Bold Fantasy Baseball Predictions for the 2025 MLB season

Yahoo

27-03-2025

MLB Opening Day has arrived, and our fantasy baseball analysts are ready to fire off their hottest final takes for the season. Check out what they think will happen on both the pitching and hitting side for 2025.
To be honest, I'm not sure if this prediction is bold or tepid or just mildly unlikely.
We know beyond any doubt that Scott possesses the wheels and base-stealing acumen necessary to get this done. He has 99th percentile sprint speed and he swiped a ridiculous 94 bags in the minors back in 2023. Scott won the Opening Day centerfield job in St. Louis, thanks to a scorching-hot spring in which he delivered seven extra-base hits and five steals while hitting .349. But he's been a mostly unremarkable hitter in the minors who happens to have one elite trait: blistering speed.
If Scott can simply hold onto an everyday role in the majors, he's fully capable of producing an Esteury Ruiz-style season in which he almost single-handedly wins a category for you.
Obviously, we want talent at all positions, but fantasy baseball is also a game of volume. Wells is going to enjoy that volume, parked at the top of the New York batting order to start the year. It's the catbird seat, working in front of Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger. Wells has an excellent walk rate and a tenable strikeout rate, and last year's slugging percentage was unlucky against his batted-ball profile. There's no reason to draft a catcher early in one-fill leagues, with a player like Wells generally available between pick 150 and 200.
[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for the 2025 MLB season]
And just for fun, I'll offer a bonus prediction. Xavier Edwards will steal at least 50 bases. The Marlins need something to promote, Edwards knows how to get on base and his light is going to be green for six months. Rabbit, run.
Chourio, who posted a 150 wRC+ after the All-Star break as a 20-year-old last season, is on the fast track to superstardom. If we prorated Chourio's final 250 ABs last season over a 600-AB pace, we get: .310-93-29-105-29. And he was too young to order a drink!
Shohei Ohtani enters the obvious MVP favorite, but he's due for regression, is coming off major surgery and will lose at-bats while now having to focus on pitching again this year. Voters may also experience some fatigue after Ohtani has won three of the past four years. Chourio recorded a 222 wRC+ with a 13.2 K% during spring, so he's ready for a monster 2025. Chourio takes home MVP as a long shot (35/1).
Ichiro Suzuki won a batting title when he hit .350 in his rookie year, but he entered the majors as a 27-year-old with several seasons of professional experience. Leaving Ichiro out of the equation, Wilson is about to join Tony Oliva (1964) as the only rookie in over a century to lead their league in batting average. This prediction goes way out on a limb, as Wilson hit .250 in 92 at-bats last year and is going undrafted in virtually every Yahoo league. But if there's one thing the soon-to-be 23-year-old knows how to do, it's collect base knocks. Wilson hit .401 in 79 games in the minors, and he struck out just 26 times in 337 plate appearances.
The shortstop can be a .300 hitter right away (some popular projection systems already have Wilson hitting over .280) and last year, just three men in the AL reached the .300 plateau. Wilson, who still doesn't have an MLB homer or steal, will be a mediocre but useful fantasy asset in the mold of Luis Arráez, who has an ADP of 140.8.
Cleveland's Opening Day starter is already basically a secret ace. He has a deep arsenal of pitches that range in effectiveness from quite good to pure evil, and he's coming off a year in which he struck out 9.7 batters per nine innings while pitching through minor health issues. At 26, fresh off a multi-year extension, he's a clear candidate to make a leap. Bibee will also benefit from a lights-out bullpen that can be trusted with even the most fragile lead. It's not difficult to imagine him reaching 16 wins and 200 Ks while producing excellent ratios.
I've seen a bunch of IP projections for Ohtani, and they all seem wildly optimistic to me. The Dodgers are not going to force Ohtani back to the mound, especially in the early season. His bat is too valuable. He hasn't pitched in over a year, of course, after elbow surgery. The Dodgers know they're in the playoffs already, which means all of their pitchers (and some of their everyday players) will be handled especially carefully. Drafting Ohtani as a hitter is always a blast, but he's essentially not on my pitching board. His pitching return is not an immediate priority for the Dodgers.
Schwellenbach was a second-round pick in the MLB draft, but he's pitched like a top prospect since returning from Tommy John surgery in 2022. He experienced a big jump in innings last year, but Schwellenbach was especially impressive over the second half, when he posted a 2.73 ERA and a 0.97 WHIP with a 23.3 K-BB% that would've ranked fifth on the season. Schwellenbach offers six different pitches and owned a Chase% and BB% in the top five percentiles last season.
Schwellenbach will also benefit from pitching for the Braves for several reasons; Atlanta starters recorded 29% more wins than Detroit's SPs last season despite both staffs finishing with similar ERAs (3.58 vs. 3.69). The Braves offense comically underperformed and/or got injured last season, so run support should be even greater.
Schwellenbach recorded a 2.27 FIP and a 0.95 WHIP with a 28:3 K:BB ratio over 21.0 spring innings, so he looks like a top 12 fantasy pitcher and a strong long-shot (30/1) bet to win the Cy Young this season.
Currently being selected on average as the 30th starter in Yahoo drafts, Gallen has greater ace potential than many men who are being tabbed ahead of him. Despite missing a few starts last year, the right-hander does not have a long injury history, and he showed workhorse capabilities when he threw 184 innings in 2022 and 210 frames in 2023. Across that two-year stretch, Gallen logged ace-like ratios (3.04 ERA, 1.02 WHIP) and maintained a healthy 9.4 K/9 rate.
Gallen also has strong win potential, as he accumulated 31 victories across the past two years and is backed by an offense that led the majors in scoring last season. Pitchers tend to rise and fall in a hurry, as was evidenced when a rookie (Paul Skenes) and an oft-injured veteran (Chris Sale) finished as top-five arms last year.