Every team wants to win the World Series.
Yes, we want to win everything, even the bad teams and the teams that don't look like they're trying. We're lucky enough to be entering Cinderella season and hosting a parade is all we want, but for some teams, hoisting a World Series trophy is more than just an aspiration.
It's an obsession.
There are a few teams in complete desperation mode heading into the 2025 season, teams that have been on the precipice for years and never got close, spending a lot of money to push all their chips into the middle. There's also a team. table. They are committed to the pot, both emotionally and with real-world money.
Here are my rankings of the teams that are, or should be, most desperate to survive baseball's worst postseason situation and win the World Series.
philadelphia phillies
It's hard to believe that Bryce Harper has been a Philly player for six seasons. During that time, he smashed 152 home runs and racked up a .924 OPS. Biggest Home Run in Citizens Bank Park Historyand helped make Philadelphia a perennial contender. Still, Harper, two of the three best pitchers of the past five years in Zach Wheeler and Aaron Nola, and players like JT Realmuto, Kyle Schwarber, Trey Turner, Nick Castellanos and Alec Bohm. It has a lineup full of big stars. Not only do they have a cadre of strong-throwing relievers that have given the Phillies one of the best bullpens in baseball for three consecutive seasons, but they haven't won a title.
Worryingly for Phillies fans, the Phils seem to be regressing, just like the Phils did from 2008 to 2011 when they won it all. They then lost the World Series in 2009, lost the NLCS in 2010, and fell to the NLDS in 2011. October's loss at the hands of the Mets mirrored their previous two postseason wins over the Braves, whose NL East championship seasons were eliminated by wild-card teams in the division. They entered the offseason with the goals of rebuilding a batting lineup that chases too much and not enough walks, adds depth to their starting pitching, and replaces two valuable relief pitchers, but they have already signed big contracts. They had limited roster flexibility due to the fact that they were unable to seriously pursue Juan Soto.
More than any team in baseball, the Phillies need to win the World Series this year. It's crazy that they didn't do that during Harper's six stellar years in Philadelphia. After going 2-1 in the 2022 World Series and blowing a 3-2 lead in Games 6 and 7 at home in the 2023 NLCS, Harper, Schwarber and Realmuto have not had their prime seasons. There was a sense that it was running out. , Wheeler and Nola, no team has more urgency than the Phils.
new york yankees
How can the Yankees, a team that has won 41 pennants and won 27 World Series, become the second-most desperate team to win this year? Well, the last time they played, in 2009. One minute has passed since the aforementioned Phillies game. It's been an eternity in the Bronx, where a new hunger is brewing after a 15-year drought came to an end two months ago.
It will be difficult to return to the Fall Classic without Soto, who was traded to the Mets in a dizzying free-agent deal, and Philadelphia's aging core. Aaron Judge will turn 33 next year. Giancarlo Stanton will be 35, Gerrit Cole will be 34, Marcus Stroman will be 32, and Carlos Rodon will be 32. They lost Clay Holmes in free agency and are looking to young prospects like Lewis Gil, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Austin Wells. And Anthony Volpe could provide a steady baseline as the team searches for a replacement for Soto.
Expectations are always high in New York, and this year they'll be even higher.
san diego padres
Two years ago, the Padres traded incredible talents in CJ Abrams, James Wood, and Mackenzie Gore to the Washington Nationals in exchange for Soto for a season and a half. They advanced to the 2022 NLCS, but ultimately lost to the Phillies in a close five-game series. In 2023, when Soto was still on the roster, the team had a major setback, finishing the season with an 82-80 record and missing the playoffs, but last season without Soto, they bounced back to 93-69 and clinched another wild card berth. We won one, but unfortunately we lost. The NLDS was a victory over the divisional rivals, the eventual world champion Dodgers.
The small-market Padres spent a lot of money the past few seasons trying to bring San Diego its first World Series title, but in 2025 they will be returning a great lineup that was a disaster in last year's postseason. The Flyers already boast hitters in Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Jake Cronenworth and Xander Bogaerts. Dylan Cease and Michael King form the dynamic top two of the rotation, and Yu Darvish continues to pitch at a high level.
The pieces are in place for this team to reach the World Series for the first time since 1998, but one wonders how long ownership can continue pouring $160-200 million into the roster of a small-market team. Of course you think so. So now is the time for those investments to pay off with a title.
new york mets
The Mets and owner Steve Cohen are certainly acting like a desperate organization, but that's because Cohen is happy to do it. spends more on salary than the income he generatesHe is an outlier among MLB owners. After signing Soto to a 15-year, $765 million contract and adding free agent Clay Holmes to the starting rotation, the Mets made the playoffs last year, upset the Phillies in National Stadium, and ultimately fell. I'm trying to use it. To the Dodgers in the NLCS.
The Mets have been the butt of jokes for the better part of the past seven years, ever since reaching the World Series in 2015. They haven't won a title since 1986, and have had their fair share of laughably bad records since then. moment. But suddenly, they were an up-and-coming team that saw their energetic late-season blitz fizzle out at the hands of a mighty Dodgers team. They hope to reach the same level as the Dodgers and hold a parade for the first time in 38 years.
Even with the addition of Soto, there's still work to be done, but it's clear Cohen is hell-bent on establishing cult status in Flushing while simultaneously rubbing his cross-town rivals' faces against it. .
As a Philadelphian, I can respect that.
boston red sox
You may be asking yourself, “Where have the Red Sox been all these years?”
Don't worry, Red Sox fans are asking themselves the same question.
It looks like someone woke up Boston's front office this offseason. The $700 million offer for Soto and his connections to nearly every trade candidate and free agent prove it. not nailed down. Their drought isn't as long as some of the other teams on this list, dating back to 2018, but they're acting like a team that's a little upset that their hated rivals, the Yankees, came so close last year.
Boston is a sleeping giant, but it looks like they're finally willing to add to a valuable asset like Mookie Betts instead of selling him.
milwaukee brewers
Milwaukee doesn't often come to mind when you think of the best teams in baseball over the past seven years, but they've made the postseason in every season since 2018 except for 2022. They have won back-to-back National League titles. They won the Central Division championship, three of the past four games, and four of the past seven games, but in the last six postseason appearances (2019, 2020, 21, 23, and 24), they won the World Series. Not only that, but they couldn't even participate in the NLCS.
One might think that the Brewers would be a pretty desperate team if they came up short this often, but they usually work around the margins in the offseason, sometimes with popular managers. He even throws it out to his divisional rivals. The Brewers' annual salary of $114 million last season ranked 21st out of 30 teams, and they traded away star pitchers like Corbin Burnes last offseason and starting shortstop Willie signed a seven-year contract with the Giants.・There was no attempt to re-sign Adams. this week.
The fan base may be more desperate than ownership, but considering how close they are to actually winning the World Series, this organization should put the pedal to the metal.
seattle mariners
Let me summarize this in one sentence.
The Seattle Mariners are the only team in Major League Baseball to never appear in the World Series.
So even if they aren't at full strength and are rumored to be courting every free agent available, they have a free-spirited trade monger in GM Jerry Dipoto and this Coupled with the fact that the team has been around for almost half a century (47 years) and has never reached the Fall Classic. They are in a championship-capable division and just lost AL pennant winner Juan Soto, so if Seattle is looking to spend some cash this winter, the door is open. There is.
