Spring is still technically a few days away, but with MLB’s Tokyo Series kicking off the 2025 season and the release of MLB The Show 25, things are heating up around the diamond.
In what has become something of an unofficial start-of-season tradition, Yahoo Sports simulated the entire 2025 MLB year in Sony Interactive Entertainment’s annual baseball video game — one of the biggest and most prestigious sports gaming releases on the calendar.
The parameters for the simulated season were fairly simple: In The Show’s in-depth franchise mode, we used current (live) rosters, kept default settings intact and turned off any user input for game management, roster management or the other bells and whistles behind the scenes (sponsorships, budget, etc.). Computer trading was left on — spoiler alert: this was equal parts bizarre and exciting — and in-season events such as the MLB Draft and All-Star week were automatically handled.
So … checks pitch clock … let’s jump right in to the inaugural MLB The Show x Yahoo Sports simulation, curveballs and all.
[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for the 2025 MLB season]
This embedded content is not available in your region.
Trades, trades, trades
I’m not going to bury the lede here — there were some bonafide blockbusters between computer-controlled teams. One of the nice things about MLB The Show is that it will interrupt your simulation to show you these major, league-altering deals. When the first one popped up — Seiya Suzuki going from the Cubs to the Astros for Isaac Paredes and Brice Matthews — I figured, “OK, that’s conceivable.”
Then things went off the rails. The Dodgers, no strangers to wild transactions, managed to acquire two former AL All-Stars in Brent Rooker and Jordan Westburg. The Rooker deal was far more believable, considering Los Angeles coughed up a trio of young players/prospects in Bobby Miller, Josue De Paula and Yeiner Fernandez. This is your relatively standard A’s fire-sale type of deal.
Los Angeles also happened to trade with the Orioles for Westburg. For him, the Dodgers gave up Landon Knack, Blake Treinen and none other than reigning World Series MVP Freddie Freeman. File that under “unlikely to happen, now or ever.”
This wasn’t the last we heard from the A’s and Orioles during the simulation, as the American League squads made a deal of their own later…