MLB Opening Day 2025: How different are all 30 teams compared to last season?
Our annual continuity rankings highlight which teams shook up their rosters and which ones are running it back.
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Over the course of a 162-game season plus October, fans become very familiar with the players who appear most frequently for their favorite teams, whether that’s on the mound or in the batter’s box. Regardless of whether these players are star performers or unproductive placeholders and whether the team is good or bad, the players become the main characters of the season at hand. Then the offseason shakes up all 30 major-league rosters like a snow globe, landing players on different teams in different roles and creating new characters for each fan base to get to know.
With this in mind, it’s a worthwhile exercise to explore which teams enter 2025 with the same cast of characters that their fans have known and loved for quite some time and which teams are rolling out a higher percentage of new names. Another offseason of free-agent signings and trades has notably altered the landscape of the league, so with Opening Day nearly here, it’s time to review the winter that was and preview the season through a very straightforward lens: Which rosters have changed the most since last season?
I conducted this exercise for the first time a year ago and applied the same basic methodology again this time around. I looked at every player who appeared in a game for a team in 2024 and determined whether they’re still with that organization. With the primary goal of painting a broad picture of which teams will look the most similar, rather than which teams improved the most, I focused strictly on playing time for pitchers and hitters, rather than performance.
For example, Astros starting pitchers Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown, Ronel Blanco and Spencer Arrighetti combined for 658 2/3 innings pitched in 2024, and all four remain with the Astros. That’s roughly 46% of Houston’s innings returning from that quartet alone. But in the lineup, Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker combined for 973 plate appearances, or approximately 16% of the team’s total, and that is not returning in 2025. That’s nearly 1,000 trips to the plate that will be made by less familiar faces for the Astros in 2025 — quite a change after so many years of continuity in Houston.
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It’s important to note that these totals do not account for injuries, which results in some misleading totals for certain teams. Gerrit Cole and the 95 innings he hurled last season remain in the organization and are thus included in the Yankees’ percentage of innings “returning,” but we know he won’t be contributing to this year’s staff due to Tommy John surgery.
Just as this exercise isn’t intended to declare winners and losers from the offseason, lining up all 30 clubs by this metric doesn’t necessarily predict success or failure in the season ahead. Look no further than last year’s rankings to see the range of outcomes for both teams that largely brought back the same rosters and those that shook things up dramatically. The top 10 in rates of return a year ago featured the postseason-bound Phillies, Astros and Orioles as well as the seriously disappointing Cubs, Blue Jays and Rangers.
On the other end of the spectrum, the four most changed rosters from 2023 to ‘24 included three playoff teams in the Brewers, Yankees and Padres and also one of the worst teams in the history of baseball in the White Sox. The eventual World Series champion Dodgers were smack dab in the middle and rank similarly entering 2025.
With all that said, let’s get to the numbers and highlight a few standouts.
San Diego Padres
Arguably no roster in baseball has undergone more seismic transformations over the past decade than San Diego’s under president of baseball operations A.J. Preller. In partnership with former owner Peter Seidler, Preller has executed more industry-rattling trades and eye-popping free-agent signings than almost any other team. But in the wake of Seidler’s death and the subsequent legal battle for control of the team, the Padres operated quite differently this past winter.
With a huge amount of payroll committed to a select group of players, there was little wiggle room to bring in any new impact talent. As a result, the Padres watched a huge portion of last year’s position-player group — Jurickson Profar, Ha-Seong Kim, Donovan Solano, Kyle Higashoka — leave in free agency, replacing them with a horde of low-cost veterans. Only six teams bring back a lower percentage of 2024 plate appearances than San Diego.
On the mound, however, the Padres have largely kept the band together, bringing us to one of the more stunning facts from this exercise: Entering 2024, no team brought back fewer innings than the Padres. Entering 2025, no team brings back more innings than San Diego, whose top 10 (!) innings leaders from last season all remain in the organization. Admittedly, this is somewhat misleading. Three of the top six Padres arms by innings in 2024 were knuckleballer Matt Waldron (currently injured and not projected to be in the rotation), Yu Darvish (currently injured) and Joe Musgrove (out for 2025 due to elbow surgery).
Such uncertainty means the Padres’ pitching staff will feature a few fresh faces this season, with free-agent additions Nick Pivetta and Kyle Hart the most prominent examples. But with Michael King and Dylan Cease still co-headliners atop the rotation and a standout bullpen largely intact, other than deadline rental Tanner Scott’s departure in free agency, this Padres staff is once again primed to be one of the best in the National League if everyone can get and stay healthy.
Texas Rangers
Let’s look at the other end of the spectrum when it comes to continuity on the mound. Only the Marlins, White Sox and Angels — three of the four worst teams in baseball in 2024 — bring back a lower percentage of innings than the Rangers. This might be a good thing for Texas, as its performance on the mound last year was a big reason the team so severely disappointed in its title defense.
Who are the Rangers planning on giving the ball to in 2025? The rotation and bullpen both look notably changed, but for very different reasons. In addition to Nathan Eovaldi, who led Texas in innings last year and was retained in free agency, the Rangers are banking on several internal options to provide more starts in 2025. That includes the highly anticipated full-season returns of Jacob deGrom and veteran right-hander Tyler Mahle from elbow surgery, plus the arrivals of young, homegrown right-handers Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker. Spring injuries to Jon Gray and Cody Bradford necessitated the signing of lefty Patrick Corbin to soak up innings, but Plan A for the Texas rotation is to lean heavily on the pieces already in place.
Meanwhile, the bullpen has been overhauled entirely and now features almost exclusively external additions. Of Texas’ top eight relievers by appearances in 2024, only lefty Jacob Latz remains, as president of baseball operations Chris Young spent the winter restocking the relief corps via free agency (Chris Martin, Jacob Webb, Hoby Milner, Shawn Armstrong, Luke Jackson) and trade (Robert Garcia). Texas finished 21st in rotation ERA and 26th in bullpen ERA last year — and that was with another strong campaign from Eovaldi and standout seasons from David Robertson and Kirby Yates — so how this new-look pitching staff performs will heavily influence the Rangers’ chances of returning to October.
Philadelphia Phillies
For the second year in a row, the Phillies occupy the top spot in these continuity rankings, with more than 90% of last year’s plate appearances and roughly 80% of the innings pitched still in the organization. Many wondered if we’d see a more dramatic roster shake-up over the winter after Philadelphia again crashed out of the postseason. Rumors swirled regarding third baseman Alec Bohm’s potential availability in a trade and whether the team would be able to offload the two years and $40 million remaining on Nick Castellanos’ contract. But ultimately, the Phillies decided to keep their core intact and focus on adding rather than subtracting.
The departure of Jeff Hoffman in free agency represents the only notable contributor from 2024 who will play elsewhere in 2025. Philadelphia signed Jordan Romano to help replace some of the high-leverage innings, added Max Kepler to the outfield mix and acquired Jesus Luzardo from the Marlins to bolster an already loaded rotation. Beyond that, it looks to be the same crew tasked with taking the Phillies to the top: Bryce Harper, Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber lead the way in the lineup, with Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola setting the tone on the mound.
The talent is such that it’s difficult to argue with the Phillies running it back again, but as these veteran superstars continue to age, how much longer can this version of the roster sustain such lofty standards? And can they finally capture a World Series title before that collective decline occurs? Where Philadelphia ranks in this exercise a year from now — with Schwarber, catcher J.T. Realmuto and lefty Ranger Suarez all scheduled to hit free agency — could be very telling.
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New York Yankees
It’s remarkable that a team coming off a World Series appearance is replacing four position players who started in the postseason (Juan Soto, Gleyber Torres, Alex Verdugo and Anthony Rizzo), plus the starting pitcher with the second-most innings pitched (Nestor Cortes Jr.) and the reliever with the most appearances (Clay Holmes). Add the barrage of injuries to returning players — Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil, Giancarlo Stanton, DJ LeMahieu and Clarke Schmidt — and the Yankees’ low place in the continuity rankings doesn’t fully capture the degree to which New York will be relying on new faces in 2025.
This puts a ton of pressure on offseason additions such as Max Fried, Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt and Devin Williams to step up and enhances the spotlight on the homegrown pieces slated to assume larger roles, such as Will Warren, Jasson Dominguez and Ben Rice. It’s simply a ton of turnover for a pennant winner and will be an intriguing subplot for the league’s most scrutinized ballclub.
Miami Marlins & Chicago White Sox
Chicago is coming off one of the worst seasons in baseball history, and Miami has traded away an astonishing number of veteran players over the past 18 months. With relatively new leadership in both franchises’ baseball operations departments — and brand-new managers in Will Venable and Clayton McCullough — it’s no secret that these clubs are prioritizing the development of their young players over winning games.
That means trading away veterans for young talent and/or moving on from players the previous regime was granting substantial playing time, in turn redirecting opportunities to newly acquired major leaguers or prospects ready for their first taste of the big leagues. The Marlins return just two of their top six hitters by plate appearances last season (Jesus Sanchez and Otto Lopez), while the White Sox bring back one of their top five pitchers by innings (Jonathan Cannon). These rebuilds are going to be an arduous, multiyear process, but hopefully the 2025 season will introduce some promising talent worth building around for both clubs.
