Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Pohlad Family Reportedly Seeking At Least $1.7 Billion In Twins Sale

By | at

The Pohlad family’s efforts to sell the Twins hit a major stumbling block when presumed front-runner Justin Ishbia dropped out of the process to increase his minority share of the White Sox. The Pohlads continue to evaluate the market, but there’s no longer a clear timetable for when a sale could be reached — nor is it a guarantee that they’ll sell at all.

According to a report from Dan Hayes, Ken Rosenthal and Brittany Ghiroli at The Athletic, the Pohlads are “believed” to have an asking price of at least $1.7 billion. The Athletic writes that the Pohlads viewed a $1.5 billion purchase price that was floated by one potential buyer to be “a non-starter” in discussions.

Last year, Forbes estimated the club’s value around $1.46 billion. Sportico’s 2024 valuation was more in line with the apparent asking price, as that publication valued it at approximately $1.7 billion. The Orioles, the most recent franchise sold, went for a $1.725 billion purchase price in January 2024.

Interestingly, The Athletic writes that Twins executive vice president Joe Pohlad prefers to keep control of the organization. The 42-year-old Pohlad only took over daily operations in November 2022. His grandfather Carl Pohlad purchased the team for $44MM back in 1984. After Carl Pohlad died in 2009, his son Jim (Joe’s uncle) took control. Jim Pohlad turned over operations to his nephew 13 years later. It seems there’s varying levels of interest within the family about selling the team.

It’d hardly be unprecedented if the Pohlads eventually reversed course and took the team off the market. Angels owner Arte Moreno announced in August 2022 that he was exploring a sale; he pulled the team back five months later. The Lerner family had considered selling the Nationals between 2022-23 before abandoning that process in February of last year. Twins fans are encouraged to read The Athletic column in full, as they explore the challenges (e.g. the collapse of the Twins’ previous TV deal, declining attendance figures, and the team’s higher than average debt that reportedly exceeds $425MM) in greater detail.

Padres Option Stephen Kolek, Connor Joe

By | at

The Padres announced that they’ve optioned Stephen Kolek, Ron Marinaccio, Luis Campusano and Connor Joe to Triple-A El Paso. None of those players will start the season on the major league roster.

Kolek’s demotion is most notable, as it essentially finalizes the Opening Day rotation. Kyle Hart and Randy Vásquez will open the year as the respective fourth and fifth starters behind Dylan Cease, Michael King and Nick Pivetta. (Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune wrote earlier this evening that the team was leaning in that direction.) There were two spots up for grabs with Yu Darvish beginning the season on the injured list as he battles elbow inflammation.

A 2023 Rule 5 pick, Kolek spent last season in the MLB bullpen. He posted a 5.21 ERA across 46 2/3 innings. While Kolek’s 18.5% strikeout rate was mediocre, he got ground-balls at an excellent 55.9% clip. He showed enough that the Padres built him back up as a starter this spring. Kolek had a good camp, pitching 12 1/3 innings of three-run ball with a 61.5% ground-ball rate.

That evidently wasn’t enough to leapfrog Hart and Vásquez on the depth chart. Hart, a 32-year-old southpaw, signed a $1.5MM free agent deal after spending last season in Korea. His four career major league appearances came with the Red Sox in 2020. Hart has given up eight runs over 7 2/3 Spring Training frames, but his 2.69 ERA in the KBO last year made it likely he’d crack the rotation. That was less clear with Vásquez, who started 20 games with an ERA approaching 5.00 for San Diego a year ago. He has recorded seven strikeouts with one walk over eight innings this spring.

Campusano was ticketed for Triple-A once the Padres tabbed Martín Maldonado to work as the backup catcher behind Elias Díaz. Assuming he spends at least 20 days in the minors, this will be Campusano’s final option year. It’s a make or break season for the former top prospect. Joe signed a $1MM free agent deal to work as the short side of a left field platoon with Jason Heyward. He’s been passed on the depth chart by Brandon Lockridge even though he hit .316/.469/.447 this spring. Lockridge, another righty-hitting outfielder, is a superior runner who’ll provide more athleticism on Mike Shildt’s bench.

Landen Roupp Wins Final Spot In Giants’ Rotation

By | at

The Giants named Landen Roupp their fifth starter to begin the season, manager Bob Melvin tells reporters (link via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). Hayden Birdsong, who was the remaining competitor for that spot, also made the team but will start the year in relief.

Roupp breaks camp for the second straight year. The righty pitched mostly out of the bullpen during his rookie season. He started four of 23 appearances and tallied 50 1/3 innings of 3.58 ERA ball. Roupp’s 21.7% strikeout percentage and 47.2% grounder rate were close to league average. A 12% walk rate was the main red flag, but he has thrown plenty of strikes this spring.

The 26-year-old Roupp only walked one of the 46 batters he faced in camp. He hit a couple batters as well but only put 6.5% of batters faced aboard for free. Roupp struck out 14 while surrendering eight hits and five runs through 12 innings. That earns him his first Opening Day rotation spot behind Logan Webb, Justin Verlander, Robbie Ray and Jordan Hicks.

Birdsong had an even more impressive Spring Training. The 6’4″ righty ran an 18:0 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 12 innings of one-run ball. He could hardly have pitched better, but he’ll work in relief for the first time since his 2022 draft year. Birdsong started all 16 MLB appearances after earning his first major league call last June. He turned in a 4.75 ERA through 72 innings. Birdsong punched out nearly 28% of opposing hitters but walked 13.7% of batters faced. It’s been a similar pattern throughout his minor league career. The Eastern Illinois product has a 34.4% strikeout rate against a 13.7% walk percentage in the minors.

Kyle Harrison entered camp as the favorite for the fifth starter role. The Giants optioned him to Triple-A Sacramento over the weekend, in large part because a virus delayed his ramp-up this spring. They could have optioned Birdsong as well, but his exhibition performance was so loud that he left the team little choice but to carry him on the MLB roster in some capacity. Pavlovic writes that the Giants will use Birdsong in multi-inning appearances to keep him stretched out. There’s a good chance he’ll get a rotation opportunity before long as injuries arise throughout the season.

Reid Detmers To Open Season In Angels’ Bullpen

By | at

The Angels informed Jack Kochanowicz over the weekend that he won the fifth spot in the rotation, manager Ron Washington told reporters (including Bill Shaikin of The Los Angeles Times). Reid Detmers is going to open the year in the bullpen, though Sam Blum of The Athletic notes that he’ll stay stretched out in a multi-inning role in case he’s needed to return to the rotation midseason.

The Halos signed Yusei Kikuchi and Kyle Hendricks over the offseason. They join Tyler Anderson and José Soriano as the top four starters. Kochanowicz, Detmers and Chase Silseth entered camp as the main candidates for the final spot. Silseth dropped out of the competition quickly, as he allowed 16 runs in 13 innings. The Angels optioned him last week.

Kochanowicz and Detmers have each pitched well in camp. The former has worked 12 1/3 innings of five-run ball (four earned). His 7:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio is middling, but he’s kept the ball on the ground at a 52.4% clip. Detmers has surrendered seven runs (six earned) with 17 punchouts and four walks over 19 1/3 frames. He has gotten grounders at a solid 46.6% rate in his own right.

It seems the job was Kochanowicz’s to lose. The 24-year-old righty made his first 11 MLB appearances last season. He posted a 3.99 earned run average across 65 1/3 innings. He had fantastic control (3.8% walk rate) and got grounders at a massive 57% clip, but his 9.4% strikeout rate was the lowest among all pitchers who reached 50 innings. It’s not easy to find sustained success with that low a strikeout rate. Kochanowicz has a 5.39 ERA with a 19% strikeout rate in four minor league seasons.

Detmers, the 10th overall pick in 2020, has a lot more swing-and-miss upside. He has fanned a quarter of opponents over four MLB seasons, including a career-high 27.9% of batters faced last year. Yet Detmers’ results have been up and down. He allowed an ERA approaching 7.00 over 17 starts last season. A .357 average on balls in play didn’t do him any favors, but he also surrendered nearly two home runs per nine innings. The Angels optioned him to Triple-A. He pitched in the minors between June and September. The homer troubles continued in the Pacific Coast League, where he allowed a 5.54 ERA despite a near-30% strikeout rate.

Since Detmers has two options remaining, the Angels could have sent him back to Triple-A when they settled on Kochanowicz as their fifth starter. The 25-year-old southpaw pitched well enough this spring to ensure he’d stick on the MLB roster. The Angels swapped lefty reliever José Suarez to the Braves for right-hander Ian Anderson over the weekend.

They still need to decide whether to carry out-of-options southpaws José Quijada and Angel Perdomo in the bullpen with Detmers and Brock Burke. They’ll have righties Kenley Jansen, Ben Joyce and Ryan Zeferjahn in the later innings. Ian Anderson is out of options and seems likely to make the team in a long relief role, which would round out the pitching staff unless the Halos cut Quijada or Perdomo.

Yankees, Jake Woodford Agree To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Yankees are in agreement with Jake Woodford on a minor league contract, reports MLBTR’s Steve Adams. The Excel Sports Management client had opted out of his minor league deal with the Rockies over the weekend and was granted his release.

Woodford will begin the season at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre as rotation or long relief depth. He’s capable of pitching in either role. Woodford has started 25 of 89 appearances in his major league career. He has an earned run average just shy of 5.00 across parts of five seasons. Most of that came with the Cardinals, as the former top 40 draft pick pitched for St. Louis between 2020-23.

The 28-year-old made briefer appearances with the Pirates and White Sox last season. Woodford struggled to an ERA near 8.00 over 35 MLB innings. He had solid numbers in Triple-A, though, pitching to a 3.93 ERA over 20 appearances. He recorded roughly average strikeout (22.9%) and grounder (43.7%) rates while walking fewer than 7% of opposing hitters. Woodford has allowed an even four earned runs per nine over parts of six seasons at the top minor league level.

Colorado added Woodford to camp on a minor league contract in January. He gave up seven runs with a 6:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 12 innings in Cactus League play. That wasn’t enough to convince the Rox to select his contract when he took his out clause last week. He’ll now get an opportunity to work in a depth role for a Yankee team that has been hit hard in Spring Training.

Injuries to Gerrit Cole and Luis Gil dealt major blows to the rotation. Clarke Schmidt will start the season on the injured list because of a shoulder issue. JT Brubaker suffered rib fractures that keep him out of the Opening Day mix. That has pushed non-roster invitee Carlos Carrasco and prospect Will Warren into the rotation behind Max Fried, Carlos Rodón and Marcus Stroman. Woodford joins Allan Winans and Brandon Leibrandt as pitchers with MLB experience who’ll begin the season in Scranton.

Wenceel Pérez To Miss At Least A Month Due To Back Inflammation

By | at

Tigers outfielder Wenceel Pérez has been dealing with back tightness throughout the spring. For a while, it seemed as though he would get over it and crack the Opening Day roster. But today, president of baseball operations Scott Harris told reporters that the outfielder will get an injection in his lower back and will miss at least one month. Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic was among those to pass along the news.

At the start of camp, Pérez seemed likely to start the season on optional assignment in Triple-A. However, a series of injuries to the Detroit outfield moved him up the depth chart. Matt Vierling has a rotator cuff strain in his right shoulder and will start the season on the injured list. Parker Meadows has been dealing with a more confounding injury to his musculocutaneous nerve in his upper right arm. The Tigers recently announced that he would be shut down for about four weeks.

Those injuries prompted the Tigers to sign Manuel Margot after he was released by the Brewers, having previously signed a minor league deal with the latter club. The Tigers made that signing official today and placed Meadows on the 60-day IL. That means he won’t be able to rejoin the big league club until late May.

In addition to prompting the Margot deal, it seemed as though the injuries would give Pérez a chance to break camp with the club. But the back tightness that has been ailing him throughout the spring couldn’t be shaken off. He’ll spend some time on the shelf after getting his injection and won’t be available for a few weeks.

The club will now have to figure out how to proceed without Vierling, Pérez or Meadows for now. Riley Greene is sure to be part of the solution, though it doesn’t sound as though making him the regular center fielder is a consideration. Per Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press, Greene will play center from time to time but is still likely to spend most of his playing time in the corners. That also seems to be the case for Margot, per Evan Woodbery of MLive Media Group.

Therefore, it seems like the primary corner guys might be Greene and Kerry Carpenter, who both hit left-handed. The right-handed Margot could perhaps help shield those two from tough lefties. As for center field, while Greene and Margot might factor in a bit, it seems Ryan Kreidler could be a key part of the solution.

Kreidler was optioned to Toledo two days ago but he has rejoined the big league club as the Tigers play the Giants in San Francisco tonight and tomorrow. “Ryan is an elite defender,” Harris said, per Petzold. “He makes our defense better when he’s on the field. Pitching and defense is going to be really important for us moving forward.”

The 27-year-old Kreidler has a line of just .147/.212/.193 in his 167 major league plate appearances but he has a much better line of .236/.342/.416 across the minors over the past four years. He’s done that while playing the outfield as well as the three infield positions to the left of first base.

It’s also possible that further solutions will come from outside the organization. As mentioned, the Tigers just scooped up Margot after he was released by the Brewers. Several others have been cut recently and more guys will shake loose in the coming days as all clubs set their rosters prior to Opening Day.

Brandon Lockridge Makes Padres’ Roster

By | at

Outfielder Brandon Lockridge has made the Padres’ Opening Day roster, per AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. He will seemingly be the club’s fourth and final bench player, as it was reported yesterday that veterans Yuli Gurriel, Jose Iglesias and Martín Maldonado will be selected to take the three other spots.

As noted by Cassavell, a spot going to Lockridge will have domino effects for the six other players left in camp: Luis Campusano, Connor Joe, Mason McCoy, Oscar Gonzalez, Tyler Wade and Eguy Rosario. The first three of that group have options and seem likely to be sent to Triple-A. Gonzalez is on a minor league deal and can also be sent to the minors, though Cassavell notes that he does have an opt-out at some point during the season.

As for Wade and Rosario, they cannot be optioned and seem likely to be either traded or designated for assignment in the coming days. That would open up two of the three spots needed on the 40-man for Gurriel, Iglesias and Maldonado.

Lockridge, 28, made his major league debut last year. He only got sent up to the plate 12 times and produced a rough line of .167/.167/.417 in that small sample. Naturally, his minor league production has been better, with a combined line of .278/.357/.417 in the minors over the past four years. He also stole 122 bases in that stretch, including 46 in just 104 games last year. Defensively, he has plenty of experience in all three outfield spots. That makes him a solid guy for the bench, as he can serve as a pinch runner and defensive substitution. As a right-handed hitter, he could perhaps platoon with Jason Heyward in left field at times.

Wade, 30, has generally served as a light-hitting utility player during his career. He has a .217/.291/.289 batting line over eight seasons, production which translates to a 64 wRC+. But he has been able to steal some bases and bounce around the diamond, lining up at every position except first base and the battery.

He has just over five years of major league service time. The Padres tendered him a contract at the end of last year, avoiding arbitration with a deal that includes a $900K salary this year and a club option for 2026. The club presumably planned on having him back a multi-positional bench guy but they pivoted to Iglesias when he was unsigned in the beginning of March, so Wade will apparently be nudged out.

Assuming the club designates him for assignment and puts him on waivers, any club could claim if they were willing to take on that salary. However, since he has at least five years of service, he has the right to elect free agency and keep that money if he clears waivers. At that point, clubs would be free to sign him for the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster, with the Padres still on the hook for the rest.

Rosario, 25, has appeared in the past three major league seasons but has received a total of just 100 plate appearances with the Padres in those. His .245/.283/.500 line is pretty good but top heavy, as he has five home runs but a 4% walk rate and 34% strikeout rate.

That hasn’t really been a problem in the minors. Over the past four years, he has drawn walks in 10.9% of his plate appearances on the farm while getting punched out just 20.9% of the time. He has a combined .279/.363/.493 line in that time for a 115 wRC+. Defensively, he has played all four infield positions in addition to some corner outfield work.

It’s a decent profile overall. FanGraphs had him ranked as the #11 prospect in the system as of July. Baseball America gave him the #19 spot going into this season. Though he’s out of options, he will probably hold appeal for other clubs. He has between one and two years of service time, meaning he could be retained through the 2029 season if he sticks somewhere else.

Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images

Offseason In Review: San Diego Padres

By | at

The Padres had a fairly quiet offseason coming off a 93-win season. They were working with limited payroll room for the second straight winter, but they decided not to move any key pieces in cost-cutting trades. A few late signings -- including a backloaded four-year deal for a mid-rotation starter -- rounded out the offseason.

Major League Signings

2025 spending: $11MM
Total spending: $62MM

Option Decisions

Trades and Claims

Notable Minor League Seasons

Extensions

  • Signed SS Tyler Wade to one-year, $900K deal with $1MM club option for 2026

Notable Losses

The Padres faced a pair of injuries late last season that had a significant impact on their offseason. In August, Ha-Seong Kim injured his shoulder diving back into first base on a pickoff attempt. He underwent a season-ending labrum repair a few weeks later. Joe Musgrove left a start early in the postseason with elbow tightness. He required Tommy John surgery that'll cost him the entire '25 season.

Kim's injury was "only" expected to carry into the early part of this season, though it came with a nebulous enough timeline that it's possible he'll miss most of the first half. The Padres never seemed likely to meet the asking price to retain free agency's #2 shortstop. However, there's a decent chance they would have issued Kim a qualifying offer if he were fully healthy.

Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription

BENEFITS
  • Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams, and Anthony Franco.
  • Join exclusive weekly live chats with Anthony.
  • Remove ads and support our writers.
  • Access GM-caliber tools like our MLB Contract Tracker

Tigers Sign Manuel Margot

By | at

March 24: The Tigers have now officially announced Margot’s signing. They also announced that he’ll make $1.3MM in the majors and $200K in the minors. There are also bonuses available, with Margot to get $300K for reaching 200, 300, 400 and 500 major league plate appearances this year.

To open a roster spot, the club placed Meadows on the 60-day injured list. He’s been battling an issue with his musculocutaneous nerve in his upper right arm. It was recently reported that he will be shut down for about four weeks. At that point, he will effectively need to restart his spring ramp-up. Based on today’s IL move, he can’t rejoin the big league club until late May.

March 23: The Tigers are signing outfielder Manuel Margot, according to a report from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen, meanwhile, reports that it’s a major league deal for Margot. Financial terms have not yet been disclosed.

Margot, 30, was released by the Brewers yesterday after signing a minor league deal with the club last month. Margot posted a decent .250/.314/.375 slash line in camp with Milwaukee but was squeezed off of a roster already populated with four outfielders, with a fifth on the injured list ready to join the club when healthy. That left Margot to pursue greener pastures, which he’s now found in Detroit. The Tigers’ outfield mix has been ravaged by injuries this spring, with center fielder Parker Meadows and right fielder Matt Vierling both set to open the season on the injured list. For a team that was already in search of an additional right-handed bat, that made adding Margot something of a no-brainer for the Tigers.

Obvious a fit for the club’s needs as Margot might be, however, that doesn’t necessarily make him a slam-dunk solution. After all, the 30-year-old is coming off a career worst campaign in Minnesota where he slashed .238/.289/.337 in 343 trips to the plate across 129 games. Margot split time between all three outfield spots last year, but looked overmatched according to defensive metrics with a -4 Outs Above Average overall and negative numbers at all three outfield spots. That may suggest he’s ill equipped to contribute at least in center field on a regular basis at this point in his career, although Margot’s outstanding defensive numbers with the Rays and Padres over the years could easily justify giving him an opportunity to prove himself capable of handling center once again.

Wherever he ends up in an outfield mix that figures to include Zach McKinstry, Kerry Carpenter, and Wenceel Perez in addition to incumbent left fielder Riley Greene, Margot will need to post stronger numbers with the bat this year. While beating last year’s 79 wRC+ shouldn’t be an especially tall order, the most important piece of the puzzle for Margot this year figures to be getting back to hitting well against lefties. Margot is a career .279/.338/.415 hitter against southpaws, but last season he posted just a .269/.322/.391 line against lefties. Getting that number back to above average would be a huge boon for a heavily left-handed Tigers lineup that posted a wRC+ of just 88 against southpaws last year.

The addition of Margot to the fold appears to leave just one open spot on the club’s position player staff headed into Opening Day. Slugger Spencer Torkelson, outfielder Justyn-Henry Malloy, and non-roster utility man Jahmai Jones appear to be the final three candidates for that spot as things stand, with Torkelson standing out as the likely favorite given that both Carpenter and Torkelson himself are tentatively expected to get looks in the outfield as the Tigers attempt to piece together production without Meadows and Vierling in the fold. Torkelson lost his job as the club’s incumbent first baseman to Colt Keith when the Gleyber Torres signing pushed Keith to first base, but Torkelson’s right-handed bat offers more big league success and a higher ceiling than those of either Malloy or Jones.

Poll: Who Will Win The NL West?

By | at

With Opening Day just over the horizon, teams all around the league are gearing up for another pennant chase in hopes of being crowned this year’s World Series champion. Of course, there’s still another seven months to go before someone raises the Commissioner’s Trophy. And until the playoffs begin, teams will be focused on a smaller goal: winning their division. We’ll be conducting a series of polls to gauge who MLBTR readers believe is the favorite in each division, and that series begins today with the NL West. Teams are listed in order of their 2024 record.

Los Angeles Dodgers (98-64)

The Dodgers have already notched two wins over the Cubs in the Tokyo Series for 2025, and they did so coming off a season where they finished the year with the best record in baseball and went on to win the World Series over the Yankees in five games. The club’s core of MVP-caliber talent remains in place with Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman all set to once again anchor the lineup this year. Meanwhile, a pitching staff that already included Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, and Clayton Kershaw has been bulked out further not just by Ohtani’s impending return to the mound but also the additions of Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki.

In the bullpen, the team’s solid late-inning mix of Blake Treinen, Alex Vesia, Michael Kopech, and Evan Phillips got a pair of major additions in the form of Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates, while the lineup is largely unchanged from last season with Hyeseong Kim set to replace Gavin Lux eventually and Michael Conforto stepping into the outfield in place of Jason Heyward. There are few clear places to nitpick a team that appears to be a clear juggernaut on paper, although the combination of Betts and Max Muncy on the left side of the infield figures to be below average defensively and the club’s strategy of stacking talented, oft-injured rotation arms always runs the risk of health problems.

San Diego Padres (93-69)

While many view besting the Dodgers as a mountain that’s near impossible to climb, it’s worth remembering that San Diego came within just one game of toppling them during the NLDS back in October. The Padres were restricted in their offseason activities by financial limitations, but the core of the 2024 club remains largely in place with Manny Machado, Jackson Merrill, and Fernando Tatis Jr. poised to anchor the lineup, Xander Bogaerts and Luis Arraez providing support and a front-of-the-rotation duo of Dylan Cease and Michael King who will be motivated to build on their excellent 2024 campaigns ahead of free agency this winter.

That’s not to say the club made no additions this winter, of course. The Padres waited out the market to sign talented right-hander Nick Pivetta to anchor the middle of their rotation alongside Yu Darvish, allowing them to make a splash on a tight budget. Other additions were less flashy, but could still prove valuable. While a supporting cast of Jason Heyward, Connor Joe, Jose Iglesias, and Yuli Gurriel may not look like much on paper, no one expected Jurickson Profar, David Peralta, and Donovan Solano to be as impactful for the club as they were last year. If the Padres are to win an NL West that got even more loaded this winter, they’ll need to hit on those dice rolls once again.

Arizona Diamondbacks (89-73)

While the Diamondbacks missed the playoffs by a hair in 2024 when they finished tied with the Mets and Braves for the final two NL Wild Card spots, the 2023 NL champions put together an excellent team in 2024. The Diamondbacks led the majors in runs scored last year, and many core pieces like Ketel Marte and Corbin Carroll are back for more this year alongside supporting veterans Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Eugenio Suarez. The losses of Christian Walker and Joc Pederson will certainly sting, but Josh Naylor should help to make up for some of that lost production and it wouldn’t be a shock to see longtime top prospect Jordan Lawlar break into the majors this year, either.

The pitching side of things is where Arizona figures to improve the most over last year. Zac Gallen is now complemented at the top of the Diamondbacks rotation by a co-ace in Corbin Burnes, and Merrill Kelly and Eduardo Rodriguez should be able to offer far steadier mid-rotation production than they did in injury-marred 2024 campaigns. The club also enjoys a deep group of back-of-the-rotation options, with Brandon Pfaadt set to get the first crack at starting. Should injuries once again complicate matters, Ryne Nelson is one of the best sixth starters in the league and there’s nowhere for Jordan Montgomery to go but up after last year’s disastrous campaign.

San Francisco Giants (80-82)

The Giants enjoyed a reasonably strong offseason during Buster Posey’s first winter at the helm, but after finishing with a middling record for the third consecutive season it would take a lot of things going right for the club to make significant gains in the standings. The addition of a star-caliber shortstop in Willy Adames alongside Matt Chapman should make for one of the stronger left sides of the infield in the sport this year, but it would take a renaissance from Justin Verlander to even match Blake Snell’s production down the stretch last year. Meanwhile, the club has no established talent at DH and faces questions about the productivity of its outfield after Jung Hoo Lee’s debut season was sidetracked by injuries.

That’s not to say 2025 is a season without hope for fans in San Francisco, however. Verlander and Robbie Ray are both former Cy Young winners, and vintage performances from the duo in conjunction with Logan Webb’s ever-steady production could make an impressive front-end of the rotation. Young players like Heliot Ramos, Tyler Fitzgerald, and Patrick Bailey could build on solid 2024 campaigns and take further steps forward. And if they do so while the rotation plays up to its potential, it’s possible to see the Giants surprising this year.

Colorado Rockies (61-101)

While the division’s other four teams all have reasonable paths to contention this year, the Rockies would need to move heaven and earth just to get to .500 after a season where they finished 37 games back in the NL West and made no significant additions during the offseason. The club has a few potentially exciting pieces in place, with center fielder Brenton Doyle and shortstop Ezequiel Tovar creating an exciting up-the-middle duo, but the supporting cast leaves much to be desired.

The club traded its highest-ceiling offensive player, left fielder Nolan Jones, for utility man Tyler Freeman over the weekend. And exciting top prospects like Zac Veen and Chase Dollander remain in the minor leagues. Even a return to form from $182MM man Kris Bryant wouldn’t be enough to return playoff baseball to Colorado this year unless it was paired with strong performances from those aforementioned prospects in addition to veteran arms like German Marquez and Kyle Freeland turning back the clock to 2018.

__________________________________________

With four of the division’s five teams making an effort to get back to the playoffs this year, which club do you expect to come out on top? Will the Dodgers remain the league’s dominant force, or will they be overcome by a big season from one of their rivals like San Diego or Arizona? Have your say in the poll below:

Who Will Win The NL West?
Los Angeles Dodgers 66.96% (4,769 votes)
Colorado Rockies 8.87% (632 votes)
Arizona Diamondbacks 8.80% (627 votes)
San Diego Padres 7.86% (560 votes)
San Francisco Giants 7.50% (534 votes)
Total Votes: 7,122

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top