Before the start of every baseball season, it's always interesting to take a look at how the various projection systems see the MLB season playing out.

The PECOTA projections over at Baseball Prospectus are one of the big ones, and the projected standings and playoff odds for the 2025 season were released this week. So let's dive in.

PECOTA simulates the season over and over to project what might happen for every team, and there are plenty of noteworthy projections for this year. Remember, standings projections aren't meant to be a perfect crystal ball for exactly how the season will shake out -- they're just an attempt to use all the information we have to find the most likely outcome for each team.

Here are the seven biggest takeaways from the 2025 PECOTA projected MLB standings.

1) The Dodgers have near-100% playoff odds

The Dodgers have assembled a juggernaut. And the projections put them in a league of their own.

First of all, the reigning World Series champs are projected for 104 wins this season -- 12 more than any other team. The Braves are next at 92 wins.

PECOTA's playoff odds for the Dodgers are over 99% (99.2%, to be exact). In nearly every scenario for the upcoming season, the Dodgers go to the postseason.

Los Angeles also has 22% odds to win the World Series and repeat as champions. That makes the Dodgers more than twice as likely to win as any other team, with the Yankees and Braves coming in next at 9% World Series odds.

But that's what happens when your roster starts with Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki and just keeps going with more stars from there.

2) The Yankees and Orioles will battle for the AL East again

As for the American League champions, the Yankees are once again projected to be the top team in the AL. But only by a hair.

PECOTA projects the AL East to be the closest division race in baseball, and the race between the Yankees and Orioles could be the one to watch in MLB for a second year in a row. Especially if Aaron Judge and Gunnar Henderson are both leading the way as MVP contenders again.

New York and Baltimore went back and forth all season in 2024, and they're separated by just a single game in the PECOTA projected standings for 2025. The Yankees are projected at 90-72, and the Orioles are projected at 89-73, which would make both of them playoff teams but give the Yankees a bye and force the O's to play in the Wild Card Series round, just like last year.

(Actually, if you want to get more granular with the projections, less than one win separates the two teams, with the Yankees technically projected for 89.7 wins and the Orioles for 88.9.)

3) The Braves are on top of the three-team race in the NL East

The NL East is one of the most hotly contested divisions in baseball right now, with the three-team rivalry between the Phillies, Mets and Braves. All three made the playoffs last year, and all three are projected by PECOTA to make the playoffs again in 2025. But the team that's on top might surprise you.

That's Atlanta. The Phillies are the reigning division champions, and the Mets just made the biggest splash of the offseason by signing Juan Soto, but it's the Braves who are projected to win the NL East this season.

The Braves are projected to finish in first place at 92-70, the Mets in second at 89-73 and the Phillies in third at 88-74.

Atlanta certainly has the roster to take back the division, especially if Ronald Acu?a Jr. and Spencer Strider play at their usual level as they return from injury. But the Phillies and Mets have plenty of star power, too. That's why all three teams have a better than two-in-three chance to reach the postseason, per PECOTA, and why the NL East is the only division with three projected 88-win teams.

4) The 2023 champs are back

The Rangers went from World Series champions in 2023 to missing the playoffs in 2024. PECOTA projects them to be back in the playoffs in 2025.

Texas is right behind the Yankees among the top teams in the American League. The Rangers are projected for 89 wins, second-best in the AL behind New York.

They're the winner of a deep AL West division that PECOTA projects will send three teams to the playoffs this season, with the Astros (87-75) and Mariners (86-76) both projected as Wild Card teams after the Orioles.

The Rangers would have the biggest turnaround of any team projected to reach the postseason in 2025. They'd have an 11-win increase from 2024 and go from six games under .500 (78-84) to 16 games over .500.

That really doesn't seem too far-fetched when you consider the Rangers' balanced lineup of established stars (Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Adolis Garc¨ªa) and high-ceiling young players (Wyatt Langford, Josh Jung, Evan Carter) in the lineup, and their rotation led by Nathan Eovaldi and Jacob deGrom. Especially if Garc¨ªa has a bounceback season and deGrom can stay healthy, Texas looks like a formidable contender.

5) The Cubs are dethroning the Brewers

The Brewers won the NL Central in 2024 and have won the division in three of the past four years. But PECOTA forecasts that it's the Cubs' turn in 2025.

The Cubs are projected to win the Central for the first time since 2020, and win it in a full 162-game season for the first time since 2017. The 2025 Cubs, now led by All-Star outfielder Kyle Tucker, are projected for 91 wins, third-best in the Major Leagues behind only the Dodgers and Braves.

Chicago has the fourth-best World Series odds of any team at 8%, behind only the Dodgers, Yankees and Braves.

The Cubs finished 10 games behind the Brewers last season. They're projected to finish 11 games ahead of the Brewers this season. That would flip the division on its head.

6) The AL Central winner is ¡­ none of the 3 playoff teams from 2024

The AL Central was the surprise division of 2024, sending three teams to the playoffs: the Guardians, Royals and Tigers.

But in the PECOTA projections for 2025, all three of those teams are out.

The projected AL Central division champion? The Twins.

Minnesota is projected for 86 wins to win the Central, while the other three teams are projected to be right around .500 (81 wins for the Royals, 80 for the Guardians and Tigers) and miss the postseason.

That's somewhat surprising, since the Royals and Tigers look like they're on the rise, and the Guardians are the reigning division champs. But the Twins did win the Central in 2023, and they were in playoff position down the stretch last year until a late-September skid knocked them out of the Wild Card running.

7) The D-backs are in and the Padres are out

The Padres were the team that gave the Dodgers the biggest run for their money in the 2024 playoffs. The Padres had their division rivals on the brink of elimination, up two games to one in the NLDS, before the Dodgers came back to win the series in five games.

San Diego has plenty of stars up and down the lineup -- Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Luis Arraez, Xander Bogaerts, Jackson Merrill -- and a strong rotation with Dylan Cease, Michael King and Yu Darvish. So it's kind of surprising to see them projected to miss the playoffs in 2025 with 82 wins.

Meanwhile, the D-backs, who upset the Dodgers on their way to the NL pennant in 2023, are projected to leapfrog the Padres and return to the playoffs this season with 87 wins.

Arizona has a good roster, too, with a pair of aces in Zac Gallen and Corbin Burnes and a similarly top-tier lineup duo in Ketel Marte and Corbin Carroll, if Carroll can return to his 2023 level. It will be interesting to see if the D-backs, Padres or both step up to challenge the Dodgers this season.