Only four days remain in the 2025 MLB regular season and still there is so much to be decided. Postseason battles, awards races, and much more. What we don’t have to wait to decide are our superlatives for the season. Here, via our CBS Sports panel of MLB experts, are 10 superlatives for the year that was. Some serious, some whimsical. Come with us, won’t you? <\/p>\n
Most surprising team: Brewers<\/a> <\/p>\n I realize the Brewers won the NL Central last season, but not many predicted them to repeat given the free-agent loss of Willy Adames<\/a>, one of their best players from a season ago, all the churn in the pitching staff, and the way the Cubs<\/a> looked on paper. Still and yet, the Brewers not only repeated as division champs but also this season have been easily the best team in all of baseball — in terms of wins and losses and run differential. Of course, the season of their story will be told on how they fare in October, but I think it’s fair to say no one who’s not a Brewers rooter expected Milwaukee to be this great in 2025. — Dayn Perry \u00a0 <\/p>\n Most disappointing team: Braves<\/a> <\/p>\n This one’s a competitive category. You could argue for the Orioles<\/a>, Braves, Rangers<\/a>, Twins<\/a>, Rays<\/a>, and Giants<\/a>. Heck, maybe even the Diamondbacks<\/a> based on preseason expectations and the Mets<\/a> should they fail to secure a postseason berth in the final days of the regular season. While the Braves have found a higher level of late and will wind up being merely below-average as opposed to bad, they stand out for me. The expectation was that the bats would get back to something closer to their 2023 levels, Spencer Strider<\/a> would resume being an ace, and they’d enjoy better health than they did in 2024. By and large, none of that happened, and they’ve secured their first losing season since 2017. That’s the biggest shocker of all at the team level this season, in a bad way. — Dayn Perry <\/p>\n You could argue for Cal Raleigh<\/a>, Trevor Rogers<\/a>, Brice Turang<\/a>, and a slew of others. I went back and forth on who to spotlight here before landing on Garcia. This wasn’t a case of a player just getting better results; this was a case of a player improving their processes and being rewarded for it with a five-win season. Garcia improved almost every facet of his game: he upped his walk rate and slashed his strikeout rate; he more than doubled his career home run total while showing more inclination toward pulling the ball; and he even took the extra base more often during the run of play. In the span of six months, Garcia elevated himself from someone who might require a change of scenery to someone who now looks like a key piece of the Royals core. Good on him. — R.J. Anderson <\/p>\n Most disappointing player: Spencer Strider, Braves <\/p>\n Again, there were plenty of candidates to choose from: Sandy Alcantara<\/a>, Walker Buehler<\/a>, Jordan Walker<\/a>, and so on. For me, the most obvious choice was Strider. Before his injury, he was one of my favorite pitchers to watch; appointment viewing, almost. This year, well, not so much. Strider fared worse than I think even a pessimist would have projected. I can only hope that he bounces back next year, but it’s going to require some experimentation on his part this offseason. — R.J. Anderson <\/p>\n Best offseason move: Juan Soto<\/a>, Mets <\/p>\n You could make a pretty good argument for Garrett Crochet<\/a>, who has fit what the Red Sox<\/a> needed so well, and even Cody Bellinger<\/a>, who will get some down ballot MVP votes after the Yankees<\/a> acquired him for basically nothing, but this has to be Soto. He’s having a terrific season<\/a>, maybe his best ever, and there’s no chance the Mets are in wild card position without him. Heck, they’re barely in wild card position with him. I know picking the guy who signed a historic $765 million contract as the best offseason move is not the most exciting or original pick, but it is the correct answer, no? So many players sign big money contracts and fail to deliver. Even after a sluggish start to the season (by Soto’s standards), Soto is everything the Mets expected. — Mike Axisa <\/p>\n Bader has such incredible Phillies vibes that I’m mad I didn’t see it before the deadline. Picked up from the Twins to provide defense and a righty platoon complement for Brandon Marsh<\/a>, Bader has hit his way into everyday center field duty. He took a .325\/.384\/.500 slash line as Phillie into Wednesday’s game, and he still plays excellent defense. His 1.5 WAR with Philadelphia eclipses his full-season total in four of the last five years. Honorable mention goes to Mason Miller<\/a>. Yes, the Padres gave up a ton to get him<\/a>, but he’s allowed two runs in 21 innings and struck out 39 of 75 (52%) of the batters he’s faced with San Diego. — Mike Axisa <\/p>\n We had three four-homer games this season (Kurtz, Kyle Schwarber<\/a>, Eugenio Su\u00e1rez<\/a>) after having three from 2004-24 combined and none from 2018-24. Kurtz’s four-homer game against the Astros on July 25<\/a> stands out because he went 6 for 6 in the game with those four homers and also a double that was thisclose to leaving the yard: <\/p>\n Statcast says that double would have been out in six of the 30 MLB parks, a not insignificant number. So, in one game, Kurtz hit four home runs plus another ball that would have been a homer in 20% of the current ballparks. He also became only the ninth player to score six runs in a game, which is a shockingly exclusive club. Schwarber and Su\u00e1rez had incredible days with their four-homer efforts. Kurtz’s was historic though. What a day for that young man. — Mike Axisa <\/p>\n Most ridiculous walk-off: Phillies vs. Red Sox <\/p>\n There have been 211 walk-offs this season, including 174 walk-off hits and 51 walk-off home runs (including an inside-the-parker<\/a>). There has also been one walk-off catcher interference. One in the last 50 years, that is. On July 21, the Phillies beat the Red Sox when Edmundo Sosa<\/a>‘s check swing — not even a full swing — clipped catcher Carlos Narv\u00e1ez<\/a>‘s glove with the bases loaded. The Phillies had the play reviewed, the catcher interference was detected, and the Phillies won the game. <\/p>\n “To be honest, this just feels exactly like a home run,” Sosa said<\/a> after the game. It was baseball’s first walk-off catcher interference since the Dodgers<\/a> beat the Reds<\/a> on Aug. 1, 1971. — Mike Axisa <\/p>\n Favorite oddity: Oneil Cruz<\/a>‘s stolen bases <\/p>\n In 2024, 6-foot-5\u00a0Elly De La Cruz<\/a>\u00a0became the tallest player in MLB history to lead the majors in stolen bases. We can do better than that this year, because 6-foot-7\u00a0Pirates<\/a> outfielder Oneil Cruz leads the NL with 38 stolen bases. Cruz won’t lead the majors, but he’ll become the tallest player to ever lead his league in stolen bases and it’s the second straight year we’ve seen this happen. Unfortunately, we might be waiting a while for this to happen again. So long as we stick with just the feet-and-inches measurements without fractions, Cruz is tied for the tallest MLB player along with Aaron Judge<\/a> and James Wood<\/a>. Still, it was a good two-year run on this front. — Matt Snyder <\/p>\n Stupidest storyline: Torpedo bats <\/p>\n We knocked this one out awfully early in 2025. Almost immediately, in fact. Remember back on the first weekend of the season, the Yankees swept the Brewers and outscored them 36-14 in doing so. It was only a three-game series, so the Bronx Bombers averaged 12 runs a game, topping out at 20 on Saturday, March 29. Along the way, it was “discovered” that a few Yankees players were using perfectly-legal-yet-odd-looking bats that have been dubbed “torpedo” bats. It was a perfect storm. It was the polarizing Yankees and they were scoring a ton of runs using bats that looked weird but also had a cool-sounding name.\u00a0 <\/p>\n