This article is part of our MLB Picks series.
2025 MLB Predictions: RotoWire Staff Picks for MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year
To celebrate Opening Day, I asked everyone involved in our MLB coverage to give me their picks for this year's division winners, pennant winners, World Series winners and major awards winners. I've broken down our picks for each race below, and you can find all 21 sets of responses I received at the bottom of the article.
Earlier today, I published our picks for the divisions, pennants and World Series. This article contains our picks for the award winners. For some of the awards, our answers lined up with the bookmakers' odds, which you can find on our MLB Player Futures pages, but for others, there was some disagreement, starting with the first race on the list, the American League MVP.
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AL MVP Picks
| Player | RotoWire Staff Poll | Best Available Odds |
|---|---|---|
| Bobby Witt Jr. | 10 (48%) | +400 (BetRivers) |
| Aaron Judge | 4 (19%) | +310 (DraftKings) |
| Vladimir Guerrero Jr. | 3 (14%) | +1600 (FanDuel) |
| Gunnar Henderson | 2 (10%) | +950 (FanDuel) |
| Corey Seager | 1 (5%) | +1800 (DraftKings) |
| Wyatt Langford | 1 (5%) | +5000 (FanDuel) |
The books have Judge slightly ahead of Witt, but our staff doesn't quite see it that way. Those two players were the top two in our poll, but it's Witt who takes the top spot by a significant margin. The 24-year-old shortstop hit .332 with 32 homers and 31 steals last season and occupies the top spot in our Roundtable Rankings. Judge has multiple supporters as well, as do Henderson and Guerrero, though no one picked Yordan Alvarez, who's tied with Guerrero for fourth in the AL MVP odds. Longshot Langford, an elite prospect who struggled for much of his rookie season before turning it on late last year, picks up a single vote, as does his teammate Seager.
NL MVP Picks
| Player | RotoWire Staff Poll | Best Available Odds |
|---|---|---|
| Shohei Ohtani | 11 (52%) | +170 (DraftKings) |
| Juan Soto | 5 (24%) | +600 (BetMGM) |
| Corbin Carroll | 2 (10%) | +4000 (BetRivers) |
| Francisco Lindor | 1 (5%) | +2200 (FanDuel) |
| Jackson Chourio | 1 (5%) | +3500 (DraftKings) |
| Seiya Suzuki | 1 (5%) | +12000 (FanDuel) |
The only time anyone has beaten Ohtani for an MVP in the last four years was when Aaron Judge hit 62 homers in 2022. Ohtani even won the MVP last year when reduced to merely a designated hitter, so it's no surprise to see him earn more than half the votes in our poll given that he's set to resume being a two-way player this season. If anyone is to overthrow Ohtani, we agree with the books that Soto has the best shot. He'll have a nice narrative boost if he can lead the Mets to a division crown in the first year of his 15-year, $765 million deal. After those two, the odds get long quickly, but one of us (Jason Collette) was willing to go all the way down the board and stump for Suzuki, who has the longest odds of anyone in this article.
AL Cy Young Picks
| Player | RotoWire Staff Poll | Best Available Odds |
|---|---|---|
| Garrett Crochet | 8 (38%) | +550 (BetRivers) |
| Logan Gilbert | 5 (24%) | +1100 (DraftKings) |
| Tarik Skubal | 4 (19%) | +380 (DraftKings) |
| Cole Ragans | 1 (5%) | +1000 (DraftKings) |
| Jacob deGrom | 1 (5%) | +1400 (DraftKings) |
| Framber Valdez | 1 (5%) | +2000 (FanDuel) |
| Bailey Ober | 1 (5%) | +10000 (DraftKings) |
The AL Cy Young odds show this to be a two-way race between Skubal and Crochet, but we don't quite see it that way. Crochet sits comfortably at the top according to our poll, with our staff excited to see what he can do now that he'll be allowed to handle a full starter's workload for all six months of the season. He'll have a much better shot at wins after changing his Sox from White to Red, to the extent that wins still matter to Cy Young voters. Last year's winner Skubal got some support as well, but while he's the favorite according to the books, he came in third in our poll,with Gilbert slightly ahead.
NL Cy Young Picks
| Player | RotoWire Staff Poll | Best Available Odds |
|---|---|---|
| Paul Skenes | 14 (67%) | +310 (DraftKings) |
| Yoshinobu Yamamoto | 2 (10%) | +2200 (DraftKings) |
| Dylan Cease | 2 (10%) | +2500 (FanDuel) |
| Zack Wheeler | 1 (5%) | +800 (BetRivers) |
| Corbin Burnes | 1 (5%) | +2000 (FanDuel) |
| Spencer Schwellenbach | 1 (5%) | +3000 (DraftKings) |
Skenes is the clear favorite according to the NL Cy Young odds, and he's an even bigger favorite according to our poll. Last year's NL Rookie of the Year also finished third in Cy Young voting despite debuting in mid-May and making just 23 starts, so it's no surprise to see him as the runaway leader here. Last year's winner Chris Sale didn't earn a single vote, while last year's runner-up Wheeler earned just one. Yamamoto and Cease, who sit tied for sixth and tied for 10th in the odds, respectively, are the only pitchers other than Skenes to earn multiple votes.
AL Rookie of the Year Picks
| Player | RotoWire Staff Poll | Best Available Odds |
|---|---|---|
| Cam Smith | 6 (29%) | +650 (Hard Rock) |
| Jasson Dominguez | 5 (24%) | +600 (DraftKings) |
| Jackson Jobe | 4 (19%) | +900 (BetRivers) |
| Kristian Campbell | 3 (14%) | +700 (BetRivers) |
| Jacob Wilson | 3 (14%) | +1000 (FanDuel) |
The AL Rookie of the Year odds show this to be a tight race, and we agree. Our votes were spread fairly evenly between five of the six favorites, with none going to Roman Anthony, who's tied with Wilson in the odds but will not be opening the year in the majors. All five of the candidates who received a vote received at least three, with the most going to Smith, who was one of the stories of the spring. Acquired in the Kyle Tucker trade in December, Smith was drafted 14th overall in the 2024 draft and played just 32 minor-league games, but the Astros made him their Opening Day right fielder.
NL Rookie of the Year Picks
| Player | RotoWire Staff Poll | Best Available Odds |
|---|---|---|
| Dylan Crews | 11 (52%) | +350 (BetRivers) |
| Matt Shaw | 5 (24%) | +425 (BetRivers) |
| Roki Sasaki | 4 (19%) | +320 (FanDuel) |
| Ronny Mauricio | 1 (5%) | +8000 (BetMGM) |
The NL Rookie of the Year odds depict a three-way race, and we pretty much see it the same way, save for one longshot Ronny Mauricio pick from Erik Siegrist. But while the books have Sasaki slightly ahead of Crews and Shaw, our poll has Crews as a big favorite, equal to Shohei Ohtani in the NL MVP race. Crews has the advantage of already having played a handful of MLB games, but while he stole 12 bases in 31 contests last year, he struggled to a .641 OPS. Shaw and Sasaki both made their MLB debuts in the Tokyo series. For Shaw, that came after a relatively quick trip through the minors, having been drafted 13th overall in 2023. For Sasaki, that came after cruising to a 2.10 ERA and 0.89 WHIP across four seasons in Japan.
