There’s something about numbers on a page that crystallize the craziness of what we’re witnessing in a given MLB season.
We owe a deep debt to those visionaries who thought to tabulate excruciating minutiae like Jiggs Parrott’s walk total with the 1892 Chicago Colts. Because now, when we want to know if what we’re witnessing is historically significant, we have decades of data — readily accessible — to tell us the answer.
Let’s study the statistics of this 2025 MLB season and run to the record books to put them into context here in our annual look at the year’s most bonkers baseball stats.
(Thanks, as always, to MLB.com researcher extraordinaire Sarah Langs, the Elias Sports Bureau and the great search tools available at Baseball-Reference.com and Stats Perform for their help in putting this together.)
Let’s just dump all the Big Dumper records in one place, shall we?
Finally, it’s the most home runs in the Majors, and Raleigh was also the Home Run Derby champ. This is not a “record” (Andre Dawson did it in 1987, Juan Gonzalez in ’93, Sammy Sosa in 2000, Ryan Howard in ’06 and Pete Alonso in ’19), but it is a pretty fun and fitting factoid in the Year of the Big Dumper.
Oh, then there’s his AL MVP competition …
We’re used to monster stats from Judge by this point, but the batting average is bonkers for a player of his size and power stature.
Judge will become the tallest batting champ in history, at 6-foot-7. The previous high was 6-foot-5 — Dave Parker (1977 and ’78), John Olerud (1993), Frank Thomas (1997), Derrek Lee (2005) and Joe Mauer (2006, ’08 and ’09). He’ll also join Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols as the only players this century to win both a batting title and a home run crown at any point.
Though Judge will fall short of the Triple Crown, he’s about to achieve a sort-of “modern Triple Crown” in leading his league — and all the Majors — in batting average, on-base percentage (.452) and slugging percentage (.669). Though a fair number of players have led their league in all three categories, the only players this century to lead all of MLB in all three were Barry Bonds in 2002 and Miguel Cabrera in 2013.
One more thing on Judge: This will be his third season in the last four years in which he finishes with an OPS+ over 200, or at least 100% better than league average. And all of those seasons have come in his 30s. Only Babe Ruth (six), Ted Williams (five) and Barry Bonds (four) had more such seasons at age 30 or higher.
While we’re on the subject of superhumans …
50-50
This is the second straight season the incredible Shohei Ohtani has christened a 50-50 Club.
None of the five previous players to hit 50 homers in consecutive seasons — Babe Ruth (1920-21), Mark McGwire (1996-99), Ken Griffey Jr. (1997-98), Sammy Sosa (1998-2001) and Alex Rodriguez (2001-02) — also happened to serve as a regular pitcher in either of those seasons. (Before you ask, Ruth pitched a total of 13 innings and struck out a total of two batters from 1920-21.)
Oh, and Ohtani has also scored 142 runs this season. That puts him within striking distance of the franchise record of 148 set by Hub Collins of the 1890 Brooklyn Bridegrooms. Ohtani can still become the first player to score 150 runs since Jeff Bagwell in 2000. Before that, the last to do it was Ted Williams in 1949.
30, 31 and 40
Home runs, doubles and steals for Guardians legend José Ramírez
That’s an impressive season, but, for Ramírez, it’s basically a normal season. He also had at least 30 homers, 30 doubles and 30 steals in 2018 and ’24.
The only other players with at least three such seasons were Barry Bonds (1990, ’92, ’95) and Alfonso Soriano (2002, ’03, ’05 and ’06).
Astute reader John B. noted that Ramírez has actually averaged at least 30 homers, 30 doubles and 30 steals over the last five seasons. The only other players to do that in any five-season span were Willie Mays (1956-60), Bobby Bonds (1969-73), Howard Johnson (1987-91), Barry Bonds (1991-95, ’90-94 or ’89-93), Soriano (2002-06 or ’01-05) and Carlos Beltrán (’02-06).
Entering this year, Soto had never swiped more than 12 bags and had 57 total for his career. Naylor had never stolen more than 10 bases and had only 25 steals in six previous seasons. So he more than doubled his career stolen base total in a single year!
The rules environment aids stolen bases. We’ve known this since 2023. But if it were as easy as Soto and Naylor make it out to be, everybody would have 20-something steals.
Naylor is only second percentile in MLB in sprint speed, while Soto is 14th. These are not burners. These are players who obviously have applied skills like pitch recognition and game awareness on the basepaths to dramatic effect this year.
Two
Previous players in all of MLB history to post a season with at least 40 homers, 100 RBIs, 100 walks, 100 runs and 30 steals, as Soto has done in his first season with the Mets. The others were Barry Bonds (1996 and 1997) and Jeff Bagwell (1997 and 1999).
Remember when we were talking about Soto’s slow start?!
Each of the four-homer games this year was rare in its own right:
Suárez’s was one of only two to occur in a loss (also Bob Horner in 1986) and one of only two in which the batter went a perfect 4-for-4 on homers in four plate appearances (also Carlos Delgado in 2003).
Finally, Schwarber’s was one of only four of the 21 four-homer games in which the batter had another trip to the plate with four homers already in the bag. He popped out.
341
ERA+ for resurgent Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman here in his age-37 season. This means Chapman has been 241% better than the league average reliever!
Only three times in history has a reliever 37 or older had an ERA+ this high while logging at least 50 innings — and they were all relatively recent Red Sox. The others were Koji Uehara in 2013 (379 in 74 1/3 innings) and Chris Martin in 2023 (434 in 51 1/3 innings).
So if you’re a reliever getting up there in years, you know where to go.
10
Losses for Pirates ace and likely NL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes — despite his MLB-best 211 ERA+. Only two previous times in the Live Ball Era (since 1920) has a starting pitcher logged an ERA+ of at least 200 (or 100% better than league average) while getting saddled with a double-digit loss total — Billy Pierce of the 1955 White Sox (200 ERA+, 10 losses) and Kevin Brown of the 1996 Marlins (215 ERA+, 11 losses).
Skenes’ 3.42 run support average received from his Pirates mates is the fifth-lowest of any qualified pitcher in MLB this year.
Speaking of the Pirates …
19
Shutouts posted by Pirates pitchers this year. That’s the MLB-leading total — and it has been put forth by a last-place team with a .429 winning percentage.
Only twice before in the Live Ball Era has a team with a winning percentage below .450 posted at least 19 shutouts – the 1971 Milwaukee Brewers (23 shutouts, .429 WP) and the 1975 California Angels (19 shutouts, .447 WP).
Rogers struggled after joining Baltimore in a midseason trade last year, then spent the first two months of this season in the Minors.
While he hasn’t logged the workload in the time since to contend for the AL Cy Young award, his ERA is the lowest by any starter with at least 100 innings since… Bob Gibson (1.12) in the Year of the Pitcher, 1968! And that’s the only other AL/NL starter in the Live Ball Era with an ERA this low in 100+ innings.
That’s just three shy of Eddie Mathews’ 1953 record for a player aged 21 or younger.
The only other players in history with 40-plus in their age-21-or-younger season were the Braves’ Ronald Acuña Jr. (41) in 2019 and the Giants’ Mel Ott (42) in 1929.
22
Home runs by both Raleigh and Schwarber off left-handed pitching
They are both just three shy of the record set by righty-hitting Cecil Fielder of the 1990 Tigers.
The only other player in history with this many homers off lefties was another left-handed hitter, Matt Olson (22) with the 2021 A’s.
47
Sacrifice bunts by the San Diego (or, as the Wall Street Journal recently called them, “Sac Diego”) Padres. Excluding bunts by pitchers,* that’s the most by a team since 2014.
Prior to this approach by the Padres – one that is antithetical to the modern analytical mindset that deeply cherishes the value of an out — the most sac bunts by a team in a season with the universal DH was 36 by the 2023 Diamondbacks. The 2022 Braves had only one sac bunt all year – the fewest ever for a team in a full season. It seemed like that was the direction things were heading, but the Padres have brought the bunt back again.
17
Number of Diamondbacks relievers who have recorded a save this season
Yes, that is a new all-time record, breaking the previous mark of 14 set by the Rays in 2021 and matched by the Dodgers last year.
If you’re ever amongst friends and someone asks, “Hey, which pitchers saved a game for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2025?,” just rattle off the names Shelby Miller, Justin Martínez, A.J. Puk, Jake Woodford, Andrew Saalfrank, Kevin Ginkel (aka “The Gink!”), Kyle Bachus, Anthony DeSclafani, Taylor Rashi, Ryne Nelson, Jalen Beeks, Ryan Thompson, Juan Morillo, Bryce Jarvis, Drey Jameson, Kyle Nelson and John Curtiss. Easy.
He’s nearing the record of 223, set by Mark Reynolds in 2009. Fortunately, it didn’t stop Wood from being a deserving All-Star, as his offensive production has been about 30% above league average.
Interestingly, Wood’s high total comes amid the overall league strikeout rate falling to 22.1%. It’s still high, but it’s the third straight year that the rate has fallen, and it’s the lowest K rate since 2017.
The Athletic’s Jayson Stark pointed out that this could be the first time in history that a league’s hitting strikeout leader has more K’s than its pitching strikeout leader (currently Logan Webb, with 216). K-razy!
Turner has been out with an injury but will still qualify for his first batting title, with 637 plate appearances.
This will be the second-lowest average ever by a batting title winner. Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski won the AL crown with a .301 mark in 1968. The previous low for an NL winner was Tony Gwynn’s .313 mark in 1988.
Number of divisions (aka, every single one of them!) in which a first-place team has blown a lead of at least 5 1/2 games. According to Elias, this has never happened before in the six-division era, which dates back to 1994.
The Yankees were as many as eight games up in the AL East before the Blue Jays caught them.
The Mets were 5 1/2 games up in the NL East before the Phillies caught them.
The Cubs were 6 1/2 games up in the NL Central before the Brewers caught them.
The Astros were seven up in the AL West before the Mariners caught them.
The Dodgers were nine up in the NL West before the Padres caught them (though the Dodgers have since recovered).
And most astonishing of all, the Tigers were a season-high 15 1/2 up in the AL Central at one point, but they finally got caught by the Guardians on Tuesday night.
