AL Central Division Predictions

Royals

After a series win last year in the Postseason and a good offseason, the Royals are in a prime position to continue to stack success stories. Bobby Witt Jr. is a legitimate superstar in the league and I think will receive MVP votes annually for the next decade or so (if he can continue to stay healthy.) He finished 2nd in MVP voting while leading the league in hits, average and games played with 161! Keep Bobby on the field and baseball fans will rejoice. Except for maybe the rest of this division.

They did lose a good pitcher in Brady Singer, but were able to get some much needed help in the outfield by trading him for former Rookie of the Year, Jonathan India. He should hit leadoff in front of Witt, so him getting back to himself at the plate will be big for this Royals team. He has not played outfield in the MLB as of yet, but with a good middle infield already in Kansas City, they opted to boost the depth of an outfield that really needed it.

The Royals struggled in that leadoff spot a lot last year as Maikel Garcia was not the best player in that role. With his speed, he should be an on base and ground ball guy, but he was trying to hit homers and hitting the ball in the air way too much. He finished the season with a career low 72 OPS+, making him 28% less than league average at the plate in that regard. When he got on base, he was a huge threat. He stole 42 bases in 44 attempts. He is getting moved to Center Field to help the team out just like India, so I think there’s a good chance he decides himself to switch his offensive approach for the same reason.

Cole Ragans is my Cy Young pick for this season. Not just a contender or vote getter as I have mentioned for others, but the outright winner of the award. In his first full season with the Royals, he was able to accrue 186 innings while striking out 223 batters. He finished top 5 in the league with regard to strikeouts, and top 10 in total Wins Above Replacement and ERA+. He will look to continue off that in 2025.

Seth Lugo is also looking to keep looking like one of the best pitchers in the AL as he is coming off of a runner-up Cy Young season in 2024. In that regard, he should be the best pitcher on the staff, but that is not the case in my opinion. It may be hard for him to replicate those numbers given his usage last year, but I did draft him in fantasy baseball expecting him to perform well yet again.

Tigers

Detroit had an impressive run to make it to the playoffs last year and just as the Royals had a playoff series win. I was hesitant to put the team this high with the Guardians lineup looking as it is, but the pitching staff is what I think will be a big plus for this team. They will be returning the Cy Young of the American League Tarik Skubal, as well as debuting Jackson Jobe for his first full season in the Majors. Jobe is a good play for a Rookie of the Year bet in my opinion as he showed a few good innings last year to round out the regular season. He has already shown some growing pains in Postseason innings with 2 appearances out of the bullpen and giving up earned runs in each.

The Tigers brought back Jack Flaherty this offseason after they traded him to the Dodgers during last season’s trade deadline. He was one of the best pitchers available for trade at the time, and I was surprised the Tigers traded him away. They were just getting ready for their postseason push and his arm pitching 38% better than the average pitcher ERA wise would have been helpful for the team. The rest of his results in the regular season for Los Angeles were nothing to write home about as he looked eerily similar to an average pitcher.

The hitters for this team are also in an interesting situation. Riley Greene should be the most productive offensive player for the team while hitting in the heart of the order. He continued his progression offensively in 2024 with his best season up to that point. He should be a 25 homer guy and may get into the high 80s for RBI’s.

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Guardians

Jose Ramirez is the second-best position player in the division behind Bobby Witt Jr. Both are very good hitters and can hit to all fields and for contact and power. Ramirez does not have as good of a glove as Witt, nor the speed, but pure hitting wise I would say they are similar style hitters. Both can hit to all fields for contact and power. Ramirez needs to continue to show he’s an anchor on this team and a Wild Card appearance in the postseason may be what the team is going for this year yet again.

The Guardians were fun to watch in the postseason last year. If they didn’t lose Josh Naylor and Andres Gimenez. Gimenez is one of the best fielding second baseman, maybe even all infielders, in the MLB. Naylor had a career year in 2024 with 100+ RBIs and has since been signed by the Diamondbacks this offseason.

Shane Bieber will be back in 2025 to headline the rotation, and for the Guardians, will hope to show signs of his old self as he will be coming off of a tommy john surgery from last season. His first start was very good last year, and I remember because he was on my fantasy team. If he comes back like that without injuring himself again, he can make a great case to get some Cy Young votes yet again.

Emmanuel Clase was so good in 2024 that I will be doing a special on that season this upcoming weekend.

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Twins

Minnesota is a team in a weird spot. They have great front of the rotation pitching 1 through 3 with Joe Ryan, Pablo Lopez and Bailey Ober but it does drop off drastically. in my opinion. I think those three great guys at the top will need to perform at their best for the Twins to make it out of this spot but that also goes for some of their hitters.

In Royce Lewis’ small sample of at bats, he has been mashing the baseball. However, it is the injuries that have had the biggest effect on his ability to stay on the field. Jose Miranda was also a very good middle of the order hitter whenever he was healthy, going on a long streak of at bats without getting out at the plate.

Along with Royce Lewis, Byron Buxton is also a common name on Twins’ Injury Lists over the past few seasons. When he stays healthy he is a real threat it is just a matter of if he can play north of 120 games for the first time since 2017. He played 102 games last year and was scorching hot at the plate for Minnesota in July and August in his 25 combined games played between the months. If, and this is a big if, Lewis and Buxton can stay healthy this season and the back end of the rotation can find a way to scrap out some wins they will do better than this projection. I just don’t see that happening.

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White Sox

This team stinks so bad it’s sad as a Midwesterner. They made some moves in the offseason that should get them over their win total from last year, but not by much. What they made up for in acquiring hitters, they lost with Garrett Crochet leaving. I am happy about his departure as I am a fan of his, because he is a Tennessee alum, and it was sad watching the White Sox play any games last year because of how historically bad they were.

I expect to see Luis Robert traded before the deadline, but his case is becoming an interesting one. He has declined heavily since he broke out in 2021. Everyone expected him to be in MVP talks for the foreseeable future after that, but that was sadly not the case.