Knee-Jerk MLB Reactions on the Good, Bad and Ugly So Far
We all know the Major League Baseball season is a marathon, not a sprint.
However, there's no good reason to let that axiom stop us from making some knee-jerk reactions to what we've witnessed, oh, three percent of the way into this particular marathon.
After all, sometimes hot/cold starts turn into much more than just an intriguing small sample size.
So, is Yordan Alvarez all the way back and ready to become an MVP candidate once more?
Is it Cal Raleigh's spot that Alvarez has inherited in that conversation, as the Big Dumper cannot stop striking out?
And how about this loaded rookie class?
Knee-jerk reactions are presented in no particular order, save for oscillating between the good and bad/ugly ones.
Good: Yordan Alvarez Will Win AL MVP
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Last year was an injury-plagued nightmare for Yordan Alvarez, appearing in just 48 games with a sub-.800 OPS.
And effectively playing without the star who had 103 home runs and a .988 OPS from 2022-24, the Houston Astros missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker with Detroit, snapping their eight-year streak of postseason appearances.
The good early news for Houston, though, is that the Yordan of yore appears to be back.
On the second pitch he saw on Opening Day, Alvarez crushed what should have been a home run so hard that it hit off the rafters at Daikin Park and ricocheted into foul territory for a very loud strike.
He ended up whiffing in that AB, but he did homer the following day off Yusei Kikuchi before also pulverizing a Ranger Suárez offering into the right-field seats on Monday night. He also took Brayan Bello deep on Tuesday for his third round-tripper.
Alvarez is now triple-slashing .381/.536/.905 on the young season. And, again, that's with a K that should have been a HR. Make that swap and he would be sitting at .429/.571/1.095 instead.
Regardless, he has three early home runs, one year removed from hitting two home runs in his first 25 games.
It's not too late to get pretty good odds on Alvarez to win AL MVP.
Bad: Kansas City Already Has a Closer Controversy
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Carlos Estévez led all pitchers with 42 saves in 2025, posting a solid 2.45 ERA for a second consecutive season. Not only was he an All-Star, but he was the only pitcher to record at least three strikeouts in the All-Star Game.
But after struggling through spring training, he was shelled to the tune of six earned runs in his first outing of the regular season, including allowing a walk-off grand slam to Dominic Smith.
In a vacuum, one implosion in a save situation isn't the end of the world.
However, Estévez's velocity was way down on all three of his pitches. We're talking about a drop of roughly 5.0 MPH compared to last season.
Adding injury to insult, he took a comebacker off the left ankle from the next-to-last batter that he faced and was in a walking boot before Monday's game against the Royals, resulting in John Schreiber getting the save.
To be clear, though, his velocity was already way down before the ankle contusion. In fact, it was a big concern during spring training, and Kansas City might embrace using him in a low-leverage role until he gets his mojo back.
Good: Joey Wiemer for Breakout Star of the Year
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There's usually at least one guy in each season who suddenly breaks through several years into an MLB career that wasn't going according to plan.
Kyle Stowers was that guy in 2025. Jo Adell fit that bill to a lesser degree in 2024. Austin Riley was a fine example in 2021. Surely there are dozens more, but those are the ones who spring to mind.
And now on his fourth team in four years, Joey Wiemer is out to quite the torrid start as an early candidate to join that "better late than never" fraternity.
A consensus top-100 prospect heading into the 2023 campaign, Wiemer entered this season with a .205/.279/.359 triple-slash in 180 career games played at the MLB level with the Brewers, Reds and Marlins.
However, the 27-year-old reached base in each of his first 10 plate appearances with the Washington Nationals, via two home runs, a triple, five singles and two walks.
The decision to break camp with Wiemer on the roster instead of Dylan Crews was a bit shocking, seeing as how Wiemer was merely 6-for-40 during spring training without any sort of track record preceding him.
However, Blake Butera and Co. look vindicated in that call so far, winning each of the first three games in which Wiemer was in the starting lineup.
Ugly: So Much for the A's as a Sneaky Good Team
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No one in the preseason was picking the Athletics to win the World Series. In fact, aside from ESPN's Jesse Rogers, I can't recall seeing anyone picking them to reach the postseason at all.
But just about everyone (including yours truly) seemed to like the A's as a candidate to go .500, with plenty of suggestions that the preseason win total of 75.5 was a bit too disrespectful to a team that is largely running it back again with the same roster that went 53-46 from June 5 onward; 34-24 after July 23.
At the end of play on Monday, though, the A's were the only team with a zero still in the wins column.
Not only were they swept in Toronto, but their batters struck out 50 times in three games while their pitchers managed just 17 Ks. In one of those games, the A's bullpen blew both a four-run lead in the seventh inning and a one-run lead in the 10th inning.
Then, they flew to Atlanta and never even got a runner to third base in the process of losing 4-0 to fall to 0-4. (They did get off the schneid with a win on Tuesday, though.)
Outside of Shea Langeliers' four home runs, this offense has been a tragedy. And considering their next four series after leaving Atlanta are against the Astros, Yankees, Mets and Rangers, things could get even uglier in a hurry.
Good: 2026 Is the Year of the Rookie
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Heading into play on Tuesday, here's what some of the top rookies have been up to in the early going.
Sal Stewart, Cincinnati Reds: triple-slashing .667/.765/1.167 with four extra-base hits
Chase DeLauter, Cleveland Guardians: four home runs, all of which came in his first 14 trips to the plate
Munetaka Murakami, Chicago White Sox: three solo home runs and a respectable strikeout rate, showcasing the good while mitigating the bad that preceded his arrival in America
Kazuma Okamoto, Toronto Blue Jays: batting .333 with a pair of home runs
Kevin McGonigle, Detroit Tigers: batting .357
Owen Caissie, Miami Marlins: batting .385 with one home run and one stolen base
Parker Messick, Cleveland Guardians: tossed six shutout innings in handing the Dodgers their first loss
Nolan McLean, New York Mets: eight strikeouts in five innings of work in his season debut
And then on Tuesday night, Arizona's Jose Fernandez hit a pair of 400+ foot home runs in his MLB debut, including what proved to be the game-winner off Kenley Jansen in the eighth inning.
That came a couple hours after Pittsburgh's Bubba Chandler went 4.1 innings without allowing a hit (but did walk six Reds), and Philadelphia's Andrew Painter had an electric MLB debut of his own with one run allowed and eight strikeouts in 5.1 innings of work.
Can't imagine it'll be long before Pittsburgh's Konnor Griffin joins the fray, too, posting a 1.315 OPS in his first three games at Triple-A Indianapolis after also hitting four home runs in spring training.
There are some years where quality rookies are hard to come by, but we already appear to be destined for a pair of fascinating season-long Rookie of the Year discussions.
Bad: Cal Raleigh Does Not Look Right
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It's worth mentioning from the jump here that Cal Raleigh also struggled early on last season. He was held hitless in his first three games of 2025, and through nine games he had four singles and one meaningless ninth inning home run in a losing effort.
Definitely didn't look like a 60-homer campaign out of the gates.
It also bears mentioning he came through in the clutch in a big way on Monday night with a walk-off single yanked just fair down the first-base line. He didn't have any walk-off hits last season, so there's that.
Aside from that one big moment, though, he's mostly just flailing up there, and still searching for his first homer.
After walking in his first plate appearance of the season, the Big Dumper whiffed in each of his next eight trips to the dish. All told, he has struck out in 13 of his first 21 ABs. And that walk-off hit came after he entered the game as a pinch hitter—this after starting each of Seattle's first 34 games last season.
Even when he has made contact, it has been mostly weak contact. His maximum exit velocity (92.2 MPH) thus far this season would not have ranked top 250 among his best EVs in 2025.
It's more than just these first few games of the regular season, too. Between spring training and the World Baseball Classic, Raleigh went a combined 8-for-41 (.195 BA) with one home run and 17 strikeouts.
While we certainly aren't selling off our Raleigh stock just yet, things aren't going great for the first runner-up for 2025 AL MVP.
Good: Mike Trout Well on His Way to a 30/30 Campaign
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In winning AL Rookie of the Year in 2012, Mike Trout went for 30 home runs and 49 stolen bases.
He hasn't gone 30/30 since. And with a combined total of 14 stolen bases over the past six seasons, we weren't exactly expecting that to change now that the three-time AL MVP is well into his mid-30s.
But there's one player in all of Major League Baseball with at least two home runs and at least two stolen bases, and you're looking at him.
Trout had a combo meal on Opening Day and added another 400+ foot homer in his second game, reaching base in eight of his first 10 plate appearances. And in Tuesday's win over the Cubs, he stole his second base of the year, already matching his total in 130 games played in 2025.
Unfortunately with Trout, the question always comes back to: How long will he be healthy enough to keep it up?
So far, though, getting back to playing center field seems to have revitalized the veteran who still has four years (after this one) left on his contract.
Sure would be something if he can continue to play like that five-tool star of yore, and we're ready to believe in a renaissance year of sorts.
Ugly: Pittsburgh Has an Oneil Cruz Problem
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At least at the plate, Oneil Cruz showed up on Tuesday night. After starting 2-for-14 with eight strikeouts, he went 3-for-4 with a pair of home runs in a convincing win over the Reds.
Even on that great night at the dish, though, the early story was another disastrous adventure in the outfield.
On Opening Day, Cruz almost immediately botched two plays in center field, misreading one ball that flew clear over his head for a "triple" before losing literally the next pitch in the sun for a "double."
He botched them so badly, in fact, that he wasn't actually charged with an error on either play, because he didn't even get a glove on the ball. (When are we going to talk about changing that rule?) Poor Paul Skenes was charged with five earned runs and didn't even survive the first inning.
Fast forward to the third inning on Tuesday night when Cruz and Bryan Reynolds were converging on a ball in left-center. Either one could have made the catch, but neither one did, miscommunicating as Cruz came in late and the ball ricocheted off Reynolds glove—meaning the left fielder was the one charged with an error while Cruz has the most misleading 1.000 fielding percentage maybe in the history of baseball.
Because of his combination of elite speed and a howitzer of an arm, you can understand why Pittsburgh wanted to move him to center field after it became clear that shortstop wasn't his forte. But we are now more than 150 games into this outfield experiment and it simply isn't working. (Cruz committed the most errors of any outfielder in 2025, despite only making 120 starts in the field.)
They do have Jake Mangum who is more than capable of playing center. The problem, however, is the Pirates signed Marcell Ozuna to be the primary DH, so they have to put Cruz somewhere in the field.
After spending like never before this offseason, this could be their undoing.
