With the MLB season soon ending, here’s a look at five rivalries that are currently the most riveting across the sport.
No matter where you are in the world and what game is being watched, rivalry matches are an integral part of the fabric of global sports culture, with MLB of course being no exception.
Some of the most prevalent and long-standing rivalries in North American sports history originate in MLB, with several matchups sharing well over a century of contests against one another.
As the league and sport have both evolved greatly and with every season being completely different, rivalries generally ebb and flow in intensity as new ones form while competitive teams develop a setting for future mutual disdain.
It’s also worth noting that the best rivalries in any given year shouldn’t be expected to match up with the greatest rivalries of all-time – this list is about 2025, but I would think it’s generally accepted that rivalries such as Yankees vs. Red Sox, Dodgers vs. Giants and Cubs vs. Cardinals are universally regarded as three of, if not THE three, best rivalries of the sport’s history.
This list also doesn’t include any interleague rivalries – while I can say that it’s hard to match the tension of a Subway Series game after attending one at Citi Field this year, these matchups are not common enough to have true rivalry built on something other than geography.
With just two weeks until the final day of the 2025 regular season, here’s a look at the beefs that have grown in intensity this season, with a few potentially building up to reach a boiling point come October.
5. Texas Rangers vs. Houston Astros
A textbook rivalry that took years to take off, Rangers vs. Astros was an interleague series for years before the two finally got to share a division starting with the 2013 season.
This change came as a competitive era was winding down for the Rangers while the Astros were well into building what would at the very least be the team of the late 2010’s across baseball. The early years of the division rivalry were overwhelmingly dominated by Houston, and the matchup was mostly overlooked outside of Texas.
That dynamic changed forever in 2023, when the two clubs matched up in the American League Championship Series, setting the stage for one of the most memorable ALCS’ in recent memory.
Each team would only win on the road during the series, with the Rangers taking Games 1, 2, 6 and 7 to win the pennant on their way to their first-ever World Series title.
Following a year of dormancy, the rivalry is back in full force in 2025, as both teams are locked in the heat of a three-club battle for the AL West alongside the Seattle Mariners. The Astros are looking to maintain their grip on the division and make the playoffs for the ninth consecutive season, while the Rangers are looking to return after an underwhelming World Series hangover season in 2024.
The Rangers currently lead this year’s series 6-4, with their final series of the season kicking off on Monday.
4. New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox
A rivalry that would almost certainly top the list if this was ranking all-time rivalries, the waning and flourishing Yankees-Red Sox rivalry has returned to a decisive flourish in 2025 after several seasons of some hit-or-miss.
Though it’s hard to see the rivalry returning to its vitriolic peak in the mid-2000’s, both teams’ success in 2025 has reignited hatred that is seemingly born into the veins of New York City and Boston-area residents.
A three-year stretch of underwhelming baseball from the Red Sox had put this rivalry on the backburner, but both teams are in the thick of an AL playoff race as they hold Wild Card spots behind the division-leading Toronto Blue Jays.
With a legacy that spans over a century, the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry naturally heats up when both teams manage competitive seasons – so much so that both fan bases are still only wholly locked in on each other as opposed to the Blue Jays, who themselves have been division rivals of both teams since the club’s first season in 1977.
If the two teams finish as the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds in the AL, they will once again be on a collision course for a first-round wildcard matchup, which would mark the sixth postseason meeting between the two teams in franchise history.
Here’s a look back at a moment from their previous postseason matchup:
3. Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers
Though not the historic top rival of the Cubs, it’s hard to see any other team holding that spot since the Brewers stormed back into relevance in the 2017 season, where they narrowly missed the postseason before starting an incredible run of qualifying for the playoffs in seven of the following eight years.
Sharing a division for the first time in 1998 after the Brewers moved from the American League to the National League, the Brewers spent the majority of their first two decades in the senior circuit mired in mediocrity, only making the postseason twice in that span.
Since then, they have emerged as the unquestionable cream-of-the-crop in the NL Central, dethroning the Cubs’ impressive mid-2010’s run and the longstanding dominance of the St. Louis Cardinals before that.
Separated by a roughly one hour, 20 minute drive on Interstate 94, American Family Field in Milwaukee has long been known by Cubs fans as “Wrigley North,” with a staggering amount of visiting Cubs fans present for every away game in Wisconsin – a dynamic that has begun to even out in recent years as more Brewers fans are making the voyage south to Wrigley.
The rivalry has been one-sided in favor of the Brewers for much of the past decade, as they’ve dominated the division and kept the Cubs away from a division title in a full season since 2017 – but it remains what is clearly the best rivalry of the division at the moment, presenting a unique dynamic.
While the Brewers have been dominant within the division, they remain in relentless pursuit of a pennant and World Series title, whereas the Cubs are looking to return to the glory of 2016 before the Brewers can get there first themselves.
2. New York Mets vs. Philadelphia Phillies
Always seen as a premier rivalry in the National League East, the hatred has only ratcheted up in recent years as both teams have remained incredibly competitive.
First gaining relevance in my life during the Mets’ absolutely insane 2007 collapse that saw them squander a seven-game division lead to the Phillies held on Sept. 12, the rivalry has shot back into the forefront of baseball in the 2020s.
After a slow first two seasons to the decade for both clubs, the Mets and Phillies both returned to the playoffs in 2022, with wildly different results. While the Phillies shocked the Cardinals and Atlanta Braves before taking down the San Diego Padres to win the NL pennant, the 101-win Mets who narrowly lost the division fell to the Padres in the Wild Card series.
The following season saw the Phillies return to within a game of the World Series while the Mets finished 75-87, though the Mets would throw a punch of their own in 2024. Despite finishing in third place in the NL East behind the Braves and Phillies, the Mets eliminated the Brewers in the Wild Card round before knocking out the Phillies in four games in the NLDS.
The rivalry has only intensified in 2025, with the Phillies closing in on an NL East title while a second-half disintegration of the Mets has left them fighting for their playoff lives – and perhaps another chance to take on Philadelphia in October.
1. Los Angeles Dodgers vs. San Diego Padres
Similar to the Cubs, it’s clear that the Dodgers’ biggest rivals in 2025 are not the same as their biggest rivals of all-time – but that matters not when locked into yet another season of battling it out at the top of the division.
Seen as an afterthought of a division matchup for most of my lifetime, the Dodgers-Dads vitriol first became apparent during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, when the upstart Padres were decisively halted by the Dodgers in the NLDS after an NL Wild Card series win.
Though the Friars took a step back in 2021, they returned with a vengeance the following season, culminating in what was perhaps one of the most memorable League Division Series of all time.
Despite the Dodgers finishing 2022 with a historic 111-51 record, they were handily dispatched by the Padres in just four games, with the Padres adequately defending Petco Park after splitting the first two games in Los Angeles.
The Dodgers punched back once again last season, fighting back from a 2-1 series deficit against the same Padres to rally and win the NLDS, en route to their first World Series title in a full season since 1988.
Already being the subject of several major moments so far this decade, this rivalry has the chance to do so once again in 2025, with the Dodgers holding just a 2.5 game lead in the NL West with 14 games to go.
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