Earlier this winter, Elly De La Cruz drove to the hotel where Terry Francona was staying in Santo Domingo to make the first meeting more convenient for his new manager, and as they chatted, Francona had a question for his shortstop: What do you want to accomplish?
"I want to be the best player in baseball," De La Cruz responded, hardly an outlandish statement. Last year, in his age-22 season, he hit 25 homers and stole 67 bases.
Francona offered an amendment in thought: How about De La Cruz aim to become the best player in baseball on the best team in baseball, and that sounded good to De La Cruz, with the two men agreeing to work together toward that end.
The National League Central is a land of opportunity, given its competitive context. The Milwaukee Brewers won the division last season, but this winter, they lost their best position player (Willy Adames) and best reliever (Devin Williams). The Chicago Cubs are trying to improve but are not in the same weight class as the Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves. The St. Louis Cardinals are at the outset of a reconstruction, although it's hard to explain why. The other day, Pirates fans at a fanfest event chanted for Bob Nutting to sell the team, but the club is not for sale, and Pittsburgh seems to be looking for bargain signings in free agency, again.
Within this NL Central vacuum, the Cincinnati Reds have been the most aggressive team to date in the Central so far -- hiring Francona, a future Hall of Famer, trading for starting pitcher Brady Singer, adding catcher Jose Trevino and a couple of weeks ago, trading for infielder Gavin Lux. The Reds went 77-85 last season, but if their winter ambitions are realized in the summer, and they successfully address some of the problems that ailed them last year, they could be one of baseball's sleepers in 2025, contending for a playoff berth or more.
Here are the five teams positioned to be the most improved in 2025.
1. Cincinnati Reds
The Reds had the worst record in the majors in one-run decisions last year -- 15-28 -- and they are likely to get better merely by moving to the mean. But Francona and Nick Krall, the Reds' president of baseball operations, have more specific improvements in mind.
The Reds issued too many walks last year, and additionally, they were not very good at holding runners, allowing 123 steals. Francona wants the defense to be better, and it's clear from the roster taking shape that versatility and athleticism are a priority. With De La Cruz, Lux, Matt McLain and Santiago Espinal, the Reds have a group of talented middle infielders. When Francona spoke to Lux in the aftermath of the trade with the Dodgers earlier this week, they agreed that they want to put Lux in spots most comfortable for him, and that they'll define that once camp opens next month.
According to the baserunning metric used by Fangraphs, the Reds were the second-best baserunning team in the majors, behind the Brewers. But Krall and Francona noted that there were instances when the team redlined from aggressiveness into recklessness, and they aim to change this, in the hope that the team runs into fewer outs.
Krall swapped infielder Jonathan India to the Kansas City Royals for talented right-hander Singer, who joins Hunter Greene -- the power right-hander who had a breakout season in 2024 -- Andrew Abbott, Nick Martinez and Nick Lodolo, with some more depth developing, including Chase Burns, last year's pick, who could manifest at the big league level sometime in 2025. The Reds' recent revised regional television contract could give the team more spending flexibility, and maybe they'll add outfield help, while also fishing from the deep pool of free agent relievers.
By the way: Francona generally is not big on bringing guest speakers into his clubhouse. But after Francona was hired by the Reds, former Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia offered to come to Cincinnati's camp, for whatever Francona needed -- and Francona intends to take him up on that. Pedroia's personality, Francona noted, is like a wallop of human caffeine, with his love for the sport.
2. Boston Red Sox
They've considered adding Alex Bregman, one of the biggest stars in this winter's market, probably to play second base and augment their defense and experience. Even if Boston's ownership fails to overcome its allergic reactions to long-term deals and misses out on Bregman, this has been a strong winter for the Red Sox, who finished 81-81 last year. Boston won the Garrett Crochet sweepstakes, making a deal with the Chicago White Sox for the power lefty, and then signed free agent Walker Buehler. Those additions thickened Boston's rotation, which also includes Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello and Kutter Crawford. Garrett Whitlock is moving back to the bullpen.
3. Arizona Diamondbacks
Ken Kendrick's team reached the World Series in 2023, and this has apparently whet his appetite for more: Even after the disastrous Jordan Montgomery signing -- which Kendrick took full responsibility for -- the owner approved a massive investment in Corbin Burnes on a long-term deal. Arizona went 89-73 last year despite a horrific half-season from Corbin Carroll and injuries to the pitching staff, but missed the playoffs. The 2025 D-backs are well-positioned to get back to the postseason.
4. Texas Rangers
In Jacob deGrom's last seasons with the New York Mets, he presented the maddening combination of utter brilliance on top of a mountain of injuries, which rival evaluators always believed were rooted, to some degree, in the condition of his elbow. Well, deGrom's elbow seems to be fixed, after undergoing elbow surgery in 2023. The Rangers might get the ace they believed they landed when they signed him to a $185 million deal after the 2022 season.
The Rangers also believe they deepened their lineup with the additions of Jake Burger and Joc Pederson, and perhaps Josh Jung will be on the field more this year and a repaired Corey Seager will be more consistent. But if deGrom can get back to making 25-30 high-end starts -- it has been 5½ years since he threw 100 innings in a season -- the Rangers could be back making October noises.
5. Washington Nationals
Improvement for the Nationals might not necessarily be about making the playoffs, given Washington's divisional context. You could argue reasonably that three of the four best teams in the big leagues inhabit the NL East. But the Nationals have been graduating elite prospects into the big leagues in recent seasons, including James Wood and Dylan Crews. There will be a year soon when this group of players will take a big step forward, and maybe GM Mike Rizzo is hoping that the additions of veterans such as Josh Bell, Nathaniel Lowe and Amed Rosario will help accelerate the process.