Written By: Trevor Filkins
Edited By: John Aidala
The MLB Offseason has provided quite some noise thus far. With Juan Soto joining the other New York team, Garrett Crochet and Walker Buehler to the Red Sox, Roki Sasaki and Blake Snell to the Dodgers, all highlight some of the seismic changes that have come to rosters. It will be interesting to see familiar faces in different places as players test their new threads in spring training.
Additionally, we will see our first spring training game take place between the Dodgers and Cubs this Thursday as they prepare for their opening series to take place in Tokyo. The MLB season is almost here and the harsh, bitter winter months are heading towards promising days of warmth. Spring is finally near and the sound of “Play Ball” is guiding us ever so forward through the last treks of the snow to a warm, cozy cabin filled with a snuggly fire. Next to that fire, let us take a look at the two teams (other than the overbearing Dodgers) that pushed themselves into the Championship push this off season.
Frankly, it is hard to believe that the Rangers were World Series Champs just two seasons ago. 2024 provided an injury stricken season that saw their roster fall apart beyond repair. With a net loss of 12 wins from their title-winning season the year prior, the Rangers look to become competitiors once again in the American League. The Rangers front office looked to make moves this off-season. They brought back their most reliable starter in Nathan Eovaldi.
Eovaldi will hopefully bolster their rotation for the upcoming season and provide a veteran presence for the abundance of young talent the Rangers possess. I view this as an excellent move to keep their solid rotation together. He will return to join fellow tenured starters in Jacob DeGrom and Jon Gray and help set an example for the younger Rangers' looking to show off their talent in Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter. Their rotation was already among the top 4 most valuable in 2024 should remain so in 2025, barring injury.
The weak points of the roster in 2024 for the Rangers, in addition to the substantial injuries they faced, was their relief pitching. They were middle of the pack at best. While they lost some of their staple guys in Grant Anderson, Kirby Yates, and former closer, Jose Leclerc this offseason, they made a valiant effort to replenish their subtactions. Chris Martin, Jacob Webb, Hoby Milner, Shawn Armstrong, and Robert Garcia will be making their way to the Lone Star State this year to put their best effort in creating a terrifying bullpen for their opponents. Milner and Garcia are going to be solid lefty bullpen arms among Armstrong, Martin and Webb, who are proven veteran righties. While I view this as already an improvement from last year in the bullpen, they still have the potential to resign David Robertson, who could a great way to round off the relief help.
The Rangers' front office did not put down the phones following the additions in the bullpen. The Rangers struggled to have an equilibrium at a few spots on the diamond, including the catching position. They lost mid-season acquisition Carson Kelly to the Cubs, but replaced him with an extremely solid Kyle Higashioka who can surely provide a solid backup to Jonah Heim. After losing their everyday first-basemen, Nathaniel Lowe to the Nationals this offseason, they wasted no time in signing two proven replacements in Jake Burger and Joc Pederson. Burger and Pederson both had underrated years and should be able to fill the hole that losing Lowe created. While Burger will probably take majority of the time at first base, Pederson will be a viable option at DH and can take some innings there. Pederson quietly put up a triple slash of .275/,393/,515 and I expect him to continue raking this season in Texas.
While the focus of this article has been on the additions and subtractions, the most important group of individuals may be the team's returners. With the return of Evan Carter after his breakout in the 2023 playoffs should give them an increase in outfield value alongside Wyatt Langford and Adolis Garcia. At the hot corner, Josh Jung could provide a highly reliable presence at the hot corner if the Rangers can get a full season out of him for 2025.
Looking outside of the Rangers organization, the landscape of the AL West appears to be weakening as divisional opponents through payroll moves or lack of involvement in the offseason all point as beneficial to Texas. All in all, the Rangers with their young lineup and experienced pitching staff, should be a legitimate competitor in the American League. Under the helm of future hall of fame manager Bruce Bochy, the Rangers should feel relatively positive about their ability to pursue their second World Series victory in three seasons.
Another team I view as winners in the offseason are the Chicago Cubs. Similar to the Rangers in the fact that they had a disappointing 2024 season, the Cubs hope to make 2024 forgetful with a dominant presence in 2025. Under the leadership of former Brewers' Manager, Craig Counsel hopes to have a much better season following in year two with the club. With the talent on their roster, I anticipated them to be in the running for the division. Instead, they found themselves 6 games shy of a Wild Card spot and wondering where the mighty have fallen.
In addition to having one of the best farm systems in the game, they made some pretty significant moves during the off-season. While the Cubs did end up losing some of their main stays in Cody Bellinger in a trade to the Yankees, Kyle Hendricks in free agency, and Isaac Paredes and Hayden Wesneski to the Astros in a trade, they worked dilligently to refine the roster. In that aforementioned trade with the Astros, they got the most underrated superstar in the league, in Kyle Tucker. An MVP caliber player for sure, the Cubs got themselves an aircraft carrier for their lineup. They sought out a way to get younger and replaced the aging Hendricks with 3 youthful guys in Cody Poteet, Colin Rea, and Matthew Boyd. All three have demonstrated glimpses of promise with their previous organization and could restore balance to the pitching staff.
The Cubs rotation is solid with guys at the top like Justin Steele and Shota Imanaga and middle rotation players such as Jameson Taillon and Javier Assad. The addition of the 3 guys mentioned before adds depth at the bottom with a young flamethrower in Ben Brown. The Cubs bullpen has been greatly bolstered with the additions of Eli Morgan, Caleb Thielbar, Ryan Brasier, and new back end veteran, Ryan Pressly. This will only help with their relief pitching woes on the closing end with already promising arms to fill the middle innings more as they get experience.
Some underrated signings in Jon Berti and Vidal Brujan will give the Cubs some utility guys to move around how they chose. Carson Kelly, could prove himself as one of the more valuable acquisitions of the team's offseason as they get one of the better overall catchers in the league. This should allow them to give Miguel Amaya days off. With Kelly joining the squad, the hope is to keep Amaya fresh at the plate with his new found approach that debuted in the latter half of 2024.
The Cubs currently have 7 prospects in the MLB Pipeline’s top 100. Six of these guys are primed to make their MLB marks this season, including Matt Shaw. An infielder who has dominated the minors the past two seasons, Shaw has the ability to step in as an everyday third baseman for the club come April. Pitcher, Cade Horton looks to rebound from injury and continue to display what is one of the best fastball-slider combinations in the game. Owen Caissie, another Cubs outfielder who has solid power, Moises Ballesteros a promising offensive catcher, and James Triantos, a versatile utility player who makes elite contact and creates havoc on the bases all could make lasting impacts on the Cubs' 2025 season.
Kevin Alcantara, the last of these 6, could be the next superstar in baseball. He has all the tools on top of his wiry 6’6” frame. Underneath everything, Craig Counsell sits in the wings ready to take these guys toward the promised land. His experience alone should be fruitful. The Cubs have a young superstar on their roster now, alongside plethora of emerging prospects full of promise. While the names might not necessarily blow you away, the Cubs play elite defense, run the bases well, and put the ball in play. They will win the hard fought, gritty games and focus on the fundamentals. That is what seperates playoff contenders from championship teams. This Cubs roster for 2025 is pretty damn solid and with the young reinforcements waiting backstage, Look out.