{"id":20136,"date":"2025-07-18T23:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T23:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/20136\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T23:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T23:32:09","slug":"who-are-the-10-best-mlb-players-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/20136\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Are The 10 Best MLB Players This Season?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The All-Star break marks the unofficial halfway point of the MLB<\/a> season, so what better time to take stock of the year so far?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 2025 season is full of players who are tearing it up at the plate and on the mound, but there are clear leaders whose performances outpace them all.<\/p>\n

That said, let\u2019s take a look at the 10 best players this season \u2014 both position players and pitchers \u2014 and what has made them stand out among the hundreds and hundreds of others.<\/p>\n

10 Best Players in MLB This Season <\/p>\n

Francisco Lindor’s bat is great, but it’s that plus his glove that makes him special. (Photo by Jamie Squire\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n

Lindor has never won Most Valuable Player, but he has received votes in seven of his 11 seasons in the majors to go along with five All-Star team selections. He\u2019s always in the mix, and deservingly so. Lindor is once again having the kind of season that brought him those accolades, batting .260\/.330\/.457 with 19 first-half home runs, good for a 126 OPS+ that exceeds his career mark. He\u2019s an excellent defensive shortstop, too, and that combination has him eyeing his fourth consecutive season worth at least five wins above replacement.<\/p>\n

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Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez is one of the premier power\/speed players in the game. (Photo by Griffin Quinn\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n

Ram\u00edrez, Lindor\u2019s former teammate in Cleveland, is one of the most underappreciated players in the game. It\u2019s not that people aren\u2019t aware that he’s excellent, it’s that they just might not realize\u00a0how great he is. Ram\u00edrez missed becoming the seventh 40-home-run, 40-stolen-bases player in history by a single long ball in 2024. In 202, he became\u00a0just the 24th player<\/a> to reach 250 homers and 250 steals in MLB history. At .295\/.363\/.506 with 18 dingers and 29 steals this year, Ram\u00edrez is angling to make it 300\/300 sooner than later.<\/p>\n

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Whether Zack Wheeler ever wins a Cy Young or not, he’s one of today’s greats. (Photo by Mitchell Leff\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n

Wheeler has finished second in the National League Cy Young race twice (2021 and 2024). He doesn\u2019t look as if he’s going to slow down anytime soon, so much so that 2025 might finally be his year to win honors as the league\u2019s top pitcher. Wheeler is atop MLB in pitcher bWAR (4.8), and is leading the Senior Circuit in strikeouts with 154, while allowing the fewest hits per nine. That\u2019s not a blip, either. Wheeler has been hard to hit for years now but never as tough on opponents as in 2025.<\/p>\n

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Paul Skenes has been almost impossibly good since arriving in the majors just last summer. (Photo by Joe Sargent\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n

He\u2019s just 23 years old and in his second year in the majors, but Skenes has already been the starter for the NL in the All-Star Game\u00a0twice \u2014 and with good reason. He was a revelation in his 23 Rookie of the Year-winning starts in 2024, and he has been just as good in his follow-up campaign. Skenes leads the majors in ERA at 2.01 and has the lowest home run per nine in the NL at 0.4. He hasn\u2019t been lucky, either \u2014 his FIP is an NL-best 2.40 \u2014 as he\u2019s just this great at pitching. He might just be 4-8, but that says a lot more about how the Pirates have supported him than the other way around. Could Skenes win a Cy Young with a losing record? If anyone can, it would be the young flamethrower.<\/p>\n

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Bobby Witt Jr. is the best Royals player to wear powder blue in some time. (Photo by Ed Zurga\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need a long memory to recall that Witt was once a defensive disaster. He put in the work, though, and turned his raw talent into actual production just as he had already been doing at the plate. Now, Witt is arguably one of MLB\u2019s best players, one with consecutive 30-homer, 30-stolen-base seasons. He might even earn a third this year if he can pick up the home run pace. It says something about Witt that he\u2019s hitting .294\/.345\/.504 in 2025, and that it could be considered a down year after his MLB-leading .332 batting average in 2024. To make up for it, Witt is playing even better at shortstop this year.<\/p>\n

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Tarik Skubal was never supposed to dominate like he does, and yet. (Photo by Daniel Shirey\/MLB Photos via Getty Images) <\/p>\n

Skubal, the ninth overall pick by the Tigers in 2018, won the 2024 American League Cy Young by leading major-league pitchers in bWAR (6.4) and strikeouts (228) and the AL in ERA (2.39). Skubal is somehow pitching even better in his follow-up campaign. His ERA is down to 2.23 and his ERA+ up to 181. He has the lowest WHIP in the majors, the lowest walk rate, the highest strikeout rate \u2014 no pitcher has\u00a0ever finished with both<\/a> in the same year \u2014 and the lowest FIP.<\/p>\n

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Cubs fans are already used to seeing Pete Crow-Armstrong in a dirty uniform. (Photo by David Berding\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n

Crow-Armstrong\u2019s tools were obvious when the Cubs called him up to the majors in 2023. His defense was excellent, thanks to an all-out style of play that got a boost from his ability to read a ball in play and get a great jump on it. He developed a surprising amount of power in the minors, too. That power has translated well, allowing him to become the fourth-fastest player to have a 25-homer and 25-steals season. There\u2019s a lot of 2025 left, too, so he might even become the seventh 40\/40 player of all time if he can keep it going. The defense was always there, too, so this newfound offense \u2014 Crow-Armstrong is batting .265\/.302\/.544 and leading the NL in bWAR \u2014 has made him a star.<\/p>\n

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Cal Raleigh started racking up the hardware with Monday night’s 2025 Home Run Derby win. (Photo by Matthew Grimes Jr.\/Atlanta Braves\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n

The 2025 season marks the third in a row that Raleigh has hit at least 30 homers. It\u2019s important to recognize that Raleigh has\u00a0always had tremendous power for a catcher, but now, as he leads the majors in homers with 38 at the All-Star break \u2014 one shy of Barry Bonds\u2019 record set back in 2001. Raleigh is batting .259\/.376\/.634, good for a 190 OPS+ and his work behind the plate is worth noting, too. Raleigh has been one of the best players in baseball for some time now, but this added level of offense has jumped him from the back end of the list to right near the top.<\/p>\n

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The true key to Aaron Judge’s greatness? Squaring up to bunt, obviously. (Photo by Todd Kirkland\/MLB Photos via Getty Images) <\/p>\n

Judge is the best hitter in baseball, and his 2025 season is his best work to date. That\u2019s saying something for a guy who hit an AL-record 62 homers in 2022, has already won two AL MVPs and has led the majors in bWAR on multiple occasions. Judge is batting .355\/.462\/.733 with 35 homers and an MLB-leading 228 OPS+ and 125 hits. He could very well finish the season with over 100 extra-base hits, which has been done just 15 times before in MLB history.<\/p>\n

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The best version of Shohei Ohtani is back. (Photo by Kavin Mistry\/MLB Photos via Getty Images) <\/p>\n

Judge\u2019s performance might have been enough to take the top spot if not for one important thing: Shohei Ohtani<\/a> is a two-way player again. Ohtani, who\u00a0just missed a 100-extra-base hit season himself in 2024, is not only leading the NL in slugging (.605), home runs (32), total bases (224) and OPS+ (174), but he\u2019s back on the mound. In five starts, Ohtani has allowed just one run and five hits, while striking out 10 batters. Those starts make up just nine innings of work, but that number is going to climb as he stretches back out: anyone watching him can see that the stuff that made him such a good pitcher before his second Tommy John surgery is still there.<\/p>\n

Honorable mentions:<\/p>\n

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