The talk of this most recent MLB offseason was all about the Los Angeles Dodgers. The defending World Series champs added to their already record-breaking spending numbers, signing a bevy of some of the league’s most talented players, most notably two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell and Japanese sensation Roki Sasaki.
Rightly so, the Dodgers offseason was a polarizing subject among pundits. The baseball world was divided when it came to topics like deferred money, salary caps and most notably, league parity. A “superteam” that had just won a World Series became even more loaded, leading many to crown the Dodgers as the 2025 champions before Spring Training even rolled around.
But what if I told you that the Dodgers aren’t even the best team in their own division? That there’s an organization that has pressed all the right buttons over the past few years, setting themselves up for what will be a franchise-altering season in 2025. A team that is flying under everyone’s radar.
That team is the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Let’s start with some history. The Diamondbacks had a Cinderella run to the World Series in 2023 as the No. 6 seed in the National League, storming through the Wild Card series and then past the stacked Dodgers in sweeping fashion on their way there. They ultimately fell to the Texas Rangers in five games in the Fall Classic, but nevertheless, the result was positive for an 84-win regular season team that was a combined 151-233 in their prior three seasons.
The following season, the Diamondbacks won 89 games, yet missed the postseason by one game on the final day of the season. The team that took their place to play October baseball was the New York Mets, who went on to give the aforementioned champion Dodgers their toughest battle of the postseason in the NLCS.
The Diamondbacks scored the most runs of any team that season, despite an underwhelming season from their young superstar Corbin Carroll. Their pitching on the other hand, was unlucky, to put it nicely. They surrendered the fifth-most runs in the big leagues, meaning they could’ve easily been a 95-plus win team if they were just league average.
Enter Corbin Burnes.
In an offseason move that no one saw coming, the Diamondbacks locked up the best starting pitcher on the market to a lucrative six year, $210 million contract. He and fellow ace Zac Gallen will immediately become one of the most formidable one-two punches in the league, making their starting pitching staff as a whole a consensus top-5 rotation in the league.
Their bullpen projects to be one of the best, as well. A trio of A.J. Puk, Justin Martinez and Kevin Ginkel is one that you can be confident in to close out games, with a versatile supporting cast of relievers behind them to boot.
And, of course, their lineup is going to continue to be fierce and deep, even if they experience some natural regression following their previous season’s power surge. They lost key pieces in Christian Walker and Joc Pedersen to free agency, but retained everyone else while also adding first baseman Josh Naylor to replace Walker, a player that will not only produce, but also add a fiery, competitive edge to the locker room.
Additionally, Carroll will look to return to his excellent rookie-year form after experiencing a sophomore slump at the beginning of last season. The Diamondbacks smartly locked up the 24-year-old phenom for the next six seasons on one of the most team-friendly contracts in baseball, making Carroll a cornerstone for what I foresee to be one of the best team cultures in the MLB.
I’m saying that before I even mention Ketel Marte–the heartbeat of the Diamondbacks. Marte is the longest-tenured player on the team, a player who has performed to the highest ability through the highs and the lows. He was the NLCS MVP in the 2023 World Series run, and is coming off of a 2024 season where he finished third in NL MVP voting and cemented himself as the best second baseman in the league.
Oh by the way, he’s on arguably the best contract in the entire league currently, as he is only making an average salary of $15.2 million through the 2028 season, a figure unheard of in an environment where teams like the Dodgers are oftentimes committing more than double that to players of lesser caliber than Marte. Yet another testament to the underappreciated and shrewd work of Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen and owner Ken Kendrick.
Playing in the same division as the absurdly stacked Dodgers and even the star-studded Padres has hidden the fact that the Diamondbacks have lowkey built one of the strongest organizations in the MLB, from top to bottom. Being out of the spotlight is the very reason why I think the Diamondbacks will rise above those teams and win the NL West, and if they’re lucky, maybe even the World Series this season.
People have already seemed to have forgotten that the Diamondbacks were in the World Series just two seasons ago. I truly believe in the theory that having a chip on your shoulder drives someone to outperform their capabilities.
The Dodgers may have the ring and the glitz and the glamour of Hollywood, but they’re also going to be under a microscope all season long. Every loss, even if there won’t be many, will be under scrutiny and add onto the already mounting pressure to win.
Meanwhile in the desert, a culture is being ignited that takes pride in being underlooked, thrives on the idea of dismantling the Dodgers as they did in the 2023 postseason. Something special is being built. The state of Arizona is a mecca for baseball, and finally, their Snakes are going to prove themselves as a symbol worthy of that identity.
