The calendar has flipped to February and the start of Spring Training is just a matter of days away. While some notable free agents (including nine of MLBTR’s Top 50 MLB Free Agents for the 2024-25 offseason) remain unsigned, most clubs have already done the heavy lifting in terms of preparing their roster for the 2025 season. In the coming days, we’ll be taking a look around the league at which clubs have had the strongest offseason to this point. So far, the Mets and Cubs have decisively won the polls covering the NL East and Central respectively. Today, the focus shifts to the NL West.
The west coast represents the class of the National League given that they’ve represented the senior circuit in the World Series in each of the past two seasons. The division has sent at least two teams to the postseason in each of the past five seasons, and this offseason finds three of the club’s five teams firmly in win-now contention windows while a fourth has also begun acting aggressively. Which team has done the most to set themselves up for success this winter? Teams are listed in order of their 2024 record.
Los Angeles Dodgers
The reigning World Series champions may have stayed mostly on the sidelines during the bidding for top free agent and $765MM man Juan Soto, but that in no way means they’ve had a quiet offseason. The Dodgers have been one of the league’s most active teams this winter, re-signing Teoscar Hernandez and Blake Treinen, extending Tommy Edman, and also making a number of additions in free agency. The club kicked off the winter by poaching lefty Blake Snell from their division rivals in San Francisco and haven’t let up since, adding Michael Conforto to the outfield and Hyeseong Kim to the infield while bolstering the bullpen with both Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates, arguably the two best closers available in this winter’s market.
The most notable addition of the winter for Los Angeles, however, was surely longtime NPB phenom Roki Sasaki, who was posted despite not yet being eligible for anything more than a minor league contract and international bonus pool money. Getting Sasaki under such favorable terms would be a coup for any team, and it only serves to strengthen the Dodgers further. That’s not to say their offseason has been flawless, however. Their roster crunch reached a point where they had to sell off some of their less-necessary 40-man prospects and depth pieces like Diego Cartaya, Gavin Lux, and Ryan Brasier. Aside from that, the club’s biggest question mark in 2025 was the shortstop position, and that remains largely unaddressed as the club plans to give veteran star Mookie Betts another run at the position despite his lack of experience there. Even with a potential hole at short if Betts is unable to handle the position, however, the Dodgers have set themselves up well as they look to defend their World Series title in 2025.
San Diego Padres
It’s been a quiet and disappointing offseason in San Diego amid discord within the club’s ownership group and a clear budget crunch that has hampered president of baseball operations A.J. Preller all throughout the winter. The departures of Scott, Jurickson Profar, Donovan Solano, and Ha-Seong Kim in free agency have left the club’s strong core without much of its supporting cast, and San Diego’s hopes of landing Sasaki were dashed by their rivals in L.A. despite a strong push that made them a finalist. The club’s only big league signing to this point in the winter has been re-signing Elias Diaz to help shore things up behind the plate. It’s a welcome addition but hardly a needle mover, and it seems as though the Padres may not be able to make more impactful additions without trading a player like Dylan Cease or Luis Arraez to clear salary.
Arizona Diamondbacks
After missing the playoffs by just a hair in 2024, the 2023 NL champions have not been resting on their laurels this winter. The club re-upped with Randal Grichuk yesterday to keep a key right-handed bat in the outfield mix, and while the losses of Joc Pederson, Christian Walker, and Josh Bell to free agency are all sure to sting the lineup the addition of Josh Naylor in a trade with the Guardians should help to ease that blow considerably. By far the club’s most notable addition, however, is that of Corbin Burnes. Arizona managed to reel in the offseason’s top pitching free agent on a surprisingly favorable six-year guarantee, and the 2021 NL Cy Young award winner will now join Zac Gallen at the top of an already-strong rotation that also features Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez, Brandon Pfaadt, and Jordan Montgomery. With that being said, the club still has one major question mark in the lineup after letting Pederson’s role as the regular DH go as-of-yet unfilled, and the club’s efforts to add a closer to their relief corps have not yet come to fruition either.
San Francisco Giants
Much like the Diamondbacks, the Giants’ offseason is highlighted by one major, splashy signing: they added shortstop Willy Adames to their infield on the largest free agent contract in club history, pairing him with recently-extended third baseman Matt Chapman to form a dynamic duo on the left side of the infield for years to come. Aside from that signing, perhaps the biggest addition to the Giants organization of the offseason was longtime franchise face Buster Posey taking over for the exiting Farhan Zaidi as president of baseball operations.
Since adding Adames just before the Winter Meetings, however, things have been fairly quiet in San Francisco. Future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander was brought in to help Logan Webb anchor the rotation after Snell departed for Los Angeles, but Verlander turns 42 later this month and it’s fair to wonder how much he has left in the tank after a difficult 2024 season. That appears to be all the club plans to do this winter, as Posey recently suggested that the organization feels “pretty set” with their offseason moves despite departures like Michael Conforto and Taylor Rogers having gone as-of-yet unanswered.
Colorado Rockies
Coming off back-to-back 100-loss seasons, the Rockies have continued to eschew the full rebuild strategy other bottom-feeders like the White Sox and Marlins have taken up in favor of retaining their veteran players to serve as a bridge to their younger pieces. That’s led to extremely quiet offseasons in recent years, and this one has been no exception to that. The club added some infield depth by signing Thairo Estrada and Kyle Farmer to one-year deals as they look to replace Brendan Rodgers, but those are the club’s only big league free agent additions of the winter.
Arguably their most impactful move was re-signing catcher Jacob Stallings on the heels of an excellent rebound season with the club last year, and he should help to solidify the catcher position until well-regarded prospect Drew Romo is ready to take over regular catching duties. The pitching staff has been almost entirely unaltered aside from the departures of Daniel Bard and Cal Quantrill, however, and there hasn’t been a bat brought in to replace the production of retiring franchise stalwart Charlie Blackmon.
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This offseason has been a bit of a mixed bag around the NL West, with three of its five clubs making multiple major additions to the roster but the other two having done very little to this point in terms of either buy-side or sell-side moves, instead largely remaining stagnant. The Dodgers have been, unsurprisingly, the most active club of the winter both within the division and arguably in baseball as a whole. With that said, however, Arizona’s coup in bringing Burnes into the fold and San Francisco’s record-setting deal for Adames are strong moves that could catapult either club back into the postseason after missing out last year. Colorado’s trend of modest offseasons has continued, however, and with the caveat that Preller can never be counted out when it comes to making bold moves, it seems that the Padres have elected to join them in that quiet approach to this point in the offseason.
Of the five NL West clubs, which one has had the strongest offseason so far? Have your say in the poll below:
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