Note: the writing in this article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of bbfan.

+: Over .500
-: Under .500
#: Playoff Berth

AL East

Toronto Blue Jays +#
Baltimore Orioles +#
New York Yankees +
Tampa Bay Rays -
Boston Red Sox -

BAL - It is a very rare quiet offseason for a Bragan Kelly-owned team (which either means some insanity is going to happen in June-July or hell is indeed freezing over). But it is possible that they did not need to do that much. Grabbing Versailles Ellison and Abel Li from Boston were massive steals, and the team did not have much of a loss this offseason. Granted, our opinion will change on this team by July (may I remind you of the trade deadline before they stormed to the World Series and won it), but as of now, the Orioles are a very solid team with a pretty firm grasp on one of the two (or three) Wild Card spots at the very least.
BOS - The Red Sox listened to the Cha Cha Slide on a broken record where the only thing heard was “take it back now y’all”. There is no way around this. If the Red Sox lost .100 win percentage by trading Abel Li and Versailles Ellison, then trading Joubert, Odalis, Sam Aaberg, and Tyler Russell drop them even further. A majority of the team is suddenly with the Orioles, Blue Jays, or Nationals. While every other team in the division either improved or stayed put, the Red Sox have dropped from a dynasty to what might be the worst team in the division. Now, why is this happening...the players remaining, the players traded, and the public may never know, but they better hope that the other four teams in this division don’t win the World Series in the next four years.
NYY - For all the pain and suffering Yankee fans that haven’t migrated to Queens have had to endure, this is probably the best team that they have fielded since that short-lived 2025 dream season. For starters, they finally have a pitching staff talent-wise that isn’t in the range of painfully average to vomit-inducing. Second, most of the young talent that they have developed since 2035 is starting to develop. Finally, they are still just one Pavesi breakout season away from having some fun at the ballpark offensively. Are they better than the Blue Jays and Orioles? Probably not. But do they have a very good shot at the second wild-card spot and a definite chance at a potential third wild card? Absolutely.
TB - The Rays are another team that has only gone up. For the past three years, they have had the definite best farm system in baseball, and that system is close to bursting on the scene. The only question is...is this team the one that has their London year, breaking endless years of suffering with a 90 win season and a postseason berth? With a third spot, it’s a possibility, but if we actually see some of this youth this season (ahem Perras), there is a very good chance. Whatever the case may be, there is hope for the Rays.
TOR - The Blue Jays took the unconventional approach of extending everyone under the roof a year early, which is certainly leading to their bloated payroll. But it’s well deserved, and considering the state of the Red Sox, well-timed. Most of their team, ESPECIALLY Braden Moore and Taylor Lyles, are just one breakout season away, and if you combine that with Zan Heikki’s gift to Canadians and Remigio Joubert’s usual production, you have yourself a division winner. It’s also a somewhat good sign when you have positional conflicts at three different spots.

AL Central

Minnesota Twins +#
Kansas City Royals +
San Antonio Bandits -
Chicago White Sox -
Detroit Tigers -

CWS - To say that the White Sox have not improved would be a complete lie. There is no way you can acquire a back-to-back MVP and a potential Cy Young candidate and say that the world is falling apart. The problem is...that’s all the White Sox really have. Barring a miracle in his progression, Roy Lake receiving the highest guaranteed paycheck among all Type B players is a massive overpay. After Kelly, Esparaza, and Brady Smith (and potentially Lake and Trevor Shields), the White Sox are simply put together with below average to slightly above average players, which isn’t enough for the Twins or Royals and certainly not enough to compete with the other nine potential contenders in the other two divisions. It’s stepping in the right direction, but not enough for me to believe that they will storm back to relevancy.
DET - Well...it’s not the complete dumpster fire that it was just two years ago if that. Esjay will look to storm into the big leagues with confidence, Njall Huber’s breakout season should continue to put him on the map, and Patrick Bacon is easily the best starting pitcher this team has had in a while. However, just looking at the history of this team’s abysmal coaching staff, I would not expect much.
KC - By some godly miracle, trading the world for 20 Rule 5 picks, attempting to have Juan Tucker on a big-league roster, trading one of the best pitching talents in the world, and picking not Cooper Kershaw with the number one pick led the Royals to just their second season at or above .500 since 2024. And admittedly, despite a clear indication that the team overperformed last year, there is nothing that indicates that they got that much worse. Sure, there is the chance that their outfield might be the worst defensive outfield not including the Giants, but they should hit well enough to offset that a little bit. And even then, pitchers — including Cameron Ulrich — found a way to pitch well despite a small ballpark and a significantly worse defensive. I wouldn’t expect a postseason appearance — that field has dramatically improved — but I will expect a better season than last year.
MIN - The Twins had a decent offseason, gaining Dean Honeycutt but losing Takadora Dodo in the process after going back to the dance after giving the league a two-year break. The youth that they brought up last year (Lucas Monroe) proved to be reliable last year and will continue to get better. The prized acquisition in the 2034-35 offseason in LaQuaveon Demontravous is looking to become one of the best in baseball, and Kayode has surprisingly developed a bat in the last four years. Their rotation certainly lost an arm in Dodo, but their defensive, still rather elite, will look to make up for some of the holes in their staff. Long story short, if their only competition is the Royals in the division, expect the Twins to lock that up easily.
SA - Among the bean 7, the Bandits may have taken the biggest natural hit from 2038 to now. The team was already running out of breath after early postseason exits, and after a trade deadline that saw Simon Bartley traded away, the team missed the entire thing. If not for the signing of Takadora Dodo, the Bandits would have looked that much worse. The offense is not as lethal as it once was (and likely wouldn’t be anyway after stadium changes), and after Dodo, the Bandits will rely on Robert Lake, who has not been the same since leaving Boston, and Gilmore, who has quietly been named an All-Star the last three years, but could be on the way down. The Bandits haven’t tanked to the bottom of the division, but it would be very hard to find 80 wins for San Antonio.

AL West

Vancouver Vespers +#
Texas Rangers +#
Anaheim Angels +#
Seattle Mariners +
San Jose A's -

ANA - The Angels got the prize of the offseason in Randall Rosenthal and paired him up with a team that has gradually and very quietly built a solid team with aspirations to win now. Rosenthal and La Vonn Bryant just talent-wise is a one-two ace rotation that no one in their right mind wants to face, and that’s ignoring the rest of a loaded staff. Offensively, they will do just fine as long as Devon Navarro and Ahmad Guerrero continue existing and Johan Fernandez and Dakarai Opeyemi get back to crushing. The only sour note on this team is just a slightly above-average defense, but if you can get great results from the two aces without it, we might have a legit contender on our hands.
SEA - I’m not one to say that the Mariners took their World Series Championship and turned it into Netflix saying “are you still watching?” for the next year, but goodness did the Mariners fall off. And yes, Ivone Simoes has come into the fray and all the young talent continues to get better, but what was a strength for them has now turned into a meh point. Maybe there’s too much weight being put into the near 11 game collapse and very early postseason exit in the dance they barely made, this is a somewhat deteriorated team from last year, and it’s certainly not doomsday, but they didn’t exactly mark their stamp on a division that substantially improved this offseason.
SJ - The truth is, there is no way to truly predict this Athletics team. It is very possible that they storm their way to the top of the division, but also possible that they fall victim to a strong division like the Phillies. Make no mistake, that offense in that ballpark is going to go crazy, but a now young rotation and a pretty mediocre bullpen (at best) pitching in front of a defense that is somewhat hindered because of their two stars does not bode well. As of now, I would predict a last-place finish for the Athletics, but certainly not for a lack of trying.
TEX - The past ownership spent exactly four years burning bridges and tearing down the organization just for new people to come in and put the Rangers in a much better position than they have been in the last 18 years. A very tough division only got tougher with the Rangers’ rather electric offseason, turning a team that finished better than expected and still underperformed into a future powerhouse. The only thing that still staggers behind is their rotation, but with a rather dominant defense (sans Ford Sweat) and a pretty star-studded three-headed monster in the bullpen that can ALL go two or more innings, that may be a moot point. This isn’t the year where they will leap to World Series contention, but they put themselves much closer this offseason.
VAN - Assuming everything goes perfectly with the division, it is leaning towards the Vancouver Volcanoes—er, Vespers—being the best team in the division. They’re probably the third or fourth-best offensive team by default, but they’re also the best all-around team in the division. They have speed, they have offense, they have defensive, and they have a staff that is starting to come around in terms of statistics. The only issue here is the potential that a very young team that has gone through struggles starts to struggle again in a ridiculously loaded division, but in a perfect world, the Vespers are winning this division, and even then, they should be a postseason team for the first time since 2032.

NL East

New York Mets +#
London Lions +#
Washington Nationals +
Philadelphia Phillies -
Atlanta Braves -

ATL - The Braves quite literally did absolutely nothing but call up some prospects. That’s the entirety of their offseason in a division where that should NOT be the entirety of your offseason. Sure, they got themselves Jarred Foster, and sure, maybe there’s a breakout season on the horizon for Kanebayashi Seikon and the rotation, and sure maybe the bullpen is looking nice, but that’s not enough in the NL East, and while the Braves aren’t completely done (this is still a young ass team), it was certainly not ideal to be as quiet as they were.
LON - The Lions broke a two-and-a-half-decade-long misery trip by winning 90+ games and making the Wild Card Game (and losing, but alas, still the playoffs). If you look at their current roster situation, they are damn near bringing back the same team minus Roy Lake. But this is also a young team, one that is still waiting for Brinley Quinlan and Calum Cossiart to burst onto the scene. If the same team runs out there AND they find some sort of potential with Myron Butts AND get something from Demarius James AND have the same rotational success that almost produced a Cy Young Award winner, (we have said this a million times about a million teams but) the Mets will really be turning their necks. As of now, expect the Lions to be a solid Wild Card team.
NYM - Now with that all said about the Lions, the Mets are pretty much in Patriots territory, where you might have lost your mind if you doubt the mind of Sam Fuld and the Megamind office staff. It is very rare that a team loses an everyday second baseman, one of their center fielders, their second-best reliever, and misses out on the top starter on the market and could still be considered title contenders. But it’s also not every day that a team signs an overlooked third baseman turned DH and that same player decides to shatter every single record as a rookie. Listen, at the end of the day, the Mets are the smartest team in baseball, and betting against them would be like betting against the three absolutes.
PHI - I could not tell you how this team in a similar construction to the previous season finished with the fourth overall pick and missed the postseason for the first time since DaBaby dropped KIRK, but I can tell you this: we could have seen the latter part happening. We knew they were not better than the Mets, our Lions ranking was only because of PTSD, and who knew that making 103 moves in two seasons would lead to absolutely nothing! The Phillies will rebound to NOT have one of the worst records in baseball, there is just too much talent on this team for that to happen again. But as for making the postseason in 2039...well, with the improvements this division has made, that’s a bit of a long shot.
WAS - The Washington Nationals completely overhauled their team last offseason after doing the same the previous offseason, only to give up on half of their acquisitions after the cold month of April. Just one player from the 2037 roster that isn’t attached to the franchise by a no-trade clause is still around (Wesley Lewis), and unlike the Cardinals when they were peeving off half the league, this sort of movement has not produced anything but very angry players and some sort of hope for Nationals fans. This year was a much more tame offseason in comparison, but they are left with a team that is 1) old, and 2) probably good enough to finish over .500 (assuming Nationals Park isn’t shipped to San Diego with everyone in it by then), but not good enough to overtake a wild card spot.

NL Central

St. Louis Cardinals +#
Houston Astros +#
Cincinnati Reds +#
Pittsburgh Pirates -
Chicago Cubs -

CHC - The Cubs did what the Cubs do best: marinate. And they somehow managed to offset trading for Dylan Teixiera (and Lloyd Bishop) by trading away Carey Dorsey and letting *checks notes* Andreas Lin, ANDREAS LIN, be the ace of the club. That does not even consider peeving off the only star that the team has signed in the last 10 years so much that she decided to decline a whole lotta money guaranteed to get out of there. If the Cubs finish anywhere but fifth in the division, then I don’t know what to say anymore.
CIN - The Cardinals’ second World Series trip in two years almost didn’t happen because of this team, the Cincinnati Reds. Hampered by a slow finish, the Reds looked to improve on an 86 win season from last year, and on paper, they have done so. Don Mueller was their cheap shortstop, allowing Zyskowski to move around the field. They also got Mike Harrison and Demetrio Musil to join Max Malendez in the back of a very good bullpen. And, of course, they have a rotation that hasn’t even scratched the surface of their potential (well okay, maybe Freddie Bates). What will happen to this team AFTER this year is a very scary proposal, but as for this year, there is a good chance we see the Reds return to the postseason, and I would almost guarantee it if a third Wild Card team is added to the fray.
HOU - Unlike the Red Sox, who clearly have some sort of motive that has not been made public, not a SOUL knows what Houston is doing in the post-scandal era. To summarize, they traded a former back-to-back MVP and future Cy Young for someone they’re going to have to pay next year anyway, traded another former Cy Young candidate in-division, let their once franchise shortstop (or third baseman) go, and replaced those pieces with the uber talents of Rich McBride and Alex Blytheforth. Also unlike the Red Sox, the Astros didn’t completely decimate the team and still have a very good chance at the number one wild card, which makes this offseason for Houston even more confusing.
PIT - The Pirates’ big free-agent signing in Tadakatz Honda is great until you realize what the rotation is behind him and that the tutelage of Matt Kemp is haunting the defense. Pittsburgh is stuck, partially by the Astros and Cardinals grapple hold of the division, mainly by a lack of any change of what has not worked in the last 13 years, but also damn near stuck in place in the field at every position that’s not shortstop. This is going to be another struggle o
STL - Us baseball experts are holding back praising the life out of this Cardinal offense due to their move to a very pitcher-friendly ballpark where we know how that has not helped the Cubs in any capacity. But if they can somehow pull a reverse-Red Sox (offense stellar in a pitcher-friendly park), things are looking proud. A full season of Samen Nikolai, Jared Martin, and Junior Gonzalez hitting back-to-back-to-back while getting the pitching boost to Alex C. Smith, Aaron Bradshaw, and Macaulay Bellamy (oh, and Adrian Larson). What the Cardinals did NOT, or barely, addressed is a bullpen that may have single-handedly cost them the World Series last year, but I am willing to believe that the other part of the team is good enough to offset that for at least the regular season.

NL West

Las Vegas Gamblers +#
Los Angeles Dodgers -
Arizona Diamondbacks -
San Diego Padres -
San Francisco Giants -

ARI - Well...if anything, an offense that includes Ellison Jr., Childs, Filipowski, and Fyodrov is a pretty damn good offense. The problem with this team: aside from Ellison (by range) and Andrews (and Hobson if he starts), this is not a good defensive team at all, and that is not going to play well with a rotation that routinely underperforms. If Childs is going to be the starting center fielder again, it is wrapped, let’s go home. Of course, there is the chance that the rotation magically rises above a shoddy defense and becomes league average or better, but until then, this is just a slightly better than mediocre team compared to the Gamblers and Dodgers.
LAD - The Dodgers will tell you that they improved a lot, and they did...except in the rich man Cubs way. Sure, they attacked the free-agent market, but it was mainly the older players on one-year deals. Granted, Ian Rose is a big upgrade, their offense could turn into a launching pad with the addition of Benito Harris and Haven Fielder, and Carmen Jackson could have his big breakout year in the Chavez Ravine, but is that enough to capture the division (and relevancy) in this division? I don’t know. There is a lane where they DO storm the NL West and capture it easily, that is certainly a possibility, but as of now, a couple of games above .500 is a reasonable projection.
LV - The Gamblers, by default, are the best team in the division (which is a long time coming, but I think they’ll take it). It’s not like they’re riding off the tails of what is the worst division in baseball; they got better with the acquisition of JJ Yackley and the signing of Nolan Perez alone. They also slightly underperformed last year and certainly would have taken the division from the Giants if not for that. Again, the thing that will stop this team is the ballpark factors that have TERRORIZED pitchers for years and in the last few years haven’t helped their offense. That said, true talent-wise, they are likely the division winners and might (heavy might) be able to hit the 90 win plateau.
SD - The Padres might be the worst run team in baseball. After a decent season relative to other seasons that this ownership has led, San Diego took their gift of a budget from season goals and spent it on...oxygen. It has gotten so bad in San Diego that the one move they made to attempt to improve ended with the player retiring, it’s THAT bad. If not for the final team in this division, I am almost positive that this would be the worst team in the division, and certainly one of the worst in baseball.
SF - All you need to do is take one look at this team’s depth chart and hit the under on whatever their win total is projected to be, even if it’s zero. If you put this roster in a division with the Rays’ farm, the Astros farm circa 2036, and the Mets’ and Yankees’ spring training rosters, they would still finish dead last by a mile. This might be the worst team based on talent that baseball has seen in the last 30 years, and if this team doesn’t end up with the worst record of all-time, I would legitimately be shocked.

Postseason

AL

1. Toronto Blue Jays
2. Vancouver Vespers
3. Minnesota Twins
WC #1: Texas Rangers
WC #2: Baltimore Orioles
WC #3: Anaheim Angels

NL


1. New York Mets
2. St. Louis Cardinals
3. Las Vegas Gamblers
WC #1: Houston Astros
WC #2: London Lions
WC #3: Cincinnati Reds

WC Series:

AL: ANA @ MIN → MIN
BAL @ TEX → BAL
NL: CIN @ LV → CIN
LON @ HOU → LON

Reseeding: TOR, VAN, BAL, MIN/NYM, STL, LON, CIN

ALDS: MIN @ TOR → TOR
BAL @ VAN → BAL

NLDS: CIN @ NYM → NYM
LON @ STL → STL

LCS

ALCS: BAL @ TOR → TOR

NLCS: STL @ NYM → STL

World Series: STL @ TOR → TOR

Credit to the Cardinals, just four years ago, they were burning bridges like we were past the need for industrialization and making the entire baseball world angry. Nowadays, they easily have the most exciting player in baseball in Samen Nikolai, one of, if not, the presumptive best player in baseball in Jared Martin, and a pretty good squad that, more importantly, does not confide to defense and pitching only. Unfortunately, despite making their third consecutive World Series, it will not be enough, because Toronto has a LOT of talent that should get them back to the World Series, and in a seven-game series, I believe that Toronto’s roster holds up much better than the Cardinals. I would expect the Blue Jays to win the first world series in a post-bean era, with the Cardinals taking them to a very fun seven games.

(Annual Cubs Lack of Championship Counter: 131 years, good lord)

(Indians/Bandits Championship drought is also 91 years old, but at least that still has a chance of being broken sometime soon.)