https://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/44250540/mlb-2025-dodgers-white-sox-rockies-marlins-nationals-angels-athletics

Let's start with the White Sox, last season's losers of a record 121 games. FanGraphs projects them to be much improved: 22 games better in fact, all the way to a 63-win team, although that is still the lowest forecast for any team. FanGraphs projects the Dodgers to be ... wait ... worse than 2024?

But for this exercise, we're sticking with FanGraphs. We won't bother to run the entire rosters here, but after the first round, the cumulative WAR for our 30-man rosters (14 position players, 16 pitchers) looks like this:

Dodgers: 54.8 WAR
White Sox: 21.2 WAR

Dodgers lead by 33.6 wins

 

Yikes...even though LA "only" has a 96 win projection this year due to general competitiveness of AZ SD SF.  Other models in the 100s and 102.5-103.5 OD LV gambling lines.

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/44250840/mlb-2025-los-angeles-dodgers-villains-heroes-ohtani-freeman-betts

The current Dodgers, Manfred said, "are probably more profitable on a percentage basis than the old Yankees were, meaning it could be more sustainable, so it is more of a problem."

Edited March 17, 20251 yr by caulfield12

Something you might not know: If the White Sox win 10 more games this year, they'll still finish with more losses than all but nine teams in history. That is how bad the White Sox were en route to a record-setting 121 losses last year: a team that makes a theoretical double-digit gain in wins would still be among the worst in the history of the game.

Jeff Passan espn.com