Just Baseball’s Predictions for the 2025 MLB Season

I spent the last few days bugging my fellow Just Baseball staff members to fill out a poll with their predictions for the 2025 MLB season. I asked members of our brand new Just Baseball Discord to fill it out, too.

My pestering worked, and I woke up this morning to dozens of responses filled with predictions for 2025. Let’s dive right in.

Playoff Field Predictions

NL East

• Staff Consensus: Atlanta Braves
• Community Consensus: Atlanta Braves

An even number of Just Baseball staffers picked the Braves and Phillies to win the NL East. However, I’m giving Atlanta the tiebreaker for two reasons.

First, the Braves were the overwhelming winner of our community poll. Second, the only JB staffer who didn’t pick either the Phillies or Braves to win the NL East predicted the Braves would finish second to the Mets. I promised I wouldn’t name names, but let’s say it’s not surprising this particular managing editor has a Mets bias.

Also, shoutout to the lone community member who thinks the Nationals will win the NL East. Your brazen confidence is inspiring.

NL Central

• Staff Consensus: Chicago Cubs
• Community Consensus: Milwaukee Brewers

The NL Central is the only division in either league where our staff and community predictions differ. With that said, the truth is that both teams got plenty of votes from staffers and community members alike.

What’s even more interesting to me is that the Reds received a handful of votes in both polls, as well as a good deal of support in the NL Wild Card race (more on that momentarily). They’re going to be a dark horse worth watching this year.

NL West

• Staff Consensus: Los Angeles Dodgers
• Community Consensus: Los Angeles Dodgers

No surprises here. The powerhouse Dodgers are the reigning World Series champions and the obvious favorites in the NL West. Only one respondent in this exercise predicted a different division winner (the Diamondbacks). I’m skeptical, but it sure would be fun if the D-backs could make this race more interesting.

NL Wild Card

• Staff Consensus: Arizona Diamondbacks, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets
• Community Consensus: Arizona Diamondbacks, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets

This one gets a little confusing. The Diamondbacks received far more votes than any other team in this category, but of course, that’s largely because their chances of winning their division are so low.

Ultimately, however, what matters is that the majority of our staff and community see the Diamondbacks, Phillies, and Mets as postseason teams.

Other teams to get votes from our staff include the Braves, Dodgers, Brewers, and Cubs, as well as the Padres and Reds. Community members showed support for all of those teams, as well as the Giants (2 votes as the third Wild Card team) and Cardinals (1 vote as the third Wild Card team).

AL East

• Staff Consensus: Boston Red Sox
• Community Consensus: Boston Red Sox

The Red Sox were the overwhelming favorite within the Just Baseball community, with 80% of respondents picking them to win the AL East. Not quite as many of our staffers are sold on the upgrades Boston made this winter, but they still earned more votes from our staff than either the Yankees or the Orioles.

AL Central

• Staff Consensus: Cleveland Guardians
• Community Consensus: Cleveland Guardians

The Guardians edged out the Twins by just one vote in our staff poll and two votes in our community poll.

The AL Central is the only division where four different teams earned multiple votes in both polls. While the Guardians and Twins are the favorites, the Tigers and Royals have real shots, too.

To the surprise of no one, the White Sox did not receive any votes.

AL West

• Staff Consensus: Texas Rangers
• Community Consensus: Texas Rangers

I’m surprised by how handily the Rangers came out on top in both our staff and community prediction polls. More than two-thirds of our staffers have the Rangers toppling the Astros in the AL West. Their margin of victory was a little smaller in our community poll, but it still wasn’t close.

Only one staff member has the Mariners winning the AL West (spoiler alert: it was me). Meanwhile, the Mariners and Athletics each earned one selection in the community poll.

AL Wild Card

• Staff Consensus: Houston Astros, New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles
• Community Consensus: New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, Houston Astros

Don’t pay too much attention to the order of the Wild Card teams. The fact that the Astros got the most votes among our staff (and the fewest of the top three among our community) is just because Houston received more division votes from our community, while New York and Baltimore received more division votes from our staff.

What matters is that, just like in the NL, the majority of our staff and community seem to agree that the Astros, Yankees, and Orioles will end up in the playoff field.

Pennant and World Series Predictions

NL Champion

• Staff Consensus: Los Angeles Dodgers
• Community Consensus: Los Angeles Dodgers

It’s no surprise that the Dodgers earned the plurality of votes from both our staff and community. Yet, it wasn’t as much of a landslide as I expected. A handful of our staffers picked the Braves and Phillies, while the Mets and D-backs each got one selection apiece.

Meanwhile, the Padres, Brewers, and Reds were each named by one of our community respondents.

AL Champion

• Staff Consensus: Texas Rangers
• Community Consensus: Boston Red Sox

The Rangers and Red Sox tied in our staff poll, but I’m awarding the tiebreaker to the Rangers. Why? Three staffers did not pick either Texas or Boston to win the AL pennant. Of those three, all of them had the Rangers finishing ahead of the Red Sox in the regular season.

The results were more varied in our community poll, but the Red Sox earned the plurality of selections. The Rangers came in second, but the Astros were close behind. The Guardians, Tigers, and Orioles also received votes.

World Series Winner

• Staff Consensus: Los Angeles Dodgers
• Community Consensus: Los Angeles Dodgers

When I was filling out my predictions, I felt boring picking the Dodgers to win it all, but I just didn’t think I could responsibly pick any other team. That’s not because I think another Dodgers championship is inevitable – far from it – but, at least on paper, they’re just that much better than every other team.

So, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Dodgers received fewer than 50% of the votes in both our staff and community polls.

Interestingly, the vast majority of our staff members predicted an NL club would win the World Series. Among AL clubs, only the Rangers and Red Sox received votes (two apiece).

NL teams also earned more support from our community, although not to the same extent. In all, our community members named 10 different teams as World Series winners, including the Dodgers, Red Sox, Phillies, Braves, Rangers, Diamondbacks, Tigers, Brewers, Mets, and Reds.

Award Predictions