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2025 MLB rookie power rankings 2.0: Who takes the top spot one month in?

Rowan Kavner

Rowan Kavner

MLB Writer

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Our preseason Major League Baseball rookie power rankings were based primarily on the players we expected to make an immediate impact. 

Now, after more than a month of action on the field, the top 10 list looks a lot different. 

Kristian Campbell and Jacob Wilson have emerged as the top rookies on the diamond, but the rest of the players on the list below may come as more of a surprise.  

Of course, plenty of time remains for some of MLB’s top prospects to either get the call or find their rhythm. For now, though, here are the latest FOX Sports rookie power rankings. 

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(Note: The rankings below will be updated once a month throughout the season.)

Honorable mentions

It’s not often we’re discussing a 35-year-old rookie, but Sugano is building a strong argument for a spot on this list. His 3.00 ERA is tied for second among rookies who’ve made at least five starts and stands out in the Orioles’ dismal rotation, but the underlying numbers — a 5.11 FIP, 5.45 expected ERA, .297 expected batting average against and an overall inability to miss bats — suggest regression ahead. 

Ramírez already has 11 extra-base hits in just 53 at-bats, leading all rookies with a .963 OPS. He has only played in 14 big-league games, which is why he hasn’t quite cracked the top 10 yet, but he’ll find his way on it in short order if he keeps this up.

 Gusto, an 11th-round pick in 2019, is emerging as a valuable swingman in Houston. Opponents are hitting just .151 with 15 strikeouts against his four-seamer. 

The top 10

10. AJ Smith-Shawver, SP, Atlanta Braves

We’re early enough into the season that eight innings of one-hit ball on Monday, which dropped Smith-Shawver’s ERA down to 3.00, warrants the final spot on the list.

9. Justin Sterner, RP, Athletics

Sterner and Mariners closer Andres Muñoz are the only MLB pitchers who haven’t allowed an earned run in more than 15 innings of work this year. Control can sometimes be an issue for Sterner, but opponents have just seven hits against him in 18.2 innings. He hasn’t allowed a single barreled ball this year and leads all rookies in Baseball Reference’s version of WAR (1.3), and the underlying numbers support his dominance. Sterner has the lowest expected batting average and expected slugging percentage against of any qualified MLB pitcher.

8. Jake Mangum, OF, Tampa Bay Rays

Mangum ranks in the top three in WAR and steals and top 10 in hits and OPS among all rookie position players despite being out since April 24. The 29-year-old is finally getting his first opportunity in the big leagues, and despite going on the injured list with a groin sprain, the 2019 fourth-round pick delivered immediate production. His plus speed, miniscule strikeout rate and above average outfield defense have all stood out quickly, but he’ll probably need to return to the field before next month to maintain a top-10 spot. 

7. Ben Casparius, SP/RP, Los Angeles Dodgers

A year after being thrust into postseason duty, Casparius is taking on an unexpected role again early this season, needing to provide bulk innings for another decimated Dodgers rotation. And he is producing. The 2021 fifth-round pick is 4-0 with a 2.81 ERA and a 1.99 FIP that is the best mark among all qualified rookie pitchers. He has 28 strikeouts and just five walks in 25.2 innings, putting him in the top five among rookie pitchers in strikeout-to-walk ratio. Righties are slashing just .186/.197/.254 against him.

6. Kameron Misner, OF, Tampa Bay Rays

Misner has fallen off over the last couple of weeks, but those types of lulls can be expected for a rookie with some swing-and-miss in his game. He still ranks second in extra-base hits, fourth in slugging percentage and fWAR and fifth in hits among qualified rookie position players, and his strong defense adds to his value when he’s not swinging a hot bat. 

5. Luisangel Acuña, 2B, New York Mets

OK, so we had a decent idea that last season’s small sample where he hit three homers in 14 games was not really indicative of the type of offensive profile to expect from Acuña, but he continues to hit for a high average and make an impact on the basepaths. The reigning NL Rookie of the Month is tied for second among qualified rookies in steals and third in batting average. His low strikeout rate gives him a chance to use his wheels.

4. Chad Patrick, SP, Milwaukee Brewers

The reigning International League Pitcher of the Year won the Triple-A Triple Crown last year, but it wasn’t until this year that the 26-year-old made his big-league debut. Patrick worked his way into the Brewers rotation as injuries ravaged the group, and he has helped stabilize the unit with a 3.08 ERA. He leads all rookie pitchers in fWAR and has allowed three runs or fewer in all seven of his starts, most recently delivering a quality start Tuesday against the Astros.

3. Shane Smith, SP, Chicago White Sox

The top pick in the Rule 5 Draft, Smith leads all rookies — both position players and pitchers — in bWAR. His 2.41 ERA and .207 batting average against are both the best marks among all qualified rookie starters. Even though he doesn’t rack up strikeouts, the right-hander’s extensive arsenal gives him the weapons to limit damage against both righties (.632 OPS) and lefties (.532). He has surrendered just one home run all season, has gone at least five innings in six of his seven starts and has not allowed more than three earned runs in an outing this year.

2. Kristian Campbell, 2B, Boston Red Sox

Campbell is earning the eight-year extension he signed early last month and rewarding Boston’s faith after they made him the everyday second baseman from the jump. He leads all qualified rookies in slugging, OPS, doubles and walks. The underlying numbers are encouraging as well. A strikeout rate of over 25% in the early going is somewhat mitigated by a 15% walk rate that’s nearly double the league average. The 22-year-old reigning AL Rookie of the Month was at Georgia Tech just two years ago and is already more than holding his own in the big leagues.

1. Jacob Wilson, SS, Athletics

Is it too early to definitively declare that Wilson will be the rookie hit leader this year? He already has 15 more hits than the next closest rookie and also leads all qualified rookies in batting average (.341) and RBI (20). Most amazingly, in over 140 plate appearances, Wilson has just six strikeouts and six walks. The 23-year-old will put the ball in play, and it’s fair to say the 2023 No. 6 overall pick’s contact skills — which helped him hit over .400 in two minor-league seasons — are translating at the highest level. 

Also considered: Roki Sasaki (SP, Los Angeles Dodgers), Jackson Jobe (SP, Detroit Tigers), Edgar Quero (C, Chicago White Sox), Chandler Simpson (OF, Tampa Bay Rays), Chase Meidroth (SS, Chicago White Sox), Jasson Dominguez (OF, New York Yankees), Dylan Crews (OF, Washington Nationals), Cam Smith (OF, Houston Astros), Jack Leiter (SP, Texas Rangers), Jack Dreyer (RP, Los Angeles Dodgers), Drake Baldwin (C, Atlanta Braves), Tim Tawa (2B, Arizona Diamondbacks)

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Ranking the 10 best outfielders in MLB for 2025

Rowan Kavner

Rowan Kavner

MLB Writer

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When compiling a list of the game’s top talents, how do you weigh a young player coming off a breakout season against a veteran with a longer track record of success? 

The question applies everywhere but especially in the outfield, with Jackson Merrill and Jarren Duran coming off huge years at a time when some of the game’s elite outfielders were either limited by injury (Ronald Acuña Jr., Mike Trout, Fernando Tatis Jr., Kyle Tucker, etc) or took a step back offensively (Corbin Carroll, Julio Rodriguez). Trout, for instance, still remains highly productive when he’s on the field, but he has now played in just 41% of his team’s games over the last four years. Availability, after all, has to be taken into account. 

One thing we do know: The top outfield tandem in the sport is clear, even if that duo won’t be teammates again in 2025. 

Our eight-part position series continues with the top 10 outfielders entering the 2025 season.

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2024 stats: .231/.322/.428, 22 HR, 107 wRC+, 4.0 fWAR
2025 ZiPS projection: .256/.345/.449, 21 HR, 120 wRC+, 4.3 fWAR

Was Carroll’s abysmal first half (.213/.301/.334, five home runs) just a blip? His spectacular play after the All-Star break (.259/.351/.568, 17 homers) would suggest so. He finished with a 20-30 season, but it certainly wasn’t the Rookie of the Year follow-up many expected. This will be an important year for the speedster to build off his strong second half and cement his status as one of MLB’s top talents.

2024 stats: .285/.342/.492, 21 HR, 129 wRC+, 6.7 fWAR
2025 ZiPS: .262/.324/.455, 18 HR, 114 wRC+, 3.9 fWAR 

A member of the 2024 All-MLB Second Team and the All-Star Game MVP, Duran is coming off a career year in which he put all his tools together to post a 20-30 season while leading the majors in doubles and triples and ranking fifth in hits. He destroyed right-handed pitching and took a massive leap forward both offensively and defensively to finish eighth in AL MVP voting and top 10 in the majors in WAR.

2024 stats: .292/.326/.500, 24 HR, 130 wRC+, 5.3 fWAR
2025 ZiPS: .281/.322/.461, 21 HR, 119 wRC+, 4.4 fWAR

Had Merrill played in the American League, you’re looking at the runaway Rookie of the Year. Moving off his natural position of shortstop to play center field for the first time professionally, the 21-year-old did not look out of place. He was dynamic both offensively and defensively in an All-Star season in which he launched 24 homers, stole 16 bases, registered an .826 OPS and finished top 10 in MVP voting.

2024 stats: .276/.340..492, 21 HR, 135 wRC+, 3.2 fWAR
2025 ZiPS: .276/.346/.527, 29 HR, 144 wRC+, 4.8 fWAR

There aren’t many hitters in baseball who strike more fear in an opponent come October. Tatis always seems to turn his game up a notch when the lights are brightest, but the question is whether he can stay healthy over the course of a full year to fully realize the potential he flashed in 2019, when he launched 42 homers as a 22-year-old. The underlying numbers last year were even better than the .833 OPS he produced, and if he can stay on the field, the best should still be ahead for the 26-year-old.

2024 stats: .273/.325/.409, 20 HR, 116 wRC+, 3.9 fWAR
2025 ZiPS: .281/.338/.469, 27 HR, 135 wRC+, 5.8 fWAR 

Rodriguez’s spectacular defense in center provides such a high floor that he’s almost certain to be one of the most productive outfielders regardless of what he does at the plate. That said, while last year marked a third straight 20-20 campaign, his OPS has steadily declined since he was named Rookie of the Year in 2022. When he gets hot, though — as he did with a 1.122 OPS last July — he’s capable of carrying a team. Can he put his offensive tools together for a full season? If he does, we’re talking about a potential MVP.

2024 stats: .250/.351/.365, 4 HR, 105 wRC+, 1.0 fWAR
2025 ZiPS: .294/.393/.526, 26 HR, 154 wRC+, 5.1 fWAR

Can we expect another 40-homer, 70-steal season coming off another ACL tear? Probably not. The truth is we don’t know what version of Acuña we’re going to get after his second major knee injury in a three-year span, but he demonstrated once that he can bounce back and be one of the most productive players in the sport. Even if he’s not quite as daring on the basepaths upon his return, I’m not going to be the one who doubts the dynamic 27-year-old.

2024 stats: .289/.408/.585, 23 HR, 180 wRC+, 4.2 fWAR
2025 ZiPS: .263/.355/.472, 23 HR, 131 wRC+, 3.6 fWAR

One of the most unheralded superstars in the game, Tucker played only 78 games last year and was still worth more than four wins. He finished with a 181 OPS+ and was on a nearly 9.0 WAR pace, coming off three straight years in which he was worth basically 5.0 WAR every season. The Cubs will need that kind of consistent star production to carry their offense in what could be his lone season in Chicago.

2024 stats: .308/.392/.567, 35 HR, 168 wRC+, 5.3 fWAR
2025 ZiPS: .300/.392/.576, 36 HR, 171 wRC+, 5.5 fWAR

Alvarez may not get a whole lot of time in the outfield, but the value he brings with his offense makes him worthy of a top-three spot here regardless. While his body has not always been kind to him, his bat has. Alvarez has launched more than 30 homers in each of the last four seasons and has logged an OPS over .950 in each of the last three seasons. Over those last three years, Aaron Judge is the only qualified MLB player with a higher wRC+.

2024 stats: .288/.419/.569, 41 HR, 180 wRC+, 8.1 fWAR
2025 ZiPS: .277/.426/.521, 33 HR, 166 wRC+, 6.5 fWAR 

Remember when everyone wondered how Juan Soto could possibly turn down that $440 million extension offer from the Nationals a few years ago? Well, bet on yourselves, kids. The best should still be ahead for the richest player in the sport. Soto has the highest on-base percentage in MLB since debuting as a teenager in 2018 and has finished in the top 10 in MVP voting in five of the last six seasons. Over the last five years, he has drawn 582 walks; no other player has more than 417.

2024 stats: .322/.458/.701, 58 HR, 218 wRC+, 11.2 fWAR 
2025 ZiPS: .282/.409/.600, 46 HR, 180 wRC+, 7.7 fWAR 

I mean, duh.  It seemed preposterous that he could match the value he provided during his absurd 2022 season, when he broke Roger Maris’ single-season A.L. home run record. Yet two years later, he recorded more hits, knocked in more runs and recorded better slash line numbers across the board while leading the majors in homers, RBI, on-base percentage, slugging and OPS in 2024 to earn his second MVP award in three seasons. He missed 56 games in 2023 and yet still has at least 25 more home runs than any player over the last three years.

Honorable Mentions: Mike Trout (Los Angeles Angels), Jose Altuve (Houston Astros), Riley Greene (Detroit Tigers), Michael Harris II (Atlanta Braves), Jackson Chourio (Milwaukee Brewers), Wyatt Langford (Texas Rangers), Steven Kwan (Cleveland Guardians), Byron Buxton (Minnesota Twins), Teoscar Hernández (Los Angeles Dodgers), Christian Yelich (Milwaukee Brewers)

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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Tokyo Series: Roki Sasaki’s electric and erratic in highly-anticipated MLB debut

Rowan Kavner

Rowan Kavner

MLB Writer

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If you want to know why teams were so intrigued by Roki Sasaki’s potential, watch the first inning of his big-league debut. 

If you want to know why the 23-year-old will be a work in progress in his first season in Major League Baseball, watch the rest. 

Sasaki was electric early Wednesday evening at the Tokyo Dome, hitting 100 mph on the radar gun on each of his first three pitches before touching 101 mph in an efficient 11-pitch first inning, then erratic for the remainder of his three innings of work. He threw just 25 of his 56 pitches for strikes and walked five of the 12 batters he faced, one of which brought in the lone run he surrendered after he walked the bases loaded. 

But he also buckled down when he needed to, getting back-to-back strikeouts to finish his debut and keep the lead intact in a 6-3 win. 

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Welcome to the Sasaki extravaganza.  

Sasaki’s vaunted splitter is already an offering many evaluators have deemed one of the best in the league. In Cactus League play, it dazzled. On Tuesday in Japan, however, he struggled to command everything. Sasaki threw the splitter 15 times, but it induced just one called strike, one whiff and one ball in play as the Cubs consistently let it dart out of the zone. 

Primarily a two-pitch starter, when he doesn’t have his top secondary offering going, teams can largely gear up for the fastball. That’s part of what made his escape act in the third inning interesting and intriguing. 

Sasaki’s triple-digit heat and mesmerizing splitter should make him an effective pitcher immediately, but the development of a third pitch could take him to different heights. When he issued three straight walks to Ian Happ, Suzuki and Kyle Tucker in the third, he threw them nothing but fastballs and splitters. He couldn’t find the zone with either pitch. 

Both the Dodgers‘ 3-1 lead — which came courtesy of a passed ball that scored a run, a Kiké Hernández sacrifice fly and a solo homer from NLCS MVP Tommy Edman, who continues to obliterate left-handed pitching — and Sasaki’s big-league debut were threatening to unravel. 

Then, the young phenom out of Rikuzentakata, Japan, displayed the type of brilliance that has tantalized MLB scouts for years. 

He started to find the outer edge of the plate with his fastball against Michael Busch, getting a called third strike for his second out. And with the Cubs still threatening, he went a new direction, turning to a slider to get rookie Matt Shaw swinging. 

“The way he responded in that situation when he didn’t have his best command tonight, it speaks to how competitive he is,” manager Dave Roberts said. 

Dodgers’ Roki Sasaki records first MLB strikeout in first inning vs. Cubs’ Seiya Suzuki

Dodgers' Roki Sasaki records first MLB strikeout in first inning vs. Cubs' Seiya Suzuki

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Overall, Sasaki said he was pleased with the outing, which came against a Cubs team that was among the many interested in his services after he went 29-15 with a 2.10 ERA and 11.5 strikeouts per nine innings in four years with the Chiba Lotte Marines. The Cubs were among eight teams who received a meeting with Sasaki, who was so highly sought after this winter not only because of his tremendous stuff but also the modest price tag that came with his international amateur status. 

The Cubs, who traded for Tucker but spent modestly this winter, did not make the list of three finalists. The Dodgers, after more than six years coveting the “Monster of the Reiwa Era” and winning a World Series, did.  

A year after devoting more than $1 billion to Shohei Ohtani, who reached base five times in the two-game sweep and delivered a parting gift to the crowd in Tokyo with a fifth-inning home run Wednesday, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who earned the Opening Day start Tuesday and spun five lights-innings of one-run ball in a 4-1 win, they won the battle for another Japanese-born sensation in Sasaki. 

Sasaki, who received a $6.5 million signing bonus with his minor-league deal, was not as seasoned, polished or accomplished as Yamamoto when he made the jump from Nippon Professional Baseball, but his tools were inarguable, most obviously on display during a 19-strikeout perfect game when he was 20 years old. MLB teams saw a talent with a ceiling as high as any player in the game. 

Injuries, however, limited his production and may have played a role in trimming some heat off his fastball a year ago. Facing MLB competition Wednesday, Sasaki said he was curious to see how they would react to his stuff. He recognizes he is not yet a finished product and that adjustments will need to take place. He wanted to find a team that would help him develop and realize his potential. 

When Sasaki met with clubs this winter, he gave them a homework assignment, asking them how they would go about helping him retrieve his diminished velocity. Immediately, he has seen an improvement in that department. The speed of his triple-digit fastball was not a problem during the Tokyo Series, which he said felt more like an international tournament than an MLB debut.  

The 25th anniversary of the first ever MLB regular season game in Tokyo was a showcase of the Japanese talent that has since moved stateside. Even Ohtani admitted to feeling nervous before the opener — not that it stopped him from performing. Ever the showman, coming off offseason shoulder surgery, he doubled in the first game and homered in the second. 

Nothing he does surprises his manager anymore. 

“Shohei just seems like a superhero,” Roberts said. “In the biggest of games or the biggest of moments, he seems to always deliver.” 

In the first-ever Opening Day matchup between two Japanese-born starting pitchers, Yamamoto and Shota Imanage combined to allow just one run, though atypical free passes limited Imanaga’s evening to  four innings. Both starters already established their value in their first season in the big leagues last year. 

There was more fascination around Wednesday’s starter for the Dodgers. 

Sasaki’s debut went much better than Yamamoto’s a year ago, when the highest-paid pitcher in baseball surrendered five runs in a disastrous one inning of work. It was not a harbinger of things to come for Yamamoto, who registered a 2.53 ERA in his other 17 starts and shined in the World Series. 

Sasaki prevented his debut outing from going off the rails similarly. He got an inning-ending double-play lineout to work out of trouble in the second inning before using his elite stuff to extinguish a bases-loaded jam himself with back-to-back strikeouts in the third.

After an impressive Opening Day start, Roberts said he sees no reason why Yamamoto won’t be in the Cy Young conversation this season.  

Equipped with an embarrassment of riches in their rotation, the Dodgers don’t need Sasaki to be that kind of star immediately. 

But even in an imperfect debut, he offered glimpses of the stardom that could be ahead. 

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on X at @RowanKavner.

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Ranking the top 10 catchers in MLB for 2025

Rowan Kavner

Rowan Kavner

MLB Writer

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There’s a youth movement taking place behind the plate. 

While a few veteran mainstays remain among the top hitting catchers in the game, it’s the burgeoning number of standouts at the position who are about to enter their prime that makes it a particularly exciting one to track. 

Each of the top three, four of the top five and seven of the top 10 players on our list below are 28 or younger. All of them have already demonstrated the production necessary to garner their placement in our rankings, but the best is likely still ahead for many of the players on this list.

Our eight-part position series continues with the top 10 catchers entering the 2025 season.

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2024 stats: .229/.322/.395, 13 HR, 105 wRC+, 3.4 fWAR 
2025 ZiPS: .229/.312/.401, 15 HR, 104 wRC+, 2.4 fWAR 

Wells demonstrated solid plate discipline and pop and was one of MLB’s best framers behind the plate while finishing third in Rookie of the Year voting last year[]. Much like Bailey, he’ll have to avoid another late-season slide to climb higher on this list, but his left-handed power at Yankee Stadium offers enough intrigue to creep into the top 10.

2024 stats: .234/.298/.339, 8 HR, 81 wRC+, 4.3 fWAR 
2025 ZiPS: .235/.301/.366, 10 HR, 89 wRC+, 3.5 fWAR

After two big-league seasons, Bailey has been a below league-average bat but also the best defensive catcher in the game.  His expected offensive stats are better than what he has produced, and if he can avoid the second-half slump that has plagued him at the plate in his first two seasons, he will be one of the most valuable catchers in the sport.

2024 stats: .266/.353/.380, 5 HR, 107 wRC+, 2.5 fWAR
2025 ZiPS: .285/.358/.409, 7 HR, 114 wRC+, 3.5 fWAR

After bursting onto the scene with a Gold Glove season in 2023, injuries limited Moreno to 97 games last season. His elite plate discipline and superb work behind the plate could lead to a breakout 2025.

2024 stats: .266/.322/.429, 14 HR, 109 wRC+, 2.0 fWAR
2025 ZiPS: .258/.321/.435, 15 HR, 109 wRC+, 2.9 fWAR

Now in his mid-30s, Realmuto isn’t the offensive force he once was. Still, he remains an above league bat. Health will be a key component after a knee injury hindered him last year. Realmuto’s batted-ball and sprint speed data both suggest there’s still plenty in the tank, so it’ll be interesting to see if he can tap into more both at the plate and on the bases in 2025.

2024 stats: .271/.330/.456, 27 HR, 115 wRC+, 3.2 fWAR
2025 ZiPS: .262/.314/.452, 24 HR, 109 wRC+, 2.8 fWAR 

Entering his age 35 season, the nine-time All-Star is still getting it done. Perez has hit more than 20 home runs in each of his last eight full seasons. Last year, his 27 homers were tied for the second-most of any season in his career. He also led all catchers with 104 RBI. That production was especially important in Kansas City’s run to its first playoff berth since 2015, when Salvy was the World Series MVP.

2024 stats: .299/.325/.441, 16 HR, 117 wRC+, 3.1 fWAR
2025 ZiPS: .279/.312/.447, 19 HR, 114 wRC+, 3.4 fWAR 

From a WAR and value perspective, Diaz’s 2024 season wasn’t all that different from the previous year. How he got there, though, was. Favoring a more contact-oriented approach, Diaz led all catchers with a .299 batting average and lowered his strikeout and whiff rates but sacrificed power to do so. It’ll be interesting to see if he can match the slug from 2023, when he blasted 23 homers in just 104 games, with the batting average he posted last season as his prime years await.

2024 stats: .248/.327/.433, 20 HR, 111 wRC+, 2.7 fWAR
2025 ZiPS: .252/.341/.433, 20 HR, 117 wRC+, 4.2 fWAR 

While his end-of-year totals were respectable, Smith also dealt with a dramatic drop-off at the plate in last year’s second half, perhaps the result of a lingering ankle issue which he revealed this spring. While his OPS has steadily declined from the staggering .980 mark he posted in the Dodgers’ 2020 championship season, he still remains one of the top hitting catchers in the sport and is coming off a year in which he caught more runners stealing than any catcher in MLB.

2024 stats: .250/.318/.391, 19 HR, 104 wRC+, 2.8 fWAR 
2025 ZiPS: .260/.344/.422, 17 HR, 121 wRC+, 5.0 fWAR 

Rutschman had 16 homers at the break but ended last year’s All-Star season with just 19 after slashing .207/.282/.303 in the second half. Was his shocking spiral an anomaly or a sign of things to come? Considering what he did his first two (and a half) seasons in MLB, I’ll bet on the former. But this is an important year for the 27-year-old backstop to return to form after seeing his hard-hit and walk rates both dip and his chase right climb last year.

2024 stats: .220/.312/.436, 34 HR, 117 wRC+, 5.4 fWAR 
2025 ZiPS: .230/.310/.461, 28 HR, 123 wRC+, 5.3 fWAR 

Raleigh’s consistent combination of defense and power zooms him up to No. 2 on this list entering the 2025 season. Raleigh’s exceptional work behind the plate last year earned him the Platinum Glove Award as the American League’s best overall fielder, and he has led all catchers in home runs for three straight seasons.

2024 stats: .281/.365/.466, 23 HR, 131 wRC+, 5.4 fWAR
2025 ZiPS projection: .270/.353/.450, 20 HR, 124 wRC+, 4.6 fWAR

The 27-year-old two-time All-Star is coming off a season in which he finished fifth in MVP voting and earned his second straight Silver Slugger Award. Last year, he posted career-best marks in hard-hit rate, walk rate and strikeout rate. Since Contreras entered the league in 2020, he has the highest OPS among catchers with at least 1,000 plate appearances. Last year, the only player who caught at least 50 games and had a higher wRC+ last year than William Contreras was his brother, Willson, but he will now be playing first base in St. Louis.

Honorable Mentions: Alejandro Kirk, Toronto Blue Jays; Sean Murphy, Atlanta Braves; Francisco Alvarez, New York Mets; Shea Langeliers, Oakland Athletics; Tyler Stephenson, Cincinnati Reds, Logan O’Hoppe, Los Angeles Angels

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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‘You’ve got to embrace it’: Big-spending Dodgers begin title defense as MLB’s latest evil empire

Rowan Kavner

Rowan Kavner

MLB Writer

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Depending who you ask, the Dodgers enter the 2025 season as one of the best or one of the worst things for the sport.  

They’re a blueprint more teams need to follow, an example to less-willing clubs of what it means to really care about winning. Or, they’re a machine too powerful to copy, a behemoth benefiting from numerous revenue streams created by the addition of Shohei Ohtani and an enormous $8.35 billion local television deal that other teams can’t possibly compete against. 

They’ve perfected MLB’s economic system by pouring their vast resources back into the club at an unprecedented rate. Or, they’ve broken it by exploiting a structure that needs an overhaul to correct the vast disparities. 

As the Dodgers embark on the 2025 season, their extraordinary spending has drawn cheers locally, jeers nationally and eyes internationally. Appropriately, the reigning champions will start their title defense Tuesday in Tokyo with one of the deepest rosters ever assembled, a group that now features three of Japan’s most gifted talents.

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“The Dodgers have gone out and done everything possible, always within the rules that currently exist, to put the best possible team on the field, and I think that’s a great thing for the game,” commissioner Rob Manfred said at spring training media day. “That type of competitive spirit is what people want to see.”

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And yet, passionate emails in Manfred’s inbox tend to paint a different, more aggrieved picture. 

“By the same token … it’s clear that we have fans in some markets that are concerned about the ability of the team in their market to compete with the financial resources of the Dodgers,” Manfred continued. “And I think if we’ve been consistent on one point, we try to listen to our fans on topics like this.” 

The juxtaposition is inevitable when the sport’s model franchise also highlights its troubling imbalance. 

On the low end of the payroll spectrum are the Marlins and White Sox, two rebuilding teams who aren’t making an effort to win games this year, as evidenced by luxury-tax payrolls that currently sit close to $87 million apiece. On the high end are the Dodgers, whose luxury-tax payroll hovers close to a record $400 million at a time when only three other teams — the Mets, Phillies and Yankees — project to be above $300 million. 

Whether right or wrong, the Dodgers’ spending has become the story, much more so than the six teams set to enter the 2025 season with a payroll of $100 million or lower. MLB players, and the executive director of the MLB Players Association, would argue that’s not right. 

“It’s not so much an issue about what the Dodgers are doing,” Tony Clark told FOX Sports last month. “It’s why two-thirds of the teams have decided to sit out on improving themselves to be the last team standing. That’s a bigger question.”

To put it another way, a $160 million payroll would be close to league average. For the Dodgers, who added two of the top three starters on the market, the top reliever and arguably the top outfielder behind Juan Soto among a litany of moves this offseason, $160 million is about how far they are projected over the CBT threshold. 

“I think with the position we’re in right now and the success we’ve had, it puts us in position to be even more aggressive,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “It’s about doing everything we can to maintain. We’ve talked about this a lot – there have been a lot of large-revenue teams that had a run of success and then fallen off a cliff and taken years and years to build back.”

That does not seem likely to be an issue for the Dodgers anytime soon.

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Already equipped with an enviable infrastructure, copious star power and one of baseball’s deepest farm systems, they also have the backing of an ownership group pushing the payroll to heights previously unseen. Last offseason, they committed $1.4 billion to overhaul a roster that would go on to win the 2024 World Series. Unwilling to rest in their quest to repeat, and having just seen how pitching plans can unravel in an instant, they went on to spend nearly half a billion more this offseason on signings and extensions. 

“When I say I can’t be critical of the Dodgers, they’re doing what the system allows,” Manfred said. “If I’m going to be critical of something, it’s not going to be the Dodgers, it’s going to be the system.”

That system can’t be changed until after the 2026 season, when the current collective bargaining agreement ends. Regardless, calls for a hard cap, which owners have long desired and players have stood firmly against, are sure to escalate ahead of the next set of labor discussions. Those calls will only get louder if the Dodgers win it all again. 

Neither the current soft cap — after exceeding the highest threshold, the Dodgers are taxed at 110% for every dollar they spend over $301 million — nor the championship title they won have deterred their desire to add. Instead, they’ve turned what was already one of baseball’s most gifted rosters into a potentially historic one. 

“The crazy part is, you think it’s like, ‘OK, once we sign someone, that’s it,” Blake Snell, their biggest expenditure this offseason, said. “Then we sign another guy, and you go, ‘That’s it.’ And then it keeps going. To see how invested they are in us winning and investing as much as possible…it’s pretty special.”

PECOTA standings project the Dodgers for 103 wins; the next closest team is the Braves at 92. FanGraphs offers a more modest take, with the Dodgers at 96 wins, three ahead of the Braves. But FanGraphs also gives the Dodgers a 23.2% chance to win the World Series. No other team is above 15.7%. 

As Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten will point out, that doesn’t guarantee anything. He would argue what they’re doing is actually a good thing for the sport. 

“Right now, we’re 3-to-1 against to win the World Series,” Kasten said in February. “That’s 70-75% likely that someone else will win the World Series. So obviously, it hasn’t damaged the game competitively.

“On the entertainment side, which is what we are, it’s really good when there’s one beloved team by their fans who come out in record numbers, leading all of baseball in attendance, while that same team can be hated and lead baseball in road attendance. That’s a win-win for baseball.” 

Indeed, for all the complaining about the Dodgers and the unfairness of their inexorable operation, they were one game away on two separate occasions from a third straight first-round exit last season. After overcoming a litany of injuries to finish the job in 2024, they spent big — and in a way unlike any reigning champion in recent history — in an effort to avoid both the hangover effect of playing deep into October and the need to patch their holes at the deadline again. 

Those within the Dodgers’ organization don’t see that as something to be admonished. 

“Fans are pouring their hard-earned money on us,” Freddie Freeman said. “To see the organization and ownership put it back into the team, I think that’s why everyone’s so happy. There’s a buzz around here.” 

“What are we supposed to do, you know?” Mookie Betts asked. “We want to win.”

It’s worth noting that it has taken far more than a blank checkbook for the Dodgers to get to this point. Take the two aforementioned players. The Dodgers couldn’t have acquired Betts without the Red Sox deciding they wouldn’t pay him what he was worth, and they couldn’t have signed Freeman without the Braves deciding to move on from him. 

Yes, they’ve identified both the correct franchise cornerstones to build around and flexed their financial might, most recently giving Snell their fifth different nine-figure commitment since the start of the 2024 offseason. But they’ve also revealed their attractiveness as a destination separate from their ability to spend.

Roki Sasaki’s signing bonus was limited by international amateur restrictions, yet he still picked the Dodgers this winter. Teoscar Hernández surrendered more money elsewhere — about $5-6 million — to stay in Los Angeles. 

“A lot of it for us is obviously players want to be in a place that they know that ownership is committed to winning,” general manager Brandon Gomes said. “On top of that, we take a lot of pride in our family programs, the culture, how we treat our players, doing everything first class. Having that reputation throughout the game that we take care of our players and their families is important to us.”

Perhaps the best example of their standing among players around the league is the deferrals that have carried many of their recent deals to the finish line — and, in turn, become a talking point of frustration for opposing fans and owners, despite Friedman calling it “kind of a lazy narrative.” 

“I think everybody’s making deferred money jokes now,” Gomes acknowledged.

CBT figures are determined using the average annual value of each player’s contract on the 40-man roster, and deferrals, which are calculated by present-day value for luxury tax purposes, can help lessen the blow. Friedman has described them as “a lever” and “a useful tool” to close a deal. 

And he has used them frequently. 

The Dodgers will owe more than $1 billion in deferrals through 2046. For each contract with deferred payments, they will have to fund the future amount they owe within a year and a half. That’s not a problem for Guggenheim Partners, an investment firm ownership group that can put the money to work immediately.

As Friedman put it: “We’re not going to wake up in 2035 and be like, ‘Oh my God, that’s right, we have this money due,'” 

Ohtani’s jaw-dropping $680 million in deferrals on his $700 million contract takes up a majority of that amount, but the contracts of Hernández, Ohtani, Freeman, Betts, Tanner Scott, Will Smith and Tommy Edman have also combined for around $366 million in deferred money, adding to the Dodgers’ flexibility in the present. Many of those players received hefty signing bonuses to mitigate the amount they’re pushing to the future, an especially attractive option for players who don’t want to be taxed in California. 

“It’s just smart business,” Edman said. “Smart for the team and for players as well.”

In the current CBA, there are no limits to the amount a team can defer. The Dodgers have utilized that system to their advantage, though any team is capable of offering similar salary structures, as Edman will point out. 

He doesn’t believe deferrals are why people are actually mad at what they’re doing. 

“I think that the total volume of money, just the pure number of free agents we’ve signed, is the reason people are complaining,” Edman said. 

Whether it’s the way they’ve structured their deals or the sheer total they’ve spent that has irked the 29 other fan bases more, the Dodgers’ spending will surely be a talking point when labor negotiations pick up ahead of the next CBA. Rival owners, despite being recipients of the Dodgers’ success through revenue sharing, will point to the team as a problem. Players, meanwhile, see a club willing to do what it takes to win as other teams stand pat. 

“The question isn’t the team that’s pushing the envelope,” Clark reiterated. “The question is why everyone else is sitting on their hands not looking to improve their clubs when they have the wherewithal to do so.” 

Even as the payroll gap has widened, parity in the sport remains. 

Since the start of the 2020 season, only four teams — the Pirates, Rockies, Angels and Nationals, who won the World Series in 2019 — have failed to make a playoff appearance. No team has repeated as a World Series champion since the 2000 Yankees. No reigning champion has even made it back to the Fall Classic the following year since the 2009 Phillies. 

Compare that to the salary-capped NBA, which has seen three repeat champions since the Lakers won three straight from 2000-02. Or to the hard-capped NFL, which has seen the Chiefs go to five of the last six Super Bowls and win three of them. Prior to that, the Patriots won the championship three times in five years and went to eight straight conference finals.  

Then again, no baseball team looks better suited to change the mold than the Dodgers. In fact, it’s possible baseball’s new evil empire could soon be more formidable than the old one. 

“The Dodgers, whatever they spend, are probably more profitable on a percentage basis than the old Yankees were,” Manfred said, “meaning it could be more sustainable.” 

They’ve already made the postseason 12 straight years, and the rest of the 2020s look even more promising. Their player development factory has consistently churned out enough talent to either supplement their stars at the big-league level or provide intriguing prospect packages to other teams at the deadline to sustain their winning ways. Most obviously, though, they continue to pour their profits back into their product, both thrilling their fan base and igniting the vitriol of others and their less ambitious ownership groups. 

Like it or not, 25 years after the Yankees became baseball’s last repeat winners, there’s a new baseball villain, one that could shape the discourse around the sport for years to come. Love them or hate them, all eyes are on the Dodgers in 2025. 

“I think you’ve got to embrace it,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Who wouldn’t want to be the focus and do what our organization is doing for the city, the fans? To be quite frank, we draw more than anyone as far as any venue in the world. When you’re drawing 4 million fans a year, the way you reciprocate is by investing in players, and that’s what we’ve done.”

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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Why Dodgers’ Dave Roberts deserves to be MLB’s highest-paid manager

Rowan Kavner

Rowan Kavner

MLB Writer

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Dave Roberts has always been an unconditionally positive leader, but after years of playoff criticism, his finest work at the helm also demonstrated his evolution as a manager.

On May 26 last season, Yohan Ramirez was struggling to find the zone in the eighth inning when something happened that the journeyman reliever had never experienced in his five years in the big leagues. 

Two days after hitting two batters and walking another in his first game of the series in Cincinnati. Ramirez looked erratic again. He plunked two batters to load the bases, prompting Dave Roberts out of the dugout. 

Only, the Dodgers manager did not take the ball from Ramirez. 

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Instead, Roberts wrapped his arms around the 29-year-old and pulled the pitcher’s face close to his ear. He told Ramirez how much he believed in him, then he left him in the game. One pitch later, Ramirez extinguished the threat. Ramirez had been with the team for less than a week, yet he was already describing Roberts as more of a father figure than a coach. 

Other Dodgers have issued similar refrains when describing what sets Roberts apart. 

Two of his most distinctive traits are his ability to connect with players and his consistent positivity, both of which are vital when leading a club teeming with superstar talent. He has managed games, he has managed egos, and he has managed off-field turmoil, all the while keeping the train on the tracks, piling up both 100-win seasons and respect. 

“It’s just the confidence that he gives to the players,” Teoscar Hernandez said after his first season with the club ended in a World Series championship. “He lets you have fun. His communication with his players … is one of the best that I had in my career. And I think that’s why he’s so special for this team.”

Soon, it will be time for the Dodgers to demonstrate how special they believe he is.

Roberts and the Dodgers are reportedly closing in on a long-term extension as he prepares to enter the final year of his deal. The two sides have been in discussions for more than a month. It remains to be seen whether he will top Craig Counsell’s five-year, $40 million pact with the Cubs, a deal that reset the market for the top managers in the sport. 

But he should.

The Dodgers have made the playoffs all nine years with Roberts, who is one of five managers in MLB history with five 100-win seasons. And after his finest work with the Dodgers, a managing masterclass in which he learned from seasons past and pushed all the right buttons while guiding a depleted pitching staff to the finish line, Roberts deserves to be made the richest manager in the sport from a team that has spared no dollar in its quest to repeat as champions. 

“The number of injuries we withstood during the year at different times, you could see where it was a little deflating to the clubhouse,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said in the midst of Roberts’ second championship run in the last five years..”And I think Doc’s just relentless optimism helped keep things directionally positive and moving forward.” 

The Dodgers had used a franchise-record 40 pitchers throughout the 2024 season as an avalanche of injuries decimated the pitching staff and threatened to derail Shohei Ohtani’s historic first season with the club. By the start of the postseason, only one member of their Opening Day rotation remained upright. To win in October, they needed a cavalcade of relievers and an expert manager who could meticulously deploy those arms — someone who knew when to push and when to throttle back. 

Five months after his pep talk to Ramirez, Roberts took a similarly relaxed stroll to the mound that belied the magnitude of the decision that awaited.

Blake Treinen entered the deciding Game 5 of the World Series in the sixth inning. Two innings later, he was still on the mound protecting a one-run lead. The Dodgers had depleted their bullpen, using all of their available high-leverage arms while overcoming a five-run deficit. Treinen, who hadn’t gone more than two innings in an outing in six years, had already faced seven batters and thrown 37 pitches when Roberts emerged from the dugout looking to slow the game down. He exuded a sense of calm, even as his heart beat out of his chest. 

Rather than pull Treinen out, Roberts wanted to get a feel for what his reliever had left in the tank. Treinen expressed a desire to keep going. Roberts patted the veteran pitcher on the chest and granted that wish. Giancarlo Stanton was supposed to be his last batter, but when Treinen induced a first-pitch pop out, Roberts didn’t budge. Treinen called it “an honor” that Roberts trusted him in such a vital moment. He rewarded his manager’s faith, striking out Anthony Rizzo to end the threat.

The Dodgers, on the brink of winning a championship, still needed someone to pitch the ninth. Out of more traditional options, Roberts entrusted Walker Buehler to finish out the season. World Series MVP Freddie Freeman described it as one of the best games he had ever seen managed. 

It was also representative of Roberts’ growth and evolution, a triumph that culminated from years of lessons learned. 

Roberts won NL Manager of the Year in 2016, his first season at the helm in Los Angeles. Over the next eight years, he proceeded to tally the highest winning percentage by any manager in MLB history (minimum 1,000 games).

And yet, considering the amount of money that Guggenheim Baseball Management poured into the club and the expert governance of Friedman and his adept baseball operations staff, Roberts often got overlooked for the team’s successes, of which there were many for six months a year, and blamed for its failures, of which there were plenty once the calendar turned to October. 

The most memorable and perplexing misfire came in the deciding Game 5 of the 2019 NLDS, when Roberts called on Clayton Kershaw out of the bullpen with two outs in the seventh inning. Kershaw recorded a strikeout to preserve a two-run lead, but his night wasn’t over. With the heart of the Nationals order due up the following inning, Roberts sent Kershaw back out in a decision that infamously backfired. 

Vindication would come in the form of a 2020 title that snapped the Dodgers’ 32-year championship drought. But the pandemic-shortened achievement only briefly quieted the noise around the Dodgers manager, who had steered the club through unprecedented circumstances only to soon find himself in the hot seat again. 

Using Julio Urîas in a hybrid role in the 2020 postseason, rotating the standout left-hander between starting and relief work, worked at the end of a 60-game season. Trying it again a year later, after Urîas had solidified himself as an ace while throwing more than three times as many innings, did not. More disappointment would follow that NLCS defeat. 

A franchise-record 111-win 2022 season ended in a stunning first-round upset in San Diego. The deciding Game 4 of the NLDS included a series of questionable bullpen decisions in a seventh-inning meltdown. Padres hitters had seen plenty of relievers Tommy Kahnle and Yency Almonte, who were each pitching in their third straight game. Kahnle allowed each of the three batters he faced to reach. It didn’t go much better for Almonte, who surrendered the game-tying hit. In the midst of the chaos, Almonte was given a pickoff sign from the dugout in an effort to give Alex Vesia more time to warm up. That sign failed to reach Almonte, who instead threw a first-pitch ball. In the middle of the at-bat, Roberts turned to Vesia, who surrendered the go-ahead hit. 

As the season unraveled, Evan Phillips never participated in the implosion. The Dodgers were set on using their team’s best reliever to finish the game. By the time Phillips eventually entered an inning later, there was nothing left to save. 

Afterward, Roberts was critical of his team’s intensity, especially when compared to the opposing dugout. His desire to inspire more urgency the following year fizzled out along with the health of his starters when the Dodgers were upset by another division rival in 2023, this time at the hands of the Diamondbacks. The defeat was not the result of a tactical error. Rather, it was a thorough thrashing. The Dodgers’ most trusted bats were silenced and their depleted rotation got thwacked. Nonetheless, another 100-win season ended abruptly. Pressure was mounting, both on Roberts and his club, when the Dodgers spent more than $1 billion revamping their roster. 

They traded for and extended Tyler Glasnow, made Yoshinobu Yamamoto the highest-paid pitcher in the sport and, most notably, added another franchise-altering talent. When Ohtani signed, he shared that the Dodgers’ ownership group had considered the previous decade, years of sustained excellence that included just one World Series title, a failure. 

Without those experiences, though, perhaps Roberts doesn’t grow into the manager he became in 2024, operating with the deftness and precision required to help the Dodgers overcome a litany of injuries in a championship season. 

Over the years, Roberts believes he has evolved. 

During the NLCS, he referenced the “trust tree” he has with his high-leverage relievers, the faithful few he believes in most with everything on the line. Of course, there’s a desire to use those players as often as possible in the most important games. But last year, needing bullpen games to survive the gauntlet of postseason baseball, Roberts also learned the value of restraint. 

“Each moment you feel that that’s always the best option, for fear that if you go somewhere else or with another player and it doesn’t work out, you didn’t deploy your best option in that moment,” Roberts continued. “That’s kind of the inner struggle that I think any manager has, and I’ve lived it. I think for me, experience, having gone down that road, having some successes but also failures, I think I’ve learned from that.”

In other words, there can be benefits to saving those high-leverage bullpen arms, as Roberts did throughout the 2024 postseason in an effort both to keep those players fresh and avoid overexposing them to an opponent over the course of a length series. Down to three healthy starting pitchers for the postseason run, Roberts had to be judicious about the way he deployed his staff. When game scripts went south, that meant turning to low-leverage options and essentially punting, living to play another day.

Ultimately, Roberts’ risky choices saved the Dodgers — and, possibly, his job. Had the Dodgers succumbed to their 2-1 deficit to the Padres in the NLDS, it would have marked a third straight first-round exit. 

Over the final two games of the series, the Padres didn’t score again. With the season on the line in Games 4 and 5, Friedman described Roberts’ pitching decisions as “surgical.” He extracted the best out of his group.

Just as important as his in-game decisions, he helped his players believe. 

A month prior in Atlanta, with the Padres on the Dodgers’ heels in the division race, Roberts sensed the group was down after learning they had lost Glasnow for the year. So he called a rare team meeting. 

“I just got a feeling that there was a little, ‘Woe is me,’ and that’s just not who we are,” Roberts said. “I knew Walker was throwing that night and felt for us to win 11 games in October, we need him. So I wanted a little bit to have that meeting with him on the mound that night and challenge him a little bit. The message was basically, ‘I can’t believe in them more than they believe in each other.'” 

Early in the year, Roberts’ steadiness helped steer the Dodgers through a betting scandal involving Ohtani’s former interpreter. As injuries piled up through the course of the season, his positivity helped keep the ship afloat. And with the season on the line, his decision-making was pristine. 

“Continuing to instill the confidence in our group and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each guy to piece it together, I think that’s as impressive of a job as we’ve seen,” general manager Brandon Gomes said. “I know our expectations are high and we’re expected to win, but the challenges that this team went through with Dave leading the helm is really impressive to come out the other side as champions.” 

Admittedly, that pressure of World Series or bust every year can take some of the joy of the job away, but it’s a position he cherishes. Roberts began the postseason on the hot seat and finished it on the stage, dancing with Ice Cube at the end of the Dodgers’ parade route, his place possibly cemented as a Hall of Fame manager.

Since then, two of the skippers he beat on his march to a championship — Padres manager Mike Shildt and Yankees manager Aaron Boone — both received extensions.

Soon, a record deal should follow for the winningest manager in Dodgers postseason history. 

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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Why Corbin Burnes waited out MLB winter to find ‘ideal spot’ with Diamondbacks

Rowan Kavner

Rowan Kavner

MLB Writer

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PHOENIX — Torey Lovullo was on a flight back from New York to Arizona over the holidays when the Diamondbacks manager received an unexpected text.

“The owner’s asking, ‘Where are you, can you call me wherever you are?'” Lovullo recalled. “I’m like, ‘Oh my God.'”

Lovullo talks to managing general partner Ken Kendrick around seven to 10 times a year, including a couple of times via text, but never in late December.

Upon landing and getting in touch with Kendrick, any fear or panic Lovullo experienced shifted to elation and exhilaration.

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“We’re going to engage Corbin Burnes,” Kendrick told Lovullo. “We’re going to see where this takes us.”

Adding the top starting pitcher on the market wasn’t part of Arizona’s business model when the offseason began, Kendrick admitted. There appeared to be more glaring needs on the D-backs’ roster, and the team usually operates with a payroll that ranks in the bottom half of the sport.

But when Burnes expressed his desire to stay close to home and his three young children — his twin daughters, Harper and Charlotte, were born last June — the model changed. Kendrick felt inspired. An opportunity had fallen in the D-backs’ lap, and they were ready to pounce.

“Once Ken got engaged, when he makes a commitment like that, he gets super aggressive,” Lovullo said. “I knew that there was a really good chance.”

What Lovullo wasn’t sure about, at least at the time, was Burnes’ perspective.

By late December, Blake Snell and Max Fried had already found new homes with the Dodgers and Yankees, respectively. That left Burnes as the lone nine-figure pitcher still looming on the market. A former Cy Young Award winner and an All-Star each of the past four seasons, it should come as little surprise that he was drawing significant interest.

While he has seen his strikeout rate steadily decline since his 2021 Cy Young season, Burnes has still been one of the most productive pitchers in baseball in that time. Among pitchers who’ve thrown at least 500 innings over the last three years, he ranks third in ERA, strikeouts and innings pitched. He has also finished in the top eight in Cy Young voting in each of the past five seasons.

He was a workhorse unlike any other pitcher on the market.

“We had heard from four or five other teams before we heard from [the D-backs], before we kind of got in contact with them,” Burnes told FOX Sports. “We had a couple offers on the table already. One was in writing, a couple verbal, nothing that was really serious yet, just to get the door open and start negotiations. But we never really pursued it hard because we were waiting to see if these guys and more teams were going to jump in.”

The more teams that were interested, Burnes figured, the more leverage there would be in negotiations. He described his first experience of free agency as “pretty stressful,” but he also told his agent, Scott Boras, that he had no problem being patient.

While other teams had deeper pockets, none could offer Arizona’s proximity. And though the D-backs aren’t to be confused with MLB’s luxury-tax offenders, and are still operating with a payroll nearly $200 million less than that of the rival Dodgers, they will splurge occasionally and selectively.

Much like they did nine years ago, when they surprised the baseball world by signing Zack Greinke, they operated in relative stealth as they lured in the pitching prize of the offseason.

The free-agency process went longer into the offseason than Burnes would’ve liked, but he eventually landed where he wanted.

“Just when we started to look at everything, this was the ideal spot,” Burnes said.

Once negotiations began, both sides moved expeditiously. Two days after his chat with Kendrick, Lovullo, a Southern California native who has family ties in Western New York, was visiting his mother on the West Coast when he said he received “a wall of text messages.” One came from Buffalo Bills’ long snapper Reid Ferguson.

“Corbin Burnes??” the text read. Then came another: “That’s an unbelievable addition.”

‘What!?” Lovullo responded before going straight to Google to see the news.

Initial phone calls between Burnes’ representation and the Diamondbacks went directly between owner and agent. Boras tried to sell Kendrick on the value of having “two true No. 1 starters” in Burnes and Zac Gallen, much the same way the 2001 champion Diamondbacks won with Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling.

“We began to talk and realized there was probably a model we could make work,” Kendrick said at Burnes’ introductory press conference.

The D-backs would typically loop Lovullo in before a deal of that magnitude was finalized, but the operation in the days leading up to Burnes’ signing shortly after Christmas was unusual. General manager Mike Hazen was with his kids in New Zealand. Assistant general manager Amiel Sawdaye was in Paris with family. It wasn’t until well after 10 p.m. PT on the night of Dec. 27 when reports first emerged about Burnes’ decision.

Over the course of a few days, Burnes and the Diamondbacks had hammered out the terms on the richest contract in franchise history, a six-year, $210-million pact that surpassed Greinke’s eerily similar six-year, $206.5 million deal. Burnes will have the ability to opt out after the 2026 season.

“I hope it sends the message that we’re in it to win it,” Kendrick said.

Burnes had spent six springs close to home in Phoenix, where he and his family had moved in 2018, while playing for the Brewers. Last year, after getting traded to Baltimore, he experienced spring training in Florida for the first time. Another first was fast approaching.

For years, he and his wife had discussed what free agency might look like and where they might like to go. They hoped their family could be together as much as possible. “There’s really only one spot you can do that,” Burnes said.

But staying close to his home in Scottsdale was not the sole reason for his decision. Burnes wasn’t going to tie himself long-term to a losing effort. The Diamondbacks had left an imprint on him during their surprising march to the World Series in 2023. On April 11 of that season, Burnes shut the D-backs out over eight innings. The next time he faced them in June, they looked like a different group. He surrendered a season-high seven runs over five innings.

Milwaukee and Arizona would meet again with much higher stakes in the wild-card round. In Game 1, the Brewers spotted Burnes an early 3-0 lead when the D-backs stormed back, tagging him for four runs over four innings. Burnes saw a young group he thought would be competitive for a long time.

“Obviously when you’re going to sign a long-term deal, you want to be able to win every year you’re there,” Burnes said. “First, you’ve got to look at teams that are contacting you that are going to be consistent winners over the course of that deal. You have that and obviously the family aspect of it, and the stage of life me and my wife are in right now, as easy as it can be on the family as possible, the better.”

The signing was a stunner not only because the Diamondbacks outlasted the league’s biggest spenders but also because they already had a full and formidable rotation without Burnes. Still, the group was coming off a year marred by injury and underperformance.

Their starters had a 4.79 ERA last season, fourth-worst in the majors. A hamstring injury cost Gallen a month. A shoulder injury limited Merrill Kelly to 13 starts. Their major offseason signings of Eduardo Rodriguez and Jordan Montgomery did not yield production. Rodriguez finished with a 5.04 ERA in 10 starts after dealing with a lat strain. More troublingly, Montgomery, a year after helping lift the Texas Rangers past the Diamondbacks in the World Series, had a 6.23 ERA in 25 appearances and spent the end of the year bouncing between the rotation and bullpen.

Arizona’s struggles on the mound, both starting and in relief, helped explain how a Diamondbacks group that scored more runs than any team in baseball last year still missed the postseason. The D-backs could have simply hoped for better health and production in 2025.

Instead, at a time when the Dodgers had already flexed their financial might, throwing tax payments to the wind as they continued to add a staggering amount of talent in their quest to repeat as champions, Arizona still tried to compete in a way many teams did not this winter. Even with Madison Bumgarner’s $85 million contract coming off the books and Christian Walker and Paul Sewald signing elsewhere, the addition of Burnes represented a significant financial commitment for an Arizona team that is currently slated to operate its highest-ever Opening Day payroll, a figure roughly $20 million more than the one they sported a season ago.

Shortly after the D-backs signed their new ace, Lovullo gave Burnes a call. In their first conversation, Lovullo wanted to reiterate the amount of work still ahead for a D-backs group looking to rebound. He enjoyed Burnes’ response.

“Let’s go, are you ready to win a s*** ton of games?” Lovullo recalled Burnes saying on The Jim Rome Show.

That, Burnes said when asked about the conversation, was probably an accurate recollection.

With the Dodgers dominating the NL West, the Diamondbacks have made the postseason just twice in the last 13 years. In 2017, they were swept by the Dodgers in the National League Division Series. Six years later, they answered back, sweeping the Dodgers in the NLDS during their unexpected 2023 run.

Perhaps, by adding a star of Burnes’ caliber, another surprise awaits.

“Obviously, the market these guys are in, they don’t get to do that very often,” Burnes said. “It’s kind of your window to go after it and get it. The fact that ownership recognized that and went out and got me and made the trade for [Josh] Naylor and made some other good moves shows they’re ready to go, ready to compete. I think Torey was fired up about it, so when he called me, I kind of echoed that. I’m excited.”

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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Corbin Burnes

Arizona Diamondbacks

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What is ABS? MLB begins spring training test of automated ball-strike challenge system

Rowan Kavner

Rowan Kavner

MLB Writer

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At Yankees camp on Wednesday, Luis Gil threw a pitch to Aaron Judge that tailed just below the zone. Gil disagreed. Believing it caught the bottom of the plate, he put his hand to his cap. The players gazed up toward the video board, which revealed that the pitch did indeed miss by 1.8 inches. Less than 30 seconds later, the at-bat continued. 

This was the automated ball-strike challenge system at play. 

While NFL fans dream of the day an electronic system that can more accurately determine first downs, MLB is in the process of figuring out its own way to attempt to remove human error on balls and strikes. Robot umpires haven’t arrived at Major League Baseball yet, but a version of an automated strike zone will be tested this spring.

Starting Thursday at Camelback Ranch, where the Dodgers and Cubs will open Cactus League play, the ABS challenge system will begin being implemented. The system will be in place at 13 stadiums and in more than 60% of spring training games across Arizona and Florida. The setup represents a compromise between humans and full ABS, allowing umpires to decide the majority of balls and strikes while affording players the ability to fix the more egregious calls. 

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“We’ve heard good things about it, heard bad things about it,” Diamondbacks ace Corbin Burnes said Thursday. “At the big-league level, we want to see how things work and get a good few weeks in to see if it’s something that will be feasible in the future, but we’ll see how it goes. It’s still technology, so it’s still going to have its bugs that they’re going to have to figure out.”

This spring, teams will get two challenges per game and will only lose a challenge if it is unsuccessful. Only a batter, pitcher or catcher can challenge a call, which they will indicate by tapping their head. They have to do so immediately after the pitch without assistance from the manager or players in the dugout. The Hawk-Eye tracking technology will then be displayed on the videoboard, showing whether the pitch was a strike or not. On average, challenges at the Triple-A level have taken 17 seconds to complete. 

The dimensions of the strike zone will be determined by the batter’s height — the top of the zone is 53.5% of the player’s height, while the bottom of the zone is at 27%. The heights of all position players in camp have been measured this spring. 

The reason it’s not at every spring stadium is because they’re not all equipped for the technology. In the Cactus League, the ABS challenge system will be utilized at the five dual-team stadiums — Camelback Ranch (Dodgers/White Sox), Surprise Stadium (Rangers/Royals), Peoria Sports Complex (Mariners/Padres), Goodyear Ballpark (Reds/Guardians) and Salt River Fields (Diamondbacks/Rockies). In the Grapefruit League, it will be at George M. Steinbrenner Field (Yankees), Clover Park (Mets), BayCare Ballpark (Phillies), TD Ballpark (Blue Jays), LECOM Park (Pirates), Publix Field (Tigers), Hammond Stadium (Twins) and Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium (Marlins/Cardinals). 

The system won’t go into effect during the 2025 MLB season, but if deemed successful during Cactus and Grapefruit League play could be implemented as soon as 2026. The challenge system will occur at the Triple-A level this year. 

MLB has already experimented with different versions of ABS in the minor leagues, but this spring is the first time it will be tested at the big-league level. Big-leaguers on rehab assignments, however, have already gotten a taste of a version of ABS. The Guardians’ Steven Kwan, who made a rehab start and experienced full ABS, is among them. 

At the All-Star Game last year, Kwan said he thought the concept was a good idea but wondered about the psychology of a player’s willingness to burn a challenge on a close call. 

“I’m not sure how I’m going to adapt to that part,” Kwan said. “In a vacuum, it sounds like it’s going to be effective, but we’ll see.”

Dave Roberts, who will be managing the first spring game with ABS technology, has not yet decided if he’s a fan. He told his hitters to be careful of challenging breaking balls low in the zone, believing those are often strikes when hitters believe otherwise. He also smiled, relaying what he told one of his hitters in particular before Thursday’s Cactus League opener. 

“I told [Max] Muncy not to challenge,” Roberts said. “He’s our biggest culprit of not agreeing with the strike zone, so I said save your challenges.”

Pitchers, often, are the most skeptical about the technology, which has been tested at Triple-A the last two years. That includes Burnes, who is accustomed to studying the historical strike zone of the umpire behind the plate before each start. 

“They’re pretty good about sticking to their zones historically,” Burnes said. “They make mistakes at home plate, but if you look at kind of the general strike zone of an umpire over the course of a 10-year career in the big leagues, those guys are pretty good.”

For Triple-A players who were exposed to both full ABS and the challenge system, the latter seems to be the prevailing preference. 

“It’s currently a little inconsistent,” Dodgers pitcher Landon Knack said. “Ballpark to ballpark, it would not be calibrated the same. So, you’d go some places and it’d be higher or lower. You go to some places, and it’s actually moved over an inch or two.”

Knack also said in his experience, the zone tended to be smaller than the one he’s been accustomed to growing up, often taking away calls he’d normally get at the top of the zone. As a pitcher whose fastball lives in the mid-to-low 90s, command and precision are especially vital. A couple calls that go against him on the edges can make or break a start. 

He referenced his walk rate at Triple-A since the system began being utilized. In 2023, Knack walked twice as many batters per nine innings than he did in Double-A that same season. Last year, he walked a career-high 4.1 batters per nine innings in Triple-A but only 2.3 in 15 big-league games. 

Knack, however, understands the interest in the technology and the desire to get as many calls correct as possible. He believes it’s engaging for fans and could eventually be a positive for the game once the kinks are worked out, even if it’s not quite there yet. 

“It’s close,” Knack said. “It’s not like it’s super far off where it needs to be, but it’s still a little bit away.”

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner. 

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‘I know what I’m capable of:’ Mike Trout’s position has changed, but his expectations haven’t

Rowan Kavner

Rowan Kavner

MLB Writer

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TEMPE, Ariz. — Mike Trout tries to stay off social media, but the ranking nonetheless found its way into his orbit.

Last week, MLB Network compiled a list of baseball’s top 100 players. Trout, a three-time MVP, 11-time All-Star and nine-time Silver Slugger, came in at No. 39, one spot behind 31-year-old Matt Chapman and one ahead of 20-year-old Jackson Chourio.

Trout, who played in just 29 games last year and 82 the season before, understood the reasoning.

“Hey, they’re going off the last couple years, and I haven’t been out there,” Trout said Monday afternoon before the Angels‘ first full-squad workout of the spring.

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It did not mean he agreed with it.

“I know where I stand,” he continued.

Trout has played in just 266 of a possible 648 games over the last four injury-riddled seasons. During that time, though, he ranks fourth in OPS among players with at least 1,000 plate appearances. He is also the only player worth at least 12 WAR in fewer than 300 games played over that stretch.

When Trout’s on the field, the 33-year-old remains one of baseball’s star talents, even if he’s not the perennial MVP candidate he was throughout the 2010s.

“When he plays, we’re different,” general manager Perry Minasian said. “When his name’s in the lineup, and you walk to the park and you look at the lineup, it just feels different.”

Though the last couple of years have represented a decline from his peak form, Trout still hit 32% better than the league average in 2023 and 40% better in his brief showing last season before he tore the meniscus in his left knee twice, requiring two separate surgeries.

So, while he understands why some might look at his absences and think there are 38 players better than him right now, the injuries haven’t diminished his self-belief or lessened his confidence in what he can accomplish. MLB’s ranking, Trout said, is just another source of motivation.

“I know what I’m capable of,” Trout said. “Last couple years have been tough, some fluke things. I’m trying to put myself in the best position to be out there for the whole season, and there’s obviously things I can improve on, and we’re working on that.”

The Angels are working on it, too.

It has been more than 10 years — 4,186 days, to be exact — since the last time Trout played a position other than center field. Trout was 22 years old on Sept. 2, 2013, when he saw action in left field. It was even longer, back when Trout was 20 years old during the 2012 season, the last time he logged an inning in right field.

Now, that latter spot will be his home for the foreseeable future.

In an effort to preserve Trout’s health and keep Taylor Ward in left field, Minasian and manager Ron Washington told Trout on Sunday that he’ll be bumping over to right. Trout will also mix in some days at designated hitter — perhaps once a week, Washington confirmed — but his time as the club’s full-time center fielder is over.

“I knew it was coming,” Trout said, “just got to get used to it. I just want to be on the field.”

Jo Adell and Mickey Moniak will get most of the reps in center. Adell was a Gold Glove finalist in right field last season, while Moniak played 98 games in center after Trout’s injury. The biggest adjustment for any player moving from center to right, Moniak said, is the angles.

“Center field, you’re kind of straight on, squared up to the hitter and pitcher,” Moniak explained. “Balls coming off the bat, they tend to stay pretty true. When you’re playing right field, everything seems to be running away from you.”

Washington is not concerned about Trout’s ability to recalibrate.

“Mike is an athlete,” Washington said. “He’ll figure it out. The only thing that I think we’re concerned about, and we got with everyone, is the communication. We don’t need nobody running into Mike Trout.”

Trout appears amenable to the switch, much more so than he was three years ago. Before the 2022 season, Joe Maddon broached the idea of Trout potentially moving off of center. Twenty-four hours later, Maddon and the Angels backtracked. The concept was immediately shut down by Trout, who voiced his desire to remain in center while acknowledging that he might be open to moving to a corner spot “down the road.”

That road, after a litany of injuries the last few years, is now here.

“It’s just keeping him on the field,” Minasian said. “There’s no secret. He’s dying to play.”

Trout played in 53 games during the shortened 60-game season in 2020 and in more than 130 games each of the two years prior to that. He has not reached that 130-game mark in a season since.

In 2021, he suffered a season-ending calf strain while running the bases. In 2022, he dealt with a back injury that some briefly worried might be career-altering. In 2023, he suffered a hamate fracture in his wrist on a swing. Last year, he tore his meniscus in April and underwent surgery in May. He returned for a rehab game in July only to learn that he had suffered another tear just above the last one, requiring season-ending surgery. Over the last four years, he has made just 41 starts after the All-Star break.

While none of the injuries he sustained were a direct result of a play in center field, the Angels hope the move will remove some responsibility from his plate, give him a better chance to play a full season and create some memorable moments at a ballpark with a home-run boundary only 8-feet high at the right-field wall.

“I think Mike’s going to be one of the best right fielders in the game,” Washington said.

Trout said he didn’t do anything differently to prepare for the switch this offseason, but he plans on seeking out Torii Hunter, who joined the Angels’ staff as a special assistant last season, at some point this spring for advice. Hunter won nine Gold Gloves as a center fielder before making a similar transition to right at 34.

Trout also reported to camp a bit lighter than he had in recent years.

“I think that was one of my goals coming into spring,” Trout explained, “just feeling more like myself, a little faster.”

That goal falls in line with the one he had before last season, when he set out to steal more bases. He had as many in 29 games last year (six) as he had in his previous four seasons combined and was on pace for his first 30-steal season since 2016 before the injury. Despite the efforts being taken to reduce the wear and tear on his body going forward, Trout doesn’t plan on altering or limiting his aggressiveness.

He still believes he’s the best player on the field, even if his placement on the top-100 list suggests others are questioning it.

“Yeah,” he said, “stuff like that I think fires you up a little bit.”

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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FOX/FS1 set to broadcast MLB’s season-opening Tokyo Series between Dodgers, Cubs

Rowan Kavner

Rowan Kavner

MLB Writer

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Major League Baseball’s season-opening Tokyo Series between the Dodgers and Cubs on March 18-19, which is likely to feature two Japanese-born pitchers facing off in their home country for the first time in a big-league game, will be broadcast on FOX/FS1.

Start times for both games are at 6 a.m. ET, with the March 18 game on FOX/FOX Deportes followed by the March 19 matchup on FS1/FOX Deportes (with both games streaming on the FOX Sports app). The contests will include some of Japan’s greatest MLB talents, from Shohei Ohtani and Seiya Suzuki to a number of pitching standouts.

While starting matchups are still being finalized, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shōta Imanaga and Rōki Sasaki could become the fourth, fifth and sixth Japanese players to pitch at the Tokyo Dome with their big-league clubs, joining Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hideki Okajima and Yusei Kikuchi, who started Ichiro Suzuki’s final big-league game at the venue in 2019. That was the last time MLB games were played at the Tokyo Dome.

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Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has already said he expects Yamamoto to start the opener, with Sasaki a possibility for Game 2 if he is ready in his build-up to big-league action. If Sasaki makes that start, it will represent the top international free agent’s highly-anticipated MLB debut after signing with the Dodgers in January. Cubs manager Craig Counsell said Imanaga will pitch in Japan, though he has yet to reveal if it will be the Opening Day contest.

Ohtani is expected to be ready to hit but not pitch in time for the series opener following offseason shoulder surgery and a 2023 UCL repair. Ohtani, despite not pitching last season, still won his third MVP award in his first year with the Dodgers in a historic 50/50 season.

Imanaga and Yamamoto are both entering their second big-league seasons and coming off exceptional rookie campaigns. Imanaga went 15-3 with a 2.91 ERA in an All-Star season that saw him finish fourth in Rookie of the Year voting and fifth in Cy Young voting. Yamamoto, who became the highest-paid pitcher ever when he signed a 12-year, $325-million contract with the Dodgers before last season, was 7-2 with a 3.00 ERA during the regular season and allowed one run in 6.1 innings in Game 2 of the World Series.

RELATED: ‘We were there when no one was’: The inside story on the Dodgers landing Rōki Sasaki

The 2025 Tokyo Series will mark the sixth time that MLB begins its regular season in Japan’s capital and the 25th anniversary of the first regular-season games in the country, which took place in 2000 between the Cubs and Mets.

It is also the second straight year that the Dodgers will begin their season in Asia, following last year’s Seoul Series in Korea against the Padres.

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner. 

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