1 Player Every MLB Team Desperately Needs to Break Out ASAP
Every Major League Baseball team has (at least) one player who hasn't gotten out to the type of start to 2026 that was envisioned for them.
Even as Atlanta and Tampa Bay sit alone atop their respective leagues, each has an outfielder who has provided little to no value while playing on a near-everyday basis.
In a number of cases, a breakout by the player in question would be quite the win-win situation for that team. Either said player heats up and anchors a charge back up the standings after a disappointing first seven weeks, or said player is an impending free agent who turns things around and becomes a much more desirable asset for this summer's trade block.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics are current through the start of play on Wednesday, May 13.
American League East
1 of 6
Baltimore Orioles: RHP Shane Baz
Frankly, if anyone in the Orioles starting rotation could right the ship, that'd be fantastic news for a team that is flirting with dead last in the majors in runs allowed.
But Baz, in particular, probably should be the guy, after they traded for him in December and gave him a five-year, $68M extension shortly thereafter. Through his first eight turns through this rotation, though, he has a 5.48 ERA, still searching for his first quality start with the O's.
Boston Red Sox: 3B Caleb Durbin
Brayan Bello's 9.12 ERA through the end of April had been the biggest detriment to Boston's cause. However, he has been great thus far in May, and the Red Sox would have the option of bumping him to a bulk relief role if he's struggling again by the time Garrett Crochet returns from the IL.
At the hot corner, on the other hand, their three options appear to be Durbin, Bust or call up top prospect Franklin Arias from Double-A (where he has a 1.143 OPS) to play second base while bumping Marcelo Mayer to third. And the longer Durbin continues to languish down around a .500 OPS, the more legitimately Craig Breslow and Co. will be forced to consider that Hail Mary.
New York Yankees: CF Trent Grisham
At least as far as luxury tax is concerned, the Yankees starting outfield of Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Trent Grisham is costing them $106.775M this season. That is more than the entire payrolls of Cleveland or Miami.
While Judge and Bellinger have been two of the most valuable players in all of baseball thus far, Grisham's 2025 breakout at the plate appears to have been fools' gold, back to a sub-.680 OPS for the fourth time in five seasons. And now that the Yankees have called up Spencer Jones, it's just about "now or never" for Grisham—who could be an intriguing trade candidate if he turns things around and Jones fares well in what should be regular playing time until Giancarlo Stanton returns from the IL.
Tampa Bay Rays: CF Cedric Mullins
Not much has gone awry for the Rays during their 28-13 start, but Cedric Mullins has been a $7M black hole in center field, saddled with a .421 OPS.
Having one light-hitting defensive specialist in the lineup can be more than fine. However, Mullins' glove hasn't been anything special for a few years now, and the Rays have three other regulars—Taylor Walls at short, Ben Williamson at second and Chandler Simpson in left—who have combined for 400 plate appearances without a home run. They need Mullins to start providing something if they're going to maintain this hot start.
Toronto Blue Jays: DH George Springer
Springer missed a few weeks with a fractured toe, and then improbably got drilled by a pitch on that still healing toe a few games after his return. So, we know he's not operating at full strength.
Still, he had a .661 OPS when he landed on the IL, has a .552 OPS since his return and simply needs to be contributing more than that if he's going to be the starting DH on a near-everyday basis, especially while Alejandro Kirk and Addison Barger are on the shelf.
American League Central
2 of 6
Chicago White Sox: C Edgar Quero
That Chicago is within shouting distance of the AL Central lead after the past few years of openly tanking is a minor miracle, but they'd be in even better shape if Quero could turn things around. (Or if Kyle Teel gets healthy. And he's nearing a rehab assignment.)
After hitting .268 in 111 games played as a rookie last year, Quero is batting .159 and slugging .171 as the primary cog of a catching machine that has produced virtually nothing this season—outside of Drew Romo's completely out of nowhere two-HR performance on April 28.
Cleveland Guardians: LF/CF Steven Kwan
Cleveland could have gotten a decent haul for Kwan at last year's trade deadline, or probably at any point during the offseason. Instead, the Guardians decided to hang onto their four-time Gold Glove outfielder who had hit at least .268 in each of his first four seasons on the roster.
But whether it's just a slow start or maybe a byproduct of bouncing back and forth between center and left this year after being pretty much cemented in left field prior to 2026, Kwan hasn't been anything close to the same reliable weapon on offense, flirting with the Mendoza Line while also slugging 125 points below his career norm.
Detroit Tigers: RHP Jack Flaherty
Now more than ever—with Tarik Skubal, Casey Mize and Justin Verlander all on the IL, Reese Olson already lost for the season and Framber Valdez not exactly establishing himself as a fan favorite—the Tigers need Flaherty to be the type of rotation-stabilizing force that one would hope a guy on a two-year, $45M contract could be.
Alas, he is walking a career-worst 16 percent of batters faced, has yet to record a win and has pitched into the sixth inning in just two of his eight starts. And with how often Detroit is already using openers and bulk relievers and churning through its bullpen, the short outings might be the most problematic part of all.
Kansas City Royals: 1B Vinnie Pasquantino
Not a single Royal is on pace to finish this season with 25 home runs or 80 RBI. As a result, they have already been held to two or fewer runs in 15 of 42 games played, squandering more than a few quality starts from what has been a solid rotation.
After racking up 32 home runs and 113 RBI last season, Pasquantino has been the biggest disappointment of that bunch. He does have five home runs, but they've all been solo shots. In fact, all 11 of his extra base hits have come with the bases empty. And though he leads the team in plate appearances with runners in scoring position (54), he has a .143 slugging percentage in those situations to show for it. Time for the Pasquatch to start delivering in the clutch again.
Minnesota Twins: 3B Royce Lewis
When Minnesota finally won its first postseason game/series in nearly two decades in 2023, Lewis was a gigantic piece of the puzzle, posting a .921 OPS during the regular season and homering in four of his 26 trips to the plate in the playoffs.
Since then, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 draft has gotten progressively worse while perpetually banged up. That OPS dropped to .747 in 2024, to .671 last year and now to .569 early-but-not-that-early in the 2026 campaign. He's still under team control through 2028, but is he still a part of the master plan in Minnesota at this point?
American League West
3 of 6
Athletics: RF/CF Lawrence Butler
The A's bet big on Butler last spring, giving him a seven-year, $65.5M extension after his breakout in 2024. But after regressing from an .807 OPS to a .710 mark in 2025, he has further plummeted to a .552 mark this year.
The two-fold positive spin here is that both his walk rate and his hard-hit percentage are higher than where he has finished any of his previous seasons in the big leagues. He's just making a lot of loud outs with a tough-luck BABIP, and maybe things will start breaking his way soon.
Houston Astros: RHP Lance McCullers Jr.
Injuries have ravaged Houston's pitching staff, but the oft-injured McCullers is on track to make more starts in 2026 than he did cumulatively in the first four seasons of his five-year, $85M deal.
However, with a 7.41 ERA and opponents slugging at least .500 against five of the six pitches in his arsenal, there has been a pretty big "for better or worse" asterisk on his projected availability moving forward. Can McCullers flip the script and at least flirt with once again becoming the top-half-of-the-rotation arm that he had been from 2015-21? Houston might be toast if he doesn't.
Los Angeles Angels: DH Jorge Soler
Most likely, the Angels are going to be sellers at the trade deadline. But outside of the gigantic fish that is Mike Trout, they don't have a whole lot to offer. (Plenty of impending free agents, but nothing much that a contender would be interested in acquiring.)
Soler could be an exception to that rule with eight home runs thus far, but it's going to take a good bit more than that for him to become the 2026 version of "2025 Eugenio Suárez" that seemingly every team with a postseason pulse wants to add to the heart of its order.
Seattle Mariners: C Cal Raleigh
Between Andrés Muñoz, Luis Castillo, Josh Naylor and J.P. Crawford, the Mariners have a whole host of key players who have fallen well short of expectation.
But even with that seven-game stretch in late April with five home runs in which it looked like he had figured things out, Raleigh easily takes the cake here. Because outside of that hot week, he has gone 16-for-128 (.125 AVG) with two home runs and 48 strikeouts. (He did mercifully snap a nine-game hitless streak with a pair of singles on Tuesday, though.)
Texas Rangers: SS Corey Seager
Save for Jacob deGrom, Texas' entire starting rotation has under-delivered. In particular, you could argue for MacKenzie Gore in this spot, considering the Rangers gave up five prospects to acquire what had been a borderline ace over the previous two seasons.
The bigger problem in Arlington, however, is that Texas is averaging an AL-worst 3.7 runs per game and desperately needs to start hitting the ball. Seager does have a team-leading seven home runs, but compared to a .916 OPS from 2023-25, the five-time All-Star shortstop is all the way down at .654.
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National League East
4 of 6
Atlanta Braves: OF Mike Yastrzemski
Similar to Michael Conforto on last year's Dodgers, Atlanta has had a mostly great thing going aside from that glaring Achilles' heel out in left field. (Though, Yaz has been manning right field more often than not since Ronald Acuña Jr. landed on the IL.)
Yastrzemski entered 2026 with a career OPS of .772, but he isn't even within 200 points of that mark right now, even after finally hitting his first home run on Tuesday. They signed him to a two-year, $23M deal and it's not like Jurickson Profar will be walking through that door any time soon. He will presumably continue getting consistent corner outfield work, at least until the trade deadline.
Miami Marlins: RHP Eury Pérez
Part of Miami's willingness to trade away both Edward Cabrera and Ryan Weathers this past winter—as well as a key part of its presumed willingness to trade away Sandy Alcantara this summer—stemmed from the belief that Pérez is going to be a key piece of the rotation for years to come.
Thus far this season, however, he hasn't been nearly as dominant as he had been through the first 39 starts of his career, struggling with walks while also allowing hits at a considerably higher rate than last year. Getting him to lock back in would be huge.
New York Mets: 3B Bo Bichette
Though New York has had many expensive disappointments through the first quarter of the season, there's really no debate that Bichette has been the biggest letdown of the bunch.
The Mets ponied up a three-year, $126M deal to make Bichette their primary third baseman, banking on him to rack up at least 175 hits and 50 extra-base hits for what would be the fifth time in six years. Instead, he has a .561 OPS and is barely even on pace for 175 total bases, let alone 175 hits. The only good news is that his glove has been respectable at the hot corner, but you have to really want to see that as a silver lining.
Philadelphia Phillies: RHP Andrew Painter
You could argue for any number of Phillies hitters in this spot, especially Alec Bohm, even though he did have a two-homer game on Saturday.
But when they released Taijuan Walker a few weeks ago, they unofficially put a whole bunch of eggs into Painter's basket. And the 2021 first-round pick and recent top prospect in the organization has yet to live up to the hype, entering Wednesday's start against Boston with a 9.33 ERA in his last four appearances, suffering the loss in each.
Washington Nationals: RHP Zack Littell
The Nationals took a last-minute flyer on Littell in March, signing him to a one-year, $7M deal—$4M which is the inevitable buyout of the $12M mutual option for 2027—doubtlessly hoping he would pitch well enough to turn into a trade chip for them. After he had made 61 starts with a 3.73 ERA over the previous two seasons, it was a reasonable gambit.
He has gotten out to a horrific start, though, with a 6.94 ERA and an 8.26 FIP that suggests, if anything, he's lucky things haven't gone even worse. Littell has allowed a staggering 14 home runs in 36.1 innings pitched with an atrocious 1.3 K/BB ratio, to boot.
National League Central
5 of 6
Chicago Cubs: 3B Alex Bregman
Bregman's production hasn't been nearly as underwhelming (or downright woeful) as most of the players on this list. However, the only reason we haven't been talking on a regular basis about him being one of the biggest disappointments is because the Cubs have one of the best records in spite of his shortcomings.
Bregman's strikeout rate (16.6 percent) is his worst since his rookie season, while both his slugging percentage (.356) and OPS (.687) are well below his previous career worsts. And prior to homering on Tuesday, he had just one round-tripper in his previous 37 games. Not exactly living up to that five-year, $175M contract thus far.
Cincinnati Reds: RHP Brady Singer
Cincinnati's surprise run to the 2025 postseason never would have been possible without Singer, who led the team in both innings pitched (169.2) and quality starts (15). As a result, he's making $12.75M in his final season of arbitration, good for the second-highest salary on this roster.
But this season has been a struggle for Singer, failing to even make it out of the fourth inning in four of his nine starts. The velocity on his primary offering (sinker) is down more than 1 MPH from where it had been over the past two seasons, he's giving up home runs left and right and his strikeout percentage (14.3) is a far cry from his previous career average of 22.1.
Milwaukee Brewers: SS Joey Ortiz
In Jesús Made, Cooper Pratt and Jett Williams, Milwaukee's future at both shortstop and third base is extremely bright. But rather than rushing any of those prospects to the show, it sure would be fantastic for the Brewers if Ortiz could start hitting like he did in 2024.
He had a .726 OPS that season, predominantly playing third base beside Willy Adames. Since shifting from the hot corner to shortstop at the beginning of 2025, though, he has been a disaster at the plate, presently sitting on a .505 OPS while splitting time with David Hamilton.
Pittsburgh Pirates: DH Marcell Ozuna
Ozuna was supposed to be the final piece of Pittsburgh's puzzle; the $12M cherry on the offseason sundae, signed in mid-February to provide some serious pop from the DH spot.
Instead, the 35-year-old is putting up career-worst numbers in each of AVG, OBP and SLG while also striking out at the highest rate (25.5 percent) since 2014. Might be about time to call up "The Password" after Jhostynxon Garcia went 5-for-5 with three home runs on Tuesday for Triple-A Indianapolis.
St. Louis Cardinals: CF Victor Scott II
Early last season, it looked like this speedster who hit .303 and stole 94 bases in the minors in 2023 was figuring things out. However, after homering in the first game after the All-Star Break, Scott triple-slashed .168/.275/.212 the rest of the way. And that .487 OPS is virtually identical to the .485 mark he is at roughly one-fourth of the way into the current campaign.
Even Scott's defense in center hasn't been anywhere near as valuable as it was last season, so he might be out of a job once Lars Nootbaar is healthy enough to make his 2026 debut. If there's any setback in that forthcoming rehab assignment, maybe Joshua Báez gets the call.
National League West
6 of 6
Arizona Diamondbacks: RHP Zac Gallen
Just like Lance McCullers Jr. in Houston, Zack Littell in Washington, Trevor Rogers in Baltimore, Brady Singer in Cincinnati, Jack Flaherty in Detroit, Tyler Mahle in San Francisco and a handful of other spots around the league, it sure would be swell for the Diamondbacks if this impending free-agent starting pitcher could get his ERA down below 5.00.
If Gallen did turn things around, maybe it would anchor a comeback from what is currently a sub-.500 mark. But if it didn't, at least they would be able to get something decent in return if they put him on the trade block. In his current state, fresh off a 7 ER dud in Texas, that might not be the case.
Colorado Rockies: SS Ezequiel Tovar
When the Rockies inked Tovar to a seven-year, $63.5M deal two springs ago, he was supposed to be their beacon of light; the hope to which this fan base could cling while continuing to wallow in the National League basement, waiting for that disastrous Kris Bryant contract to run its course.
But two years removed from racking up 26 home runs, 307 total bases and a league-best 45 doubles, Tovar hasn't been able to hit the broad side of a barn. Over his last 21 games, he is 9-for-64 with no extra base hits, bringing his year-to-date OPS down to .511.
Los Angeles Dodgers: LF Teoscar Hernández
There's a strong case to be made for Roki Sasaki in this spot, but the Dodgers would still have one heck of a strong rotation if they removed him from the mix. Conversely, they pretty well need Hernández in left, and he has been arguably the weakest link of this offense.
He was great early on, with four home runs and a .918 OPS during LA's 14-4 start to the season. But since then? Hernández has no dingers and a .512 OPS while the Dodgers have gone 10-14.
San Diego Padres: RF Fernando Tatis Jr.
Speaking of no dingers, Tatis is doing one heck of an impersonation of late-career José Abreu, who did not hit a home run until his 212th plate appearance of the 2023 campaign.
Tatis entered play on Wednesday at 171 homer-less PAs and counting, resulting in a .616 OPS that is more than 250 points below what had been his career mark of .868 heading into 2026. Inexplicably, the Padres are alone in first place in the NL West without his help, albeit with a year-to-date run differential of +1 (and a 6-1 record against the Rockies) that suggests they're going to need much more out of Tatis moving forward.
San Francisco Giants: RHP Adrian Houser
Had we done this one week ago, it would have been a tough call between Rafael Devers and Willy Adames. But the former has homered in three of his last six games, while the latter has had four multi-hit performances in his last five games. We'll see if it lasts for either one, but their collective breakout may have already begun.
Houser, on the other hand, has one win, one quality start, a 5.79 ERA, a 5.64 FIP and a 4.9 K/9 to show for his first eight turns through the Giants rotation. A franchise known for its even-year magic perhaps should have known better here. Houser had a bWAR between negative-0.5 and negative-0.9 in each of 2020, 2022 and 2024, and he is at a negative-0.8 right now.
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.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
