The Baseball Listicle Lineup for January 16-31, 2025

Issue #215

The latest edition of a regular feature here at Now Taking the Field—a roundup of my favorite recent baseball articles, many though not all in the form of “listicles”—articles framed around a list of some sort or other. I continue to focus this for now on articles by other baseball newsletter authors, and articles directly from MLB.com itself.

Here are my favorite articles for the weeks January 16-31, 2025, starting with articles written by other baseball-focused newsletter authors:

• Baseball Bets We Love on January 31st, at the Baseball Buzz’s Newsletter, 1/31/2025

• The WORST Free Agents in Baseball History, by Dan Schlossberg, at Here’s the Pitch: The IBWAA Newsletter, 1/31/2025

• Top 10 Third Basemen Battle!, by Joe Posnanski, at JoeBlogs, 1/30/2025

• Latest Offseason Moves and Top MLB Infielder Rankings, by Elijah Evans, at Just Baseball, 1/30/2025

• Hall of Fame Voters Got it Right This Year, But . . . by Mark Kolier, at Here’s the Pitch: The IBWAA Newsletter, 1/29/2025

• 3 Important Players in Boston, at the Baseball Buzz’s Newsletter, 1/25/2025

• 5 Baseball Cards with Big Spikes to Fill, at Wax Pack Gods Newsletter, 1/26/2025

• Four Or More Teams In One Season, by Daniel Evenson, The Baseball Replay Journal, 1/25/2025

• Top 10 Shortstops... RIGHT NOW!, by Joe Posnanski, at JoeBlogs, 1/24/2025

• Pete’s Record, by Daniel Evenson, The Baseball Replay Journal, 1/24/2025

• The Curious Case Of Luis Arraez: MLB’s Most Unwanted Hall Of Famer?, by Sean Millerick, at Here’s the Pitch: The IBWAA Newsletter, 1/24/2025

• Puddin’ Head, by Daniel Evenson, The Baseball Replay Journal, 1/23/2025

• How Caution is Costing Teams on the Basepaths, by Maxfield Lane and Owen Riley, at Down on the Farm, 1/23/2025

• Hall of Fame Wrap-Up, by Joe Posnanski, at JoeBlogs, 1/22/2025

• The Ten Negro Leaguers Most Worthy of the Hall of Fame, by Chris Jensen, at Here’s the Pitch: The IBWAA Newsletter, 1/22/2025

• The Shoo-ins, by Daniel Evenson, The Baseball Replay Journal, 1/21/2025

• 5 Baseball Cards that Barely Got a Shot, at Wax Pack Gods Newsletter, 1/19/2025

• Farewell, Mr. Baseball, by Joe Posnanski, at JoeBlogs, 1/16/2025

Beyond other newsletters, these were my favorite articles from the writers at MLB.com these past two weeks:

• 1 dark horse candidate to be the best player in each division, by David Adler, 1/31/2025

• 9 players who need to step up in wake of key departures, by Thomas Harrigan, 1/30/2025

• 30 of the best prospects who missed the Top 100 list—1 for each team, by Jonathan Mayo, Sam Dykstra, and Jim Callis, 1/29/2025

• The team from each division with the most on the line in 2025, by Will Leitch, 1/29/2025

• Keep an eye out for these 10 breakout candidates in 2025, by Thomas Harrigan, 1/28/2025

• These 7 teams will be much better in 2025, by MLB.com writers, 1/26/2025

• 2025 Top 100 Prospects list, by Sam Dykstra, 1/24/2025

• 7 storylines to follow on the 2026 HOF ballot, by Brian Murphy, 1/22/2025

• A look at the next 5 HOF ballots, by Andrew Simon, 1/21/2025

• 11 incredible stats about the newest Hall of Famers, by Sarah Langs, 1/21/2025

• Did you know these famous people played Minor League Baseball?, by Benjamin Hill, 1/17/2025