Do you feel like it’s been a while since there was a no-hitter in the Major Leagues? Your instincts are right: It sure has.
How rare, exactly? Well, if no one (or no team) can pull off the feat before the end of the season, it will be the first year without a no-hitter since 2005 and just the fifth year without a no-no in the Divisional Era (since 1969).
Let’s take a look at the historical context surrounding MLB’s current no-hitter drought, examine what might be the cause and revisit some of 2025’s most promising no-hit bids.
Rare — but not unprecedented
It’s fair to say baseball fans have been pretty spoiled in recent years when it comes to no-hitters. There have been four in each of the past three seasons, and there were a single-season-record nine in 2021. With 39 no-hitters in all since 2015, we’re in a relative Golden Age for the feat. (Though it should be noted that 10 of those 39 were combo no-hitters.)
So any season that has yet to see a no-hitter by mid-to-late-August is, by definition, an anomaly. The last time a season’s first no-hitter came in August or later (not counting the shortened 2020 season) was 2006, when Aníbal Sánchez tossed the year’s only no-no on Sept. 10 — MLB’s first no-hitter since Randy Johnson on May 18, 2004.
Compared to the current no-no drought (351 days as of Friday), that 844-day cold spell seems like an eternity. While there are more no-hitters nowadays, they’ve still happened with relative regularity over the years — one would have to go back to 1932-33 to find two consecutive seasons without a single no-hitter.
Average number of no-hitters per season
1876-1899: 1.8
1900-1925: 2.2
1926-1950: 1.0
1951-1975: 2.9
1976-2000: 2.2
2001-2025: 3.1
There have been 326 no-hitters all time, dating back to George Bradley’s no-no for the St. Louis Brown Stockings back on July 15, 1876. Since then, just 29 of 150 Major League seasons (19.3%) have resulted in zero no-hitters. Even the 60-game “sprint to the finish” in 2020 produced two.
So while it would be rare, it’s hardly the end of the world if 2025 goes down as the year without a no-hitter. Here’s what might be contributing to the lack of no-nos so far this season.
There’s not much data to suggest any major statistical difference leaguewide that would account for a surprise drought in no-hitters in 2025 alone. It might just be noise. Still, there are a few factors that could point to a relative downward trend in no-nos in the coming years.
For one, starting pitchers are not going as deep into games over time — starters averaged 5.88 innings per game between 2000 and 2016, compared to just 5.21 innings per game since then. While combined no-hitters have grown more common (there have been five since the start of 2022), that requires multiple pitchers to display no-hit stuff rather than just one. Complete games have fallen drastically, too — from 123 as recently as 2013 to just 28 in 2024. There have been 26 complete games already this season, but none has resulted in a no-hitter.
One of the rule changes implemented before the 2023 season might be playing a part, too. Limits on defensive shifts might not seem to be a major barrier to no-hitters, but when a ball that might be snared by a second baseman in shallow right instead sneaks through the infield, it can make all the difference.
Who has come the closest?
Orioles rookie Brandon Young certainly caused a stir on Aug. 15 in Houston. Young carried a perfect game through seven innings, not allowing a baserunner until former Oriole Ramón Urías reached on an infield single with two outs in the eighth.
Young is the most recent of the eight pitchers to take a no-hitter through seven innings this year, a group including Garrett Crochet (April 13 at White Sox) and Jacob deGrom (June 25 at Orioles). Just two of those pitchers have completed eight no-hit innings: the Reds’ Nick Martinez on June 27 and the Guardians’ Gavin Williams on Aug. 6.
Martinez’s bid against his former team, the Padres, ended after a double to Elias Díaz with nobody out in the ninth. Williams began the ninth against the Mets at Citi Field by striking out Francisco Lindor, but he gave up a one-out homer to Juan Soto to bring his no-hit effort to an end.
With Williams’ and Young’s bids both coming in the past few weeks, it seems as if we’re getting closer and closer to a no-hitter. But will it happen before the 2025 season reaches its end? We’ll have to wait and see.
