The Tremendous Bowl is now greater than every week within the rear view mirror and, for Eagles followers like myself, I’m nonetheless not achieved re-watching the highlights of their beatdown of the Chiefs. Not even shut.
However this week, full squad spring coaching exercises started round Main League Baseball, and Grapefruit and Cactus League video games start as quickly as this weekend. Sure, associates, it’s formally baseball season and there may be tons to debate.
Listed here are my prime 10 storylines as gamers filter into camp and the pretend video games get underway!
Simply How Good Will the Dodgers Be?
Final yr’s Dodgers squad? Boy, what a bunch of underachievers. All they did was win an NL-best 98 video games and their first World Collection because the pandemic-shortened season of 2020, and first full-season title since 1988.
Clearly motivated by their galling lack of ability to win 100+ video games or outpace the 93-win Padres by not less than 15 video games within the NL West, L.A. this low season determined to easily purchase the whole lot accessible not named Juan Soto. They received the Roki Sasaki derby, signed outfielder Teoscar Hernandez, Blake Treinin and two-time Cy Younger Award winner Blake Snell, in addition to relievers Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates, giving them a SuperTeam that’s the overwhelming favourite to take house one other World Collection trophy. Oh, and Shohei Ohtani is more likely to return to the mound, too.
The final crew to repeat as World Collection champions are the 2000 New York Yankees, achieved 1 / 4 century in the past. So certain, the Dodgers are completely loaded. They received the low season and seem to haven’t any weaknesses. But when historical past is our information, it doesn’t matter if L.A. breaks Seattle’s single-season win document (116) or in the event that they win the NL West by 25 video games. As soon as the postseason match will get underway, all an opponent has to do is work out a option to win three of 5 or 4 out seven to finish the Dodgers’ desires of repeating.
Nonetheless, it must be a runaway common season for Los Angeles.
Bryce Harper’s Elusive First Title
This shall be Harper’s seventh season in Phillies’ pinstripes. Now 32 years previous, he’s nonetheless an elite bat and has was a Gold Glove caliber first baseman, however has but to win a World Collection in what seems to be a Corridor of Fame profession. He and the Phillies received actually shut in 2022, falling two wins brief towards the Houston Astros. With every successive yr, Philadelphia has fallen one step shorter.
The franchise ought to have received a title in some unspecified time in the future throughout Harper’s six-year run, so getting into yr No. 7, the stress to take action has by no means been better. Not solely that, the whole core is growing old.
Zack Wheeler is 35, J.T. Realmuto is 34, Nick Castellanos is 33, and Aaron Nola, Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber are all 32. The entrance workplace hopes minor leaguers Andrew Painter, Aiden Miller, Moises Chace and Justin Crawford, all top-100 prospects, will assist prop the window of competition open as these gamers age, however there isn’t any assure of that. One can’t assist however really feel the 2025 season could also be this specific core’s final, greatest shot to lastly convey house the Phils’ first World Collection title in 17 years.
There isn’t any crew in baseball beneath extra stress to win the World Collection than this Phillies crew.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr’s Future
One of many prizes of subsequent yr’s free agent class seems to be Toronto’s Vladimir Guerreror, Jr., the Blue Jays’ slugging first baseman, who could also be enjoying his closing season within the Nice White North.
There had been hypothesis that Vlad may fit out a contract extension this spring to stick with the Jays, however at a information convention on Tuesday, Guerrero stated he and Toronto had been “by no means shut” on an extension.
“I wish to be a Blue Jay for the remainder of my profession. But it surely’s free company. It’s enterprise. I’m going to need to take heed to 29 extra groups and so they’re going to need to compete.”
Which makes the 2025 season an all-or-nothing endeavor for the Blue Jays, too. They signed Anthony Sanander to an enormous free agent deal over the winter, inked Max Scherzer, and return a stable core of Bo Bichette, catcher Alejandro Kirk, whiz defenders Ernie Clement and Daulton Varsho, and a rotation fronted by Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios and Chris Bassitt, to not point out touchdown the very best right-handed reliever in the marketplace in Jeff Hoffman.
It’s arduous to select them over the Yankees and maybe the Crimson Sox within the AL East, however for Toronto, it’s now or by no means with Vlad.
Juan Soto, Meet the Mets
If there was ever a doubt how impactful one participant could possibly be to a crew, one ought to look no farther than the affect Soto had on the Yankees final season. They might not have superior to the World Collection with out him. He’s a generational offensive star, a sure-fire Corridor of Famer, and this yr he’ll start the primary of a 15-year, $765 million contract throughout city in Flushing for the Mets, who’re looking for their first World Collection title since Mookie Wilson knocked a dribbler by way of Invoice Buckner’s legs in 1986.
New York is coming off a shock postseason run that landed them within the Nationwide League Championship Collection, and rode that wave of momentum to a ridiculously busy low season. By re-signing Pete Alonso, Jesse Winker and Sean Manaea, proprietor Steve Cohen stored most of final season’s roster intact. Bullpen additions Clay Holmes, A.J. Minter and Ryne Stanek had been sensible additions, and the Mets’ pitching brains are hoping to repair Frankie Montas the best way they remade Luis Severino and Montas a season in the past.
However these additions pale compared to touchdown the winter’s largest fish in Soto, a haul they hope will assist them overtake the Phillies and Braves within the common season in 2025.
Yankees Life With out Soto
In the meantime within the Bronx, the Yankees moved on from their divorce from Soto simply superb, spreading his cash across the roster.
They signed Max Fried to an eight-year deal (that’s a extremely very long time for a beginning pitcher, by the best way) in addition to first baseman Paul Goldschmidt on a one-year contract, and pulled off two notable trades – Cody Bellinger from the Cubs and nearer Devin Williams from Milwaukee. One could make the argument that the roster could also be higher having unfold the cash round and enhancing the pitching workers than by dumping all of it on the ft of Juan Soto.
That being stated, Soto’s bat shall be dearly missed in the course of that lineup. Giancarlo Stanton is already coping with a “mysterious harm,” tennis elbow in each elbows. It’s unclear how a lot time he’ll miss this spring. Aaron Choose is a machine, however even he proved fallible within the World Collection. The addition of Bellinger is good, however he’s not practically the identical form of slugger Soto is. Can they get by with a center of the order that includes Jazz Chisholm, Choose, Goldschmidt, Bellinger and Stanton? Will they keep wholesome? Can their top-four starters – Gerrit Cole, Fried, Carlos Rodon and Luis Gil, make up the distinction in a aggressive AL East?
A New Period in Houston
Because the mid-2010s, the Houston Astros have been synonymous with the American League Championship Collection, however this shall be a really different-looking Astros crew than we’ve seen in latest seasons.
They traded Kyle Tucker and reliever Ryan Pressly early within the low season to the Cubs. Alex Bregman signed a free agent contract with the Crimson Sox final week. Justin Verlander inked a one-year, $15 million contract with the Giants. Starter Yusei Kikuchi is now an Angel. And who is aware of how lengthy Framber Valdez goes to stay round? He’ll be a free agent on the finish of this season, too.
Houston nonetheless has some respectable expertise left. The cabinet shouldn’t be naked. Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez are excellent gamers, they signed third baseman Isaac Paredes and Christian Walker to free agent contracts, and nonetheless have shortstop Jeremy Pena hanging round, too. Ronel Blanco and Hunter Brown are a stable 2-3 within the rotation, and Josh Hader returns because the crew’s nearer.
They’ve holes (have you ever seen the outfield???) and should be ok to win the AL West, nevertheless it’s clear a brand new period has begun in Houston.
The Well being of the Braves
Whenever you cease and assume, it’s really a miracle the Braves made the postseason in any respect in 2024.
Spencer Strider was misplaced for the season after making only one wholesome begin. Ronal Acuna, Jr. tore his proper ACL and was misplaced for the season, too. Austin Riley fractured his hand in August, Sean Murphy missed practically two months with a strained indirect, Ozzie Albies was out two months in July and August with a wrist fracture and Michael Harris II’s hamstring landed him on the Injured Listing for 2 months, too.
The Braves had been by no means going to have the ability to repeat their ridiculously productive offensive numbers from 2023, however final yr’s regression was past the pale, so you may perceive Atlanta being bullish about their probabilities of profitable a division they’d received six straight occasions earlier than barely sneaking into the playoffs a season in the past.
The large query is, when can they count on Strider and Acuna Jr. again? It sounds as if neither shall be prepared for Opening Day. Acuna Jr. doesn’t have a particular timetable, though the Braves say he’s on schedule in his restoration. It seems like someday in Might. Strider has began throwing bullpens, however seemingly received’t return to the rotation till the tip of April. Can they hold in there till their two greatest gamers are again within the swing of issues?
Cubs Off-Season Additions Sufficient?
Milwaukee has received three out of the final 4 NL Central titles and have largely dominated this division over the past half decade. The final time the Cubs received the division was in Pandemic 2020, and their final playoff victory was in 2017, once they reached the NLCS.
Chicago hasn’t spent a ton of cash, however has had one of many busiest off-seasons this aspect of Los Angeles. They added the second-most impactful participant to alter groups in Kyle Tucker, an enormous improve over Bellinger, in addition to Pressly to the bullpen. Smaller additions, like catcher Carson Kelly and reliever Ryan Brasier, assist fill out the roster across the edges.
In a yr during which the Brewers misplaced Corbin Burnes, Willy Adames and Devin Williams, the Cardinals look like wandering within the land of .500 and the Reds and Pirates seemingly nonetheless a yr or two away from actually competing, the Cubs have the very best likelihood at snagging a mediocre division in 2025.
Wage Cap Discuss
A lot of the winter’s discourse surrounded baseball’s financial system, the Dodgers’ wild spending spree, the Soto contract, and the seeming disparity in assets between the so-called “wealthy” and “poor” groups. The collapse of practically a dozen regional sports activities community offers have thrown some franchises right into a tizzy, however the bigger situation is there are some groups that merely don’t wish to pay what’s required to place a aggressive crew on the sector. Most fanbases don’t wish to see the Dodgers grow to be a dynastic Tremendous Group just like the Yankees and Crimson Sox had been within the Nineties and 2000s, and so they consider a wage cap could possibly be a option to hold groups just like the Dodgers, Mets, Phillies and Yankees from lapping the remainder of the game by way of payroll.
After all, dialog will even flip to a wage ground to accompany any potential cap, and the participant’s union has vowed to by no means enable a wage cap to be carried out of their sport. It’s cheap to consider the house owners will both lock out the gamers after the 2026 season, or the gamers will strike beforehand, so as to stop this from occurring.
It’s a low rumble proper now, however undoubtedly a dialog that’s being had this spring.
Balls and Strikes Problem System
In sure spring coaching ballparks, Main League Baseball will check an computerized balls and strikes problem system that could possibly be coming to each MLB stadium beginning subsequent yr. In brief, if a pitcher, catcher or batter disagrees with a ball or strike name by the house plate umpire, they will problem that decision. A video on a scoreboard will then present whether or not the trail of the pitcher crossed the plate within the strike zone.
Every crew will solely get two challenges per sport, and one of many issues to be ironed out this spring would be the velocity at which the problem takes place and the way dependable the system shall be. However barring something going haywire, it’s seemingly this shall be a preview of what’s to return in 2026.
It’s not precisely robotic umps, nevertheless it’s a begin.
