AL East : Red Sox. First division title since 2018 delivered by the newcomers. AL Central: Tigers. Detroit is a budding powerhouse. AL West: Rangers. Too much talent to have another down season. AL wild cards: Orioles, Guardians, Royals. The AL Central will get three teams in the postseason again. ALCS: Tigers over Red Sox. Tarik Skubal wins Game 7 of a 2013 rematch. NL East : Phillies. Mets lack the pitching to hold them off. NL Central: Cubs. Chicago takes advantage of Brewers losing more talent. NL West : Dodgers. Only question is if they win by 10 or more games. NL wild cards: Mets, Diamondbacks, Padres. Arizona and San Diego will pitch their way in. NLCS: Dodgers over Phillies. Starter depth will make a difference for LA. World Series: Dodgers over Tigers. Baseball is long overdue for a repeat champion. Shohei Ohtani makes like Chris Sale in 2018 and strikes out the side in the ninth to secure a historic championship.
Chad Finn
AL East: Red Sox. Garrett Crochet will be Chris Sale minus the ridiculous drama and catastrophic injuries. Keep him away from TVs and bikes, and the Cy Young will be his. AL Central: Tigers. Tarik Skubal and youngster Jackson Jobe could be the best 1-2 pitching punch in the American League sooner rather than later. AL West: Rangers. The depleted Astros’ run of four straight division titles comes to a suspense-free end. AL wild cards: Orioles, Yankees, Guardians. Multiple young Baltimore bats will improve, but pitching limits the Orioles’ ceiling. Watch out for the Yankees to acquire Sandy Alcantara to fill Cole-sized hole in the rotation. Julio Rodríguez delivers a season that wouldn’t look out of place on the back of Ken Griffey Jr.’s baseball card. ALCS : Rangers over Red Sox. Anyone else care to join me over here on Fool’s Island, where we believe wholeheartedly that Jacob deGrom will remain healthy and awesome? Anyone? NL East: Phillies. They’re a quintessential Dave Dombrowski team — studded with expensive stars, and not as concerned with the future as they probably should be. NL Central: Reds. Elly De La Cruz fulfills all of his promise playing for Terry Francona and fills out the daily box score like a young Eric Davis. NL West: Dodgers. Shohei, Freddie, Mookie, and now Roki. They haven’t hoarded all of the best players. Just most of them. NL wild cards : Braves, Brewers, Mets. Atlanta could well win the division, but I’ll believe fully only when Ronald Acuña Jr. is healthy and thriving again. Second-year Brewers outfielder Jackson Chourio will be in the MVP mix, but one-man gross national product Juan Soto wins it. NLCS: Dodgers over Braves. It’s fair to presume now that Freddie Freeman no longer has second thoughts about his decision to leave Atlanta for LA three years ago. World Series : Dodgers over Rangers. When Dave Roberts makes the Hall of Fame as a manager, The Steal had better be mentioned on his plaque. Christopher L. Gasper
AL East: Orioles. This is a team Earl Weaver, connoisseur of the three-run homer, would love. Only the Yankees hit more homers than the over-the-fence Orioles last year. AL Central: Guardians. Craig Breslow and the Red Sox could take notes on pitcher development from the Guardians. They always seem to have a leg up in the arms race. AL West: Mariners. Led by an MVP season from Julio Rodríguez, the M’s finally find a sufficiently caffeinated offense to overtake the Astros. AL wild cards: Rays, Royals, Red Sox. Welcome back to the land of Boston Sports Relevance, Red Sox. What took you so long? ALCS: Guardians over Orioles. Cleveland tries once again to end baseball’s longest World Series title drought. NL East: Phillies. Dave Dombrowski parks the all-in Phils in the postseason for the fourth straight year. Why can’t we get baseball executives like that? NL Central: Cubs. Wrigleyville rejoices at the arrival of Kyle Tucker and the Cubbies fly the division W flag for the first time since 2020. NL West : Dodgers. The best team Mookie, uh, money can buy. There’s no deferring the Dodgers’ divisional dominance. NL wild cards: Braves, Diamondbacks, Mets. Old friend Mike Hazen and the D-backs had a sneaky strong offseason. NLCS: Dodgers over Phillies. With more star power than an Oscars after-party, the Dodgers follow the script. World Series : Dodgers over Guardians. The Dodger Dynasty is solidified as Betts and Co. become the first team since the Derek Jeter-era Yankees (1998, 1999, and 2000) to repeat as World Series champ. Dan Shaughnessy
AL East: Red Sox. Wonder if John Henry will like me now? AL Central: Tigers. Best home uniforms, and now one of the best teams. AL West: Mariners. Houston abdicates, Seattle has the rotation to fill the void. AL wild cards: Orioles, Yankees, Rangers. The American League is incredibly weak this year. NL top dogs would wipe these teams out. ALCS: Orioles over Tigers. Talented O’s finally advance in the American League playoffs. First AL pennant since 1983. NL East : Mets. Juan Soto MVP. NL Central : Reds. Tito Magic. What else do they need? NL West: Dodgers. Best, deepest overall roster since the early 1960s Boston Celtics. NL wild cards: Phillies, Braves, Padres. All better than any team in the American League. NLCS: Dodgers over Mets. True Moneyball. New York’s Soto loses Fall Classic to Los Angeles for second straight season. World Series: Dodgers over Orioles. Revenge for the 1966 World Series, when 20-year-ld Jim Palmer beat Cy Young Koufax in an Orioles sweep that was the end of Koufax’s big league career. Alex Speier
AL East: Orioles. While the term “murmuration” refers to the movement of an entrancing cloud of starlings, the star-laden Orioles lineup may produce a similar effect in a division made up of talented but flawed teams. AL Central : Royals. Start the Bobby Witt Jr. MVP campaign. AL West: Rangers. All they need is about 120 innings of dominance from Jacob deGrom. What could go wrong? AL wild cards: Red Sox, Twins, Mariners. The Red Sox have finally arrived at a point where they are rightly expected to reach the playoffs. The Twins and Mariners had lackluster offseasons, but their core talent is good enough to get to October. ALCS: Royals over Orioles. Inspired by their August effort to coax pinch hitter and clubhouse force Jonny Gomes out of retirement, Kansas City will offer the most appropriate observation of the 10-year anniversary of its last title. NL East : Braves. The returns of Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuña Jr. to a team that made the playoffs last year seems like a reasonable formula for success. NL Central: Reds. Tito magic. That, and a 30/80 MVP season from Elly De La Cruz. NL West: Dodgers. It would be fun to pick a team other than the Dodgers. It would also be an absurd exercise in contrarianism. NL wild cards : Diamondbacks, Phillies, Mets. There’s a good chance that a handful of NL wild-card contenders will have better rosters than virtually any team in the AL. NLCS: Dodgers over Mets. MLB will turn down the petition by network executives to declare this the “real” World Series. World Series: Dodgers over Royals. They have about 15 starters with the credentials to win a Cy Young, and a lineup anchored by three future Hall of Famers. This is what an all-time dynastic force looks like. Tara Sullivan
AL East: Orioles. The division is wide open thanks to a slew of Yankee injuries, led by ace Gerritt Cole being gone for the year, but we’ll go with a Baltimore bounceback led by Adley Rutschman. AL Central: Guardians. It’s a take-your-pick division with no real powerhouse, but if Cleveland can build on last year, it can again outlast Detroit and Kansas City. AL West: Rangers. With Jacob deGrom healthy and the dominant Astros finally showing signs of losing their grip, the Rangers pull ahead. AL wild cards: Yankees, Red Sox, Athletics. A vastly improved pitching staff and presence of Alex Bregman lift the Red Sox from their recent malaise, Yankees just squeeze in, and the nomadic A’s are the game’s feel-good story. ALCS: Rangers over Orioles: The seesaw in Texas continues, with the Rangers rebounding to look more like the World Series winners of two years ago than the sub-.500 team of last year. NL East: Braves. What the AL East used to be, the NL East is now, a powerhouse of big-spending, high-performing teams. But until the kings get dethroned, we’ll stick with the Braves. NL Central: Reds. Let manager Terry Francona work his magic in Cincinnati. And who doesn’t want to see the game’s most exciting player, Elly De La Cruz, in the playoffs? NL West: Dodgers. Again. Picking against a defending champion that just keeps on adding talent doesn’t seem wise. Roster flexibility plus tons of skill with an excellent manager in Dave Roberts? That’s a tough combo to beat. NL wild cards: Mets, Phillies, Diamondbacks. The Mets were a great postseason story a year ago, and while it may take a bit to find chemistry after landing the market’s top free agent (hello, Juan Soto), they will be dangerous. NLCS: Mets over Dodgers. It’s the Mets’ world and we’re just living in it. They get revenge for the Yankees' World Series loss a year ago. World Series : Mets over Rangers. The National League does it again, and this time, it’s thanks to Mets owner Steve Cohen and his deep, deep pockets.
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