Sports are a revolving door of opportunity and redemption. Highlighted by the success stories and low points, sports — in particular baseball — is a sport that will always have something new every day. It’s impossible to cover every individual positive achievement in sports or deride the negatives like the Braves’ stinking start, or poke fun at Marcus Stroman and the two guys that make up the Yankees’ starting rotation. Baseball is one of those sports where the unexpected becomes expected — and that’s what today’s blog is about.

We’re going over how two of baseball’s premier rotations coming into this season plummeted so soon, or how a club that hasn’t finished with a winning record since 2015 somehow becomes one of the hottest teams in baseball with a breakout rookie no one knew before their hot start. Or how a team built around two of the highest-paid players in baseball is seemingly outshined by a player everyone overlooked — and how a franchise that spent over a billion dollars in the past two offseasons is being outshined by two teams off to their hottest starts in over 20 years. Let’s dive into this and uncover the truly bizarre nature of Major League Baseball two weeks into the season.

From World Series to Series Lost

This is a fun one, to begin with, ironically the two teams that made it to the Fall Classic in 2024 are seemingly dealing with so much struggle and adversity beyond reasonable doubt. This honor goes towards the NY Yankees and LA Dodgers who after a massive offseason cannot seem to translate money spent to consistent wins. Two of the top names on the pitching market LHP Max Fried (Yankees, $182/8) and LHP Blake Snell (Dodgers ($136.5/5) signed significant contracts with the two hottest teams in baseball over the 2025 offseason. Fried is having a better start to the season for the Yankees with statistics highlighting a 2-0 record and a 1.56 ERA in 17.1 innings with 21 strikeouts and a 256 ERA+

Before the season began, the looks of Fried, Cole, and Gil topping their rotation was a scary thought for anyone facing this dangerous Bronx team. After setbacks to Gerrit Cole, who had season-ending Tommy John surgery, and Luis Gil, 2024’s ROY, suffering a high-grade lat strain, their rotation was completely blown to smithereens. It forces washed-up veterans of the game to take on higher workloads and significant innings — a lot of that falling on Marcus Stroman and Carlos Carrasco, two guys whose primes have come and gone and frankly need to be gone. Combined, they have -0.9 WAR, an 8.49 ERA, a 43.5 ERA+, a 1-2 record, and a 6.51 FIP. It’s gotten to the point where the Yankees need to cut bait. Enough time has passed and too many wins have been sacrificed for the team to keep ignoring the obvious.

On the other side of the country, Blake Snell’s luck has gone a little differently. He was having a solid season (1-0, 2.00 ERA), but he just hit the IL with a shoulder strain and won’t be back until late May. Stats don’t tell the whole story — while Snell’s 2.00 ERA and 193 ERA+ look great, he’s already given up 7 runs and his FIP of 4.77 suggests trouble is brewing underneath those surface-level numbers.

Besides Snell’s shaky start and injury, the Dodgers’ other prized pitching prospect hasn’t had the season he imagined either. Roki Sasaki, who signed a minor league deal for the league minimum, was rushed into the majors believing his Japanese League dominance would immediately translate — it hasn’t.

His 2025 numbers — 0-1, 3.29 ERA, and 5.04 FIP in four starts — are a complete 180 from his 2024 campaign when he went 10-5 with a 2.35 ERA. Roki’s agent, Joel Wolfe, has mentioned several times that Sasaki struggles with anxiety and media pressure, and believed he would have performed better in a smaller, less competitive market like Oakland or Tampa Bay. But the Dodgers put the offer on the table, and here we are. At this point, it seems like Roki has come back down to earth as a regular pitcher — and as unfortunate as it’s been, maybe it’s time to accept that his dominance in Japan won’t necessarily reflect the type of pitcher he is now.

Another pitcher on a big contract with a hefty injury history is Tyler Glasnow who after signing a ($115/4) contract in the 2024 offseason has put up his worst start to his career highlighted by a 6.43 era in 7 innings with 5 runs scored and 8 walks given up. It’s an ugly start for a pitcher who typically many write as a CY Young favorite if he can just stay healthy but by the looks of the start of this season, it seems health is already out of discussion.

The Angels are good?

The Angels being good, and a healthy 33-year-old Mike Trout still contributing, is something I never thought I’d say — but here we are. Baseball is weird. The Angels are 9-6, leading the AL West with the highest winning percentage in the American League. A big part of that is manager Ron Washington, an old-school baseball mind who emphasizes fundamentals and structure into a team that’s finally responding.

The Angels have won every series they’ve played so far, hit the third-most home runs in the league, and again — Mike Trout is still healthy. Now, sure, the club has a -3 run differential, and while it doesn’t matter right now because wins are wins, it’ll be worth watching how they hold up when things balance out.

Trout is slashing .196, but with 9 runs, 6 home runs, 14 RBIs, and a 154 OPS+. The batting average is low, but it doesn’t matter as much because his power numbers and production are still elite. His ability to get on base and produce runs means he’s still making a huge impact despite the average.

But 2025 is different and weird because the spotlight isn’t on Trout — it’s on rookie Kyren Paris. The name is perfect for the majors, and he’s excelled in the spotlight. Paris leads the league with a 1.3 WAR, slashing an insane .400/.488/.914/1.402 for a 297 OPS+. He’s putting himself in amazing territory as the first homegrown Angels player to break out since Mike Trout (not counting Ohtani).

It’s a little surprising too — his .167 batting average across two minor league levels last year didn’t show he’d be ready for the majors. But alas, we were wrong — because baseball is weird.

Polar Power or Polar Freeze

There is a serious arctic freeze going on in Queens with the two franchise players performing well under their payday while the man who dominates first base has erupted with serious polar power. Peter Morgan Alonso is showcasing himself for another ‘prove it year’ before electing free agency again for a second year. After resigning with the Mets for a one-year $30 million deal with a player option for a second year has emerged again as one of the most feared power hitters in the game. Last season we didn’t see Pete perform at his best as the thought of free agency looming in the distance distracted Alonso from his overall season goals of collecting a major payday. Well, he is back for redemption in 2025 and has adjusted his mechanics and swing path, eliminating the bad habits that plagued him in 2024. Pete Alonso is batting .321 with 9 runs, 4 home runs, and 18 RBIs while slugging .660, and an OPS over 1.000. He is the catalyst of this Mets lineup and has the best start to his career.

But why is this so alarming? Well, it’s not alarming on Pete’s performance but on the richest guys in baseball for their respective positions who have not truly shined like they should be. 745 million dollar man Juan Soto has not been the superhero that many Met fans figured he would become in Queens, right now his season stats are similar to that of an Ozzie Albies or Tommy Edman. Soto is currently batting .250 with only 1 homerun to show for it and 4 RBIS with an OPS under .800. Of course this is an extremely small sample size and we cannot point fingers at his production this soon however it just doesn’t feel like Soto is truly performing at his best and he’s not but at least he is top ten for runs scored with 12 and in the top three for walks with 14. However, he can perform better than what the metrics have shown so far. 

As for the other disappointment Francisco Lindor who came in second place in the MVP race to Shohei Ohtani and has won the past two Silver Slugger awards for the shortstop position is in an early season slump to begin the 2025 season. However this is pretty typical for Lindor who historically has struggled in March/April as for his career in those months repping blue and orange he has just a .232, batting average and .639 OPS. This season is nothing different as he is batting .226, 1 homer, 6 RBIs, and a .630 OPS. But alas it’s the beginning of the season and no one likes a scoreboard merchant. The season is still super long and very young so Lindor can easily rebound back to all-star form it is just quite frankly irritating this has happened every year of his contract.

California Love

California knows how to party and in LA, they know how to win. After coming off their first regular season World Series win since 1988 the Dodgers are ready to repeat as champs but not without a little challenge. As of now the team that spent over a billion dollars on the past two offseasons is not rewarded with first place in the league or even second place as the Dodgers right now are sitting in third place at an 11-5 record behind the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres. This is no longer a Dodgers division to win as their competitors are hungry to take down the bad boys of Compton.

Who would have thought the Padres this early in the season would be leading the West in wins? Currently, they sit at a 13-3 record are riding a three-game win streak, and are hungry for more. Jackson Merill and Fernando Tatis jr lead the Padres in offensive metrics as both are producing at a similar elite level of 197 OPS+ or better. Tatis has a batting line of .365/.433/.615/1.049 and has been on a tear hitting the ball hard and taking pitchers deep. They are the dominating forces of this clubhouse and won’t go down without a fight. The 13-3 start is their best in franchise history since their 1998 NL Pennant winning team that saw them record 98 franchise-record wins. This team is unstoppable, I am happy that after the whole debacle with ownership issues and lawsuits, it has finally gone away and hasn’t distracted the club from being a consistent winner.

They remind me of another powerhouse Californian team the SF Giants who are 11-4 and look practically unbeatable. For a team that had a hard time attracting players to the Bay Area because of their subpar ballpark dimensions or their wide deep outfield, it has been difficult to say the very least for the Giants to participate at the same playing field in free agency. Well after signing Willy Adames to be their shortstop of the future and with a healthy season from KBO superstar Jung Ho Lee they are prized for an epic season and one that is already taking place. The Giants are off to their hottest start to the season since 2003 and it’s clear everyone has been hot on this team. Jung Ho Lee is batting .340, .404 OBP, and 16 hits for an OPS over 1.000. Logan Webb who’s been the innings leader for the past two seasons is sitting at 24 innings pitched with a 2-0 record and 2.63 eras. Mike Yastrzemski is batting .343 with a .465 OBP. Wilmer Flores has 5 homers and 15 RBIs in 13 games.

The Giants also hold the second-best team ERA to the Mets with a 2.74 ERA and to top it off they have six home games with three walk-off wins. This club is ferocious and they are simply tired of finishing fourth every season. Buster Posey’s Giants are making a run for the Dodgers money and the Padres aren’t stopping anytime soon.

Well, that is all for the best recaps of MLB, so much to see so much to know. Baseball is a fluid sport of so many surprises and truly anything is possible under the biggest and brightest lights in baseball. And remember baseball is weird!