Philly Front Office

I am a Phillies homer through and through, so if you expect this to be a fair assessment of the 2025 season, you clearly came to the wrong place. This is a Philly-centric sports blog, you knew what you were getting in to. That being said, I do think this stuff is possible, especially the Jerry Reinsdorf part.

NL East

The Mets start off hot while the Braves and Phillies scrape along at .500 by playing maddening baseball which causes a daily aneurysm for yours truly. Things switch by the end of May causing the Mets to overpay the Marlins for Sandy Alcantara, but still gradually lose ground. Washington ends up annoying as hell for all 3 of the division’s top teams, but still finish 4th. The Phillies get hot thanks to a blistering summer from Bryce Harper, finally taking the lead in the division for good after winning 3 out of 4 from the Braves to end August. The Braves trade for Ryan Helsley while the Phillies get Ben Joyce from the Angels.

NL Central

Everyone thinks the plucky Pirates should make a move to improve the team but do not. The whole division is within 5 games of first place by August, but only the Cubs end up there. The Reds finish at exactly 81-81 in second place, but out of the wild card. The Cardinals finish in last and trade Ryan Helsley to the Braves and Nolan Arenado to the Mariners.

NL West

The Dodgers start incredibly hot and on pace for 110 wins, driving everyone bananas. July is slightly down as is August and the team finishes a somehow disappointing 97-65. They hope to turn the switch in the Division Series against the Diamondbacks who finished 2nd. The Padres start bad and trade Dylan Cease to the Orioles and Xander Bogaerts to the Yankees early in the season, eating half of his contract. They make a run at the end of the year, but fall short of the playoffs. The Rockies get the #1 pick in the draft. The Giants finish a non-descript 82-80 but no one cares.

AL East

The Red Sox win the division, beating out the Orioles by a few games. The race seems tight until the end but stretches far too big to overcome by September and everyone convinces themselves they didn’t want to win the division anyway. Toronto is frisky but the failure to extend Vladdy weighs on the team causing them to fade. Vladdy officially goes on the block, but no one meets their asking price. He chooses between the New York teams in the winter with the winner getting Vladdy and the loser getting Kyle Tucker, both with AAVs around $40m. The Rays hover around the wild card but finish in 3rd place. Nothing goes right for the Yankees and they finish in a tie for 4th with the Blue Jays.

AL Central

Cleveland defies the odds and wins the division again after manager Stephen Vogt installs a strippable cardboard cutout of owner Paul Dolan in the clubhouse. The 3 other Major League teams are all in the hunt, each holding a share of first place in July and August, but it isn’t enough to stop those motivated Guardians. As for the other team, a house eventually gets dropped on Jerry Reinsdorf and the White Sox change their colors from black and white to rainbows. A spirited run ends with them winning more games than the Rockies, but still lose 100+.

AL West

Texas comes back from last year’s death to again be a force in the league, looking like the best team in the AL come playoff time. They run away with the division as Houston crashes and burns and Seattle simply cannot score any runs. The A’s somehow finish in 3rd. Frambar Valdez and one of Seattle’s starters gets traded. Valdez goes to the Yankees because it would be funny. The Angels are also a baseball team.

Awards

NL Cy Young: Paul Skenes edges out Zack Wheeler for the award and we all lose our minds. Christopher Sanchez finishes top 5 (4th).

AL Cy Young: Tarik Skubel repeats because he is ridiculous and no one is in the AL.

NL ROY: Andrew Painter hits the scene hard but they give it to Drake Baldwin of the Braves and we all lose our minds.

AL ROY: Kristian Campbell and Roman Anthony finish 2-3 splitting the vote but losing to Travis Bazzana who becomes a league wide favorite, charming everyone with his accent.

NL MVP: Bryce Harper goes nuclear in the second half winning his 3rd MVP award. Everyone argues that Ohtani actually deserved it, but the voters are tired of giving him the award….and we all lose our minds.

AL MVP: Jose Ramirez somehow finishes with a 9 WAR but all of his statistics look worse than Bobby Witt and Aaron Judge. He wins the award due to Cleveland’s improbable run and KC and NY underachieving

Playoffs

NL

1. Dodgers
2. Phillies
3. Cubs
4. Braves
5. Diamondbacks
6. Mets

The Cubs beat the Mets and the Diamondbacks beat the Braves. Phillies beat the Cubs in the next round and the Diamondbacks knock off the Dodgers. Phillies-Diamondbacks rematch goes the Phillies way this time in 4 with two completely improbably Phillies comebacks in games 1 and 3, including a Trea Turner walk off.

AL

1. Rangers
2. Red Sox
3. Guardians
4. Orioles
5. Tigers
6. Rays

The Guardians defeat the Rays despite looking like the inferior team. Tigers beat the Orioles thanks to starting pitching which the Orioles didn’t believe was important. It doesn’t matter, both get routed by Texas and Boston. Boston beats Texas in 7 absurd games.

World Series

Phillies win the World Series, defeating the Red Sox in 7 games. Bryce Harper wins MVP and finally cements himself as an all time great. The minds have been completely lost at this point.