spring to avoid a repeat. Bottom line, the Dodgers will trade Ohtani’s stolen bases for the most effective version of Ohtani the pitcher and hitter eight days a week and twice on Sundays. He’ll cut back on the steals to lighten the load on his body as he gets back on the mound.

Miami Marlins: Two players will steal 40 bases

I don’t think they have enough to lead the league in stolen bases, but the Marlins do have a few individual players with the potential to steal a lot of bases. Xavier Edwards swiped 31 bags in only 71 games last year. Otto Lopez stole 20 in 117 games. Javier Sanoja, a diminutive outfielder in line for more playing time with Jesús Sánchez injured, stole 37 bases in the minors as recently as 2023. If he makes it a priority, Connor Norby has the speed to steal 20 bases. This bold prediction says the Marlins will have two players steal 40 bases this year, Edwards and someone else. Maybe Otto, maybe Sanoja, maybe someone else, but they’ll have a second 40-steal player in addition to Edwards. The last team with two 40-steal players was the 2013 Brewers with Carlos Gómez (40) and Jean Segura (44). The Marlins will find a way to get there in 2025.

Since becoming a full-time player in 2014, Christian Yelich has hit 20 home runs in a season only three times: 21 in 2016, 36 in 2018, and 44 in 2019. He came close in 2017 (18) and 2023 (19), but only three 20-homer seasons in 11 seasons as a full-time player. (To be fair, one of those 11 was the 60-game pandemic season, when only Luke Voit reached 20 homers.) Now that his back is finally healthy following surgery, I boldly predict Yelich will clear 20 homers in 2025, and I’ll take it a step further and say he gets to 25 homers for only the third time in his career. Yelich looked great in spring training, including going deep three times in his first six games, and American Family Field in Milwaukee is an excellent home run park. Yelich was a deserving All-Star last season before requiring season-ending back surgery. It’s not like he forgot how to hit. With a healthy back, expect the power stroke to return.

Minnesota Twins: The Big Three will start 81 games together

Minnesota’s Big Three — Byron Buxton, Carlos Correa, and Royce Lewis — started only 26 games together last season. The Twins went only 12-14 in those 26 games (70-66 in the other 136 games), which I’ll chalk up to small sample-size weirdness and not Buxton, Correa, and Lewis being Bad, Actually. A team is at its best when its best players are on the field playing together and that simply has not happened often enough for the Twins the last few years. This season, I’m boldly predicting Minnesota’s Big Three will stay on the field long enough individually to start 81 games together (though we’re off to a bad start because of Lewis’ hamstring). A modest total, that is, but a major step up from 2024. And if the Big Three does indeed start 81 games together, the Twins should be very, very good.

New York Mets: Holmes will be an All-Star

Normally, predicting a player who went to the All-Star Game last year and twice in the last three years will be an All-Star again this year is anything but bold. Most recent two-time All-Stars don’t change positions though. Clay Holmes was an All-Star closer in 2022 and 2024. My bold prediction says he will be an All-Star starter in 2025. The Mets are moving Holmes back into the rotation (he last started a game in 2018) and he looked sharp enough (and the Mets got hurt enough) in spring training to earn the team’s Opening Day start. This prediction says Holmes will pitch well enough in his new role to earn his third All-Star Game selection in the last four years.

New York Yankees: Judge will be IBBed with the bases loaded

There were a few times the last few years when I thought it was going to happen, but it didn’t. Judge is the game’s best hitter — he’s hit an absurd .304/.433/.674 with 157 homers the last three years — and the lineup around him isn’t quite as fearsome as last year with Juan Soto in Queens and Giancarlo Stanton injured. At some point this summer, Judge will come up with the bases loaded in the late innings, and the opposing manager will put up four fingers. It’s bound to happen one of these days. There have been only eight recorded instances of an intentional walk with the bases loaded, mostly recently Corey Seager in 2022.

The Phillies have arguably the best rotation in baseball. If it’s not the best, it’s one of the two or three best. They also have arguably the best pitching prospect in baseball in Andrew Painter. If he’s not the best, he’s one of the two or three best. Painter is coming off Tommy John surgery and the Phillies slow played his rehab this spring. He did not appear in any games and won’t do so until a few weeks into the season. There are two reasons for this: one, to be cautious and make sure his rehab goes well and two, to make sure Painter is available to the Phillies late in the season and in the playoffs, and not up against an innings limit. The Phillies have a tremendous 1-2-3 with Zack Wheeler, Cristopher Sánchez, and Aaron Nola. You don’t have to see too hard (injury, ineffectiveness, etc.) to see Painter wiggling his way into a Game 4 start ahead of Jesús Luzardo and Ranger Suárez. I boldly predict it will happen. Painter in October. Mark your calendars.

For this bold prediction, I say Paul Skenes will strike out 300 batters this season. That in and of itself would not be a record. There have been 69 300-strikeout seasons in MLB history, most recently Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander with the 2019 Astros. The record Skenes will set is fewest innings in a 300-strikeout season. Here’s the leaderboard:

This bold prediction says Skenes will throw the fewest innings in a 300-strikeout season and not by a small margin either. I’ll even ratchet up the boldness here and say Skenes gets to 300 strikeouts in fewer than 200 innings. Calling it 199 ⅔ innings and 300 strikeouts on the nose, that’s a 13.5 K/9, which would be the second highest by a qualified starter in a non-pandemic season behind Cole’s 13.8 K/9 in 2019. It’s doable. Realistic? Nah, but that’s what makes this prediction bold.

St. Louis Cardinals: Arenado will be traded at the deadline

This one feels like a long shot because it is much harder to trade a significant contract at the deadline than in the offseason, before everyone spends up their payroll limit. Long shots are what bold predictions are all about though, right? We know the Cardinals want to trade Nolan Arenado and that Arenado wants out. Put those two things together and it feels like only a matter of time until he’s moved. It didn’t happen this offseason (it almost did) but it will at the deadline, we boldly predict. Where will Arenado land? I won’t be specific, though there’s a certain all-in NL East team with a core that’s starting to get older and wouldn’t have to try hard to find a way to make things work on the infield corners (by moving a certain outfielder-turned-first baseman back to the outfield). Point is, I’m predicting Arenado moves at the trade deadline rather than waiting until next offseason.

San Diego Padres: De Vries will make his MLB debut

Few general managers are willing to promote prospects as aggressively as A.J. Preller, and in shortstop Leo De Vries, the Padres have a standout and budding star. The biggest obstacle? He’ll play the entire 2025 regular season at age 18 and has yet to play above Low Class-A. De Vries is so talented and so impressive with a precocious understanding of the strike zone though, plus you don’t have to try too hard to see San Diego’s infield needing an upgrade at midseason. There has not been an 18-year-old player in the big leagues since Alex Rodriguez in 1994. This year, De Vries does it late in the season.

San Francisco Giants: Hicks will make more relief appearances than starts

Through the end of last May, Jordan Hicks’ transition into the rotation was going about as well as he and the Giants could have hoped. The wheels started to come off soon thereafter though. His performance slipped, he struggled to complete even five innings a start, and eventually he landed on the injured list with shoulder inflammation. Hicks showed enough early in the season to give starting another go in 2025, but the injury history and occasional control issues suggest starting for a full 162-game season will be a challenge. This bold prediction says the new Buster Posey-led front office will pull the plug on Hicks as a starter at midseason and put him in the bullpen, where he’ll quickly become a trusted late-inning option. On paper, the Giants have enough rotation depth (Kyle Harrison, Keaton Winn, etc.) to make the move, and the bullpen might be the best way to maximize Hicks.

Seattle Mariners: Raleigh will start 135 games at catcher

Part of what made Cal Raleigh’s 2024 season so impressive was the workload. He slugged 34 homers, he set new career highs in walks and on-base percentage, and he did it while playing Gold Glove-defense and leading all catchers with 1,122 innings caught. That is more than 124 nine-inning games. This year, the Mariners will ask even more of Raleigh, and make him the first catcher to start 135 games behind the plate since Yadier Molina in 2016. These days, even 120-start catchers are rare. Only 13 times since 2017 has a catcher started 120 games, and only five times since then has a catcher started 130 games. Raleigh is the top power-hitter at a position with a low offensive bar, and he’s also a Gold Glove winner and a workhorse. Few players are more valuable to their team than Raleigh is to the Mariners. As such, I boldly predict manager Dan Wilson, a former workhorse catcher himself, will lean on Raleigh this season more than any team has leaned on their catcher since peak Molina.

Tampa Bay Rays: They’ll set a franchise record for HR

It’s unclear if or when the Rays will return to Tropicana Field after it was damaged by Hurricane Milton, but we do know they will play their home games this season at George M. Steinbrenner Field. That is the spring-training home of the Yankees and it has the same dimensions as Yankee Stadium, meaning a short right field porch and generally cozier confines than the Trop. The Rays will take advantage of their new home and set a franchise record for home runs, I predict. The current record is the 230 homers they hit in 2023. That is a lot of homers (only three teams hit 230 homers in 2024) but not a truly outrageous amount. Lefties like Jonathan Aranda, Brandon Lowe, and Josh Lowe stand to benefit most from GMS Field’s short porch. Tampa’s pitchers won’t like the ballpark, but the team’s new home will allow the offense to hit more homers than any other season in (Devil) Rays history.

Texas Rangers: deGrom will get Cy Young votes

I was surprised to see Jacob deGrom received Cy Young votes as recently as 2021. He’s been hurt so often the last few years that, if you would have told me he hadn’t received any votes since last winning the award in 2019, I would’ve believed it. Anyway, deGrom returned from his second career Tommy John surgery late last season and looked very deGrom-like in three September starts. The power and precision were there. The Rangers have a plan in place to bring deGrom slowly and lighten his workload in an effort to keep him healthy all year. This bold prediction says that plan will work, and deGrom will make enough starts to get Cy Young votes. Maybe not win the award, but get votes. Remember, he made only 15 starts in 2021. They were so dominant that he got Cy Young votes anyway. Unlike most pitchers, this guy doesn’t need to make 32 starts to get Cy Young consideration. Twenty could do the trick.

Not with an extension before Opening Day, that ship has sailed, but, after the season, the Blue Jays will win the free-agent bidding war and re-sign Vladimir Guerrero Jr. I’m thinking 15 years and $600 million. Maybe there are deferrals that knock the present day value down, but that’s the real number. Star players in their mid-20s always get more than expected. Always. At this time last year, we were talking about Juan Soto maybe getting $500 million. Two years ago, it was Yoshinobu Yamamoto possibly cracking $200 million. The list of players I would take over Vlad Jr. the next five to seven years is very, very short, and frankly the Blue Jays cannot afford to lose him. All indications are Guerrero wants to stay, which of course is not the same thing as being open to a discount. I boldly predict Guerrero has a tremendous year, finishes top five in the AL MVP voting, shops around in the offseason, then ultimately returns to Toronto on a monster contract.

Washington Nationals: They will not use the No. 1 draft pick on a pitcher

The Nationals won the draft lottery in December and hold the No. 1 overall selection in July’s draft. The previous two times they held the No. 1 pick worked out pretty darn well (Stephen Strasburg in 2009 and Bryce Harper in 2010). These days, taking a pitcher with a high pick is somewhat frowned upon because there is so much inherent injury risk, but the tide is beginning to change thanks in part to Paul Skenes, and this year’s draft class is loaded with high-end arms. The smart money is on Washington taking a pitcher as the No. 1 pick, with Florida State’s Jamie Arnold the consensus best-in-class. We’re going to zig rather than zag here and boldly predict the Nationals will not take a prospect with the No. 1 pick this summer, and instead go with a hitter. Which hitter? Beats me, though Oklahoma high schooler Ethan Holliday (Matt’s son and Jackson’s brother) seems up GM Mike Rizzo’s alley. A quick-moving college pitcher (like Arnold) would fit what Washington needs so well. Instead, we’re saying they go for a bat.