According to the splendid brainboxes at The Athletic, the Dodgers are the popular pick to win the 2025 World Series, receiving 14 of the 33 votes cast. That seems reasonable. However, you may be surprised to learn which team received the second-most votes to capture the Piece of Metal™ this season . . . the Boston Red Sox (81-81 last season)
First, the breakdown of predictions for the American League pennant: Texas 11, Red Sox 9, Orioles 6, Yankees 3, Royals 2, Mariners 1, Astros 1. (The Athletic notes: "All of those Red Sox votes, by the way, came from writers based outside of Boston.")
National League Champs: Dodgers 16, Atlanta 5, Mets 5, Phillies 4, Diamondbacks 2, Padres 1. (Sorry, Central Division.)
World Series Winner: Dodgers 14, Red Sox 4, Atlanta 3, Phillies 3, Diamondbacks 2, Mets 2, Orioles 1, Texas 1, Mariners 1, Padres 1, Yankees 1.
Who were these four bold and insightful prognosticators?
Andrew Baggarly: Red Sox over MetsAnd the five slightly less bold crystal-ball gazers:
Dennis Lin: Red Sox over Dodgers
Eno Sarris: Red Sox over Atlanta
Cody Stavenhagen: Red Sox over Mets
Brittany Ghiroli: Mets over Red SoxOther predictions:
Zack Meisel: Phillies over Red Sox
Chandler Rome: Phillies over Red Sox
Will Sammon: Dodgers over Red Sox
Sahadev Sharma: Padres over Red Sox
AL Cy Young: Garrett Crochet 10, Logan Gilbert 8, Tarik Skubal 8 . . .AL MVP: Bobby Witt Jr. 18, Aaron Judge 5, Gunnar Henderson 3 . . .AL ROY: Jackson Jobe 14, Kristian Campbell 6 . . . Marcelo Mayer 1, Roman Anthony 1 . . .
NL MVP: Shohei Ohtani 18, Mookie Betts 5, Juan Soto 3 . . .
NL Cy Young: Zack Wheeler 14, Paul Skenes 12, Corbin Burnes 4 . . .
NL ROY: Roki Sasaki 15, Dylan Crews 9 . . .
ESPN wonders if the Yankees can "bounce back" from their historic World Series choke last October? (Boone: "I feel like it's going to sting forever." I certainly hope so.) In case you don't recall all of the wonderful details . . . and there were many . . . It. Was. Super. Fucking. Awesome. LOL!
All six of the Boston Globe writers picked the Red Sox to make the postseason for the first time since 2021, with three of them predicting an AL East title for the first time since 2018. But how far will the Hub Hose go?
Peter Abraham: Red Sox win East; lose ALCS G7 to Tigers; MFY miss postseason.
Chad Finn: Red Sox win East; lose ALCS to Texas.
Dan Shaughnessy: Red Sox win East. ["Will [John Henry] like me now?" . . . I wouldn't wager even a fucking dime on that.]
Alex Speier, Tara Sullivan, and Christopher L. Gasper all predict the Red Sox will win a wild card spot but not make it to the ALCS. Speier says the team is finally "at a point where they are rightly expected to reach the playoffs . . . their core talent is good enough to get to October".
Five Globers pick the Dodgers to repeat as World Series champions, defeating the Tigers (PA), Guardians (CLG), Orioles (DS), Royals (AS), Texas (CF)). TS goes with Mets over Texas.
CHB says, if his pick proves true, it would be "[r]evenge for the 1966 World Series". Would it, Dan, really? 59 years later?
Dan was 13 during that WS. He'll be seventy-fucking-two this summer. One week after the Orioles finished sweeping the Dodgers (with three consecutive shutouts), I celebrated my third birthday.
What I'm trying to say is, that was a long fucking time ago. Shohei Ohtani is in his early 30s. Were his parents even born by 1966? . . . It turns out they were, but it's close. An article from late 2017 states his father is 55 and his mother is 54, so they were born in 1962 and 1963, respectively.)
I learned the following from Yahoo Sports' five "MLB experts" — Jake Mintz, Jordan Shusterman, Russell Dorsey, Jack Baer and Jason Owens:
Three pick the Red Sox to win the AL East, with the other two tagging the Orioles (and picking Boston as a wild card team). All five pick the Yankees to win a wild card spot.
Dorsey picks the Red Sox to win the AL pennant, but lose the WS to the Dodgers. WS winners: Dodgers (3), Atlanta (1), and Phillies (1).
Crochet gets a Cy Young nod. Kristian Campbell and Roman Anthony get picked as ROY. Trevor Story is a pick for AL Comeback Player.
The five (in the order listed above) weigh in on the Dodgers' win total (108-109-105-104-103) and Ohtani HRs (45-44-43-36-45).
Four of the five say the Mets will finish with a better record than the Yankees. Shusterman rejects the schadenfreude.
Both Athlon and Lindy's pre-season magazines pick the Red Sox for third in the AL East.
The Red Sox will win the AL East, according to four of the five CBS Sports scribes. The Yankees get one pick for second place, and four picks for third.
Mike Axisa: Any margin of error the Yankees had coming into 2025 is gone now that they've lost Gerrit Cole for the year, Luis Gil for at least two months, and Giancarlo Stanton for who knows how long. . . . The Red Sox are the division's most improved team thanks to Garrett Crochet and Alex Bregman, and I love their offense. They have contact, they have power, they have speed. And also an excellent farm system they can use to upscale their roster . . .
Kate Feldman: I liked the Yankees' offseason. . . . But they needed to do more. Max Fried was a good pickup but all of a sudden he needs to be an ace with Gerrit Cole out for the year. They still don't have a third baseman. Are we supposed to think Aaron Judge can just carry an entire offense again? The Red Sox opened the winter by trading for Garrett Crochet and finished it by signing Alex Bregman. . . .
Dayn Perry: [T]he Red Sox have the most balanced roster and increasing levels of upside as the impressive young talent trickles in. I don't feel strongly about this pick, though. If the O's had done anything more to address the rotation, they'd be my easy pick here.
Matt Snyder: I think this is the strongest division in baseball, top to bottom. I thought my Red Sox pick would be an outlier, but instead several of us agree. I really like the look of their roster and they always seem to play above their heads anyway.
They do? Always?!?
Feldman picks Boston to win the AL pennant, but has them losing to the Mets. The other four WS picks are Dodgers (2) and Phillies (2).
I looked at SportsNet New York (SNY), because it's NY-based and has 14 contributors.
Red Sox: 7 division titles, 4 wild cards (picked by 11 of 14)
Yankees: 5 division titles, 9 wild cards (picked by all 14)
Six SNYers picked the Red Sox and Yankees to meet in the ALCS, because if both clubs are playing in October, how could you not? Fun Fact: All six picked the Red Sox to win the pennant!
ALCS: Red Sox win 8 of 9, Yankees win 1 of 8.
World Series: Red Sox win 2 of 8, Yankees lose 1 of 1.
Garrett Crochet got five picks as AL Cy Young and one person thought Rafael Devers would win AL MVP.
Mookie Malaise. Mookie Betts should be in the Dodgers' lineup today despite losing almost 20 pounds during a "long ordeal with a mystery illness". Betts is expected to be the Dodgers' shortstop this year (after playing right field and second base in previous seasons). Before his illness, Betts "had opened eyes in camp, showing a level of comfort at the position". Forget about playing all nine positions in one game, what about playing entire seasons at each position?
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