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 looked at every division in an effort to analyze their best and worst-case scenarios for the 2025 season. We've already looked at the AL East, NL East, AL Central, NL Central, and AL West. Let's wrap up the series in baseball's mightiest division: the NL West.
Arizona Diamondbacks
Best-case scenario: With Corbin Burnes leading a revitalized staff and Corbin Carroll pressing for MVP status, the Diamondbacks emerge as the surprise team of the National League for the second time in three years.
Burnes, Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly combine for 55 wins and 475 innings, all with ERAs of 3.40 or better. Brandon Pfaadt emerges as a reliable No. 4 starter.
Carroll and Ketel Marte form an imposing one-two offensive punch, both topping a .300 average with an .850 OPS. Josh Naylor comes over from Cleveland to hit 30 homers and drive in 95 runs.
The D-Backs made a hard run at the Dodgers’ claim to the NL West title.
Worst-case scenario: Kelly and Pfaadt fail to improve on their track records, and the back-end of the bullpen struggles sans closer Paul Seawald.
The critical element, though, is Carroll, who struggles through a second consecutive mediocre season. With Carroll in a .250/.330/.400 funk, the Diamondbacks do all they can to battle the Giants for a distant third place in the division.
Most-likely scenario: Carroll bounces back, Burnes leads a strong rotation, Naylor, Eugenio Suarez, Geraldo Perdomo, Pavin Smith and Jake McCarthy all prove to be useful supplementary pieces, and Arizona is in the postseason picture right up to the end of the regular season.
Colorado Rockies
Best-case scenario: Somebody — maybe it’s Michael Toglia, maybe it’s Nolan Jones, maybe it’s Brenton Doyle — emerges as a team leader with long-term anchor potential.
The Rocks have been singularly unsuccessful in finding such an anchor piece. In recent years, they’ve given long-term deals to Kris Bryant, Kyle Freeland, Ryan McMahon, Ezequiel Tovar, and Antonio Senzatela, and to date none, save arguably for Tovar, have justified the team’s faith.
Worst-case scenario: Colorado has finished last for three straight seasons, and has topped 100 losses in two of those. There’s no discernible reason to expect either streak to change in 2025.
Most likely scenario: Colorado barely avoids a third straight 100-loss season, but that is small comfort for GM Bill Schmidt, who is finally let go at season's end.
Los Angeles Dodgers
Best-case scenario: Captain Obvious reporting for duty here. There’s only one best-case scenario for the talent-laden Dodgers, and that’s a repeat of their 2024 World Series championship.
The offseason additions of Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki do nothing to hurt that prospect, although truth-be-told, the holdover presence of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani, Tony Gonsolin, Clayton Kershaw and Dustin May make the signings of Snell and Sasaki sound a lot like gilding the lily.
Ohtani could win a fourth MVP and second straight, but why stop there? Who’s to say shortstop Mookie Betts or Freddie Freeman, both former winners, couldn’t win again? No team has ever swept the top three places in MVP voting; maybe that’s a goal for the 2025 Dodgers.
Worst-case scenario: To the extent the Dodgers have a weakness, this is it: Of their eight top projected starters this season, none threw more than 135 innings in 2025. That means on a daily basis, Dave Roberts is running out a five-inning guy, then trusting the rest of the game to his bullpen.
If that bullpen breaks down — and bullpens are notorious for breaking down — perhaps Los Angeles’s pitching plans get shaky. Then again, who are we kidding? These are the Dodgers; even if that sort of thing occurs, they'll just use their elite farm system to replenish the team come the trade deadline.
Most likely scenario. Since it is unthinkable that the Dodgers could miss postseason play for the first time since 2012, the only real question is how they do in the playoffs. The reality is that postseason series are basically crapshoots, meaning that, given a choice between taking the Dodgers or the field for the World Series trophy, I’d take the field. But it’s a close call.
San Diego Padres
Best-case scenario: This is the year when Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Jackson Merrill, Jake Cronenworth and Xander Bogaerts synch up their abundant talents in a grand, eloquent symphony.
With Michael King and Dylan Cease both producing All-Star seasons, the loss of Joe Musgrove to Tommy John surgery is barely noticed. Luis Arraez wins a fourth straight batting title, not that anybody notices.
The combination of that fully functioning offense and a pitching staff that leads the league in ERA transforms the Padres from a respected playoff contender into a juggernaut. They roll into the postseason as champions of the NL West.
Worst-case scenario: San Diego’s worst-case scenario involves only so-so seasons from Tatis, Bogaerts and Machado, a sophomore slump for Merrill, and the inability of Jason Heyward to replace the departed Jurickson Profar, who is missed more than anybody in San Diego anticipated. If things really turn sour, Cease and/or King is dumped in a salary-related move at the deadline.
But even that dire outcome still leaves the Padres in reasonable contention for the division’s runner-up spot and a repeat postseason appearance.
Most likely scenario: The Padres are deep and talented enough to lock up second in the NL West, win 90 games and reach October.
San Francisco Giants
Best-case scenario: The addition of Willy Adames gives the Giants enough of an offensive boost to elevate them above NL mediocrity. Tyler Fitgerald moves to second base and blossoms into a 25-homer guy. Heliot Ramos elevates his game to star-level in the outfield.
The loss of Blake Snell is hardly noticed because Robbie Ray returns to form after missing most of 2024, and Jordan Hicks matures under the tutelage of "unpaid" pitching coach Justin Verlander.
Inspired by new team President Buster Posey, the Giants make a run at 90 wins and a playoff spot.
Worst-case scenario: San Francisco had the league’s sixth-worst offense last season, and the addition of Adames changes that picture only modestly. Matt Chapman, now 32, discovers that his best days are behind him.
Logan Webb delivers his usual 200 innings and 3.40 ERA. But behind him, Ray, Hicks, Verlander and Kyle Harrison comprise a collection of has-beens and never-were's. The Giants’ pitching, roughly league-average last season, implodes. The result: 75 wins and gratitude that the Rockies are in the division so San Francisco has somebody to beat up on.
Most likely scenario: The addition of Adames is an obvious plus. Ramos and Fitgerald should be better. But it is asking a lot of Ray, Hicks and Verlander to produce starts at the level a contender needs. The Giants finish fourth with around 81 wins in a middling .500 sea