With Opening Day just around the corner, the offseason is more or less complete for MLB’s 30 clubs and teams. Until the playoffs begin, teams will be focused on a smaller goal: winning their division. In the run-up to the start of the season, we will be conducting a series of polls to gauge who MLBTR readers believe is the favorite in each division. The Blue Jays came out on top in the AL East, and the Tigers did the same in our poll on the AL Central. Yesterday, MLBTR readers overwhelmingly voted (66%) to predict the Mariners would win the AL West. Today, we’ll be moving on to the National League, starting with the NL West. All teams are listed in order of their 2025 regular season record:
Los Angeles Dodgers (93-69)
The Dodgers may have not even qualified for a playoff bye last year, but their dominant performance during the postseason quelled any doubt about the club being the class of the National League. Los Angeles did not rest on its laurels this offseason, adding two more superstars: outfielder Kyle Tucker and closer Edwin Diaz. That duo levels up a roster that already sports Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Mookie Betts among many other high-end players. As has become the norm, the Dodgers enter 2026 as the overwhelming favorite to win the division, although their aging and injury-prone core will surely start showing cracks at some point. Will this year be that year?
San Diego Padres (90-72)
On paper, the Padres might look to some as if they’re more likely to miss the playoffs entirely than overtake the Dodgers in the NL West. The silver living for San Diego, then, is that this was also true headed into the 2025 season. Despite that narrative, the Padres managed to spend much of the summer in a virtual tie with Los Angeles, and they were in sole possession of first place as late as August 23. This year, they’ll look to defy the odds once again with a patchwork rotation that offers little certainty outside of Nick Pivetta and a lineup that wasn’t substantially improved over the offseason. The biggest additions to San Diego relative to last year, in all likelihood, will be full seasons from star closer Mason Miller and veteran outfielder Ramon Laureano.
San Francisco Giants (81-81)
After a splashy trade for Rafael Devers last June, the Giants ended up selling at last year’s trade deadline. Their efforts to get back in the playoff hunt for 2026 this winter were more complementary than impactful. Tyler Mahle and Adrian Houser join a rotation that lost Justin Verlander. The lineup added a glove-first outfielder in Harrison Bader and a bat-first infielder in Luis Arraez. Still, the team looks solid on paper. Those additions leave the San Francisco offense without many obvious holes, and the rotation sports one of the game’s best starters in Logan Webb plus a former Cy Young winner in Robbie Ray. Perhaps the biggest question facing the Giants this year is in the bullpen. San Francisco traded Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval last July and lost Randy Rodriguez to Tommy John surgery in September. None have been replaced. That could leave the club bleeding runs in the late innings without big steps forward from players like Erik Miller and Jose Butto.
Arizona Diamondbacks (80-82)
Just about everything that could go wrong on the pitching side did so for the Diamondbacks last year. Zac Gallen had the worst season of his career. Corbin Burnes, Justin Martinez, and A.J. Puk all underwent elbow surgery. Brandon Pfaadt and Eduardo Rodriguez had seasons to forget. Their team is weaker on paper headed into 2026 than it was in 2025, as their big offseason additions were reunions with Gallen and Merrill Kelly, plus additions at the infield corners (Carlos Santana and Nolan Arenado) won’t match the offensive output of those positions’ previous occupants (Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suarez). Even so, Ketel Marte and Corbin Carroll are legitimate superstars. Geraldo Perdomo might be one as well. If the team’s veteran pitchers can turn things around, perhaps the Diamondbacks could ride their strong offensive nucleus back into the postseason.
Colorado Rockies (43-119)
Following a 119-loss season in 2025, Colorado made some small moves under new front office boss Paul DePodesta but nothing that would truly move the needle. Jake McCarthy, Edouard Julien, Willi Castro, Michael Lorenzen, and Jose Quintana have certainly all had their fair share of success in the past, but each profiles as a complementary player at the best of times. Perhaps those moves working out plus steps forward from key pieces like Brenton Doyle and Ezequiel Tovar could help the Rockies avoid another 100-loss season, but a division title or Wild Card berth are both pipe dreams.
Who do MLBTR readers think will win the NL West? Have your say in the poll:
Dodgers by a country mile
66% of people who voted are sane.
we are just goofing off. we’ll need to find ways to entertain ourselves next year without baseball.
I imagine the 11% voting Rockies were not serious, hard to take this particular poll seriously to be honest.
I sm serious. And dont call me Shirley
Dodgers don’t care about the regular season. They’ll load-manage per usual and use their depth on the bench and in the minors. It’ll definitely be closer than it really should….
I believe they care plenty about the regular season. You can’t turn the caring switch on and off, and it will need to be on come October.
Will they try to pace the roster, especially the pitchers? Sure. But that doesn’t translate into not caring.
Of course they care. It’s semantics. They won’t be trying to break the wins record….
Semantics is all about what words mean. And who said they were trying to break any records? I believe they have their sights set on the bye this year, and the main risk in them not getting it is easing up on the gas pedal.
I wasn’t being literal with them not caring. The priority is October, obviously. That’s why it’ll go down to the wire. Again….
But it’s just semantics to say that semantics are about what words mean BSLA.
Hey best of luck to you guys on the injury front. I understand that the rest of us in the NL West are playing for 2nd place
Kinda been that way for the last dozen or so seasons….
This should be a riveting poll
May I defer in participating?
I wonder if the votes for the Giants are real or troll votes. I feel like they’re so overrated. Terrible outfield depth, terrible starting depth, and no bullpen. Sounds like the same 81-81 team they’ve had since 2017 (2021 notwithstanding)
definitely troll votes. this is mlbtr after all.
Most non-LA votes are trolling. Barring a slow start and then a catastrophic event that ends the season, the Dodgers will win the division.
I second this. The last decade is just one year after another of the Giants getting included in the quality team conversation for no good reason at all. The one freak year when they won the division in like 2021 doesn’t help. It’s slowed the fanbase from accepting that they are just not that good.
Rockies in 2nd at the moment lol
I am LOVING that the Rockies are in second here. I don’t care if it is a pity vote or not, this is best position the Rockies have been in for years.
Everyone is going to vote for the Rockies, I can feel it haha.
The least we can do is give the Rockies this poll win
I picked the Padres. I believe playing all these playoff games the 3 years or so will finally catch up to the Dodgers..
There is a strong possibility for regression here. The Dodgers field the oldest roster in Baseball and that can only last so long
Are you predicting a series of on-field coronaries? And what are they regressing to, pray tell?
Ha ha. Very good. It’s like the Padres got a year younger.
They are regressing from, not to.
On average:
For position players
0.5 bWAR per season from age 31-35
1.2 bWAR per season from age 36-40
For pitchers that regression is delayed by one year in the first grouping to age 32-35, but the numbers are the same. The 2nd grouping is the same ages and numbers.
Well, they lost the 3 games they played in ’23. So, there’s that….
If it does, it will only catch up in the playoffs
Padres are notorious for not being able to stack 4 months of above avg baseball in a row.
Love the polls but this ones a waste of time
closer poll would’ve been Dodgers v. the field
The polling percentages don’t add up to 100%. Something wasn’t rounded correctly.
It’s fine, they’re using Steiner Math.
Sorry, but rounding rules in math can lead to the polling percentages not adding to one hundred percent. Simple example would be a poll where there are three choices and each choice gets one- third of the votes or 33%. 3 X 33% = 99%.
Kinda wish I voted for the Rox now…
Silly poll gets a silly response from me lol
34% of respondents are a few fries short of a Happy Meal.
Wow
WHOA
@Carry Suck my Big Mac
Padres take the west. doyers are getting old and even the cheating contract of the dh can’t hide the flaws forever. Tucker is a low effort bum. Kershaw jumped ship before it sinks.
One of the most boring divisions in baseball. Why watch? Dodgers already got in the bag.
I was going to go the meme answer route and pick the Rockies, but decided to play it straight in the end.
So, the Dodgers, obviously.
Well 12% have trolled this poll with the Rockies, probably the easiest pick for last in the MLB, so it’s definitely been meme-trolled enough already.
This is the one of the most useless poll I’ve ever seen. If you voted for anyone other than LA, you’re delusional.
a vote for the padres if you’re already a padres fan is more hopeful than delusional, but a thin line nonetheless.
Oh. Very serious.
Gee, I wonder. The only season they didn’t win the NL West since 2013, they also won 106 games. I would be flabbergasted if the Padres or Giants won that division.
Padres still beating the protest vote!
Ha ha. My favourite poll. Love it.
In saying that, it was way closer than anticipated last year.
Hanging onto the thought of a Tony Vitello inspired fairytale that tops all previous fairytales !
I find it funny 11% voted for the Rockies.
Oderunt eos quamdiu timeant
Perdono lead of marte carroll moreno lawlar let see if he square mistakes then gurriel goes back to 4th with moreno protecting him for a month smith barrosa arrenado thomas.
Giant’s won’t win the division but they will surprise a lot of people, they get in this year as a wild card
I absolutely love that as of 4:13 pm Central, 243 people have voted for a team that will come closer to 120 losses than the division lead.
I’m surprised the Rockies are currently getting 12% of the votes
Jake McCarthy mvp