It was, no matter how you measure it, an absolutely exciting year for baseball. Records were broken. We had great teams achieving great things. We saw the brightest stars dazzle on the biggest stages.
Before we turn the page on a year none of us will forget, let’s take a look at the 10 biggest stories in baseball in 2025.
1. The Dodgers win one of the greatest World Series of all time.
Someday, you’ll be sitting with your kids or grandkids and trying to explain all the awesome moments that happened during the 2025 World Series, and you’ll seem a little unhinged.
There was an 18-inning game that ended with a Freddie Freeman home run, a year after he hit a walk-off grand slam in the 2024 World Series… in that same game, Shohei Ohtani reached base nine times… two games later, Trey Yesavage struck out 12 batters, a record for a rookie, and left the Blue Jays one win away from the title… then Yoshinobu Yamamoto was incredible and led the Dodgers to a Game 7 thanks to a surprise double play that ended Game 6… and then GAME 7 CAME, where pretty much everything that can happen in a baseball game happened.
Your child or grandchild will look at you in disbelief, think you’ve lost your mind, and try to gently put you to bed. But you will know it was true. You know what happened. TRUE? TRUE?
2. The Big Dumper breaks record after record.
Before 2025, no switch-hitter had hit 60 home runs in a season, and neither had a catcher. In fact, no one had even been close. And then Cal Raleigh arrived. The Mariners catcher was already known for his power at the plate and his solid defense behind the plate, but no one knew he could do this.
Raleigh exploded in 2025, hitting 60 home runs, driving in 125 runs and leading the Mariners to their first division title in 24 years. Additionally, he got virtually every baseball announcer on the continent to say the words “Big Dumper” at some point. It was a miracle. He was the emblematic player of 2025. Maybe this year will belong to him forever.
3. Shohei Ohtani has the best game ever.
Shohei Ohtani did everything this year. He won his fourth MVP award and third in a row. He won his second straight World Series title. He pitched again. (And it was excellent. Again.) He spent a lot of time with his dog.
But the most iconic moment of Ohtani’s season, and perhaps his entire career, came in the deciding game of the National League Championship Series, when he played arguably the best game of baseball anyone has ever played. He hit three home runs, something that had only been accomplished four times in an NLCS game. But he also struck out 10 Brewers batters in six scoreless innings. It was like watching an adult playing against elementary school children.
We’ve never seen anything like it, although knowing Shohei, he’ll probably do it again. Oh, he also hit 55 home runs this year and led his league in slugging for the third straight time. We are not at their level.
4. The Blue Jays stage a great comeback and come up short.
Honestly, I felt a little bad talking about that World Series, out of respect for the poor Blue Jays fans who saw their hearts ripped out. But the cruelty of how that series ended shouldn’t overshadow how wonderful Toronto’s season was.
After finishing in last place in 2024, many fans (and baseball experts) thought the team would have to dismantle. However, they signed a contract extension with their star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. shortly after the start of the season… and it didn’t take long for them to take off. Suddenly, they had taken the American League East title, crushed the Yankees in the ALDS, won an epic ALCS against the Mariners, and reached their first World Series in 22 years… coming close (twice! maybe more!) to winning it.
The Fall Classic was painful. But it cannot erase all the glory that preceded it… and that which may yet come.
5. The best team in baseball? The Brewers?
We shouldn’t have underestimated the Brewers. After all, they had won the NL Central two years in a row and earned the benefit of the doubt. But they had also lost their closer Devin Williams, the Cubs had acquired Kyle Tucker and no one was sure if Milwaukee had the stars to stay… could they repeat?
Oh, of course. The Brewers finished with the best record in baseball and the best in franchise history, thanks to their timely hitting, pitching at the right times, great atmosphere and contributions from all kinds of players that no one knew before the season, such as Caleb Durbin, Isaac Collins, Jake Bauers, Chad Patrick, the Dominican Abner Uribe, and we could go on and on.
It all ended for them in the National League Championship Series, but up until that point, the Brewers—in the year they, and we, lost Bob Uecker—were the sport’s biggest surprise. I’ve already heard people doubting them for 2026. Haven’t we learned that lesson?
6. Nick Kurtz arrives and destroys everything.
Nick Kurtz was the fourth overall pick in the 2024 draft and a highly-rated prospect by the A’s, so there was a lot of hype when he was promoted to West Sacramento in late April. But who in the world saw this coming?
Kurtz became something of a cross between Aaron Judge and Ohtani, hitting 36 home runs in 117 games, posting a 1.002 OPS and playing more than acceptable first base. But his biggest moment came on July 25, when he had six hits and four home runs… and nearly became the first player in history to hit five home runs in a single game. He also hit the longest home run of the year, 493 feet.
The best of all? He is still only 22 years old. This is just beginning… and it’s going to be long.
7. Aaron Judge does it again (like it was nothing).
What could have kept the Big Dumper from winning the American League MVP after a 60-home run season? Well, Aaron Judge, of course. Nothing Judge does goes unnoticed, but with Raleigh, Ohtani (and Kurtz) grabbing the headlines, he simply did his job almost silently, hitting home runs one after another and keeping the Yankees afloat practically single-handedly.
Judge won the advanced Triple Crown (average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage) and played over 150 games for the second consecutive season. (And thank goodness: The Yankees would have been lost without him.) He doesn’t yet have that elusive World Series ring, but perhaps being considered the greatest right-handed hitter of all time provides some solace.
8. Two truly dominant Cy Young winners.
It can be debated whether Tarik Skubal’s 2025 season, in which he won the AL Cy Young, was better or “worse” than his 2024 season, when he also won the award. But the fact that we can compare them shows how far above the rest it has been.
Well, almost everyone. The Pirates’ Paul Skenes followed up his National League Rookie of the Year season with a historic campaign, posting a 1.97 ERA and striking out 216 batters at just 23 years old, in his first full year in MLB. Skenes has pitched 320.2 innings in his first two major league seasons and still maintains a career ERA under 2.00 in an era of offensive resurgence. He and Skubal are simply impossible.
9. Clayton Kershaw says goodbye at the top.
In the history of the Dodgers, both in Brooklyn and in Los Angeles, Clayton Kershaw is the absolute leader in WAR of the franchise, and his (already exaggerated) difficulties in the postseason were left behind with two World Series rings.
And how did you spend your final season? Well, he reached 3,000 strikeouts, made a great out in the World Series and closed it all with his third championship. Hopefully there will be room for all that—and of course, much more—on his plaque in Cooperstown in five years, because it will be needed.
10. Fun in Bristol and Tokyo.
Baseball can be played anywhere, and 2025 reminded us of that from the first moment. The season began with raucous crowds at the Tokyo Dome, where Ohtani and the Dodgers (along with four other compatriots: Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, Shota Imanaga and Seiya Suzuki) won two games against the Cubs in what became the largest international event in MLB history.
And on the other side of the world, in an equally fascinating setting, the Reds and Braves traveled to Bristol Motor Speedway in August to play the first game between American League and National League teams in the state of Tennessee. It was a rain-delayed game, but a fantastic one, in front of a record crowd of 91,032.
There’s nothing like watching baseball in a place you’ve never been… somewhere you never imagined. And next year: the Field of Dreams Game returns.
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