So if you’re into New Year’s resolutions, here’s a suggestion: Let’s resolve to stay up later in 2025, because the best division in baseball deserves our attention.

The National League West is proof that despite all the outside talk about how “bad for baseball” the reigning World Series champion Dodgers need to continue to stock up on top talent (including Friday’s news that they won the All- retained star outfielder Teoscar). Hernández) there is tremendous entertainment value when other clubs take on the challenge of raising the bar.

The Padres have been doing this for a while. Her 2019 pact with Manny Machado ushered in a new era of aggression and strife in San Diego. The Friars face some off-season challenges that come with the rising costs of their roster. But with several offensive stars (Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Rookie of the Year runner-up Jackson Merrill, Luis Arraez, Xander Bogaerts), frontline starters (Dylan Cease, Michael King, Yu Darvish), a strong bullpen and a really good one If they have a chance of signing the young Japanese Roki Sasaki, they should once again be an important postseason factor.

Yes, the Dodgers made it to 2024, but not before a bitter feud with the Friars that had them on the ropes in an NLDS that many people in baseball viewed as the “World Series before the World Series.” It was a five-game series that made a strong case for making the DS a seven-game set.

In Arizona, aggression has been on the agenda for the Snakes since they defeated LA in the 2023 NLDS and came within three wins of a World Series title. Unfortunately, in 1924, the difficulties of the dreaded “hangover year” for arms, which spanned the entire length of the previous October, ultimately outweighed the talent assembled on a franchise-record payroll. But let the record show that the mathematical tiebreaker was the only thing that got the D-Backs (who had the same record as the Mets and Braves… and actually a better record than the AL West champion Astros) out of their second Stayed out of the postseason in a row.

In 2024 there were 12 playoff clubs; the Snakes had a better run differential (plus-98) than eight of them.

After already adding hard-hitting first baseman Josh Naylor to the top of the lineup to assist 2023 rookie of the year Corbin Carroll and 2024 MVP finalist Ketel Marte, the Diamondbacks now have the best arm available secured in this free agent market.

Burnes’ 142 ERA+ in 2020 is second only to new Yankee Max Fried’s 151 mark among pitchers with at least 500 innings in that span. Burnes’ reported six-year, $210 million contract is a franchise-record contract for a D-Backs team that undoubtedly regrets signing Jordan Montgomery in late spring this year. But it’s also a relative discount compared to what the Scottsdale-based Burnes could have earned elsewhere, and it gives Arizona one heck of a rotation prospect by putting him in the group with Zac Gallen, Eduardo Rodriguez, Brandon Pfaadt and Merrill Kelly absorbs. (It also apparently increases the likelihood that Montgomery will be asked for help elsewhere on the roster.)

This division will prove even more dynamic with the 2021 West champion Giants back in the mix. For now, the first offseason of the Buster Posey POBO (president of baseball operations) era is considered incomplete, especially now that the Giants have not signed Burnes to fill the void left by Blake Snell. But an extension with Matt Chapman and a seven-year deal with Willy Adames not only provides a dynamic left side of the infield for the Giants, but also shows a commitment to fielding a more stable lineup than in the past. Oh, and of course they’re involved in this Sasaki operation too.

There is a clear No. 1 in the NL West and MLB Power Rankings. The Dodgers were hit with rotation injuries in 2024, but still did what was advertised. With Snell on board and Shohei Ohtani returning to two-way status, they’re even scarier now.

But elsewhere in the West there is no retreat or surrender, and it is always heartening to see serious efforts as opposed to five-year plans. I remember having a conversation with a Diamondbacks front office member prior to 2024 when I asked if there was an internal forecast that showed them overtaking the Dodgers in the NL West standings.

“Our owner asked the same thing,” the manager said with a smile.

Earlier in the offseason, Arizona owner Ken Kendrick had been told the obvious: The D-backs really couldn’t make a move that would force the computers to project them ahead of the Dodgers. But Kendrick still approved significant investment in the 2024 product because the D-Backs’ 23-NL championship team had proven that getting to October is what matters, not how you get there.

It’s nice to see that a frustrating, mathematically insane end to 2024 hasn’t stopped the D-backs from upping the ante once again for 2025. Ultimately, that is the prerequisite for being able to keep up with the Dodgers. They may once again be too deep and too resourceful to be caught in the West standings.

But that might not stop the NL West from being the best division in baseball… and worthy of our late nights.