The Athletic has live coverage of around the league on MLB Opening Day.
The Dodgers and Padres opened the MLB season last week in Seoul, South Korea, and the other 28 teams will follow suit on Thursday, so it’s time for me to again go on the record with predictions for the 2024 season and subsequent offseason. Like all preseason predictions, some will pan out and some will flop. Some of these predictions are shots in the dark, some are chalk, and the rest are somewhere in between.
Baseball is back, so let’s have fun with it. Here are my 24 predictions for the 2024 season (and beyond, in a few cases). Let me know what you think, and share your own predictions, in the comments section.
1. Rookie Wyatt Langford goes 3-for-5 with a home run, double and three RBIs in his major-league debut for the Rangers, while Jackson Chourio goes 2-for-4 with a stolen base in his debut for the Brewers.
2. Aaron Boone of the Yankees is the first manager ejected in the 2024 season, as he gets thrown out arguing balls and strikes on April 19 against the Rays at home. He goes on to lead the majors in managerial ejections with eight, one more than last year and one fewer than his career-high of nine in 2022. The Yankees just miss the playoffs because of injuries to their rotation and some of their older position players; however, Boone’s contract is extended three more years after they win 25 of their final 32 games as Jasson Domínguez, Spencer Jones and Austin Wells shine and show that the club has a bright future.
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3. Braves pitchers Spencer Strider, Tyler Matzek, Joe Jiménez and Raisel Iglesias combine to throw the season’s first no-hitter in Strider’s second start of 2024.
4. The Nationals call up James Wood at the beginning of May and a month later promote their other top outfield prospect, Dylan Crews. Both raise eyebrows with standout seasons but neither wins the National League Rookie of the Year Award because of later call-ups than their ROY peers.
5. The Guardians get off to a slow start and decide to trade Shane Bieber to the Orioles in June for a package headlined by outfielder Heston Kjerstad. The Orioles refuse to deal Colton Cowser, Samuel Basallo, Enrique Bradfield Jr. and Coby Mayo but relent on Kjerstad because of their overwhelming outfield depth.
6. Toronto’s John Schneider becomes the first manager fired this season as the Blue Jays once again underachieve. He’s replaced by Don Mattingly, the current bench coach, on an interim basis.
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7. Rays prospect Junior Caminero is named MVP of this year’s Futures Game after going 3-for-4 with a homer, double and four RBIs while also making a fabulous defensive play on a slow bouncer that highlights his body control. Caminero is promptly promoted to the majors after the game.
8. The Guardians select middle infielder JJ Wetherholt out of West Virginia with the first overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft. Wetherholt is considered the best pure hitter in the draft and features a powerful left-handed swing. He uses the whole field and is the type of bat Cleveland desperately needs. He makes his major-league debut in 2025.
9. The starting pitchers for the 2024 All-Star Game in Arlington, Texas, are George Kirby of the Mariners and Spencer Strider of the Braves. Post Malone sings the national anthem and the NL wins the game 5-4 on a solo home run by Ronald Acuña Jr. in the top of the ninth inning.
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10. The July 30 trade deadline is wild and crazy as first basemen dominate the news: The Mets trade Pete Alonso to the Cubs, the Cardinals trade Paul Goldschmidt to the Astros (Houston upgrades from a declining José Abreu) and the Blue Jays trade Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (and his additional year of team control) to the Giants.
11. The Diamondbacks call up top prospect Jordan Lawlar on Aug. 5 and he hits over .300 with eight home runs the rest of the season, playing both shortstop and third base for Arizona.
12. Eight players make the 30-30 club. Last year, four players — Ronald Acuña Jr., Julio Rodríguez, Francisco Lindor and Bobby Witt Jr. — hit at least 30 homers and stole at least 30 bases. This year, Kyle Tucker, Trea Turner, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Corbin Carroll join them in accomplishing the feat.
13. Halfway through the season, the Pirates decide they can’t keep uber prospect Paul Skenes in the minors any longer and call him up to start the first game after the All-Star break. He throws six innings of one-hit, shutout ball in his debut.
14. Jacob deGrom is activated on Aug. 19 and goes 5-1 with a 1.91 ERA the rest of the way and starts the Rangers’ first postseason game.
15. The National League division winners will be the Braves, Reds and Dodgers. The three wild-card berths will go to the Phillies, Cubs and Diamondbacks with the Padres and Giants missing out by just one and two games, respectively.
16. The American League division winners will be the Orioles, Twins and Astros. The three wild-card berths will go to the Rangers, Mariners and Rays. The Yankees, Blue Jays, and Tigers all post winning records but miss out on the playoffs.
17. The Braves and Astros will meet in the World Series with the Braves winning their second world championship in four years.
18. Red Sox manager Alex Cora resigns at the end of the season after Boston finishes in last place for the fourth time in five years as the front office continues to show they’re not committed to putting a winning product on the field. Cora sits out a year before becoming the highest-paid manager in 2026 when he resumes his career with a contending team.
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19. The Astros, despite their reluctance to give a player a 10-year contract, make an exception for Kyle Tucker, signing him to a deal that resembles the 10-year, $212 million contract the Braves inked Austin Riley to in 2022. But Houston is unable to extend Alex Bregman, who enters free agency after the season and signs with the Blue Jays.
20. Juan Soto, who rejected a $440 million offer from the Nationals in 2022 before he was dealt to the Padres at that trade deadline, reaches free agency this November and eventually becomes the second half-a-billion-dollar player in MLB history (after Shohei Ohtani), when he re-signs with the Yankees on a 14-year deal worth $501 million as they outbid the Mets by a million to keep him.
21. Mookie Betts and Juan Soto are named the MVPs of their respective leagues. Betts leads the Dodgers to yet another 100-win season and first-place finish in the NL West but they lose to the Braves in seven games in the NLCS. Soto benefits from hitting ahead of Judge and puts up career highs in runs scored and home runs.
22. Pablo López and Logan Webb are named the Cy Young Award winners in their respective leagues. They both win 20 games with ERAs and FIPs under 3.00.
23. Wyatt Langford wins the AL Rookie of the Year Award, edging out his Rangers teammate Evan Carter and the Orioles’ Jackson Holliday.
24. Yoshinobu Yamamoto wins the NL Rookie of the Year Award thanks to a strong second half of the season, as he beats out Jackson Chourio and the Padres’ Jackson Merrill.
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(Top photo of Pete Alonso: Gordon Donovan / NurPhoto via Associated Press)
