Will it be one of the obvious choices?
The San Francisco Giants might be good in 2025, or perhaps even really good. They also might be bad, and quite possibly even really bad. In all likelihood, they’ll be distinctly average.
But all teams — good teams, really good teams, bad teams, really bad teams, and average teams — have best players. Even the Chicago White Sox have best players,
Last year the Giants five best players, by fWAR, were, in order, Matt Chapman, Logan Webb, Patrick Bailey, Blake Snell, and Tyler Fitzgerald. Four of those five very well might be among the team’s best players in 2025 as well, with Willy Adames, Justin Verlander, Jung Hoo Lee, and Heliot Ramos all trying to get in that mix as well. Who knows, maybe Snell will finagle his way back in, too.
Smart money is on Webb or Chapman being the team’s best player in 2025 but I’ll make a slightly bold pick and predict Bailey to lead the team in fWAR. But then again, WAR isn’t the be-all, end-all, and if we’re talking about players who bring their value to the team in multiple ways, it’ll be hard for anyone to top the leadership, durability, and talent of Webb and Chapman.