2025 MLB Regular Season Discussion Thread

[PhutureDynasty]

Dodgers or the field is now a real question.

This Dodgers off-season feels similar to when Durant joined the Warriors.

[kobeunderbite]

You need his bat behind Soto.

We need "a" bat behind Soto, I don't know if we need Pete's. Pete has been trending in a bad direction for few years now and things generally don't improve for lumbering RHB 1B as they get older. His best is almost certainly behind him. The truth is that he dropped the ball big time, the Mets offered him something like a 7/158 extension the other year and he got greedy/delusional and turned it down. There is no way he's in prime Goldschmidt or Freeman's neighborhood and he wanted to be paid even more than them. Now the sobering reality that modern baseball doesn't value players of Pete's profile is sinking in and the Mets reportedly offered 3/70, and even that is generous when weighed with his projected fangraphs value. Now with that being said, yes, without Pete, the lineup needs more punch and there aren't really any strong FA fits otherwise. But that will not be enough to force Stearns into handing out a bad contract, he would sooner pour the excess funds into the bullpen, he recognizes that there is no one formula to win 90 games.

Teo gave the Dodgers a discount at $22m per year and Mets wants that with Pete. And he wants that $31m projected amount I think.

Forget a discount, no one is offering Pete $31m for more than 2-years max because no team is that stupid. The Mets want to pay Pete possibly even above his market rate and he's still delusional enough to hold out for 9-figures.

[kobeunderbite]

Dodgers or the field is now a real question.

This Dodgers off-season feels similar to when Durant joined the Warriors.

It's still baseball, not easy to repeat. Chances are no more than 3 of their big arms are healthy come playoff time and anything can happen then. With that being said, definitely the heavy favorites on paper.

[Odogg]

[lettherebehouse]

Nasty

[Odogg]

Tanner Scott to Dodgers?

[PhutureDynasty]

Tanner Scott to Dodgers?

4/72

[Odogg]

We need "a" bat behind Soto, I don't know if we need Pete's. Pete has been trending in a bad direction for few years now and things generally don't improve for lumbering RHB 1B as they get older. His best is almost certainly behind him. The truth is that he dropped the ball big time, the Mets offered him something like a 7/158 extension the other year and he got greedy/delusional and turned it down. There is no way he's in prime Goldschmidt or Freeman's neighborhood and he wanted to be paid even more than them. Now the sobering reality that modern baseball doesn't value players of Pete's profile is sinking in and the Mets reportedly offered 3/70, and even that is generous when weighed with his projected fangraphs value. Now with that being said, yes, without Pete, the lineup needs more punch and there aren't really any strong FA fits otherwise. But that will not be enough to force Stearns into handing out a bad contract, he would sooner pour the excess funds into the bullpen, he recognizes that there is no one formula to win 90 games.

Teo gave the Dodgers a discount at $22m per year and Mets wants that with Pete. And he wants that $31m projected amount I think.

Forget a discount, no one is offering Pete $31m for more than 2-years max because no team is that stupid. The Mets want to pay Pete possibly even above his market rate and he's still delusional enough to hold out for 9-figures.

Mets holding out for Vlad next year? Pete may be screwed. Maybe a one year prove it deal at the $31m?

[kobeunderbite]

Teo gave the Dodgers a discount at $22m per year and Mets wants that with Pete. And he wants that $31m projected amount I think.

Forget a discount, no one is offering Pete $31m for more than 2-years max because no team is that stupid. The Mets want to pay Pete possibly even above his market rate and he's still delusional enough to hold out for 9-figures.

Mets holding out for Vlad next year? Pete may be screwed. Maybe a one year prove it deal at the $31m?

Mets would be all over a 1-year but Pete/Boras are still delusional. I seriously doubt Pete can even beat the Mets 3/$70 offer from any other team at this point.

[lettherebehouse]

And the Jays having another AWFUL offseason.

Oh wait what’s that little ray of sunshine peakin thru?

[_Vcsgrizzfan_]

And the Jays having another AWFUL offseason.

Oh wait what’s that little ray of sunshine peakin thru?

Now if we can extend Vladdy before the end of spring training, it might not be so bad. But boy of boy, what a lot of disappointments. Apparently close but no cigar of virtually every big name, including Burnes and Sasaki. I always did think Soto was a waste of time to chase, but that was another one.

[kobeunderbite]

Tony Taters has to be one of the gayest nicknames of all-time

[PhutureDynasty]

Hearing the Braves just signed Profar.

[Odogg]

Hearing the Braves just signed Profar.

They did indeed, Padres nightmare offseason continues.

[Odogg]

Dodgers sign Kirby Yates.

[Odogg]

We will trade you Brasier for a bag of chips KUB.

[kobeunderbite]

We will trade you Brasier for a bag of chips KUB.

Honestly could use another lefty but otherwise feeling decent about the pen

[kobeunderbite]

This team improved the most this winter ... and it’s not the Dodgers

The Dodgers have had the "best" offseason of any team, full stop. It would be naive to try to convince anyone to the contrary.

Not only did they add plenty of talent to their roster, they’ve also benefited their franchise in ways on and off the field that could continue to be a windfall for them for years to come – as well as upending the entire conversation around what may or may not be “good for the sport.”

We know that. And yet: The Dodgers didn't add the most talent to their 2025 roster of any team. Instead, the Mets did. It may not be the same thing as “won the winter,” or “had the best offseason.” It’s also not that hard to argue – with, of course, a caveat.

Let’s go back to Nov. 9, the beginning of the offseason. We ranked all 30 teams based on where their projected 2025 rosters started the winter, accounting for the fact that unsigned free agents were no longer part of the picture – Juan Soto wasn’t a Yankee, Walker Buehler wasn’t a Dodger, Corbin Burnes wasn't an Oriole, and so on.

At the time, the 2025 Mets roster was ranked merely No. 19, despite the '24 club having reached the NLCS, because in addition to the obvious drama around whether Pete Alonso would stay, New York had a total of 14 unsigned free agents, including much of its starting rotation. This team had a lot of work to do just to tread water.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, were unsurprisingly ranked No. 1, though in a virtual tie with the Braves. Remember, while the Dodgers had won at least 100 games in each of the previous four full seasons, they won "only" 98 in a very-good-but-not-really-historically-elite season. (In fact, it was the first time in a decade that no team won 100 games in a full season.) After that, Los Angeles saw plenty of its own talent enter free agency, including Buehler, Teoscar Hernández, Jack Flaherty, Enrique Hernández, Blake Treinen, Daniel Hudson and Clayton Kershaw. (Plus, long-time stars like Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and Max Muncy aren’t exactly getting younger, which matters.) They needed to get better, and they did.

Since we know what the 2025 projections looked like in November, before anyone signed, and we know what they look like now, after most of the free agents have signed, what we can do is compare the two. By looking at the difference between each team’s 2025 current projected WAR totals now as compared to then, as we laid out here, we can see by how much each team improved its 2025 outlook over the last few months.

(If this sounds familiar, we did this exactly one year ago, showing that the Yankees, for all the angst over what they didn’t do in failing to land Shohei Ohtani or Yoshinobu Yamamoto, did actually improve their roster more than anyone in the American League. Lest this open up the door to wondering about New York bias: Do remember that the Yankees did, in fact, reach the World Series last year.)

When we do that, we can see that across the Majors, teams have added an average of 2.2 WAR this winter. It’s not zero, and shouldn’t be, because dozens of free agents weren’t on teams in November, and now they are. Four teams (Marlins, Guardians, White Sox, Royals) lost at least 1 WAR in 2025 projections based on how their winters went. A number of teams held steady, or gained a win or two.

[Odogg]

We will trade you Brasier for a bag of chips KUB.

Honestly could use another lefty but otherwise feeling decent about the pen

Looks like Cubs won the Brasier sweepstakes ha.

[Odogg]

This team improved the most this winter ... and it’s not the Dodgers

The Dodgers have had the "best" offseason of any team, full stop. It would be naive to try to convince anyone to the contrary.

Not only did they add plenty of talent to their roster, they’ve also benefited their franchise in ways on and off the field that could continue to be a windfall for them for years to come – as well as upending the entire conversation around what may or may not be “good for the sport.”

We know that. And yet: The Dodgers didn't add the most talent to their 2025 roster of any team. Instead, the Mets did. It may not be the same thing as “won the winter,” or “had the best offseason.” It’s also not that hard to argue – with, of course, a caveat.

Let’s go back to Nov. 9, the beginning of the offseason. We ranked all 30 teams based on where their projected 2025 rosters started the winter, accounting for the fact that unsigned free agents were no longer part of the picture – Juan Soto wasn’t a Yankee, Walker Buehler wasn’t a Dodger, Corbin Burnes wasn't an Oriole, and so on.

At the time, the 2025 Mets roster was ranked merely No. 19, despite the '24 club having reached the NLCS, because in addition to the obvious drama around whether Pete Alonso would stay, New York had a total of 14 unsigned free agents, including much of its starting rotation. This team had a lot of work to do just to tread water.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, were unsurprisingly ranked No. 1, though in a virtual tie with the Braves. Remember, while the Dodgers had won at least 100 games in each of the previous four full seasons, they won "only" 98 in a very-good-but-not-really-historically-elite season. (In fact, it was the first time in a decade that no team won 100 games in a full season.) After that, Los Angeles saw plenty of its own talent enter free agency, including Buehler, Teoscar Hernández, Jack Flaherty, Enrique Hernández, Blake Treinen, Daniel Hudson and Clayton Kershaw. (Plus, long-time stars like Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and Max Muncy aren’t exactly getting younger, which matters.) They needed to get better, and they did.

Since we know what the 2025 projections looked like in November, before anyone signed, and we know what they look like now, after most of the free agents have signed, what we can do is compare the two. By looking at the difference between each team’s 2025 current projected WAR totals now as compared to then, as we laid out here, we can see by how much each team improved its 2025 outlook over the last few months.

(If this sounds familiar, we did this exactly one year ago, showing that the Yankees, for all the angst over what they didn’t do in failing to land Shohei Ohtani or Yoshinobu Yamamoto, did actually improve their roster more than anyone in the American League. Lest this open up the door to wondering about New York bias: Do remember that the Yankees did, in fact, reach the World Series last year.)

When we do that, we can see that across the Majors, teams have added an average of 2.2 WAR this winter. It’s not zero, and shouldn’t be, because dozens of free agents weren’t on teams in November, and now they are. Four teams (Marlins, Guardians, White Sox, Royals) lost at least 1 WAR in 2025 projections based on how their winters went. A number of teams held steady, or gained a win or two.

Needz moar Pete.