Baseball’s greatest surprises from MLB season’s first month

There’s nothing like the beginning of a brand new baseball season. The soothing, acquainted sounds of the crack of the bat and a fastball burying itself in a catcher’s mitt. The contagious optimism present in all 30 clubhouses, from the defending champions to the last-place membership from 2024 that thinks it could possibly shock some folks. Oh sure, and the rampant mendacity.

Wait, what?

April baseball all the time gives some surprises, each constructive and unfavourable. It’s only a matter of figuring out which statistics are telling you the reality about what a participant is now—and which aren’t. Regrettably, Chris “Huge Pink” Shelton couldn’t keep an 1.186 OPS all through 2006 regardless of his scorching first month for these Tigers. No, David Ortiz was not truly on the daybreak of a decline at age-34 in 2009 with a dismal begin. However sure, when Ronald Acuña Jr. started 2023 at a torrid tempo each on offense and on the bases, it was an actual sign of his upcoming MVP 40/70 marketing campaign.

April 2025 has featured its personal share of surprises. Will these truly maintain up for the remainder of the season? We’ll discover out quickly sufficient, however it doesn’t matter what, they’ve been fascinating to see.

Good: Jung Hoo Lee

In December 2023, the Giants made a cope with among the finest skills to make the transition from the KBO to MLB, signing outfielder Jung Hoo Lee to a six-year, $113 million deal. A Rookie of the Yr in Korea’s high league at simply 18 in 2017, Lee is the son of a legendary KBO participant and proved that he was a terrific participant on his personal by profitable the MVP in 2022 and batting .340/.407/.491 with 244 doubles, 43 triples, and 65 homers throughout seven seasons earlier than coming stateside.

2024 was a troublesome debut for Lee. After an exciting first few video games towards the division rival Padres and Dodgers, he went by means of an adjustment interval towards MLB pitching, and he hit simply .265/.312/.325 from April fifth till Could twelfth. He by no means acquired an opportunity to rebound, as on Could twelfth, he tore up his shoulder making an attempt to make an awesome catch in Cincinnati. Lee wanted surgical procedure to restore a torn labrum, and identical to that, his rookie yr was over already. The Giants marched to a listless 80-82 season and the entrance workplace underwent an overhaul following three years of frustration. Future Corridor of Fame catcher Buster Posey is now working baseball operations.

The Giants as an entire would slot in nicely as one of many greatest early surprises of 2025 (gradual begin from huge free agent signing Willy Adames be damned) as few anticipated them to be neck-and-neck with the juggernaut archrival Dodgers as the primary month got here to an in depth. However Lee has been a real standout.

For Lee’s diehard followers among the many brilliantly-named Hoo Lee Gans and Jung Hoo Crew, maybe this isn’t a real shock. Few, nevertheless, would have anticipated a .321/.379/.536 triple slash, a 162 OPS+, and a Nationwide League-best 11 doubles up to now. He’s been a terrific heart fielder, he’s had a multi-homer sport at Yankee Stadium, and he’s pulverized the ball with a 94th-percentile squared-up charge.

Though this should be Lee’s ceiling, there’s purpose to hope that he can preserve this up. We want extra stars with nicknames like “Grandson of the Wind” anyway.

Unhealthy: The Baltimore Orioles

The 2022-23 seasons marked the unimaginable resurrection of the Orioles. After a franchise-record 115 losses in 2018, they cleaned home, employed Houston’s Mike Elias to run their baseball operations, and launched into a rebuild. It acquired ugly at occasions they usually even misplaced 110 as lately as 2021. However the very subsequent yr, they zoomed to a 31-win enchancment and weren’t eradicated till the ultimate weekend. Then in 2023, the youth motion paid off as they captured their first AL East crown in almost a decade with a 101-61 season. They had been disenchanted to be swept by the eventual World Sequence champion Rangers within the ALDS, however the basis had been laid for a Allure Metropolis baseball renaissance.

This previous yr although, the Orioles fell to 91 wins and a Wild Card berth that went nowhere in a punchless two-and-out by the hands of the Royals. Nonetheless, with a core of AL MVP candidate Gunnar Henderson, switch-hitting All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman, and dependable contributors like Cedric Mullins, Ryan Mountcastle, and Jordan Westburg (plus extra younger expertise on the best way), the 2025 O’s ought to be within the combine to take again the AL East crown from the Yankees.

As an alternative, they’ve been dreadful and sit within the AL East cellar.

Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Photographs

The already-spotty pitching misplaced ace Corbin Burnes to the Diamondbacks, and Elias didn’t adequately change him. Though incoming NPB righty Tomoyuki Sugano has been respectable sufficient, fellow signee Charlie Morton has seemed his age at 41 with a 9.45 ERA in 26.2 innings, main the majors with 28 earned runs allowed and 21 walks. Nobody within the AL has given up extra hits than Dean Kremer (40). Veteran insurance coverage coverage Kyle Gibson was mollywhopped by the Yankees in his 2025 debut. Solely 4 MLB groups have a employees ERA over 5.00, and a should-be contender like Baltimore has no enterprise being in the identical firm because the Rockies, Marlins, and Nationals. Opening Day starter Zach Eflin is on the IL and hopeful ace Grayson Rodriguez lately suffered a setback. The bullpen is mostly doing its job, however that solely issues a lot when your rotation isn’t preserving you in ballgames.

Ideally, a rebound ought to arrive, if not solely as a result of the offense mustn’t stay as middling because it at present stands. Mullins and Ryan O’Hearn have raked, however Henderson and Rutschman each have a sub-.700 OPS. Mountcastle entered 2025 with a 114 OPS+ throughout his five-year profession from 2020-24; his OPS+ at present sits at 51. Even with Westburg, outfield addition Tyler O’Neill, and AL Rookie of the Yr runner-up Colton Cowser all on the IL, merely modest steps up from Henderson, Rutschman, and Mountcastle could have them in a greater place. Baltimore simply has to make it possible for it doesn’t bury itself early.

Good: Thriller Mid-Rotation Males

Pop quiz: In case you had been requested to call the perfect beginning pitchers on the Mets, Rangers, and Phillies, it could be protected to say Kodai Senga, Jacob deGrom, and Zack Wheeler, respectively. Perhaps you’d zag somewhat on a type of (Nathan Eovaldi has newer success than deGrom, for one), however these are completely stable picks. They’re most likely nonetheless technically appropriate since April solely means a lot.

That being stated, whereas the Mets, Rangers, and Phillies all have representatives on the listing of certified ERA leaders, try the precise identities:

1. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 1.06 ERA (Dodgers)
2. Tyler Mahle, 1.14 ERA (Rangers)
3. Max Fried, 1.19 ERA (Yankees)
4. Hunter Brown, 1.22 ERA (Astros)
5. Jesús Luzardo, 1.73 ERA (Phillies)
6. Tylor Megill, 1.74 ERA (Mets)

Naturally. Now lastly wholesome after a protracted Tommy John surgical procedure restoration, Mahle helps preserve the Rangers’ rotation within the combine with deGrom considerably underachieving. Luzardo was acquired from Miami and all the time had expertise to place all of it collectively on the A’s and Marlins; it simply hadn’t fairly occurred, and he’s now blossoming with the Philly stress increased on the likes of Wheeler, Aaron Nola, and Cristopher Sánchez. And whereas Megill isn’t new to the Mets, he’s been neglected for a pair years now by his flashier rotationmates.

It’s simple to search out causes to poke holes in these pitchers’ numbers, however don’t fear; a rival shall be joyful to take action. Within the meantime, it’s simply enjoyable to see these guys thrive.

Unhealthy: Elite relievers

There’s an understanding in baseball that relievers are sometimes fungible. Their success is tough to foretell, so there’s typically fairly a little bit of variance in year-to-year efficiency. Nonetheless, when true cream-of-the-crop bullpen arms are nonetheless of their primes, it’s cheap to have a point of confidence.

Certain sufficient, Emmanuel Clase and Devin Williams each would have been fashionable picks for the title of “MLB’s Finest Reliever.” Each have gained two Reliever of the Yr awards this decade, and regardless of brutal postseasons in 2024, each entered 2025 with very excessive hopes. And but each Clase and Williams have already allowed extra runs than they did within the entirety of 2024.

Photograph by Elsa/Getty Photographs

The excellent news for Clase is that regardless of his ugly begin and barking shoulder, Cleveland has managed to win the sport in all however one among his appearances (and within the exception, Clase threw a scoreless inning anyway). Though he won’t dominate to the identical diploma as in his 0.61 ERA 2024, he ought to get again on monitor.

As for Williams? Yeesh, has his first month as Yankees nearer been tough. He’s already been at the very least quickly demoted from the position. His command has been fully absent, and the fastball that usually helps allow the smashing success of his well-known “Airbender” changeup has been hammered. Williams got here dangerously near an Opening Day blown save, and regardless of that escape, he blew a four-run lead in Tampa on the nineteenth earlier than a zero-out effort towards the Blue Jays on the twenty fifth misplaced the sport as boos rained down on Yankee Stadium. This restoration goes to take some time.

Within the eye of the beholder: The Colorado Rockies

Look, on the one hand, nobody anticipated the Rockies to be anyplace near good. They’re in most likely the hardest division in baseball, their group lacks any sense of route, their highest-paid participant would possibly by no means play baseball once more, they’ve already fired a hitting coach, their rotation is a tire hearth, and the on-field product is a downright mess. They’ve misplaced 100 video games in consecutive years and the preseason odds weren’t optimistic about 2025, both. It was all the time going to be dangerous and simple to disregard.

However this dangerous?

The newest workforce to try this was the 2003 Tigers, who misplaced 119 video games and almost broke the fashionable document. The doomed 2024 White Sox might need began 3-22 however after 29 video games, they had been 6-23. The notorious 1962 Mets had been a relatively dominant 10-19.

Driving an eight-game skid into the top of April, the one query higher than “Why is Bud Black nonetheless managing the Rockies?” at this level is “Why does Bud Black even need to nonetheless handle the Rockies?” Even acknowledging that the Ghost of Casey Stengel couldn’t make these guys any good, the each day beatings can’t precisely be pleasing for ol’ Buddy, both.

Honorable Mentions

Good: Eugenio Suárez’s four-homer sport; Spencer Torkelson’s post-hype breakout; Aaron Decide’s 1941 Ted Williams impression; MacKenzie Gore strikes out the world; Out-of-nowhere Yanks Ben Rice and Trent Grisham combining for 16 bombs; Tyler Soderstrom?? Tyler Soderstrom!!; Jorge Polanco can’t cease homering; the high-flying Cubs offense

Unhealthy: The aforementioned Willy Adames; Joc Pederson’s 0-for-41 skid; Mookie Betts and Aaron Nola are getting regarding; Blake Snell’s no-longer-healthy shoulder; José Miranda’s doubly embarrassing month; the favored preseason NL East choose Braves’ 5-13 begin (solely avoiding a function on account of their current scorching streak); the chaotic Cubs bullpen