So far in 2026, MLB, its most notable superstars, and perennial contenders have, in many ways, seen a reversal of fortunes compared with this time last year.
Fairweather fans, stats crunchers, and fantasy draft enthusiasts are probably all scratching their heads with the midsummer classic now days away, and the first half of the season officially in the books.
HOF Bound? 2026 Doesn’t Indicate This At All!
The bewilderment is projected from a sense of how, just how, can some of the most prominent players in the sport, those with a pathway to Cooperstown appearing minted and paved in previous years, be unable to break free from a downward spiral?
Take, for example, the 2025 ALCS rematch at T-Mobile Park this past weekend between the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays. The starting pitching was commendable from both sides in game one, but the offense offered zero moments of intrigue.
MLB Pitchers Having Their Way With Hitters in 2026
Blue Jays ace and 2026 American League All-Star Dylan Cease easily mowed down a lineup that has gone from third in MLB in home runs for all of 2025 to 12th. Most notably, catcher Cal Raleigh, a player whose name was interchangeably mentioned as AL MVP alongside Aaron Judge after hitting an unprecedented 60 home runs as a one-man, switch-hitting wrecking ball who instilled fear in every opposing pitcher.
Whether it’s the rollout of the ABS system, nursing a lingering injury, or the fact that pitchers have made adjustments while maybe some perennial All-Star hitters have neglected to do so. Whatever the direct cause might be, it is now painfully obvious that some of the biggest and most recognizable names in the sport have, in effect, fallen off the map in the most impactful of statistical categories.
For hitters, the modern metric for measuring a player’s ability to flat out mash. Is OPS. Without home runs, RBI, and a general ability to hit the ball (really) hard, a hitter is not likely to be up around the leaders, or say the league’s top ten, in that crucial stat. In terms of .OPS, the list of players who are annually up and around that list, is now, in many cases, nowhere to be found. As mentioned, Raleigh is sitting at an abysmal .573, just over half the production output he showed last year (.948).
Blue Jays’ Guerrero Jr., & Others Simply Not What They Were
Blue Jays slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr’s struggles have been widely debated, and questions are now being raised to address whether he will ever transform into the power-hitting prodigy that he has shown glimpses of in the regular seasons past, as well as with his magical performance in the 2025 route to the World Series for Toronto.
In their prime years, when production was expected flat out from these middle-of-the-lineup power hitters, they have stumbled out of the gate and merely jogged up until now. The names are honestly a cast of players who one might have imagined vying for a starting spot in this, or any year’s, All-Star game.
Tatis, Machado, Merrill, and Bogaerts, the middle of the Padres lineup, have all underperformed. The lone exception is Machado’s 18 home runs; the power numbers reflect more of a trio of hitters who might round out the bottom three of a non-contending team. Instead, San Diego, through the efforts of stellar pitching all around, has been able to hang around the third and final NL Wild Card spot.
