As the 2026 MLB season heads into the stretch run, it’s remarkable to behold this year’s landscape of star players and notice how different it looks, mostly because of who’s not present.<\/p>\n
If there are two poster boys for the shift, they’re Cal Raleigh and Paul Skenes. They have gone from ranking second and fourth in fWAR<\/a> in 2025 to 446th and 166th, respectively. It’s as if both took an express elevator to irrelevance.<\/p>\n There are some other notable absences from this year’s class of stars. Aaron Judge,\u00a0Francisco Lindor,\u00a0Trea Turner\u00a0and\u00a0Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez\u00a0have dropped over 100 spots from last year’s WAR ranks. That’s nothing compared to Garrett Crochet, who’s down over 1,000 spots.<\/p>\n But at least with those guys, one can point to age- and injury-related explanations. Raleigh and Skenes are 20-somethings who have been healthy for most of 2026. So what gives? <\/p>\n Let’s take a close look at the two of them (plus a few others) and determine once and for all whether they’re as cooked as they seem.<\/p>\n What Happened to Paul Skenes?<\/p>\n 2025 Stats: 32 GS, 187.2 IP, 136 H (11 HR), 216 K, 42 BB, 1.97 ERA<\/p>\n 2026 Stats: 25 GS, 134.2 IP, 114 H (14 HR), 166 K, 37 BB, 3.88 ERA<\/p>\n In seemingly no time at all, Skenes has gone from an all-time great young pitcher to a guy whose manager, Don Kelly, lifted him after 65 pitches<\/a> in his most recent start because it “gave us the best chance to win.”<\/p>\n Skenes just isn’t throwing the ball like he did as the NL Rookie of the Year in 2024 or as the NL Cy Young Award winner in 2025. He only averaged 95.7 mph on the fastball in the aforementioned game, in which his Pittsburgh Pirates suffered a 2-0 loss to the Miami Marlins. And even before then, the warning signs were there:<\/p>\n If the 24-year-old Skenes is injured, the Bucs either haven’t noticed or are keeping it secret. And without such an easy explanation, all we can do is theorize.<\/p>\n Theory 1: It’s a World Baseball Classic Hangover<\/p>\n Skenes suited up for Mark DeRosa and Team USA for this year’s World Baseball Classic and ended up throwing 8.1 innings of one-run ball.<\/p>\n It’s not a lot of work in the grand scheme of things, but the WBC requires a different intensity than guys are used to in March. And that shows in the velocity on Skenes’ fastball during the WBC compared to his velocity in spring training:<\/p>\n World Baseball Classic: 97.7 mphSpring Training: 96.5 mph<\/p>\n That’s a lot of extra gas, and the only time Skenes came close to it during this season was throwing 97.4 mph in April. It’s been downhill from there.<\/p>\n Theory 2: It’s Mechanical<\/p>\n It’s clich\u00e9 for players to cite mechanical issues as a catch-all explanation for a slump, but Skenes would have a case if he were to do that. <\/p>\n His arm angle has not only gotten higher<\/a> in 2026, but also progressively higher as the year has gone on. And even if that doesn’t explain the velocity loss, it could explain other issues.<\/p>\n Skenes’ four-seamer and sinker have lost some of the arm-side movement they had in 2025, making both pitches flatter. More broadly, the quality of his pitches has actually slipped below average<\/a>.<\/p>\n Verdict: Nothing That Can’t Be Fixed<\/p>\n Again, this is assuming that Skenes isn’t pitching through an injury. If he’s not, his struggles in 2026 shouldn’t be a forever thing. The WBC isn’t every year, and surely someone on the Bucs can help get his mechanics back on track.<\/p>\n What Happened to Cal Raleigh?<\/p>\n 2025 Stats: 159 G, 705 PA, 60 HR, .247 AVG, .359 OBP, .589 SLG<\/p>\n 2026 Stats: 87 G, 367 PA, 12 HR, .161 AVG, .270 OBP, .301 SLG<\/p>\n True, the odds of Raleigh having another 60-homer season were always so low as to be subterranean. Yet one could have at least expected 30 or 40 bombs, much less a batting average somewhere in the vicinity of .200.<\/p>\n Instead, what we have here is one of the great year-to-year declines in MLB history:<\/p>\n The Seattle Mariners haven’t gone as far as benching “Big Dumper,” but Dan Wilson seems close to it. On Opening Day, the 29-year-old was Seattle’s No. 2 hitter. More recently, he’s been seen in the No. 8 spot.<\/p>\n Theory 1: The World Baseball Classic Messed Him Up, Too<\/p>\n The WBC was tough on Raleigh in multiple ways, as there was that weird spat with Randy Arozarena and a benching following a 0-for-9 out of the gate.<\/p>\n The tournament and subsequent preparation may have contributed to Raleigh’s difficult start, though that connection cannot be established conclusively. <\/p>\n Take it from DeRosa, who saw a guy who was trying very hard<\/a> to break out of the slump that eventually landed him on the pine. Or take it from Mariners bench coach Manny Acta, who thinks the oblique injury<\/a> that landed Raleigh on the IL in May had roots in his post-WBC efforts to play catch-up in spring training.<\/p>\n Theory 2: It’s Mechanical\u2026Unless It’s Mental<\/p>\n Since the World Baseball Classic was nearly six months ago, it has arguably lost relevance as an excuse for Raleigh’s struggles. And when it comes down to it, what really matters is that he just can’t hit fastballs:<\/p>\n 2025: .662 SLG, +28 Run Value2026: .244 SLG, -17 Run Value<\/p>\n