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Fox Sports
18-07-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Who Are The 10 Best MLB Players This Season?
The All-Star break marks the unofficial halfway point of the MLB season, so what better time to take stock of the year so far? The 2025 season is full of players who are tearing it up at the plate and on the mound, but there are clear leaders whose performances outpace them all. That said, let's take a look at the 10 best players this season — both position players and pitchers — and what has made them stand out among the hundreds and hundreds of others. 10 Best Players in MLB This Season 10. Francisco Lindor, New York Mets Lindor has never won Most Valuable Player, but he has received votes in seven of his 11 seasons in the majors to go along with five All-Star team selections. He's always in the mix, and deservingly so. Lindor is once again having the kind of season that brought him those accolades, batting .260/.330/.457 with 19 first-half home runs, good for a 126 OPS+ that exceeds his career mark. He's an excellent defensive shortstop, too, and that combination has him eyeing his fourth consecutive season worth at least five wins above replacement. 9. José Ramírez, Cleveland Guardians Ramírez, Lindor's former teammate in Cleveland, is one of the most underappreciated players in the game. It's not that people aren't aware that he's excellent, it's that they just might not realize how great he is. Ramírez missed becoming the seventh 40-home-run, 40-stolen-bases player in history by a single long ball in 2024. In 202, he became just the 24th player to reach 250 homers and 250 steals in MLB history. At .295/.363/.506 with 18 dingers and 29 steals this year, Ramírez is angling to make it 300/300 sooner than later. 8. Zack Wheeler, Philadelphia Phillies Wheeler has finished second in the National League Cy Young race twice (2021 and 2024). He doesn't look as if he's going to slow down anytime soon, so much so that 2025 might finally be his year to win honors as the league's top pitcher. Wheeler is atop MLB in pitcher bWAR (4.8), and is leading the Senior Circuit in strikeouts with 154, while allowing the fewest hits per nine. That's not a blip, either. Wheeler has been hard to hit for years now but never as tough on opponents as in 2025. 7. Paul Skenes, Pittsburgh Pirates He's just 23 years old and in his second year in the majors, but Skenes has already been the starter for the NL in the All-Star Game twice — and with good reason. He was a revelation in his 23 Rookie of the Year-winning starts in 2024, and he has been just as good in his follow-up campaign. Skenes leads the majors in ERA at 2.01 and has the lowest home run per nine in the NL at 0.4. He hasn't been lucky, either — his FIP is an NL-best 2.40 — as he's just this great at pitching. He might just be 4-8, but that says a lot more about how the Pirates have supported him than the other way around. Could Skenes win a Cy Young with a losing record? If anyone can, it would be the young flamethrower. 6. Bobby Witt Jr., Kansas City Royals You don't need a long memory to recall that Witt was once a defensive disaster. He put in the work, though, and turned his raw talent into actual production just as he had already been doing at the plate. Now, Witt is arguably one of MLB's best players, one with consecutive 30-homer, 30-stolen-base seasons. He might even earn a third this year if he can pick up the home run pace. It says something about Witt that he's hitting .294/.345/.504 in 2025, and that it could be considered a down year after his MLB-leading .332 batting average in 2024. To make up for it, Witt is playing even better at shortstop this year. 5. Tarik Skubal, Detroit Tigers Skubal, the ninth overall pick by the Tigers in 2018, won the 2024 American League Cy Young by leading major-league pitchers in bWAR (6.4) and strikeouts (228) and the AL in ERA (2.39). Skubal is somehow pitching even better in his follow-up campaign. His ERA is down to 2.23 and his ERA+ up to 181. He has the lowest WHIP in the majors, the lowest walk rate, the highest strikeout rate — no pitcher has ever finished with both in the same year — and the lowest FIP. 4. Pete Crow-Armstrong, Chicago Cubs Crow-Armstrong's tools were obvious when the Cubs called him up to the majors in 2023. His defense was excellent, thanks to an all-out style of play that got a boost from his ability to read a ball in play and get a great jump on it. He developed a surprising amount of power in the minors, too. That power has translated well, allowing him to become the fourth-fastest player to have a 25-homer and 25-steals season. There's a lot of 2025 left, too, so he might even become the seventh 40/40 player of all time if he can keep it going. The defense was always there, too, so this newfound offense — Crow-Armstrong is batting .265/.302/.544 and leading the NL in bWAR — has made him a star. 3. Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners The 2025 season marks the third in a row that Raleigh has hit at least 30 homers. It's important to recognize that Raleigh has always had tremendous power for a catcher, but now, as he leads the majors in homers with 38 at the All-Star break — one shy of Barry Bonds' record set back in 2001. Raleigh is batting .259/.376/.634, good for a 190 OPS+ and his work behind the plate is worth noting, too. Raleigh has been one of the best players in baseball for some time now, but this added level of offense has jumped him from the back end of the list to right near the top. 2. Aaron Judge, New York Yankees Judge is the best hitter in baseball, and his 2025 season is his best work to date. That's saying something for a guy who hit an AL-record 62 homers in 2022, has already won two AL MVPs and has led the majors in bWAR on multiple occasions. Judge is batting .355/.462/.733 with 35 homers and an MLB-leading 228 OPS+ and 125 hits. He could very well finish the season with over 100 extra-base hits, which has been done just 15 times before in MLB history. 1. Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers Judge's performance might have been enough to take the top spot if not for one important thing: Shohei Ohtani is a two-way player again. Ohtani, who just missed a 100-extra-base hit season himself in 2024, is not only leading the NL in slugging (.605), home runs (32), total bases (224) and OPS+ (174), but he's back on the mound. In five starts, Ohtani has allowed just one run and five hits, while striking out 10 batters. Those starts make up just nine innings of work, but that number is going to climb as he stretches back out: anyone watching him can see that the stuff that made him such a good pitcher before his second Tommy John surgery is still there. Honorable mentions: Juan Soto, New York Mets James Wood, Washington Nationals Jeremy Peña, Houston Astros Fernando Tatis Jr., San Diego Padres Kyle Tucker, Chicago Cubs Elly De La Cruz, Cincinnati Reds Byron Buxton, Minnesota Twins Check out all of our Daily Rankers . Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily ! FOLLOW Follow your favorites to personalize your FOX Sports experience Major League Baseball recommended Item 1 of 3 Get more from the Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
New York Post
16-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Post
Kyle Schwarber delivers National League the All-Star Game win in epic home run swing-off
In a first in MLB history, the All-Star Game was decided by a home run swing-off, ending a dramatic Midsummer Classic that saw the National League blow a six-run lead before winning in the mini-slugfest. With the NL and AL sending up three sluggers each to try and duke it out for the win, the Senior Circuit got the better of the AL thanks to the big bat of Phillies star Kyle Schwarber in a 4-3 home run derby win after they played to a 6-6 tie through nine innings. Schwarber, who on the game's MVP, went 3-for-3 in his home run at-bats, eliminating a 3-1 deficit to gain the lead. Advertisement Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies reacts after hitting three home runs in the swing-off to decide the MLB All-Star Game at Truist Park on July 15, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. Getty Images Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies reacts after hitting three home runs in the swing-off to decide the MLB All-Star Game at Truist Park on July 15, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. Getty Images Advertisement Brent Rooker hit two home runs to start for the AL before Kyle Stowers hit one blast for the NL. Randy Arozarena extended the AL lead to 3-1 with one home run during his turn before Schwarber went deep three times. Jonathan Aranda failed to hit one and the game ended before Mets star Pete Alonso batted.
