Opening Day has lastly arrived, and groups throughout the league are gearing up for one more pennant chase in hopes of being topped this 12 months’s World Sequence champion. After all, there’s nonetheless one other seven months to go earlier than somebody raises the Commissioner’s Trophy. Till the playoffs start, groups can be centered on a smaller objective: successful their division. We’ll be conducting a sequence of polls to gauge who MLBTR readers imagine is the favourite in every division. That sequence has already lined the Nationwide League, with the Dodgers, Cubs, and Phillies every popping out on prime of their respective divisions. Now, the sequence moved on to the American League with a take a look at the AL West. Groups are listed so as of their 2024 report.
Houston Astros (88-73)
The one membership to make the playoffs from the AL West final 12 months, the Astros enter the 2025 season on the heels of a postseason that snapped their almost decade-long run of journeys to the ALCS. After a winter the place the staff parted methods with longtime franchise stalwarts reminiscent of Alex Bregman, Kyle Tucker, Justin Verlander, and Ryan Pressly, the staff is wanting very totally different than it has in earlier years. There’s some clear indicators of weak point, most notably the truth that the membership’s outfield depth is skinny sufficient that their starters within the outfield corners are two infielders: longtime second baseman Jose Altuve has moved to left, whereas prime third base prospect Cam Smith is patrolling proper area with simply 5 video games of expertise exterior of A-ball.
Flawed because the membership’s roster could also be, there’s nonetheless loads to love concerning the Astros in 2025. Christian Walker is an improve at first base and Isaac Paredes is an All-Star caliber hitter who ought to profit significantly from the Crawford Packing containers as he steps into the third base job vacated by Bregman. Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown have an opportunity to kind a powerful front-of-the-rotation duo, whereas few groups boast a pair of arms higher than Josh Hader and Bryan Abreu behind their bullpen. Whether or not that can be sufficient to keep up a stranglehold over the AL West in 2025 even after this winter’s departures stays to be seen, nonetheless.
Seattle Mariners (85-77)
2025 led to soul-crushing style for Mariners followers as they missed the playoffs by only one recreation for the second consecutive season. The membership’s offseason was equally disappointing as properly; regardless of rumors of trades that might’ve despatched gamers like Triston Casas, Nico Hoerner, and Alec Bohm to the Pacific Northwest making their method by means of the rumor mill this winter, the membership was content material to easily re-sign Jorge Polanco and herald veteran infielder Donovan Solano to enhance a lineup that was within the backside ten for runs scored final 12 months.
Thankfully, there’s nonetheless some cause for optimism headed into 2025. The membership’s elite rotation stays in place, and a quintet of Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryan Woo, Bryce Miller, and Luis Castillo ought to nonetheless give them a superb opportunity to win on any given day, significantly with a powerful bullpen that options fireballers like Andres Munoz and Matt Brash on the again finish. A giant 12 months from Julio Rodriguez would go an extended option to correcting final season’s offensive woes, however even when Rodriguez begins out slowly once more in 2025 he’ll have help from a full season of deadline addition Randy Arozarena, who posted sturdy numbers down the stretch after being acquired from the Rays final summer season. Will that be sufficient to get the membership their first division title since 2001?
Texas Rangers (78-84)
When golf equipment that completed beneath .500 in 2024, there’s arguably no staff with extra helium getting into the 2025 marketing campaign than the Rangers. The 2023 champs didn’t have probably the most explosive offseason, however nonetheless enter the season with an overhauled bullpen highlighted by Chris Martin and Robert Garcia in addition to a pair of stable additions to the lineup in Joc Pederson and Jake Burger. The upside a wholesome season from Jacob deGrom might supply the rotation is unattainable to overstate, and the center infield tandem of Corey Seager and Marcus Semien as soon as once more figures to be among the many finest within the sport.
If there’s a flaw within the membership’s current building, it’s a heavy reliance on youth. The membership’s vaunted Vanderbilt duo of Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker are supremely proficient and had been at all times anticipated to be a giant a part of the staff in 2025, however leaning on each kids as members of the Opening Day rotation is a tall ask given the pair’s inconsistency and inexperience on the main league stage and highlights the dearth of reliability within the membership’s rotation exterior of Nathan Eovaldi. Within the lineup, in the meantime, Wyatt Langford seems to be pretty much as good as guess as any sophomore participant may be to have a giant 12 months, however each he and Evan Carter struggled to remain wholesome in 2024. Will these kids be capable of carry the Rangers again to the playoffs?
Athletics (69-93)
West Sacramento’s non permanent baseball staff confirmed indicators of life for the primary time shortly throughout their last months in Oakland, even ending the season with a stable 32-32 report after the All-Star break. After departing Oakland, the membership aggressively tried to enhance this winter. They signed right-hander Luis Severino and traded for southpaw Jeffrey Springs to bolster the rotation whereas including Gio Urshela to the lineup and Jose Leclerc to the bullpen. That group of additives be a part of a stable core that includes Lawrence Butler, Brent Rooker, Mason Miller, and Shea Langeliers.
As stable as that assortment of expertise is, nonetheless, the A’s will want much more to go proper with the intention to compete this 12 months. Steps ahead from homegrown arms like JP Sears and Joey Estes would go a great distance, as would former and present prime prospects within the lineup like Tyler Soderstrom, Max Muncy, and Jacob Wilson breaking out and enjoying as much as their ceilings. It’s definitely not unattainable to think about most of that occuring. And if it did, the staff stunning and making it again to the postseason for the primary time since they tore down their core from the late 2010s must be on the desk.
Los Angeles Angels (63-99)
Anaheim’s first 12 months post-Shohei Ohtani might hardly have gone worse. Franchise face Mike Trout performed simply 29 video games final 12 months, and only a few issues went proper for the membership as they narrowly averted a 100-loss season. That didn’t cease them from making an effort to enhance this offseason, nonetheless. The membership added Jorge Soler to the lineup for a steady supply of energy, with Yoan Moncada, Travis d’Arnaud, and Tim Anderson filling out the bench. In the meantime, Yusei Kikuchi, Kyle Hendricks, and Kenley Jansen had been added to the pitching workers to deepen the rotation and convey a correct nearer into the bullpen.
Kikuchi, Soler, and Jansen are all stable items, however the membership will want greater than these ancillary additions to bounce again from a dreadful 2024 marketing campaign. Trout placing collectively his first absolutely wholesome season in half a decade would go a great distance, and the membership’s resolution to shift him to proper area might assist in that objective. Outdoors of that, the membership will want its younger place gamers like Nolan Schanuel, Zach Neto, and Logan O’Hoppe to step up and put collectively huge seasons if it has any hope of catching as much as the highest canine within the AL West.
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Simply two seasons after the highest three AL West golf equipment completed inside a recreation of one another in 2023, that very same trio seem set to jockey for the highest spot within the division as soon as once more. After years of being the prohibitive favourite on paper, the Astros look extra susceptible than ever. Will their offseason additions be sufficient to maintain them on prime, or will the Mariners’ spectacular rotation or the Rangers’ infusion of younger expertise be sufficient to lastly overtake Houston? Or, maybe, you suppose the Athletics or Angels will shock with their respective collections of offseason additions and proficient kids. Have your say within the ballot beneath:
