As the players finish their preparations at their Spring Training camps, the 30 Major League Baseball clubs are looking forward to opening day on Thurs., March 20. There is plenty of excitement around each fanbase as they look forward to their fresh slate in their march towards October.

In this article, each National League team will be ranked within their division from best to worst based on their promise for the upcoming season. Within these rankings, there will be an overview of each team and what can lead them to that spot.

NL East

1.)Atlanta Braves

The Braves are looking forward to getting back on the diamond after they were knocked out of the playoffs by the Padres in the Wild Card round. The Braves have performed very well in recent history as they haven’t missed the Postseason since 2017. Atlanta is also looking forward to the return of two of the biggest stars in the league with Ronald Acuna Jr. and Spencer Strider returning from season-ending injuries. Strider is expected to make his return in late April while Acuna is projected to come back sometime in May. Chris Sale will look to build on his dominant performance in 2023 where he was awarded the NL Cy Young Award. Some of the other notable players returning to this star-studded lineup are Matt Olson, Austin Riley, Ozzie Albies and Marcell Ozuna. Atlanta was also able to add a good bat to their lineup as they signed Jurickson Profar over the offseason. Profar had an impressive season in 2023 as he hit .280 with 24 home runs and 85 runs batted in.

2.) Philadelphia Phillies

Following their dominant performance in the regular season that earned them the first seed in the AL East, the Phillies will be looking to build on that success and make it back to the playoffs. The Phillies have a very similar to lineup to what they had in 2024, with Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott being the anchors of the lineup that have had the best bats on the team over the past few seasons. Zach Wheeler and Aaron Nola will also return to the starting rotation as they will look to build on the success they have had as of late.

3.) New York Mets

The Mets were one of the most fun teams to watch during their Postseason run as they surprised many with a run from the Wild Card all the way to the NLCS where they were eventually knocked out by the very talented Dodgers team that ended up winning the World Series. The Mets didn’t stop making headlines from there as they wasted little time in the offseason with the signing of Juan Soto to a 15-year deal worth 765 million dollars, the most lucrative contract in all of sports. Soto is a great addition to this lineup as he is one of the most well-rounded hitters in baseball at just 26 years old. Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso are the other two stars in this lineup with Lindor looking to build on his incredible performance last season while Alonso will look to bounce back from his struggles in 2024. Even though the Mets don’t have Luis Severino returning, they have some promising arms in their rotation with Sean Manaea, Kodai Senga and Clay Holmes. Edwin Diaz could be one of the best closers in baseball as he is in his second season back from his injury in 2023.

4.) Washington Nationals

Following a very lackluster 2024 season, the Nationals will look to build on some of their young talent coming through their farm system. Dylan Crews and CJ Abrams are the most exciting young players in the lineup as Crews looks like he could be one of this season’s best rookies and Abrams will look to get back to his MVP caliber play at the beginning of last year. Mackenzie Gore will likely be the number one starter in the rotation and still has some hope to turn into a solid arm after being widely regarded as one of the top pitching prospects before he was brought up by the Padres in 2022. Even though they have a couple promising players gaining more experience this year, it would be hard to see the Nationals making it above .500 in 2025.

5.) Miami Marlins

The Marlins are looking forward to their fresh start in 2025 after finishing just one win above the Rockies for the worst record in the National League. However, it doesn’t look like they will make any big changes this year as they have lacked a lot of talent that other teams have on their roster. Sandy Alcantra is the most notable player on this lackluster team as he has some of the best stuff in the league as a starting pitcher. After a very disappointing offseason, the Marlins look like they will be headed in the same direction as last year.

NL Central

1.) Milwaukee Brewers

After a very impressive season in 2024 that landed them the first seed in the National League Central with a lead of 10 games, the Brewers look very promising for the upcoming season. However, Milwaukee did lose their starting shortstop Willie Adames, who has been one of the best shortstops in the league over the past few seasons, to free agency. The Brewers will get to see if Jackson Chourio can repeat his success after finishing third in NL Rookie of the Year voting. Christian Yelich, William Contreras and Rhys Hoskins are the other stars in the lineup that hit for the most power on the team as well. Even though they don’t have one of the best lineups in the league, the Brewers are known to be one of the best teams at playing small ball, which is usually a recipe for success. Freddy Peralta will be the ace in the Milwaukee starting rotation with Nestor Cortes being a good second option after being signed in free agency. The Brewers also lost their best arm in the bullpen, Devin Williams, as he signed to the Yankees over the offseason. Even though the Brewers lost some of their key players, it is hard to count them out as one of the best teams in the division after they have proven many wrong in recent history.

2.) Chicago Cubs

After finishing just over the .500 mark in the 2024 season, the Cubs had a very mediocre offseason but can surprise many with some breakout years from some of the stars in their lineup. Chicago’s biggest loss ended up being Cody Bellinger as he signed with the Yankees in free agency. They quickly responded to that by trading for star outfielder Kyle Tucker, who has been very solid for the Astros over the past few seasons. The Cubs hope to get a lot of development from their other two outfielders, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Seiya Suzuki, who have been great defensively and will likely improve a lot offensively. Crow-Armstrong will look to have a breakout season in his second year with the Cubs after being regarded as one of the league’s top prospects for a few years now. Dansby Swanson and Ian Happ are the other stars in the Chicago lineup that can surprise many this season. Justin Steele and Shota Imanaga show the most promise in their starting rotation that may struggle a little bit this year. Chicago hopes to get some of the same production out of their bullpen after being ranked 13 in 2024. The Cubs could easily be in Wild Card contention this year if they get some development out of some of their newer players in the lineup.

3.) Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pirates will be an interesting team to watch this season as they have plenty of young talent coming through their system that could end up having breakout seasons in 2025. Part of that young talent is their ace and one of the best starting pitchers in baseball, Paul Skenes. Skenes shot through the Pirates farm system in less than a year and became the National League’s starting pitcher for the All-Star game, which has never been done before. Oneil Cruz will look to build on some of his flashes of success early in his career as he has all the physical ability to make him a star. Bryan Reynolds is one of the other notable players on this lineup as he has been the best hitter in Pittsburgh’s lineup for the past few seasons. They also hope to get better production out of Ke’Bryan Hayes, who showed plenty of potential and signed a big contract extension before having his worst season in 2024.

4.) St. Louis Cardinals

The Cardinals will likely have a worse season than last year after not making any big additions and losing some of their top veteran players. Even though he is on the latter end of his career, Paul Goldshmidt had been one of the anchors in the Cardinal’s lineup over the past few seasons. Letting Goldshmidt go was probably a good idea in the long run for St. Louis as it seems like the team will be headed towards a rebuild in the future. Wilson Contreras and Nolan Arenado are the other veterans in the lineup that will likely hit for the most power on the team while Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker are the younger players on the team that will look to have breakout seasons this year. Veteran Sonny Gray is the ace in the starting rotation and has been solid throughout his career. However, the rest of the rotation doesn’t seem to have much promise for the upcoming season. Overall, it looks likely that the Cardinals will take a step back this season.

5.) Cincinnati Reds

After a little bit of a disappointing season in 2024, the Reds will look to ride off of some development of the young talent in the lineup and coming through the farm system to get back to where they were at the end of 2023. The most notable player in the lineup is one of the most exciting players in the league, Elly De La Cruz, who is a true five tool player going into his third season as Cincinnati’s shortstop. The young stars joining De La Cruz in the Cincinnati lineup are Matt McLain, Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Gavin Lux. Hunter Greene will be the number one starter in the rotation after putting up an impressive .276 ERA in just his third season in the league. If they can get some more development out of their young players coming through the system, the Reds can be a .500 team. However, it would be an uphill battle trying to earn a playoff spot with so many good teams in the National League.

NL West

1.) Los Angeles Dodgers

Following their dominant season in 2024, the defending World Series champions look like an early favorite to win it all again. The Dodgers look even better than they did last season after bringing in some of the biggest names in free agency. Two of those additions include Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki, who will be great in this high-powered starting rotation. After a slow start to the season in 2024, Snell was dominant after the All-Star break and was arguably the best pitcher in the league. Sasaki will enter his first season in the MLB after being one of the best prospects coming out of the NPB. Sasaki looks like he can fit right in after his incredible performance in the World Baseball Classic in 2023. Los Angeles also has one of the best batting orders in the league including Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernandez, Will Smith and Tommy Edman. Shohei Ohtani is the most notable player on this outstanding lineup after winning his third MVP award in a historic season where he became the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases. With all the talent around the board on the Dodgers lineup, it is hard to not see them being one of the best teams in baseball yet again.

2.) Arizona Diamondbacks

After being knocked out in the Wild Card Series, the Diamondbacks made some great moves in the offseason that could get them back towards their deep Postseason run in 2023 where they came up just short of a World Series title. The biggest addition this offseason was to their starting rotation as they picked up one of the best starting pitchers over the past few seasons, Corbin Burnes, through free agency. This was a great pickup for the Arizona starting rotation that could be one of the best in baseball this season with Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Brandon Pfaadt and Eduardo Rodriguez to compliment Burnes. Arizona was also able to add a solid bat to their lineup with Josh Naylor, who was one of the best hitters for the Guardians for the past couple seasons. They also have some other solid pieces to their batting order with Ketel Marte, Corbin Carroll, Lourdes Gurriel Jr and Eugenio Suarez. The Diamondbacks also have a great bullpen that includes Jordan Montgomery, who was dominant as a starting pitcher before making the move to a reliever, with one of the best young closers in the game, Justin Martinez. Overall, the Diamondbacks look like a very promising team going into the Opening Day.

3.) San Diego Padres

The Padres are yet another solid team in this stacked division and is an early Wild Card favorite after all the success they have had in the past few seasons. Even though they weren’t able to pick up any star players for their lineup, San Diego has some great hitters in their lineup including Luis Arraez, Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Xander Bogaerts. Jackson Merrill is another notable player in this lineup as he had an incredible rookie year in 2024 with a .292 batting average, 24 home runs and 90 runs batted in. Dylan Cease and Michael King are two solid arms that will lead a rotation that has seen a lot of change recently. If the Padres perform well heading towards August, it could be very likely that they will pursue one of the league’s top arms to solidify the rotation. Even though it is likely that they won’t lead the division, San Diego is definitely one of the top teams competing for a Wild Card spot.

4.) San Francisco Giants

Following a very mediocre season in 2024, the Giants had a very active offseason where they brought in some good talent while also losing some important players. The most important player the Giants lost over the offseason was Blake Snell, who was their best starting pitcher at the second half of the season. San Francisco brought in veteran Justin Verlander to fill the hole in that rotation. Verlander will look to bounce back from his mediocre season and get back to his performance from 2023. He also has a very good veteran presence for some of the young pitchers coming through the system. The Giants also brought in star shortstop Willie Adames to be their shortstop for the next seven years. Adames has produced very well offensively and defensively throughout his career. They will also look forward to the return of Jung Hoo Lee, who had his season cut short to a broken hand early on in 2024. Matt Chapman will be another key piece returning to this lineup as he is one of the best defensive third basemen in the league and has hit well in his time with San Francisco. Logan Webb is the ace for starting rotation and shows all the signs to continue his dominance after improving even more on his strikeout stuff along with his pitch to contact ability. Heliot Ramos is also looking to continue his success after being one of the hottest hitters in the league when he came on to the scene halfway through the season. After a very active offseason, the Giants will be an interesting team to watch as they try to make a push towards the Wild Card.

5.) Colorado Rockies

Following their very lackluster season in 2024 where they ended up having the second worst record in baseball, the Rockies seem like they are headed towards a very similar direction this year. Colorado was not very aggressive at all in the offseason with their biggest pickup being Thairo Estrada, the second baseman that spent his last couple seasons with the Giants. Kris Bryant is the biggest name in the Colorado lineup. However, in his time with the Rockies he has been riddled with injuries and hasn’t lived up to any of his expectations when he signed the big contract to go there. Ryan McMahon and Brenton Doyle look like they could be the best power hitters in the lineup and can put up some good stats at Coors Field. Overall, there isn’t much to see out of this Colorado team going into 2025.