As the NFL season wraps up and the football fans start preparing themselves for the offseason, a different sport finds the spotlight. While the snow starts to melt, and the trees start to sprout new leaves, one group of fans starts getting excited. It’s time for America’s favorite pastime, baseball. The MLB offseason has been full of veteran being sent to different places, a team relocation, and the annual boost of hope that maybe this is the year for your team to finally win it all.

Here’s a look at what all has changed in the span of six months and what we can expect from the 2025 MLB season.

Every offseason, the top free agents sign increasingly larger contracts. The most notable free agent this offseason added on to that trend as Juan Soto, an elite outfielder, signed a 15-year contract worth $765 million — the largest contract in professional baseball, and professional sports history. Other notable free agents that found a new home were Corbin Burnes, a right-handed starting pitcher who signed a six-year, $210 million contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Roki Sasaki, a right-handed starting pitcher who signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Blake Snell, a left-handed starting pitcher who signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Alex Bregman, a third baseman who signed with the Boston Red Sox.

Focusing locally, the Chicago Cubs have been one of the busiest teams this offseason. Coming off back-to-back disappointing seasons without a playoff berth, changes had to be made. One of the biggest issues the team had last season was the offense.

The infield of Michael Busch at first base, Nico Hoerner at second base, Dansby Swanson at shortstop, and Isaac Parades at third base was solid, but something needed to be done if they were going to make the postseason. The Cubs also had four viable options in the outfield. Ian Happ has filled the left field very well and has been the Cubs’   third best hitter for the last few years. Pete Crow-Armstrong is a very promising young talent who might not hit the best but is lightning-fast and plays the best defense of any center fielder in the league. Seiya Suzuki played right field in 2024 and has an amazing bat, but he also struggles defensively and had a negative OAA (outs above average) according to MLB’s Baseball Savant website. Finally, there’s Cody Bellinger, a good fielder who has struggled to consistently hit well in his time with the Cubs.

After looking over all options and ways to improve the offense, Jed Hoyer, the Cubs’ president of baseball operations, decided to trade for outfielder Kyle Tucker. Tucker has been an elite-level batter for many years and gives the Cubs a genuine elite bat, something that has been absent for far too long. They sent Isaac Parades along with some prospects to the Houston Astros for Tucker. This gives the Cubs an opening at third base, which will most likely be filled by upcoming rookie Matt Shaw, who has been an absolute monster in the minor leagues. Hoyer then traded Cody Bellinger to the New York Yankees for Cody Poteet, a thirty-year-old relief pitcher. After adding veteran batters such as Jon Berti and Justin Turner and a new catcher Carson Kelly to the bench, the Cubs seem to be satisfied with their current situation as they head into the new season.

Taking a trip south to newly renamed Rate Field, the Chicago White Sox are looking to rebound from a historically dreadful season where they amassed an MLB modern era record of 121 losses. After such an abysmal season, changes without a doubt needed to be made. The White Sox started their offseason by hiring Will Venable to be the new manager for the team. Heading into the offseason as the worst team in baseball, it is very clear that the White Sox are amid a very lengthy rebuilding process. Young players like Jonathon Cannon, Colson Montgomery, and Kyle Teel are going to be looking to get as many reps as they can this season. After trading away their best player, Garrett Crochet, they need to build up these young talentsand try and get as much value as they can out of their minor league rosters. Unfortunately for White Sox fans, there’s virtually no chance that the south siders will play baseball in October this year, but if these young talents start shining bright, then they could contend in 3-4 years.

MLB projections have the Cubs as an 85-win team with the best odds to win the NL Central, mostly due to the NL Central being incredibly weak compared to every other division in baseball. These projections have the White Sox as a 54-win team, which would almost certainly put them in sole possession of last place in all of MLB. As a baseball fan, I take projections with a grain of salt and usually just project my own records and division results.

I believe the Cubs should be the favorite to win the NL Central. The Cardinals and Brewers did not add much over the offseason and lost some key players. The Pirates and Reds are also in the division, but they’re nowhere near as good as the other three teams. For the White Sox, I’m expecting another horrible season filled with losses galore. I expect them to at least be better than they were last year, although that doesn’t say a lot considering how historically bad they were. Of course, none of this speculation equates to any game results and we’ll have to wait and see how right or wrong us fans were to have any hope for this season. The 2025 MLB regular season starts March 18th. Let the road to October begin!