New Year’s reasons for hope for MLB’s worst teams: Better health, breakout prospects and more wishes in 2025

The year 2025 is upon us, and each time a new year is upon us we foolishly entertain quixotic hopes for a better tomorrow. The blighted teams of Major League Baseball are not spared from these exercises in self-delusion, and we are now here to help them. 

Last season, 12 teams had losing records for the year, and that makes them the 12 teams most in need of emotional uplift. Below you’ll find one plausible and lovingly curated cause of hope assigned to each of these 12 losing teams. All of this of course does not guarantee better fortunes for the year to come, but to make it through the day you must first make it through the night. Something like that. Now let us meekly proceed from bad to worst of all.

San Francisco Giants (80-82)

It remains to be seen how competent the Giants’ new-ish front office is, but in every change atop baseball operations is found some degree of forward-looking hope. That’s what’s going on in San Fran, as franchise legend Buster Posey replaced the deposed Farhan Zaidi back in October as the franchise’s lead baseball decision-maker. That was after Posey took the lead in negotiating Matt Chapman’s extension (certainly a tell that change was on the way). This offseason, Posey has most notably signed free-agent shortstop Willy Adames to a nine-figure free-agent contract. The history of former star players as execs is a mixed bag to say the least, but for now change is no doubt welcomed by Giants fans and animates their hopes for the future.  

Tampa Bay Rays (80-82)

The Rays are saddled with perhaps MLB’s worst owner (non-John Fisher division) in Stuart Sternberg, who much prefers chasing corporate welfare for a new ballpark to doing the basics of his job (i.e., investing in the roster at anything approaching adequate levels). Luckily for Rays fans, the front office has long been a pace-setter when it comes to doing more with less and developing talent. That front office, long an incubator for some of the game’s top execs, remains the leading hope for the Rays. It takes that to overcome an owner who doesn’t care about winning. As well, top prospect Carson Williams may make his way to the majors at some point this upcoming season. Williams checked in at No. 5 on our R.J. Anderson’s most recent list of MLB’s top prospects. The Rays also figure to benefit from a number of starting pitchers returning from injury in 2025. 

Texas Rangers (78-84)

Regardless of how you look at it, the Rangers were one of the most injured teams in the league this past season. Spotrac, for instance, estimates that the Rangers in 2024 lost almost $100 million in player salary to the injured list, the highest total in MLB by a wide margin. Losing time to injury in 2024 were big names like Corey Seager, Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Josh Jung, Evan Carter, Wyatt Langford, Nathan Eovaldi, Jon Gray, and others. In large measure, that’s how the Rangers tumbled from the belt and title in 2023 to a losing season in 2024. The good news is that things are almost bound to improve this season, and Texas may be the consensus favorite in the AL West. The signing of Joc Pederson also helps matters. 

Cincinnati Reds (77-85)

Are the Reds poised for a step forward in 2025? That’s a reasonable question to ask. The National League Central looks like a highly winnable circuit, and the Reds have the young core to get it done – Elly De La Cruz, Hunter Greene, and a back-from-injury Matt McLain, among others. All of that is why our Mike Axisa named the Reds as the most likely team to pull off a 2024 Royals act and nudge their way into the playoffs. Having a future Hall of Famer in Terry Francona as the new skipper doesn’t hurt matters.

Pittsburgh Pirates (76-86)

Franchise legend Andrew McCutchen is back for his age-38 season, and this could be his final ride. It’s of course fitting that he’s back in a Pirates uniform for a 12th season with the franchise that first drafted him back in 2005. Elsewhere, Pirates fans can look forward to a full season of young ace Paul Skenes. Skenes, 22, is coming off a rookie campaign in which he put up a 5.9 WAR in just 23 starts and 133 innings. For his efforts, he finished third in the NL Cy Young balloting. He didn’t get called up until the second week of May, which, to repeat, means 2025 will be his first wire-to-wire campaign in the bigs (assuming health, of course). Is he the Cy Young favorite for 2025 in the NL? Is he already the best pitcher in baseball? Those questions can be plausibly asked, which is cause for baseball hope in the Steel City. 

Toronto Blue Jays (74-88)

The best hope for a bounceback season in Toronto can be found in the middle infield. First, there’s the recent trade acquisition of Andrés Giménez. Giménez is an excellent base-runner and one of the best defensive second basemen in all of baseball. No, he doesn’t project as an impact hitter, but his overall package of value should move the needle for the Jays. Elsewhere, there’s shortstop Bo Bichette. He’s coming off the worst offensive season of his career, but his larger track record suggests a rebound is likely. Last season, Bichette put up an OPS+ of just 71 in 336 plate appearances. Coming into 2024, however, Bichette had a career OPS+ of 126 in more than 2,300 plate appearances. The Jays, no doubt, are betting on the much larger body of work to win out. 

Washington Nationals (71-91)

You could certainly cite the presence of three highly promising young hitters in CJ Abrams, James Wood, and Dylan Crews. Instead, though, we’ll note that the Nats will have the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft. Yes, the Nats prevailed in the Draft Lottery earlier in the offseason. Coming in, they had just a 10.2% chance of snagging the top pick, and the Marlins, Rockies, and Angels all had better odds. D.C., though, pulled off the upset, and they’ll be making the top overall pick for the first time since 2010, when they snagged Bryce Harper. It’s far too soon to project whom they’ll take, but Ethan Holliday, the other ballplaying son of former big-league slugger Matt Holliday, is one to watch.

Athletics (69-93)

Hey, they’ve actually spent on the free-agent market. The A’s this winter committed $67 million to right-handed starter Luis Severino, and believe it or not – actually it’s probably not that hard to believe – it’s the largest contract in franchise history. They also signed infielder Gio Urshela and traded for starter Jeffrey Springs. No, this isn’t some moral awakening on the part of owner/saboteur John Fisher. Rather, the A’s are obligated by rule to spend more because of their incoming revenue-sharing check. In other words, the A’s are simply trying to avoid having a grievance filed against them. That’s hardly inspiring stuff, but whatever A’s fans remain in the world will take it.

Los Angeles Angels (63-99)

Health for superstar and future Hall of Famer Mike Trout has proved depressingly elusive in recent years. Thanks to various and sundry injuries, Trout hasn’t managed to play in 140 games in a season since 2018. He’s coming off a 2024 campaign in which he was limited to just 29 games and 126 plate appearances because of knee problems that eventually required surgery. Going into his age-33 campaign in 2025, Trout has bowed to realities. In September, the long-time center fielder said this: 

“I think everything’s on the table. Ultimately, my goal is to be in that batter’s box, in the field every single day. Whether that’s moving to a corner or DHing more, I’ll leave it up to the front office to come up with a plan. Where I’m at and what’s happened the last few years, I’m definitely going to try to explore every option that can keep me out there.”

And therein lies hope for the often hopeless Halos. We know that Trout can still hit when healthy – he had 10 homers and an OPS+ of 140 in those 29 games last season. Yes, this means the most to the Angels, but really everyone should be rooting for a healthy Mike Trout moving forward. Maybe a less taxing defensive assignment – or no defensive assignment at all as a DH – will help that happen. 

Miami Marlins (62-100)

Maybe the teardown is over or almost over? Things could get worse in the standings, as Miami seems ripe for a second-straight 100-loss season, but lead decision-maker Peter Bendix has just about dealt away all his alluring pieces, what with the recent swaps of Jake Burger and Jesús Luzardo. Maybe they shop ace Sandy Alcantara leading up to the 2025 trade deadline provided his comeback from Tommy John surgery goes as expected. Or maybe there’s a market for him before then. Whatever the case, the focus can shift to developing the young talent that’s been on-boarded via all those trades. And if Alcantara, the 2022 NL Cy Young winner, is traded, then he might fetch the biggest haul of all. 

Colorado Rockies (61-101)

Brenton Doyle might be a star in the making. The 26-year-old fly-catcher is already perhaps the best defensive center fielder in baseball (he has two Gold Gloves in as many seasons). Offensively, he’s a standout base-runner, and in 2024 he made impressive strides with the bat, in terms of both top-line outputs and underlying batted-ball metrics. It says here Doyle’s first career All-Star selection will come in 2025. 

Chicago White Sox (41-121)

For starters, it certainly can’t get worse, right? It takes a remarkable confluence of circumstances to lose 121 games in a season, and it’s highly likely that said circumstances will not be satisfied for a second straight year. Speaking of which, the White Sox at the level of the run differential out-played their record by seven full games. That bodes well, or least bodes better, for 2025. They’ll still project as the worst team in baseball, but this time around they can be a part of the draft lottery for their troubles.