Trent Grisham and 10 MLB Players Enjoying Huge Career Revivals in 2025
Every MLB season has its share of surprises, but what's always really interesting are the developments that defy all logic.
Like, for example, seemingly past-their-prime veterans suddenly turning back the clock and proving that their star power isn't dead yet.
The 2025 season is oddly full of these types of players, and there are 10 in particular who we think are worth calling out. Each came into this campaign off at least two consecutive lost or down seasons, yet each is playing wildly above what were rightfully diminished expectations.
We'll check them off in alphabetical order.
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LF Harrison Bader, Minnesota Twins
1 of 10
Age: 30
2025 Stats: 39 G, 125 PA, 4 HR, 4 SB, .300 AVG, .384 OBP, .464 SLG
To be fair, Harrison Bader did go on an all-time heater in the 2022 postseason, homering five times in just nine games for the New York Yankees.
For the most part, however, he was just sort of there after an early-career breakthrough with the St. Louis Cardinals between 2017 and 2021. In 327 games spanning the 2022-24 seasons, he managed only a meager .644 OPS and 2.7 rWAR.
As for what Bader is doing so far in 2025, it's hardly news that he leads all left fielders in Outs Above Average. Even more so than his one Gold Glove can attest, tracking down fly balls has always been his jam.
It's the offensive production that has come out of nowhere, but it is also easily traced back to two things: better swing decisions and more hard contact. Bader's 9.6 walk percentage is more than double his rate from last year, and he's otherwise among the biggest hard-hit rate gainers of 2025.
Even if this is likely an unsustainable level of performance for Bader, the Twins obviously aren't complaining amid a 16-5 run that has thrust them into contention.
CF/3B Javier Báez, Detroit Tigers
2 of 10
Age: 32
2025 Stats: 35 G, 130 PA, 5 HR, 1 SB, .309 AVG, .346 OBP, .496 SLG
Given how it started, it feels like a small miracle that the Tigers didn't decide to simply eat Javier Báez's six-year, $140 million contract over the winter.
It was ominous enough even when he posted a .671 OPS and 2.4 rWAR in 2022, and then basically everything went wrong for the erstwhile All-Star in 2023 and 2024. Injuries limited him to 216 games and he managed a .566 OPS and minus-0.3 rWAR when he did play.
Yet here he still is, and his season would mark an incredible comeback even if he was producing merely with his glove.
Detroit's idea to try Báez in center field seemed desperate, but he has taken to it shockingly well. To wit, he is just outside the top 10 for Outs Above Average as a center fielder.
Báez is still his usual free-swinging self on the offensive side, but he's been willing to use the whole field while also making the most of it when he does sell out for power. He's hitting the ball in the air to left field at a 20.7 percent rate, the highest of his career.
1B Paul Goldschmidt, New York Yankees
3 of 10
Age: 37
2025 Stats: 43 G, 178 PA, 5 HR, 3 SB, .346 AVG, .395 OBP, .506 SLG
Though Paul Goldschmidt did have a .810 OPS in 2023, it said a lot about his excellence before then that it was also his lowest since back in 2011.
In any case, another step back followed for Goldschmidt in 2024. And this one seemed to truly spell the end for him as a star, as his .716 OPS was further undercut by a career-worst 0.27 walk-to-strikeout ratio.
Then he ended up with the Yankees, who put a torpedo bat in his hands and must have said something like, "Go get 'em, kid."
Goldschmidt's walk rate is still down, but his strikeout rate is down a whopping 9.6 percent and he just can't stop notching base hits. Indeed, he would be leading the American League in batting average were it not for teammate Aaron Judge.
Per his .398 batting average on balls in play and hits to both his exit velocity and hard-hit rate, Goldschmidt's .346 average probably isn't built to last. Like Javier Báez, however, his early success is as indicative of a new, more holistic approach to hitting as it is to an excess of good luck.
CF Trent Grisham, New York Yankees
4 of 10
Age: 28
2025 Stats: 36 G, 128 PA, 12 HR, 0 SB, .283 AVG, .367 OBP, .628 SLG
Trent Grisham was the other guy in the trade that brought Juan Soto to New York in December 2023. Now that he's gone, it's all on Grisham to keep the legacy of that trade alive for the Yankees.
Before this season, this would have been something said with a little snicker. Though Grisham would pop the occasional homer, he hit just .191 with a .651 OPS across the 2022, 2023 and 2024 seasons.
That he's doing a fair bit better so far in 2025 is a self-evident story, but here's the thing that's flying under the radar: It's legit.
Basically all of Grisham's key performance indicators have taken a turn for the better, including a 7.0 percent swing for his strikeout rate and a 5.2 percent jump for his barrel rate. Indeed, he has already tied his total barrel output from last season.
The down side is that the two-time Gold Glover is in the red for Outs Above Average in center field, but playing him there would be a win for the Yankees even if he wasn't hitting. If nothing else, he's helping keep Aaron Judge's fresh in right field.
C Carson Kelly, Chicago Cubs
5 of 10
Age: 30
2025 Stats: 27 G, 105 PA, 8 HR, 0 SB, .289 AVG, .429 OBP, .627 SLG
Elsewhere on the topic of Paul Goldschmidt, remember what Carson Kelly did after he went to Arizona in the trade that sent Goldschmidt to St. Louis?
Kelly was a borderline All-Star in his early seasons for the Diamondbacks, notably posting a .826 OPS in 2019 and a .754 OPS in 2021. He unfortunately spent the next three seasons in a sort of purgatory, playing for three different teams and only producing 1.4 rWAR.
He's already surpassed that mark with 1.6 rWAR for the Cubs in 2025. And like with Trent Grisham, Kelly passes the smell test with flying colors.
He has seven more walks than strikeouts for the season, and both his exit velocity (90.1 mph) and hard-hit rate (46.5 percent) are way up from 2024. With just one more home run, he'll match how many he hit in 91 games last year.
Kelly has cooled off a little in May with just two hits in his last 22 at-bats. He nonetheless remains a key part of a Cubs offense that has been a surprise in its own right, scoring a National League-high 5.55 runs per game.
RHP Tyler Mahle, Texas Rangers
6 of 10
Age: 30
2025 Stats: 9 GS, 49.0 IP, 31 H (2 HR), 37 K, 16 BB, 1.47 ERA
Tyler Mahle wasn't a household name or anything, but suffice it to say that his 2021 season was one for pitching nerds to obsess over.
He made 33 starts and pitched to a 3.75 ERA for the Cincinnati Reds, neither of which is a small feat for anyone who has to contend with Great American Ball Park. He also fanned 210 batters to put himself among the NL's top 12 hurlers for fWAR.
Mahle all but fell off the radar after that, in large part because Tommy John surgery sidelined him for most of the 2023 and 2024 seasons. But he's back now, and his 1.47 ERA isn't as misleading as you'd think.
Yes, the strikeouts that once defined Mahle's success have dried up. Yet he's inducing a ton of soft contact, ranking behind only three other qualified hurlers with a 30.9 hard-hit percentage.
That's a nice bulwark against disaster, and now Mahle's command is starting to come around. After walking 12 batters in his first five starts, he's issued only four free passes in his last four outings.
RHP Shelby Miller, Arizona Diamondbacks
7 of 10
Age: 34
2025 Stats: 18 G, 18.2 IP, 12 H (1 HR), 21 K, 7 BB, 1.45 ERA
After what happened in the 2010s, how nice is it to see Shelby Miller succeeding in a Diamondbacks uniform for a change?
He was the headliner for Arizona in the 2015 trade that sent Dansby Swanson to the Atlanta Braves. Whereas Swanson became a star in Atlanta, Miller's first tenure with the D-backs lasted three years and yielded minus-1.1 rWAR.
Miller had spots of success here and there after that, but he always seemed on the verge of flaming out entirely. Even when Arizona threw him a lifeline in February, it was only via a minor league deal.
What he's done since then is surely beyond even the team's wildest dreams, and he owes it all to his fastball-splitter combo. The heater has gained 1.3 mph in velocity over last season, while the split has held hitters to one hit in 22 at-bats.
The injury bug is typically never far from Miller, but the Snakes have nonetheless made the choice to go all-in on trusting him. With Justin Martinez and A.J. Puk sidelined, the righty is now Torey Lovullo's go-to closer.
LHP Robbie Ray, San Francisco Giants
8 of 10
Age: 33
2025 Stats: 9 GS, 50.1 IP, 37 H (5 HR), 55 K, 26 BB, 3.04 ERA
Robbie Ray seemed to peak as an All-Star in 2017, after which both his health and consistency were constantly on the fritz.
That is, of course, until he went out and won the AL Cy Young Award in 2021 and parlayed it into a five-year, $115 million contract with the Seattle Mariners. But then the fritz began anew, as his performance wavered in 2022 and then Tommy John surgery sidelined him for almost all of 2023 and 2024.
Ray's contract is now the responsibility of the Giants, and he still isn't quite the same pitcher that he was in '21. There's a 1.2 mph difference in his average fastball, and his strikeout-to-walk ratio is a far cry from the 4.77 it was four years ago.
All the same, he's getting outs and keeping runs off the board. He can credit himself for becoming a much more complete pitcher, notably by incorporating a changeup that has helped him hold righties to a career-low .588 OPS.
With Justin Verlander struggling to fill the role, Ray has effectively taken over as the Giants' co-ace for Logan Webb. As long as the pair holds, the Giants should remain in contention.
RF George Springer, Toronto Blue Jays
9 of 10
Age: 35
2025 Stats: 40 G, 156 PA, 5 HR, 6 SB, .279 AVG, .390 OBP, .488 SLG
Maybe they weren't a total disaster, but the first four seasons of George Springer's six-year, $150 million contract with the Blue Jays were definitely disappointing.
Whereas he averaged 5.7 rWAR per 162 games in seven seasons with the Houston Astros, his initial output for Toronto was close to half that at 3.0. His bat fell into a sort of average-ish purgatory in 2023 and 2024, yielding a 97 OPS+.
Now, however, to say that he's "back" in 2025 would be putting it mildly.
As good as Springer's results look, his metrics are arguably even more impressive. He's already nearly halfway to his walk total from last season, and he's among the biggest gainers in hard-hit rate with a 14.9 percent gain.
Springer is keeping what he's changed close to the vest, but it's clear that one of his missions is to swing at better pitches. Just as he's among the biggest improvers in hard-hit rate, so is he among those who have cut down on their chase rates the most.
2B Gleyber Torres, Detroit Tigers
10 of 10
Age: 28
2025 Stats: 31 G, 137 PA, 5 HR, 4 SB, .289 AVG, .358 OBP, .455 SLG
Gleyber Torres left the Yankees and has promptly become a star again? Geez, who saw that coming besides everyone?
This isn't so much a dunk on the Yankees as an organization so much as the general vibe that came to loom over Torres' time with the team. He needed a change of scenery years ago, as his initial outbreak as an All-Star in 2018 and 2019 became something like a curse as he slipped into a pattern of underachievement.
Cut to now, and he's threatening a career-high with a 130 OPS+. And this truly is the best he's ever looked at the plate, in more ways than one.
For starters, you have to hand it to the guy for cutting his strikeout rate by more than half from 20.5 down to 9.5 percent. And he clearly feels free to pull the ball in the air again, as he's doing so at a 20.9 percent clip after hovering in the teens throughout the last five seasons.
Though Torres is batting "only" .289, his expected batting average of .310 puts him among the top 20 qualified hitters in the league right now. If he can keep this up, his one-year, $15 million deal should be a springboard to greater riches this winter.
Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.
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