The Most Scrutinized Player on Every MLB Roster
Whether it's a slumping superstar, a top prospect who has yet to deliver the goods or a guy who simply welcomes criticism with his play/demeanor, some Major League Baseball players get scrutinized way more than others.
Ahead, we've identified each team's biggest lightning rod for close examination and criticism thus far in the 2026 campaign.
For the most part, "most scrutinized" is synonymous with "most disappointing." However, that won't always be the case. (See: Tarik Skubal and Mickey Moniak.)
Statistics are current through the start of play on Tuesday.
AL Central | AL East | AL West | NL Central | NL East | NL West
AL East
1 of 6
Baltimore Orioles: 2B Jackson Holliday
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 draft and the unanimous No. 1 overall prospect heading into 2024...hasn't even remotely lived up to that hype yet. Holliday is still just 22 years old and missed the first 48 games of this season while recovering from a broken hamate bone, so we're not exactly close to throwing in the towel yet. All the same, we're forever waiting for this promised star's proverbial light bulb to come on and stay on.
Boston Red Sox: 2B Marcelo Mayer
See: Holliday, Jackson. Mayer wasn't quite the No. 1 overall pick, but he went fourth overall in 2021 and then was rated as a top 15 overall prospect by each of Baseball America and the MLB.com pipeline heading into each of 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. It feels like we've been waiting on him to become a major contributor for a long time, and Boston was clearly banking on him becoming a key factor in this year's infield. But while he's far from the only disappointment on this team, his replacement-level play hasn't helped matters.
New York Yankees: 2B Jazz Chisholm Jr.
We've only got three second basemen on this entire list, but they just so happened to land back-to-back-to-back at the beginning.
Between his bling, his bravado and his appearance on the cover of MLB The Show 23, Chisholm has been pretty heavily scrutinized for years. Though, with a combined 55 home runs and 71 stolen bases over the past two seasons combined, even his biggest haters couldn't say much in recent years.
But now that he's nearing the midpoint of what has been the least productive season of his career, questions are beginning to arise about what might be the most noteworthy impending free agent not named Tarik Skubal. Chisholm is going to be under quite the microscope for the next few months.
Tampa Bay Rays: CF Cedric Mullins
During an offseason in which they either traded away (Jake Mangum, Josh Lowe and Kameron Misner) or non-tendered (Christopher Morel) four of the five team leaders in outfield appearances in 2025, the Rays made Mullins their fourth-highest salaried player to be a veteran leader in center. But it wasn't until Sunday—in the 68th game of the season—that Mullins got his batting average north of .200 or his OPS north of .600 for the first time. Will he actually help keep them in the mix for the AL's No. 1 seed?
Toronto Blue Jays: 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
With an "honorable" mention to Jeff Hoffman, who makes Blue Jays fans sweat bullets any time he's called upon in a close game, when is Toronto's $500M man going to get his act together? Guerrero is at least batting .280, but he has just three home runs and uncharacteristically pedestrian hard-hit and barrel rates. He does have a tendency to struggle a bit in May before catching fire for June-August, but we're more than halfway through June and seeing no signs of that yet.
AL Central
2 of 6
Chicago White Sox: OF/DH Andrew Benintendi
Signing Benintendi to a five-year, $75M deal during the 2022-23 offseason was unofficially the beginning of the end for the White Sox; the one bad contract that they couldn't move as they plunged through a three-year rebuild. And even though they're contending again, he's still holding them back, making $15M annually to be a replacement-level player.
Cleveland Guardians: OF Steven Kwan
At this point in the 2024 campaign, Kwan was flirting with a .400 batting average. Last year, he was batting north of .300 into late June. However, he simply is not generating hits (or stealing bases) at anywhere near his usual rate. And with José Ramírez (broken hamate) out of commission for the foreseeable future, the Guardians desperately need their two-time All-Star to start pulling his weight again.
Detroit Tigers: LHP Tarik Skubal
Most of the players on this list are under a great deal of scrutiny because they've been colossal disappointments.
That couldn't be further from the case with Skubal, who returned to action on Saturday and is working on a fourth consecutive season with a sub-3.00 ERA.
How will the two-time Cy Young winner's arm hold up/bounce back after that "Skubal Scope" surgery that left him on the shelf for about six weeks?
Will he get traded? Will he make a 2008 CC Sabathia-like impact for two months in a new home if he does get dealt? And where (and for how much) is he going to sign this offseason?
The Skubal narratives will be inescapable until further notice. Here's hoping he continues to put on an entertaining show.
Kansas City Royals: LHP Cole Ragans
When the Royals went directly from a 106-loss mess in 2023 to an 86-win postseason team in 2024, Ragans was a massive part of that transformation, darn near leading the majors in strikeouts en route to 21 quality starts. Since then, though, he has made 21 total starts with a 4.73 ERA, as the Royals are back on pace for nearly 100 losses. Can he get healthy and re-emerge as an ace worth building around? Or was his latest injury setback the final straw before a substantial fire sale?
Minnesota Twins: 3B Royce Lewis
For his first two partial seasons in the majors, Lewis was a "when he's healthy" superstar in the making. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 draft had a .913 OPS in 70 games played between the 2022 and 2023 campaigns, not counting his 2023 postseason heroics. But his latest stint at Triple-A St. Paul had nothing to do with injury. He got demoted with a .539 OPS. Was it the wake up call he needed, though? Lewis hit 10 home runs in those 15 games in the minors, and then three more within his first seven games back with the Twins. Perhaps there's still a prayer of making the playoffs if he stays red hot.
AL West
3 of 6
Athletics: OF Lawrence Butler
Over the final three months of the 2024 campaign, Butler had 20 home runs and 14 stolen bases, posting a .943 OPS as the A's started to emerge from their rebuild.
He wasn't nearly as efficient last year, but he still racked up a respectable 21 home runs and 22 stolen bases over the course of the full season.
This year, he has been one of the least productive regulars in all of baseball, relegated to the role of fourth outfielder since Henry Bolte's promotion in mid-May.
But the A's already gave Butler a seven-year, $65.5M extension, so they're continually trying to get him going, especially with Brent Rooker also struggling and currently injured.
Houston Astros: RHP Tatsuya Imai
Everyone thought Houston hit the jackpot when it landed Imai for $18M with player options for two additional seasons. But with a 6.43 ERA nine starts into his MLB career, he has become almost a microcosm of everything that has gone wrong for the Astros—injured, ineffective and expensive. He did toss the first six innings of that no-hitter against the Rangers last month, but even that outing with four walks and two strikeouts left something to be desired.
Los Angeles Angels: RHP Grayson Rodriguez
For four years of G-Rod, the Angels gave up their final year of team control on Taylor Ward. It was a logical move for a rebuilding team...aside from Rodriguez's injury history and the whole "didn't insist upon a pre-trade physical to get the deal done" factor. And after missing the first seven weeks with shoulder inflammation, Rodriguez left his most recent start in the third inning with lower back tightness and an 8.06 ERA for the year. Will he ever approach his pre-injury ceiling? Or did the Orioles knowingly unload a lemon?
Seattle Mariners: C Cal Raleigh
Raleigh slugged .589 en route to 60 home runs last season. A much different version of the Big Dumper had a .560 OPS in 41 games played prior to landing on the IL for more than a month with an oblique strain. He homered in five of his first 11 ABs at Triple-A Tacoma, though, so Mariners fans sure are hoping that business is about to pick up again with his return to the lineup on Tuesday.
Texas Rangers: SS Corey Seager
Has it just been a rough couple of months or is this 32-year-old shortstop simply over the hill? With 5.5 years left on his $325M deal, the Rangers sure are hoping for the former. For what it's worth, Seager has historically been a considerably better hitter after Memorial Day than before it, and his barrel rate remains as excellent as ever. However, he is whiffing like never before and has an OPS (.657) that looks like a typo compared to what had been an .871 mark over the previous 11 seasons. Something to keep an eye on for sure.
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NL East
4 of 6
Atlanta Braves: RHP Spencer Strider
Ha-Seong Kim has been a $20M travesty at shortstop, but is Strider simply cooked?
Atlanta signed him to a six-year, $75M extension the year after he nearly won NL Rookie of the Year and the year before he won 20 games, struck out an MLB-best 281 batters and flirted with winning NL Cy Young. On that back-loaded deal, he made just $1M for that 2023 campaign, which was such an ROI blessing for a 104-win team.
Since then, though?
Thanks to Tommy John surgery two starts into the 2024 season and a pair of oblique/elbow injuries this season, Strider has made just 33 starts over the past 2.5 seasons with a 4.78 ERA and 4.75 FIP. His velocity is down about 3 MPH from where it sat in 2022, and the slider that used to be his wipeout pitch with a whiff rate north of 50 percent is nowhere near as lethal.
Now that he's making $20M this season followed by a pair of $22M campaigns, Strider is much more of a hurdle that the Braves have had to overcome than a reason they're sitting atop the division.
Miami Marlins: RF Owen Caissie
Since trading away Giancarlo Stanton during the 2017-18 offseason, Miami has ranked bottom eight in the majors in home runs in each season. With hopes of addressing that, the Marlins shipped Edward Cabrera to the Cubs for Caissie and a pair of Single-A prospects, immediately handing the right field reins to the rookie. But rather than bolstering the offense, Caissie has a negative WAR and by far the highest strikeout rate (a Joey Gallo-like 40.9 percent) among MLB players with at least 150 plate appearances.
New York Mets: 3B Bo Bichette
After posting a .531 OPS through his first 46 games with the Mets, Bichette has been much, much better. He has an .862 OPS over his last 25 games, operating at 162-game paces of 188 hits, 39 home runs and 143 RBI. And yet, for what could be a one-year, $47M stint if he opts out this offseason, Bichette has given the last-place Mets a negative bWAR. Plenty of not-cheap things have gone awry for this team, but there's no denying that Bichette takes the cake.
Philadelphia Phillies: RHP Andrew Painter
No shortage of options here, as the Phillies are somehow keeping their heads above water with what has been a three-man offense and a three-man rotation. But Painter was the horse to which they hitched their wagon; the untouchable prospect who was going to be an ace just as soon as he got healthy; maybe the biggest reason they were OK with letting Ranger Suárez walk in free agency. But Painter has a 6.43 ERA, and the Phillies have lost 10 of the last 11 times he pitched.
Washington Nationals: RF Dylan Crews
Because Washington has the highest-scoring offense this season, no one is exactly singling out Crews as the likeliest reason the Nationals will miss the playoffs. But while the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft (Paul Skenes) has become a god, this No. 2 overall pick is still struggling to establish that he belongs in the majors at all with a .627 OPS 139 games into his big league career. Will he eventually break through? (He did deliver a big three-run home run in Monday's win over Kansas City.)
NL Central
5 of 6
Chicago Cubs: SS Dansby Swanson
It has been a brutal year for well-compensated shortstops in either their age-32 or age-33 season. From Trea Turner, Javier Báez and Mookie Betts to Corey Seager, Trevor Story and Xander Bogaerts, there sure are a bunch of veterans making at least $20M for a sub-.700 OPS.
Swanson's fall from grace, though, might be the most troubling of them all.
He's still an excellent defensive shortstop and a plus baserunner when he does get hits. But word has clearly gotten out that Swanson can't hit anything other than fastballs this season.
Per Baseball Savant, he is batting .067 against curveballs, .051 against sliders and .040 against changeups. And because of that, he is both seeing fastballs at the lowest rate of his career and slugging (.308) as haplessly as ever.
Cincinnati Reds: DH/3B Eugenio Suárez
Over the previous eight seasons, Suárez ranked sixth in the majors with 261 home runs, culminating in last year's 49-dinger spectacular. So Cincinnati brought him back after four years away, hoping he would beef up a lineup in which no one had more than 22 home runs in 2025. Instead, he has his worst OPS (.682) in more than a decade, even including Monday's pair of homers in a 12-0 rout of the Mets. He might be on the trade block for a second consecutive summer, but in a much less coveted role this time around.
Milwaukee Brewers: RHP Brandon Sproat
When the Brewers gave up their final year of Freddy Peralta for Sproat and Jett Williams, it was quite clearly a long-term decision to gain a pair of top prospects that they'll have into the 2030s. But they're still trying to win a World Series this year, and having Sproat's 5.70 ERA in the middle of the starting rotation isn't much helping. (He did have a quality start last week in Las Vegas, though. No one else who pitched in the six-game stretch in that launching pad can make that claim.)
Pittsburgh Pirates: DH Marcell Ozuna
At what point does Pittsburgh just give up the ghost here and designate Ozuna for assignment? Not only is he slugging below .300 for the year, but lately, they haven't even been using him 30 percent of the time. Ozuna has played in just five of the Pirates' last 17 games—and was replaced by a pinch hitter in three of those five appearances. Even with both Konnor Griffin and Oneil Cruz on the IL, they are avoiding his .574 OPS like the plague.
St. Louis Cardinals: SS Masyn Winn
During his first full season in the majors (2024), Winn ranked top 20 among position players in bWAR. A good chunk of that value came from his glove, but he had 15 home runs and 52 extra-base hits. This year, though, he's not hitting much of anything, on pace for around five and 31, respectively. He's not in imminent danger of getting optioned back to the minors like Victor Scott II and Nolan Gorman recently were, but the Cardinals could really use more offense than they've been getting from their shortstop if they're going to stay in playoff position.
NL West
6 of 6
Arizona Diamondbacks: RHP Zac Gallen
A month ago, the choice here would have been Ketel Marte. But while the three-time All-Star second baseman has turned things around in a big way, Gallen has gone from bad in 2025 to worse in 2026. He entered the year averaging 7.5 hits allowed and 9.5 strikeouts per nine innings pitched. The former rate has ballooned to 11.1 while the latter has plummeted to 5.9. His velocity has been fine, but the knuckle curve that used to be his go-to out pitch simply isn't fooling anyone anymore.
Colorado Rockies: RF Mickey Moniak
Was his early breakout for real? Through his first 27 games of this season, Moniak had a 1.098 OPS, on pace for 66 home runs and 126 RBI. However, most of his damage came in the hitter friendly confines of Coors Field, and through his first six seasons (410 games) in the big leagues, he had been worth 0.3 bWAR. Now he's working his way back from an ankle injury while 29 other teams try to decide what he's worth at the trade deadline.
Los Angeles Dodgers: C Dalton Rushing
Mookie Betts has been struggling all season long and international superstar unicorn Shohei Ohtani is forever under a microscope. But Rushing might be the most scrutinized player in the entire sport these days for his villainous ways. Whether it's his dirty slides or his profane commentary about opposing players, it's almost as if Rushing is going out of his way to become the singular figure that everyone rooting against the Dodgers wants to see fail.
San Diego Padres: 3B Manny Machado
"Just say I suck."
Per Kevin Acee of the San Diego Tribune, that's what Manny Machado had to say last week about his early struggles. This coming a few days after his viral rant about there being "too many stats" and advanced analytics in the game today.
Machado actually is on pace for around 30 home runs, per usual. But after 14 consecutive seasons with a batting average north of .255, he is mired down at .177, making weak contact at the worst rate (5.6 percent) of his career.
The good news is he's finally starting to hit sinkers again. After starting out the year 5-for-43 against the pitch that he has feasted on throughout his career, he has three hits (including a home run) in his last 11 ABs that ended on a sinker. And three of the eight outs traveled at least 367 feet.
Maybe the worm is turning just in time to keep the Padres from dropping out of the playoff picture. But thus far, it has been probably the worst 71-game stretch of Machado's career.
San Francisco Giants: DH/1B Rafael Devers
Trading for Devers last June was supposed to be what pushed the then 41-31 Giants over the top as the team to beat—not only in 2025, but for years to come.
Instead, things have gone so far awry that on the one-year anniversary of that transaction, ESPN's Buster Olney reported that the Giants are open to offers on their highest-paid players, including (and perhaps foremost among them) Devers.
What was a .905 OPS at the time of the trade became an .807 OPS for the rest of that season before dropping to a .706 mark this year.
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