The 2025 MLB season is almost upon us! With less than one week to go before the Cubs and Dodgers do battle in Tokyo, each team is gearing up for the long, annual 162-game grind.
Each day this week at Call To The Pen, we'll take a look at every team in every division and analyze their best and worst-case scenarios for the 2025 season. We've already looked at the AL East, NL East, AL Central, and NL Central. Now, we'll head out west to the final division in the American League.
Athletics
Best-case scenario: The A’s got a lot of winter attention for their spending spree, which included signing free agent pitcher Luis Severino and extending 2024 rookie find Lawrence Butler. But their 2025 hopes probably ride with advancement from three lower-profile pitchers.
Left-hander J.P. Sears profiled as the team’s ace until Severino signed. He’s 29 with a lot of potential but he managed just an 11-13 record with a 4.38 ERA in 32 starts last season. Jeffrey Springs missed large chunks of 2024 with Tampa Bay, then came over in a trade.
Osvaldo Bido, also 29, was 5-3 with a 3.41 ERA in nine starts. The A’s can make big waves if and only if Sears, Springs and Bido produce around 90 combined starts in the 3.50 ERA range. They’re capable, but there are no assurances.
There are high expectations for an offensive core — Butler, Brent Rooker, J.J. Bleday, Shane Langeliers, Zack Gelof — that finished 12th in the league in runs per game last season. Butler’s numbers explain why: He slashed .211/.280/.406 over the season’s first half, but .300/.345/.553 in the second half.
Worst-case scenario: The sophomore slump bites Butler, Severino regresses to his 2023 form (6.65 ERA), and the rotation behind Severino fails to develop any reliable performers.
If that happens, the team’s best asset, closer Mason Miller, will be left with nothing to close. The A’s, losers of 307 games the last three seasons, will push 100 losses again.
Most likely scenario: The offense — thanks to All Star seasons from Butler and Brent Rooker — shows real growth. But Sears, Springs and Bido fail to give the rotation the uplift it needs behind Severino. The A’s are fun to watch but inconsistent, and probably doomed to third or fourth place.
Houston Astros
Best-case scenario: The Astros took a lot of offseason heat for stripping down their offense. But the pitching staff, fifth best in the AL last season, returns basically intact and experienced.
Care to bet against Framber Valdez matching his 15-7 record and 2.91 ERA in 28 starts from last year? Hunter Brown, Ronel Blanco and Spencer Arrighetti all grew into their assignments. And while Cristian Javier is out at least until mid-season recovering from shoulder surgery, the Kyle Tucker trade produced an interesting asset in Hayden Wesneski, who suffered from lack of opportunity and lack of support in Chicago.
Replacing Tucker and Alex Bregman will be a challenge, especially if first base pickup Christian Walker doesn’t bounce back from his spring oblique soreness. But any team with Yordan Alvarez as its offensive centerpiece has a chance.
The Astros have won four straight divisional titles and seven of the last eight. They don’t need many breaks to add to that string of dominance.
Worst-case scenario: It’s not difficult to write a scenario envisioning the collapse of the Astros. The plan is to replace Bregman and Tucker with Isaac Paredes and Chas McCormick. Is either player remotely up to that challenge?
Jake Meyers returns in center, where he hit .219 last season with no on base nor slugging skills of note. And what about those young pitchers, especially Arrighetti and Wesneski? Last season they combined to go 10-19 with a 4.31 ERA in just 207 innings. If they’re not up to the challenge of regular work, what then?
The answer: Probably non-contention, and a record around .500, making 2025 the least successful season in Houston in a decade.
Most likely scenario: The offense has lots of question marks. But the pitching — backed up by Josh Hader and Bryan Abreu in the bullpen — should be good enough to keep Houston in postseason contention in what figures to be a competitive division.
Los Angeles Angels
Best-case scenario: Here’s a best-case scenario for you. Mike Trout plays 150 games and gets 600 plate appearances. Granted, Trout hasn’t done that since 2019, but he’s healthy so far this spring and the shift to right field is designed to keep him that way.
At 28, Luis Rengifo becomes a breakout star, demonstrating that his .300/.347/.417 slash line in half a season last year was no fluke. Zach Neto’s spring injury proves to be only an annoyance as he develops into the team's shortstop of the future.
The Angels’ two veteran offseason pickups, Yusei Kikuchi and Kyle Hendricks, both enjoy a renaissance at ages 33 and 35 respectively. The Angels rebound from last place to push .500.
Worst-case scenario: Kikuchi and Hendricks, both of whom looked finished at times last season, prove that they are indeed done. That basically reduces the Angels staff to Tyler Anderson (10-15, 3.80 ERA), Jose Soriano (6-7, 3.42 ERA) and some prayers.
In this scenario, Trout, obviously, gets hurt, and offseason pickup Yoan Moncada does not return to his form of five years ago. The Angels spend the entire season continuing to wait patiently for Jo Adell to show what he has never shown: big-league ability. Result: another last place finish in the AL West.
Most likely scenario: The Angels’ modest hopes rise and fall with Trout’s availability. The smart money says half a season of productivity, and that’s not good enough. Hendricks and Kikuchi demonstrate why the Cubs and Astros let them walk to free agency, and it’s all about what the Angels can do to avoid last place.
Seattle Mariners
Best-case scenario: Two words… Julio Rodriguez. The 24-year-old centerfielder pushes 40 homers and an .850 OPS, by himself settling the offensive concerns that worry Mariners fans.
Rodriguez is joined in the .800 OPS club by Cal Raleigh and Randy Arozarena, who combine for 70 home runs and 190 RBIs.
With that reinvigorated offense, Seattle pitchers, who led AL in runs allowed per game in 2024, can flourish. Logan Gilbert, Luis Castillo and George Kirby win 45 games among them and the M’s roll to their first AL West title since 2001.
Worst-case scenario: Arozarena, Raleigh and Rodriguez all flounder home with OPS numbers right where they were last year, around .700.
With no place to turn for consistent production, Dan Wilson’s pitching staff becomes a largely wasted asset… good enough to keep Seattle hanging around .500, but that’s it. Last season, Rodriguez was the only Mariner regular to bat above .231; in 2025, that depressing statistic reprises.
Most likely scenario: Rodriguez steps into his natural leadership role, slugs .450 and plays a Gold Glove center field. Raleigh wins recognition as the AL’s best backstop, and the Mariners’ postseason hopes ride on a season-ending series against, of all teams, the Dodgers.
Texas Rangers
Best-case scenario: Jacob DeGrom stays off the injured list long enough to make 25 starts and — with Nathan Eovaldi — give Texas an imposing one-two.
Adolis Garcia overcomes preseason health concerns to put his .224 average from 2024 behind him. Marcus Semien and Corey Seager are their usual mid-infield selves, and the offense gets a needed boost when Evan Carter summons echoes of his 2023 late-season call-up, when he posted a .306 average and 1.058 OPS.
With Josh Jung healthy and productive at third, the Rangers field the dominant offense in the AL West, pull away in September, and win the division handily.
Worst-case scenario: DeGrom throws out his arm in April, forcing Bruce Bochy to fall back on untested kids (Kumar Rocker, Jack Leiter) to pick up the load. They’re not ready.
Closer Josh Sborz returns at the All-Star break from shoulder surgery, but by then, the bullpen is in tatters.
Garcia, listed somewhat facetiously at 205 pounds, once again can’t get his bat around that gut on the heat, raising a question about his fitness. The Rangers do all they can to hang around .500.
Most likely scenario: By now, a DeGrom injury is almost assumed, so at some point, the Rangers are going to be working with a stressed pitching staff.
Semien and Seager provide stable heart-of-the order offense. That leaves the team’s fate in the hands of Garcia, Carter and Jung. If they prosper, Texas can be a postseason contender.