It’s been an exciting first six weeks of the MLB season with plenty of highlights, from Aaron Judge’s historic exploits to the Tigers’ hot start to MacKenzie Gore leading the majors in strikeouts — and many more.
But, as always, there have also been plenty of lowlights, including many that no one saw coming. Yes, it’s “still early.” There’s time for these teams and players to turn things around, or for some offseason decisions made by front offices to look better with a larger sample. But there’s cause for concern.
Here are my 10 biggest disappointments, the ones that have pulled at my heartstrings the most.
1. The Orioles are the most disappointing team so far
The Orioles were expected to be a playoff contender but instead are bringing up the rear in the American League East with a 13-22 record. Their pitching staff ranks 29th in ERA, 29th in strikeouts and 29th in batting average against.
Their former ace, Corbin Burnes, left in free agency for Arizona and their next best starter, Grayson Rodriguez, is on the injured list with a lat strain and elbow inflammation and not expected to return for months. Charlie Morton posted a 10.36 ERA in his first five starts after signing a one-year, $15 million deal in free agency; the 41-year-old was sent to the bullpen before making a spot start Wednesday and is lugging a 9.38 ERA. Starters Dean Kremer and Cade Povich have ERAs north of 5.00. Kyle Gibson, another veteran free-agent signing, has a 14.09 ERA in two starts and yielded four first-inning homers to the Yankees in his first outing.
Baltimore tried to fix its lineup in the offseason to improve against left-handed pitching, signing right-handed hitters Tyler O’Neill, Gary Sánchez and Ramón Laureano, but that hasn’t worked either. The oft-injured O’Neill is back on the IL with neck inflammation and is batting .215 on the season. Laureano is hitting .207 and Sánchez, who’s also on the IL (wrist inflammation), is hitting .100.
Meanwhile, even the Orioles’ young stars have struggled: Catcher Adley Rutschman has a .212 batting average and a 95 OPS+; third baseman Jordan Westburg had a .217 average and 90 OPS+ before landing on the IL; and their best player, Gunnar Henderson, is batting .252 with a .297 on-base percentage.
Bottom line: It’s been a disastrous start to the season and if they don’t turn it around fast, I think heads are going to roll in Baltimore. No one in the front office or field staff should consider their jobs safe at this point.
2. The Rockies’ historically bad start
Everyone expected the White Sox to again be terrible; no one expected the Rockies to surpass them as not only the worst team in the sport but also, perhaps, one of the worst teams in history.
The Rockies are a dismal 6-29 (.171), which puts them on pace to win fewer games this season than the 2024 White Sox, who lost a record-setting 121 games. Colorado has accomplished what I thought was impossible, ranking last in the majors in runs despite playing half its games in hitter-friendly Coors Field. The Rockies already have a negative-91 run differential and are 18 games behind the first-place Dodgers. The numbers are grim.
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3. The Rangers’ lackluster offense
The Rangers were my favorites to win the American League West and I expected them to have one of the top five offenses in the majors. However, 37 games into the season, they rank last in the AL in runs scored, averaging a paltry 3.3 per game. The lack of production led to the firing of head hitting coach Donnie Ecker, who was replaced this week by former All-Star and Silver Slugger Award winner Bret Boone.
Their only two consistent hitters have been left fielder Wyatt Langford and shortstop Corey Seager. Langford has an .867 OPS with six homers and 14 RBIs. Seager is hitting .281 with four homers but has played in only two-thirds of their games due to a hamstring strain. The two power hitters the Rangers acquired in the offseason, first baseman Jake Burger and DH Joc Pederson, have been a disaster: Burger hit .190 before being demoted to the minors; Pederson has batted .133 with no homers in 101 plate appearances.
Veterans such as second baseman Marcus Semien and right fielder Adolis García have also disappointed. Semien is hitting just .185 while García, who had a down season in 2024 (95 OPS+), isn’t doing much better (101 OPS+) early on.
Center field has been a problem with Evan Carter not making the team out of spring training and Leody Taveras .241 with a .601 OPS before being placed on waivers. The Rangers on Tuesday recalled Carter, who hit .300/.417/.500 during their World Series-winning postseason run in 2023.
Despite their offensive struggles, the Rangers are just below .500 and only 4.5 games back in the division. Perhaps the change at hitting coach will spark their bats.
4. Two of baseball’s best closers are off to poor starts
Coming into this season, Devin Williams and Emmanuel Clase were considered two of MLB’s best closers, but both have been far from their best.
When the Yankees acquired Williams in an offseason trade with the Brewers, most imagined he and Luke Weaver would form a dominant late-inning partnership, with Weaver serving as the set-up man. From 2022 to 2024, Williams posted season ERAs of 1.95, 1.53 and 1.25, respectively, while recording 65 saves and averaging about 14 strikeouts per nine innings. Last season, after missing the first four months with stress fractures in his back, he logged a 0.969 WHIP in 22 appearances, so there was no reason to believe he wouldn’t dominate with New York.
However, this season Williams has a 9.24 ERA, has walked 11 in 12 2/3 innings and his strikeout rate is significantly down (though he’s still averaging 11.37 strikeouts per nine innings). He lost the closer job to Weaver, and his poor performance has prevented the Yankees from expanding their lead in the AL East. Williams’ stuff is still good, but he just hasn’t had the command of his fastball and signature changeup that we’re used to seeing.
The Guardians, like the Yankees, had no reason to believe their impact closer would not dominate again this season. Yes, Clase didn’t have it last postseason, but his regular season was ridiculous as he registered an 0.61 ERA and 0.659 WHIP and led the AL in saves (47) for a third consecutive year. However, he has a 5.51 ERA in 17 appearances this season and has blown two saves. He has started to turn the corner of late, not allowing an earned run in three appearances this month, but it’s still a disappointing start for arguably the game’s best closer.
5. Rookie of the Year favorites are off to slow starts
The favorites to win National League Rookie of the Year were Roki Sasaki of the Dodgers, Dylan Crews of the Nationals and Matt Shaw of the Cubs. In the American League, Jackson Jobe of the Tigers and Jasson Domínguez of the Yankees were considered the front-runners in March.
Now, six weeks into the season, none of them are playing up to expectations. Instead, the best rookies in MLB have been Kristian Campbell of the Red Sox and Jacob Wilson of the Athletics in the AL and Agustin Ramírez of the Marlins in the NL.
Sasaki has been solid but not spectacular, going 1-1 with a 3.86 ERA and 1.451 WHIP over seven starts. Crews is batting under .200 but does have four homers and nine steals. Shaw hit just .172 before being demoted to the minors in mid-April. Jobe has a 4.88 ERA over six starts and only 20 strikeouts in 27 2/3 innings; he has not harnessed his command and control yet. Domínguez is hitting .231 with two homers and has played inconsistent defense in left field.
Campbell has been the game’s best rookie with a 137 OPS+ and a .385 on-base percentage. Wilson has hit an eye-popping .357 with only seven strikeouts in 150 plate appearances. Ramírez, whom the Marlins acquired last year from the Yankees in the Jazz Chisholm Jr. trade, has made an early statement; in his first 56 plate appearances, he’s demonstrated above-average bat speed and power, belting four homers and posting a 157 OPS+.
However, by and large, this rookie class has disappointed. Remember, it’s early though. Last season Jackson Chourio got off to a slow start and ended up being one of the best rookies in the game.
6. Big offseason free agents who aren’t yet delivering
Outside of Max Fried, Pete Alonso and Alex Bregman, many of the offseason’s biggest free-agent signings have disappointed — to varying degrees.
Willy Adames got a seven-year, $182 million deal from the Giants, but the star shortstop has hit .230 with a below-average OPS and 0.0 bWAR. Anthony Santander, who hit 44 homers last season for the Orioles, signed a five-year, $92.5 million contract with the Blue Jays, but he has hit .188 with a 72 OPS+ and minus-0.5 WAR.
The Diamondbacks committed $210 million over six years to land Corbin Burnes, who has a 3.58 ERA in six starts and only 28 strikeouts in 32 2/3 innings — and now has a sore shoulder. The Dodgers committed $182 million over five years to get Blake Snell, who after two starts went on the injured list with shoulder inflammation.
Even Juan Soto, the winter’s most prized free agent, hasn’t quite lived up to expectations. Entering Wednesday, he had a .254 batting average and five homers, but then homered twice in a game against the Diamondbacks, so maybe he’s heating up. Let’s not ding him too much: Soto has a .385 on-base percentage and a 148 OPS+, and New York is in first place. But after signing him to a record $765 million contract, the Mets are hoping he can produce more in line with his career numbers.
7. Two fan-favorite veterans are struggling … and maybe showing their age
One of the more disappointing parts of baseball is when age suddenly catches up with good players and they begin to rapidly decline. When older players get off to slow starts, we all wonder if it’s the beginning of the end to a memorable career.
This year several star players have gotten off to bad starts that are starting to prompt those concerns. Two 34-year-olds, Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien and Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy, are unfortunately standing out for all the wrong reasons.
Over his 13-year career, Semien has 162-game averages of 32 doubles, 25 homers and 14 stolen bases. He’s coming off a down season in which he hit .237 with 23 homers and eight steals, and this season his production has plummeted as he’s slashing .182/.268/.240 with only two homers and one stolen base.
Muncy, who has a career 121 OPS+, is saddled with a mark that’s almost half of that (67 OPS+). The 10-year vet is off to the worst start of his career as he’s batting .177 with only one homer over 35 games and 135 plate appearances.
Baseball is hard, and maybe these are just bad starts. But based on their ages, these numbers for Semien and Muncy warrant greater concern.
8. The top two early season trade targets are off to slow starts
Coming into this season, front office executives told me the two players most likely to be traded at the July 31 trade deadline were Marlins right-hander Sandy Alcantara and White Sox center fielder Luis Robert Jr. But both players got off to poor starts, making it highly unlikely they’re traded anytime soon.
Alcantara, 29, is 2-4 with a 8.42 ERA and 1.613 WHIP over seven starts. He has only 23 strikeouts in 31 innings. His velocity is in the high-90s, but he doesn’t have the usual command, control and finish to his pitches. This is common for pitchers returning from Tommy John surgery, but no team is going to trade a haul of prospects for Alcantara until he performs more like the elite pitcher who won the NL Cy Young Award in 2022.
Robert, 27, is batting only .190 but has five home runs and 15 stolen bases and is playing above-average defense in center field. However, the White Sox are asking for two top-10 prospects from interested teams, and there’s no way they’re getting that type of deal until he starts hitting like he did in 2023, when he belted 38 homers, drove in 80 runs and stole 20 bags.
Alcantara is signed through 2026 with a $21 million team option for ’27; Robert is signed through this year and has $20 million team options for ’26 and ’27.
Miami and Chicago must hope their big trade chips turn it on over the next three months so they can deal them for maximum value and boost their respective rebuilds.
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9. The rash of injuries to key Dodgers starting pitchers
On paper, the Dodgers have the best team in baseball, perhaps one of the best of all time. However, injuries could change their trajectory in a hurry, and their loaded rotation has already shown some cracks. Two of their best starting pitchers, Snell and Tyler Glasnow, are on the injured list with shoulder inflammation and no firm return dates. Another one of their many aces, Shohei Ohtani, is not coming along as fast as expected in his return to the mound; while a May return was initially discussed, Ohtani now appears to be “a couple of months away,” from pitching, according to manager Dave Roberts.
The Dodgers have 13 pitchers on the IL. They rank 26th in team ERA (5.25) and 20th in starting pitchers’ ERA (4.20). Yes, they’re in first place in the loaded NL West, but after looking like they could run away with the division, they now could have to fight until the end with the Padres and Diamondbacks and perhaps even the surprising Giants.
GO DEEPER
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10. The Pirates dropping the ball by temporarily removing Clemente tribute
A tribute to Pirates legend Roberto Clemente that adorned the right-field wall at PNC Park was taken down in early April and replaced by an advertisement for an alcoholic beverage, upsetting the Clemente family and sparking outrage among fans. The Pirates apologized and called the Clemente logo’s removal an “oversight.” The club restored the tribute to the Hall of Famer and tried to explain what happened, but it didn’t add up. The damage was done.
(Illustration: Will Tullos / The Athletic; Photos: Ron Jenkins, Elsa, G. Fiume / Getty Images)
