Each staff desires to win the World Sequence.
Sure, even the unhealthy groups, those that don’t look like making an attempt, wish to win all of it. They’d love nothing greater than to luck right into a Cinderella season and host a parade, however for some groups, hoisting the World Sequence trophy is greater than an idle need.
It’s an obsession.
Heading into the 2025 season, there are a handful of groups which might be in full-on desperation mode, groups which have been on the precipice for years and fallen quick, and groups which might be spending massive and pushing all their chips into the middle of the desk. Both emotionally or in actual world {dollars}, they’re pot dedicated.
Right here’s my rating of the groups who’re, or ought to be, most determined to navigate baseball’s crapshoot of a postseason and win the World Sequence.
Philadelphia Phillies
It’s exhausting to imagine Bryce Harper has been a Phillie for six seasons now. Over that point he has slugged 152 residence runs, piled up an OPS of .924, crushed the most important residence run within the historical past of Residents Financial institution Park, and helped make Philadelphia a perennial contender. And but, with Harper, two of the three finest pitchers during the last 5 years in Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola, and a lineup filled with big-time stars like J.T. Realmuto, Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, Nick Castellanos, and Alec Bohm, in addition to a cadre of hard-throwing relievers which have given the Phillies top-of-the-line bullpens in baseball for 3 straight seasons, they haven’t received a title.
Worrisome to Phillies followers, they seem like shifting backwards, very similar to the 2008-2011 Phils who received all of it, then misplaced a World Sequence in ‘09, misplaced within the NLCS in 2010 and fell within the NLDS in ‘11. October’s defeat by the hands of the Mets mirrored their victories over the Braves the earlier two postseasons, an NL East-winning season felled by a wild card staff inside their division. They entered the low season with the purpose of remaking a lineup that chases an excessive amount of and doesn’t stroll sufficient, including beginning pitching depth and changing two priceless relievers, however with restricted roster flexibility due to the big-money contracts already on the books that largely prevented them from severely pursuing Juan Soto.
Greater than any staff in baseball, the Phillies have to win the World Sequence this 12 months. It’s loopy they haven’t throughout Harper’s sensible six-year run in Philly. After blowing a 2-1 lead within the 2022 World Sequence and a 3-2 NLCS lead with Video games 6 and seven at residence within the ‘23 NLCS, in addition to the information they’re operating out of prime seasons from Harper, Schwarber, Realmuto, Wheeler and Nola, no staff has extra urgency than the Phils.
New York Yankees
How can the Yankees, a staff that has received 41 pennants and 27 World Sequence, be the second-most determined staff to win all of it this 12 months? Effectively, it’s been a minute since their final one, in 2009 in opposition to the aforementioned Phillies. That’s an eternity within the Bronx, and after coming tantalizingly near ending their 15-year drought two months in the past, there’s a renewed starvation.
It’s going to be tough to return to the Fall Basic with out Soto, gone to the Mets in a dizzying free agent deal, and a core that, like Philadelphia’s, is skewing older. Aaron Choose will probably be 33 subsequent 12 months. Giancarlo Stanton will probably be 35. Gerrit Cole will probably be 34, as will Marcus Stroman, and Carlos Rodon will probably be 32. They’ve misplaced Clay Holmes in free company, and are hoping kids like Luis Gil, Jazz Chisholm, Jr., Austin Wells and Anthony Volpe can present a steady baseline because the staff explores Soto replacements.
In New York, expectations are at all times elevated, however will probably be much more so this 12 months.
San Diego Padres
Two years in the past, the Padres traded some unbelievable expertise in C.J. Abrams, James Wooden and MacKenzie Gore to the Washington Nationals for a season and a half of Soto. They reached the 2022 NLCS earlier than ultimately falling to the Phillies in 5 shut video games. In ‘23, with Soto nonetheless on the roster, they stumbled badly and didn’t make the playoffs after an 82-80 season, however bounced again final season with out Soto to a 93-69 report and one other wild card berth, solely to lose within the NLDS to their bitter intra-division rivals, the eventual world champion Dodgers.
The small market Padres have been spending massive the previous few seasons of their quest to deliver their first World Sequence title to San Diego, and can return a stellar lineup in 2025 that fell flat in final 12 months’s postseason. With Fernando Tatis, Jr., Manny Machado, Jake Cronenworth and Xander Bogaerts, the Friars already boast the bats. Dylan Stop and Michael King kind a dynamic top-two within the rotation, with Yu Darvish persevering with to pitch at a excessive degree as effectively.
The items are in place for this staff to succeed in their first World Sequence since 1998, nevertheless it’s honest to marvel how lengthy possession can proceed to pour $160-200 million into the roster of a small market staff. So, now’s the time for these investments to repay with a title.
New York Mets
The Mets and proprietor Steve Cohen positive are appearing like a determined group, however extra so as a result of Cohen is prepared to spend extra on his payroll than the income he generates, an outlier amongst MLB house owners. After signing Soto to his 15-year, $765 million contract and including free agent Clay Holmes to the beginning rotation, the Mets are attempting to reap the benefits of final 12 months’s shock run to the playoffs, their upset of the Phillies within the NLDS and eventual fall to the Dodgers within the NLCS.
The Mets have been a joke for the higher a part of the final seven years, ever since their run to the World Sequence again in 2015. They haven’t received a title since 1986 and, since that stretch, have had a fair proportion of hilariously terrible moments. However hastily, they’re an up-and-coming staff who noticed their spirited late-season blitz fizzle by the hands of a juggernaut Dodgers staff. They wish to ascend to the identical degree because the Dodgers and host a parade for the primary time in 38 years.
Regardless of including Soto, there’s extra work to do, nevertheless it’s clear Cohen is determined to do it and cement cult-like standing in Flushing whereas on the similar time rubbing his cross-city rival’s face in it.
As a Philadelphian, I can respect that.
Boston Pink Sox
It’s possible you’ll be asking your self, “The place have the Pink Sox been these previous few years?”
Don’t fear, Pink Sox followers have been asking themselves the identical query.
This low season, it appears as if somebody has shaken Boston’s entrance workplace awake, as evidenced by their reported $700 million supply for Soto and connection to just about each commerce candidate and free agent not nailed down. Their drought hasn’t been so long as a number of the others on this record, going again to simply 2018, however they’re appearing like a staff that’s a bit perturbed their hated rivals, the Yankees, acquired so shut final 12 months.
Boston has been a sleeping large who’s now lastly prepared so as to add, it appears, moderately than unload priceless property like Mookie Betts.
Milwaukee Brewers
Once you consider the perfect groups in baseball during the last seven years, you don’t typically consider Milwaukee, and but, they’ve reached the postseason in each season since 2018 apart from 2022. They’ve received back-to-back NL Central division crowns, three of the final 4 and 4 of the final seven, however of their final six postseason appearances (2019, ‘20, ‘21, ‘23 and ‘24), they didn’t even make it to the NLCS, not to mention the World Sequence.
One would assume developing quick that regularly would make the Brewers a fairly determined staff, however they sometimes work across the margins within the low season, generally even jettisoning standard managers to a division rival. The Brewers’ $114 million payroll final season ranked twenty first out of 30 groups, they traded away star pitchers like Corbin Burnes final low season and made no try to re-sign beginning shortstop Willy Adames, who signed a seven-year cope with the Giants this week.
The fanbase could also be extra determined than the possession, however this is a company that ought to have their pedal to the steel given how shut they really are to profitable a World Sequence.
Seattle Mariners
I’ll distill this down to at least one sentence.
The Seattle Mariners are the one staff in Main League Baseball that has by no means been to the World Sequence.
So even when they aren’t going all-in and rumored to be courting each free agent out there, they’ve a free-wheeling commerce service provider in GM Jerry DiPoto coupled with the very fact this staff has existed for practically half a century (47 years) and by no means as soon as even reached the Fall Basic. They’re in a winnable division and the reigning AL pennant winners simply misplaced Juan Soto, so the door is open if Seattle is prepared to spend some money this winter.
