The experts over at The Athletic have gathered ’round the proverbial roundtable to make their predictions for the 2025 MLB season and the results are in. The Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies are your World Series favorites, according to their preseason poll.
All 33 of the outlet’s MLB writers took part, giving their picks for team and individual honors in 2025. Overall, 14 out the 33 writers picked the Dodgers to repeat as World Series champions — not a majority, but the team with the most votes by far. An additional two more picked Los Angeles to win the National League pennant again.
After the Dodgers, no team received more than four votes (Red Sox) to win the World Series. The Braves and Phillies followed Boston with three votes each, while the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Mets each had two. The New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners each took a vote a piece.
Though the 2023 World Champion Rangers only had one vote to win it all in 2025, the team actually had 11 writers pick them to win the pennant. The Yankees, who won the pennant last year, entered spring training as American League favorites, but a rash of injuries, including to 2023 Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole, led to only three writers still believing in them.
Dodgers 2-way star Shohei Ohtani is the overwhelming NL MVP pick
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It’s hardly breaking news that the perceived best players in baseball all garnered picks to carry MVP honors in the AL and NL. In the National League, 18 of 33 writers — more than the amount who picked the Dodgers to win the World Series — believe Shohei Ohtani will be the NL MVP.
And why shouldn’t they? He’s already won the award three of the last four years, and he did it last year as a permanent DH. In 2025, he’s expected to return to the mound, where he has a career 3.01 ERA in 86 starts. No one expects him to have another 50-50 season next year while he’s also part of the rotation but at this point, why would we put anything past him?
In the American League, Kansas City Royals infielder Bobby Witt Jr., who finished second in MVP voting in 2024, also earned 18 votes from The Athletic staff. Witt also won the AL batting title with a .332 average and 211 hits last year as the Royals advanced to the ALDS. 2024 MVP Aaron Judge finished second to Witt with five votes.
Russell Steinberg covers Major League Baseball and the New York Liberty for ClutchPoints. A baseball and basketball lifer, he has written for Boardroom, SLAM, SB Nation, The Next, and more. He graduated from NYU in 2012 and still returns to serve as PA announcer and occasional broadcaster for the school’s basketball and volleyball teams.
