Revisiting My 2025 Preseason Predictions

The award announcements of MVP and Cy Young last week inspired me to go back and look at my 2025 predictions. Turns out, I got several correct, including all 4 major award winners and the World Series Champion. However, I’m not patting myself on the back too much, as predicting Ohtani and Judge for MVP, Skubal and Skenes for Cy Young, and the Dodgers as champs were all extremely safe picks. It was like taking all 1 seeds in an NCAA pool.

Well, all the 1 seeds made it to the final 4 this past years, so it appears to have been the right season to go for the favorites. And at this moment in time, unless Skubal or Skenes get traded, my predictions for 2026 may be the same.

What I was not quite as good at was predicting the division races. Heres a link to my post from before the season: https://cubsin7.blog/2025/03/27/2025-mlb-predictions/

In the NL, I got 3 of the 6 playoff teas correct (Cubs, Phillies, Dodgers), but only one division winner. I was wrong about the Braves, Mets and Dbacks making the playoffs, and the Padres, Reds and Brewers not making the playoffs. The Mets/Reds pick could have gone either way, but the Braves and Brewers were the biggest misses. Injuries decimated the Braves, and they finished well out of the playoff race. But it will be interesting to see if they can make a quick return in 2026. Meanwhile, the Brewers seem to be a force of nature, and until they don’t win the Central, I think all future predictions may have to include them in the top spot.

The AL was way off, as I got only 1 of 6 playoff teams – the Yankees, who I also had losing in the World Series. I can believe I had the Twins and Orioles making it, as both finished well out of the playoffs – and neither seem ready to get back into the hunt in 2026. The two top seeds, Toronto and Seattle, were picked by me to finish 4th and 3rd in their respective divisions. Yikes.

So despite my mild success with some predictions, I would say that overall, I did very poorly. So time to see if I can do better in 2026.

Here are my too early predictions for 2026

AL East
New York (Bye)
Toronto (WC)
Boston (WC)
Tampa Bay
Baltimore

AL Central
Detroit
Kansas City
Cleveland
Minnesota
Chicago

AL West
Seattle (Bye)
Houston (WC)
Texas
Athletics
Los Angeles

NL East
Philadelphia (Bye)
New York (WC)
Atlanta (WC)
Florida
Washington

NL Central
Milwaukee
Chicago (WC)
Cincinnati
St. Louis
Pittsburgh

NL West
Los Angeles (Bye)
San Francisco
Arizona
San Diego
Colorado

AL MVP: Judge
AL Cy Young: Skubal
NL MVP: Ohtani
NL Cy Young: Skenes