MLB's Biggest Breakouts of 2026, Ranked

The best stories in sports are usually the ones that no one saw coming, such as Major League Baseball's biggest breakout players of the 2026 campaign.

Before we dive in, a few points of clarification on what does and does not qualify as a breakout:

• "Bounce-Back Players" and "Breakout Players" are two completely separate things. For instance, Yordan Alvarez had a brutal 2025 campaign and Eduardo Rodríguez was barely a replacement-level pitcher over the past two seasons. They've been fantastic this year, but they had previously established themselves as quality players with roughly 20 WAR apiece heading into this season. Neither will appear on this ranking.
• Rookie of the Year candidates who were already top prospects coming into this season also do not qualify as breakouts. Kevin McGonigle, JJ Wetherholt and Nolan McLean were consensus top 10 prospects in the preseason. Carson Benge, Payton Tolle, Sal Stewart and Chase DeLauter weren't terribly far behind them. And both Munetaka Murakami and Kazuma Okamoto were paid handsomely to come over from Japan. They didn't break out. They arrived.
• However, we are including rookies like Tristan Peters and Foster Griffin who have played major roles out of seemingly nowhere. So, it's not a blanket "no rookies" rule, but more of a "no rookies who we expected to be good" rule.

Without further ado, we give you this season's top 25 breakout players.

Nos. 25-21

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25. Ben Brown, RHP, Chicago Cubs

Unfortunately, we open this list with back-to-back-to-back breakout players who are currently broken. Brown has been out since late June with a neck injury, but he was Chicago's most valuable pitcher when he hit the shelf, logging 68.0 innings with a 1.85 ERA as their swing man—after posting a 5.92 ERA in the same role last year.

24. Justin Wrobleski, LHP, Los Angeles Dodgers

Wrobleski landed on the IL a couple weeks ago with a forearm strain, but what would the Dodgers have done without this surprise All-Star while Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani weren't pitching? He had a 4.81 ERA over the past two seasons as an occasional starter/bulk reliever, but he has logged the second-most innings pitched among Dodgers this season with a 3.56 ERA.

23. Curtis Mead, 3B, Boston Red Sox / Washington Nationals

Mead was a top prospect once upon a time, but it took several years for him to look the part. He broke out in a huge way for the Nationals this year, with 17 home runs and an .852 OPS in 88 games played. Comparatively, he had five home runs and a .617 OPS in 152 games played over the previous three seasons. It's really too bad, though, that he suffered a fractured wrist in his second plate appearance after Boston traded for him.

22. Paul Blackburn, RHP and Brent Headrick, LHP, New York Yankees

Over the previous nine seasons, Blackburn had a 4.97 ERA, mostly as a starting pitcher. And in a three-season career that encompassed just 32 appearances, Headrick had a 4.70 ERA. So, color us surprised that they have mutually morphed into one of the best one-two punches in baseball's middle relief corps, each with a sub-2.00 ERA for the year. In fact, Blackburn has a 0.61 ERA across his last 32 appearances and is probably going to be New York's primary eighth-inning arm in the postseason.

21. Troy Melton, RHP, Detroit Tigers

Melton flashed some real potential over the final 10 weeks of last season, making 16 appearances (four starts) with a 2.76 ERA. He even made four appearances in the postseason. It's still a surprise, though, that he has blossomed into arguably the ace of this staff with a 1.86 ERA in 16 starts. If he hadn't missed the first two months, he might be in the mix for AL Cy Young—and maybe the Tigers wouldn't have struggled as badly as they did early on.

Nos. 20-16

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TJ Rumfield

20. Bryan Baker, RHP, Tampa Bay Rays

Baker had a respectable four-year run with the Orioles from 2022-25, making 173 appearances with a 3.73 ERA. He even saved a few games for the O's. Still, who could have guessed in the preseason that Baker would be MLB's leader in saves, with 39 of them to go along with his 1.50 ERA? He is the first of three surprisingly dominant closers on this list.

19. TJ Rumfield, 1B, Colorado Rockies

Rumfield is probably going to finish fourth or fifth in the NL Rookie of the Year vote, but he very much was not on the tier of a Kevin McGonigle or JJ Wetherholt as far as preseason rookie-year expectations went. In fact, Steamer had him projected for 78 games played and a minus-0.1 WAR. Yet, he might mess around and lead the NL in on-base percentage, presently triple-slashing .289/.380/.437, cementing himself as Colorado's everyday first baseman.

18. Liam Hicks, C, Tampa Bay Rays / Miami Marlins

In nearly 1,100 plate appearances in the minors from 2021-24, Hicks hit a grand total of 13 home runs. He also had a mediocre .693 OPS while playing in 119 games for the Marlins last season. But he blew up this year with 14 home runs in 409 trips to the plate with Miami, before getting traded to Tampa Bay and putting together a .945 OPS since the deadline.

17. Jacob Latz, LHP, Texas Rangers

Surprise closer No. 2 on the list, Latz's first appearance of the season was actually as a starter. With Jacob deGrom a late scratch due to a stiff neck, Latz went four hitless innings against the Phillies on March 28. About a month later, he recorded the second save of his career and has yet to look back. The 2026 All-Star has gone 27-for-29 on save chances since stepping into the role, and has a 1.65 ERA for the year.

16. Max Meyer, RHP, Miami Marlins

Meyer was the No. 3 overall pick in 2020 and a staple in "preseason top 100 prospects" rankings over the course of the subsequent four springs. But injuries limited his innings and his production, entering 2026 with a 5.29 ERA in 25 career starts in the majors. Though injuries have unfortunately derailed things for Meyer once again, he had a 2.68 ERA in 20 starts and was named an All-Star before landing back on the IL again.

Nos. 15-11

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Louis Varland

15. Otto Lopez, SS, Miami Marlins

Save for one Cy Young favorite flamethrower in the top five, Lopez has the highest bWAR (5.4) among players on this list, ranking top 10 among all position players. He previously had been a quality defender, but he has significantly upped his game at the plate. Lopez's OPS is more than 100 points higher than it had been between 2024-25, and he's likely to finish top 10 in the majors in both batting average (.305) and stolen bases (29).

14. Foster Griffin, LHP, Cleveland Guardians / Washington Nationals

Griffin was a first-round pick in 2014, but he logged just 8.0 innings pitched in the majors over the next eight seasons before taking his talents to Japan. In three years with the Yomiuri Giants, he had a 2.57 ERA, convincing the Nationals to take a flyer on bringing him back to the States. He became arguably the ace of the staff, making 22 starts with a 3.06 ERA and earning a spot on the All-Star roster before getting traded to Cleveland.

13. Louis Varland, RHP, Toronto Blue Jays

In Baker, Latz and Varland, what a year it has been for breakout closers in the American League. Prior to this season, Varland had never saved a game in the majors or the minors, and he only got the job because Jeff Hoffman couldn't save anything through the first three weeks. He has been nearly perfect, though, going 31-for-32 in save chances with a minuscule 1.12 ERA.

12. Jac Caglianone, RF, Kansas City Royals

It's tough to say where Cags should slot on this list. He was a disaster in the majors last season, his .157 batting average good for dead last among players who made at least 200 plate appearances. However, he was the No. 6 overall pick in 2024, subsequently smashing his way through the minors. So, even though he has broken through in a huge way with 23 home runs and an .832 OPS, it isn't terribly surprising.

11. Chase Burns, RHP, Cincinnati Reds

See: Caglianone, Jac. Got to have him somewhere on this list, but it'd feel weird to call it a top-10 breakout story. Burns went No. 2 overall in 2024, mowing through the minors and making his MLB debut less than 12 months later. He had a 5.24 ERA through his first eight starts before missing five weeks with an elbow injury and returning as a reliever for the home stretch. But like Caglianone, we expected big things for his sophomore season. He has delivered in a huge way, likely to finish top five in the NL Cy Young vote.

Nos. 10-6

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Cade Cavalli

10. Sean Burke, RHP, Chicago White Sox

Burke was Chicago's Opening Day starter in 2025, and he did go six scoreless innings in that game. It was otherwise an uninspiring season, though, giving up six earned runs in his next outing and never again getting his ERA back below 4.00. Fast-forward to 2026 and he has had one of the most valuable four-seam fastballs in the business and a K/BB ratio 50 percent better than last year. He has been Chicago's most valuable pitcher throughout this improbable turnaround.

9. Kyle Harrison, LHP, Milwaukee Brewers

In three seasons with the Giants, Harrison was just OK. An occasional gem here and there, but a 4.48 ERA and 8.8 K/9 overall as a marginally better-than-replacement-level pitcher. The Brewers have managed to unlock his potential, though, boasting a 2.79 ERA and 11.1 K/9 through 21 starts. He doesn't often pitch deep into games, but he has given them at least five solid innings in two out of every three times he takes the mound.

8. Cade Cavalli, RHP, Washington Nationals

Cavalli's path to this breakout season was marred by injury. He made one appearance in the big leagues in 2022 before disappearing for nearly three years, injuring his shoulder in that game and undergoing Tommy John surgery the following spring. He finally made it back for 10 starts last season with a 4.25 ERA, striking out 18.3 percent of batters faced. But now he's a star on the rise with marks of 3.12 ERA and 27.7 percent strikeout rate.

7. Ezequiel Durán, UTIL, Texas Rangers

Over the previous two seasons, Durán played in 182 games for the Rangers, appearing at least once at every position except for catcher. But he did so with a .587 OPS, three home runs and a glove that was versatile, but unremarkable. He was both a replacement player and a replacement-level player. This year, however, he has a .780 OPS, 15 home runs and an extremely strong case to win the American League's Utility Gold Glove.

6. Peter Lambert, RHP, Houston Astros

Like Foster Griffin, Lambert was pitching in Japan a year ago. But at least Griffin was doing it well. Lambert—who had a 6.28 ERA in four seasons with the Rockies—barely maintained a 4.00 ERA overseas and had to take a minor league deal to get another shot at the majors. As the Astros were riddled with pitching injuries early in the year, though, Lambert made the most of his opportunity with a 3.11 ERA across his first 21 starts, pitching at least into the fifth inning of each one.

5. Jacob Misiorowski, RHP, Milwaukee Brewers

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You might be wondering: How can a guy who was already an All-Star last year be one of the top five breakouts of this season?

Well, 2025 Jacob Misiorowski was more of a viral sensation than a superstar. He was a sideshow as opposed to the main event.

He threw his four-seamer approximately one million miles per hour. However, he walked too many batters (4.2 BB/9) and his breaking balls were a little too hittable. The fact that he threw his slider in the mid-90s was mind-blowing, but opponents hit nearly .300 against it, resulting in a 4.36 ERA and a bWAR of just 0.5.

He also simply wasn't very durable, pitching more than five innings in just three of his 15 appearances.

This year, though, The Miz has become not just a bona fide ace—with 17 quality starts and three or fewer earned runs allowed in each of his 25 outings—but one of the most dominant forces on the mound in recent memory.

His walk rate (2.1 BB/9) is half of what it was as a rookie, and both his slider and curveball have gone from "mediocre pitches" to "devastating offerings." He's leading the majors in both ERA (1.73) and strikeouts (222). He is two wins (14) behind the MLB leaders in that third and final Triple Crown category.

He received zero Cy Young votes and just two vote points for NL ROY last year. But barring a September collapse, he's probably going to win the Cy Young unanimously and certainly should finish top-five in the NL MVP vote.

4. Miguel Vargas, 3B, Chicago White Sox

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It's hard to believe this is the same Miguel Vargas that the White Sox acquired from the Dodgers at the 2024 trade deadline.

After a woeful final two months of that campaign, he entered 2025 as a career .175/.273/.312 hitter. On just about any other team, he would have been out of a job. But with the rebuilding White Sox, he remained Plan A at the hot corner and started to turn things around last year.

It wasn't until this season, though, that he really broke out.

Vargas is leading the American League with 92 runs scored. He also has 29 home runs, 76 RBI and 13 stolen bases, all of which are already career highs by a wide margin.

In addition to those sky-rocketing counting stats, his bat speed has increased substantially.

He was well below the league average at 70.6 mph last season, and even slower in 2024 at 69.8 mph. But he is up to 73.9 mph this year, resulting in harder-hit balls and one of the highest expected slugging percentages (.519) in the majors.

On top of that, not only did Vargas make the roster for the All-Star Game, but he was also the only player to homer in that game. That's how you punctuate a breakout year.

3. Jake Bauers, 1B/OF, Milwaukee Brewers

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For as drastically as Jacob Misiorowski has improved since last season, he isn't even the biggest breakout among Brewers named Jacob/Jakob.

Through Jake Bauers' first six seasons in the big leagues, he was worth a cumulative minus-1.2 bWAR.

The 2025 season ended up being his best of those years, but even that wasn't going to be the case until he caught fire down the stretch with a 1.072 OPS from Sept. 5 onward. Prior to that, he was once again a sub-replacement-level player, despite the fact that Milwaukee almost exclusively deployed his left-handed bat against right-handed pitching.

This year has been a completely different story.

If there were MVP awards for spring training, Bauers might have won it, batting .462/.571/1.154 with seven home runs. And then with both Jackson Chourio and Andrew Vaughn missing all of April on the IL, Bauers was given every opportunity to prove he could be more than just a platoon guy.

He rose to the challenge and then some, becoming Milwaukee's best hitter with 23 home runs and an .885 OPS. Rather than avoiding southpaws, he has owned them, slugging .541 in 132 plate appearances against lefties—up from a .333 mark in his career prior to 2026.

2. Jordan Walker, OF, St. Louis Cardinals

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We just noted Jake Bauers entered this season with a minus-1.2 career bWAR before finally breaking through.

Well, Jordan Walker was at a minus-2.6 bWAR for his career after a downright horrific 2025 campaign. In fact, his minus-1.7 mark for last season put him in a tie with LaMonte Wade Jr. for worst among all position players.

But Walker arrived in 2023 with so much promise, a consensus top five prospect in all of baseball after he roped through Double-A in 2022 with a .306 batting average, 19 home runs and 22 stolen bases.

That potential superstar was nowhere to be found in 2024 or 2025, though. Walker had a .595 OPS in 162 games played.

Instead of hitting like the next Aaron Judge, he was hitting like the next Ke'Bryan Hayes, but without the elite glovework.

So, he went back to the drawing board and completely changed his stance at the dish.

Per Statcast, Walker's stance angle in 2023 and 2024 was more than 40 degrees open. Not exactly old school Tony Batista staring the pitcher square in the face, but it was the sixth-most open stance in the majors during those two seasons.

Not that there's anything inherently wrong with that. Rafael Devers has the widest-open stance in baseball these days, and he's one heck of a hitter.

It wasn't working for Walker, though, so now he's down to one degree open and has been raking to the tune of an .839 OPS and 27 home runs.

He also has 18 stolen bases and is probably going to get to 30 HR and 20 SB before we reach the finish line. If he does, he'll be the first Cardinal to do so since Fernando Tatis Sr. in 1999.

1. Tristan Peters, OF, Chicago White Sox

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Not only has Tristan Peters been an incredible breakout story, but "Bananas Bonds" is also an all-timer of a baseball nickname.

The Bananas part is, of course, an homage to his time with the Savannah Bananas during the summer of 2021—before they became the barnstorming exhibition-game sensation they are today.

But the Bonds part is a testament to the overnight celebrity of slugging that he has become.

Peters was originally drafted by the Brewers in the seventh round in 2021. He was later traded to the Giants for Trevor Rosenthal; San Francisco subsequently traded him to the Rays for Brett Wisely. (Curiously enough, Wisely is also a Savannah Bananas alum.)

After three years in the Rays' farm system, he appeared in four big league games last summer, going 0-for-12 with seven strikeouts. They designated him for assignment in December and ended up trading him to the White Sox for future considerations.

To put it gently, Peters wasn't the preseason favorite for AL Rookie of the Year.

He narrowly made the cut for the Opening Day roster, and perhaps only because Brooks Baldwin suffered what turned out to be a season-ending elbow injury during spring training. But Peters quickly became a regular in the lineup, albeit with a .629 OPS and no home runs through the team's first 45 games.

Since May 17, though, he has triple-slashed .289/.355/.526 with a dozen home runs.

He hit for the cycle on July 10. He recently homered in five consecutive games. And if he plays a key role in getting the White Sox to the World Series, we'll go Bananas.