2025 AL Central division preview

Cleveland Guardians

It was an interesting offseason in Cleveland. A year after winning the division and making it all the way to the ALCS, they traded away key players Josh Naylor and Andrés Giménez.

The team brought back familiar faces in Carlos Santana, Austin Hedges and Shane Bieber, all on one-year contracts. In the Giménez trade (also including the Pittsburgh Pirates), they were able to acquire young pitcher Luis L. Ortiz, someone who showed potential in Pittsburgh.

The Naylor trade netted them another young starter, Slade Cecconi. Cleveland also made two low-risk pitching signings in John Means and Paul Sewald.

While the team lost some pieces, they still should be competitive with star players like José Ramírez and Emmanuel Clase and emerging starter Tanner Bibee. Under Stephen Vogt, the reigning AL Manager of the Year, expect this team to remain competitive.

Chicago White Sox

I apologize to anyone who’s a fan of this team. A year after setting a record for the lowest win total in MLB history (41 games), the White Sox showed zero interest in improving.

In fact, you could argue they got worse. They shipped out breakout star Garrett Crochet to Boston for a haul of prospects, and made little to no impact moves around the edges. Mike Tauchman, Martin Pérez and Michael A. Taylor are all good bench pieces, but are not starting caliber players.

They’ve seen six pitchers need Tommy John Surgery this spring. Joey Gallo changed his position to pitcher just to get away from them. Remember when I said they showed zero interest in improving? They released Brandon Drury, which is fine, if he didn’t post a .410/.439/.821 slash line in 41 spring plate appearances.

For those that don’t follow baseball, that’s pretty good for that sample size. There just isn’t much to be excited about besides Luis Robert Jr., who may be dealt at some point anyway. Will Venable will be entering his first season as manager of this team, and I wish him luck.

Detroit Tigers

When all hope looked lost, the Tigers made a magical run to the Postseason in 2024, and they were one game shy of an ALCS appearance. Detroit had a quiet offseason, signing low-end free agents like Gleyber Torres, Alex Cobb and Tommy Kahnle, but they definitely improved.

Their biggest move was bringing back Jack Flaherty, a player they signed last offseason but traded to the eventual champion Los Angeles Dodgers midseason. The Tigers have some fun names.

Tarik Skubal was last year’s AL Cy Young winner and is regarded as one of the league’s best pitchers. Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter are hitters that can be tough outs when at their best.

Not to mention, former championship-winner A.J. Hinch is the manager of this ball club. You may not think very highly of Detroit, but they don’t care and have embodied the honor of an under the radar team that can surprise you at any moment.

Kansas City Royals

Speaking of teams that made surprising runs to the Postseason last year, the Kansas City Royals are the best they’ve been in a long time. Like Detroit, they made it to last year’s ALDS, getting eliminated one game earlier than the Tigers but still winning a game against the eventual AL champion New York Yankees.

Kansas City also had a quiet but interesting offseason. They brought back Michael Wacha to keep their big three of him, Cole Ragans and Seth Lugo intact for the rotation. They brought in late-inning reliever Carlos Estévez from the Philadelphia Phillies.

Lastly, they made a trade with the Reds to upgrade their lineup, sending pitcher Brady Singer to Cincinnati for former Rookie of the Year winner Jonathan India. These moves, combined with their already good roster, are why Kansas City will once again be competitive.

The big player to watch is Bobby Witt Jr., the runner-up for AL MVP last year, and Salvador Pérez has shown he’s still got it. If any team could take the AL Central crown (no pun intended) away from Cleveland, it’s probably the Royals.

Minnesota Twins

The Twins disappointed last season by missing the Postseason with an 82-80 record. They didn’t do very much this offseason either. Their biggest signings were Harrison Bader, former center fielder of the New York Mets, and Danny Coulombe, former relief pitcher of the Baltimore Orioles.

Their roster isn’t the worst in the division or AL by any means, but a successful season could hinge on the health of Byron Buxton, Carlos Correa and Royce Lewis. In the past, banking on those three being healthy has not worked out, but maybe things will be different.

The Twins have a nice front of their rotation with Pablo López and Joe Ryan, and one of the better closers in the league in Jhoan Duran.

While it won’t be easy to win this division after Cleveland, Kansas City and Detroit got better, you never know what could happen and you can’t count out the Twins for that reason.

In conclusion, this division is pretty up in the air (besides Chicago, sorry White Sox fans). But, that’s what will make things exciting. There hasn’t been a repeat winner of this division since the 2019 and 2020 seasons (Minnesota Twins), and that trend could definitely continue in 2025.

Adam Pietrzak is a fourth-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email app5940@psu.edu.