It has been a frenetic first month of baseball.
So far in the 2025 MLB season we've seen a four-team race brewing in the National League West; Aaron Judge chasing .400; the New York Mets winning with their pitching; the Los Angeles Dodgers looking unbeatable for eight games and then very beatable thereafter; a Chicago Cubs team featuring a high-powered offense and a breakout star; and a number of elite closers suddenly unable to get an out.
Let's go through the majors and pick our April All-Stars -- as well as a player to watch and an early disappointment at each position.
Catcher
All-Star: Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners
The Mariners signed Raleigh to a six-year, $105 million extension right before Opening Day, keeping him in Seattle through at least 2030. The Dodgers' Will Smith has the higher average and on-base percentage, but Raleigh has the better power production with 10 home runs, including a stretch of six home runs in six games that helped the Mariners break out from a slow start. He's so valuable to the Mariners that he has started every game: 21 at catcher and seven at designated hitter. Raleigh also has to contend with a tough home park: In his career, he has homered 64 times on the road compared to 39 at home, and his road OPS in 2025 is almost 200 points higher than his home one.
Player to watch: Carson Kelly, Chicago Cubs
This category should focus on a young player, but the 30-year-old Kelly is hitting .341/.517/.854 with six home runs and 18 RBIs after signing with the Cubs (he leads all major leaguers, with at least 50 plate appearances, in OPS). What stands out is an incredible ratio of 15 walks to just five strikeouts as he has suddenly stopped swinging at pitches out of the zone (fourth-lowest chase rate). He can't keep hitting like this, of course, but he and Miguel Amaya have combined for 31 runs and 29 RBIs.
Disappointment: Adley Rutschman, Baltimore Orioles
Rutschman hasn't been terrible, but after homering twice on Opening Day, his bat has been pretty quiet as he's struggling to keep his batting average over the Mendoza Line with a .209 average. His struggles go back to the final three months of the 2024 season. That was perhaps the result of an injury he played through, but the slow start to 2025 is certainly a concern. After posting a .369 OBP his first two seasons in the majors, it's down to .318 since 2024.
First base
All-Star: Pete Alonso, New York Mets
Coming off his worst season in the big leagues, Alonso didn't get the nine-figure contract he expected in free agency and returned to the Mets on a two-year, $54 million deal with an opt-out clause after 2025. With this blazing start (.333/.451/.646), it certainly looks like he's heading toward exercising that opt-out. Last season, he had a 2.5-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, but he's almost even this year as he has cut his strikeout rate nearly 10 percentage points. Alonso narrowed his stance a bit, and perhaps that's helping the contact rate, but his approach has been impeccable -- he has been spraying doubles all over the field and doing more damage with two strikes.
Player to watch: Nick Kurtz/Tyler Soderstrom, Athletics
Soderstrom began the year as the A's first baseman and has been crushing it with a .292 average and nine home runs -- seven of which came on the road, by the way, so don't give all the credit to Sutter Health Park, which does still look like it will play as an excellent hitters' park. But when Kurtz, the No. 4 pick in the 2024 draft, was called up last week after blitzing through Triple-A in just 20 games, Soderstrom moved to the outfield to clear room for Kurtz.
He runs OK, but Soderstrom's MLB innings in the outfield before last week total ... zero. Brent Rooker will also see some time there as the three players rotate between first base, designated hitter and outfield. That said, the exciting thing here is what Soderstrom and Kurtz might do at the plate, not in the field, as two left-handed power hitters who will anchor a suddenly intriguing Athletics lineup.
Disappointment: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Toronto Blue Jays
There are many first basemen having worse starts than Guerrero. However, when you sign a $500 million contract, the pressure to put up big numbers increases exponentially -- and two home runs and 12 RBIs per month isn't going to cut it. The good news for the Blue Jays is Guerrero got off to a similarly slow April last season before hitting over .300 in each of the final five months of the regular season.
Second base
All-Star: Brendan Donovan, St. Louis Cardinals
Donovan has also started games at shortstop and left field, but most of his action has come at second base -- and it's hard to ignore that .359/.396/.534 line. That gives him the edge over ex-teammate Tommy Edman, who has eight home runs for the Dodgers but a sub-.300 OBP.
Player to watch: Kristian Campbell, Boston Red Sox
The consensus minor league player of the year in 2024 and ESPN's No. 26 overall prospect entering 2025, Campbell had played just 19 games above Double-A and hit .167 in spring training, but the Red Sox went with their eyes over the numbers and put Campbell on the Opening Day roster. He has more than held his own so far, hitting .305 with 3 home runs, 10 extra-base hits and 10 RBIs, showcasing excellent plate discipline as well. His strikeout rate is a little high, but that should improve with experience. He's going to be a good one.
Disappointment: Marcus Semien, Texas Rangers
Semien has gone through these types of spells before -- remember, in his first year in Texas in 2022, he began the season without a home run in 43 games -- but when you're 34 years old, slumps take on a different view. His bat speed metrics are stable (although already on the slow side), and it looks like he has hit into some bad luck, but the Rangers obviously need Semien to turn things around.
Third base
All-Star: Alex Bregman, Boston Red Sox
On paper, Bregman was a perfect fit for Fenway Park as a dead-pull hitter who had thrived there in his career. So far in 2025, though, he's hitting everywhere, with a .319/.394/.543 line and a hard-hit rate that would easily be the highest of his career. He's riding a high (for him) BABIP of .364 compared to a career rate of .282 -- so there's a little good luck baked into those numbers -- but he appears headed for his first All-Star appearance since 2019.
Player to watch: Junior Caminero, Tampa Bay Rays
He's still just 21 years old with fewer than 350 plate appearances in the majors, so Caminero remains a work in progress. The plate discipline is problematic, and while he has five home runs, he's pounding a lot of balls into the ground. His defense at third base also suggests that he might be a future first baseman. But the raw power is so tantalizing, plus he has a pretty good feel for contact, so the upside here remains enormous.
Disappointment: Alec Bohm, Philadelphia Phillies
Ouch. With Bohm still searching for his first home run and generally not getting on base, he has been moved down to the bottom of the lineup. If he doesn't figure things out, you wonder whether president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski will consider an upgrade at the trade deadline -- say, Nolan Arenado.
Shortstop
All-Star: Bobby Witt Jr., Kansas City Royals
This is a coin flip between Witt and the Mets' Francisco Lindor, but we'll go with Witt, who is a little better on the bases and in the field. Indeed, with 1.5 WAR entering Sunday, Witt is on pace for 8.7 WAR -- not much off his 9.4 total of 2024, even though the home runs have yet to come in bunches.
Player to watch: Jacob Wilson, Athletics
What a fascinating profile. Wilson rarely swings and misses, leading to a low strikeout rate -- just five K's in 107 plate appearances -- but that also means he rarely walks (he didn't draw a walk until the team's 24th game). He doesn't hit the ball that hard but has produced nine extra-base hits, including three home runs, so it's not a completely empty .324 average. There's certainly a Luis Arraez comp in here, although Wilson chases more often and looks like he'll end up with more power.
Disappointment: Willy Adames, San Francisco Giants
Gunnar Henderson of the Baltimore Orioles is worth mentioning here, too, but his slow start can perhaps be attributed to missing spring training because of an intercostal strain and not having any reps when he returned from the injured list. Adames has no such excuse after signing his $182 million free agent contract this past offseason, but he has been bad at the plate and even worse in the field, with the worst defensive metrics of any shortstop. It has been only a month, but Adames was always a risky signing. The power should eventually land, but if the defense doesn't turn around, the Giants will still have a shortstop problem.
Left field
All-Star: Steven Kwan, Cleveland Guardians
Kwan is proof that exit velocity isn't everything. His hard-hit rate and bat speed rank in the bottom first percentile of all hitters, but his elite contact ability has led to a .346 average -- and he even popped four home runs. The Rangers' Wyatt Langford has also been off to a dominant start, with only a 10-day stint on the IL keeping him behind Kwan.
Player to watch: James Wood, Washington Nationals
As a rookie last season, Wood hit nine home runs in 295 at-bats, but he has already cracked eight in 105 at-bats in 2025, flashing that huge raw power. As good as he has been, there's room for improvement. He has a high groundball rate, and almost all his damage has come against fastballs. If he can learn to more consistently get the ball in the air and make the adjustments against breaking balls, he'll have 50-homer potential.
Disappointment: Jonathan India, Kansas City Royals
India splits his time between left field and third base but hasn't hit at either position with a .213 average and no home runs. He was Kansas City's big offseason addition to the lineup, brought on as somebody who can get on base in front of Witt. The Royals need him to start hitting to give Witt more RBI opportunities.
Center field
All-Star: Pete Crow-Armstrong, Chicago Cubs
He's hitting and stealing bases -- and he might be the best defender in the game with his ability to run everything down in center. He has certainly jumped into the discussion of most exciting player in baseball right now. Is the bat for real, or was this a 50 at-bat hot streak? We'll see. He swings at everything, so pitchers might eventually figure out how to exploit that weakness.
Player to watch: Jung Hoo Lee, San Francisco Giants
His first season with the Giants in 2024 was cut short after 37 games by a shoulder injury, but so far in 2025, Lee is showing the all-around skills that made him the best player in Korea.
Disappointment: Luis Robert Jr., Chicago White Sox
Ugh. Robert is not going anywhere in a trade if he continues to hit .152. He is walking more, but that hasn't yet led to improved offense or a lower strikeout rate.
Right field
All-Star: Aaron Judge, New York Yankees
This has been the best position in the majors so far. Entering Sunday, Judge, Fernando Tatis Jr., Corbin Carroll and Kyle Tucker all ranked in the top six in FanGraphs WAR among position players, while Wilyer Abreu also ranked in the top 10 in Baseball-Reference in WAR. But when you're hitting .406 like Judge is? Yeah, you get the nod.
You might have seen what Judge did over a calendar year, from April 27, 2024, through April 26, 2025: 157 games, .363/.491/.766, 61 home runs, 157 RBIs. Incredible.
Player to watch: Fernando Tatis Jr., San Diego Padres
If Judge has been the April MVP for the American League, Tatis has been the April MVP in the National League. He's locked in, he's healthy after the leg issues of last season, and he's making more contact than ever, leading to a .346 average.
Disappointment: Juan Soto, New York Mets
Soto has been OK, but, as is the case with Guerrero, we expect greatness. Soto is producing a career-high ground ball rate, which helps explain the lack of power so far. He goes through these spells -- in 2023, he hit .202 in April and .219 in August -- so this isn't necessarily a "the pressure of the big contract" situation. He'll get going at some point.
Designated hitter
All-Star: Marcell Ozuna, Atlanta Braves
Ozuna is flirting with a .500 on-base percentage, helping keep a mediocre Atlanta offense afloat. Ozuna's walk rate was 10.8% last year; this season, it's at 26.0% entering Sunday. Both figures are staggering -- not just the year-to-year improvement, but the overall rate of 26% is pretty wild. The only player with a higher rate over a full season: Barry Bonds, from 2001 to 2004, when he was drawing all those unintentional walks. Ozuna has no intentional walks. Yes, we're talking about just one month compared to six, but still, it's crazy.
Player to watch: Ben Rice, New York Yankees
With Giancarlo Stanton out, Rice has taken advantage of the DH at-bats and is hitting .259/.370/.541 with six home runs. While he hit just .171 in 50 games as a rookie last season, he had a .968 OPS in the minors in 2024 and 1.048 in 2023. He can hit.
Disappointment: Yordan Alvarez, Houston Astros
It's unusual to see a hitter this good have a month this bad. There's nothing that pops up in the metrics other than his hard-hit rate being down. Alvarez just hasn't been squaring the ball up like he usually does. It has been a bit of a teamwide issue for the Astros, as Yainer Diaz and Christian Walker are also struggling and even Jose Altuve is way down.
Starting pitcher
All-Star: Hunter Brown, Houston Astros
Brown has been hard to hit, is not allowing home runs, is not giving up many walks and was great over the final four months of 2024. Add it up, and Brown is the real deal. Cue a certain someone's Cy Young prediction from a "Baseball Tonight" podcast episode in late March.
Player to watch: Max Meyer, Miami Marlins
Meyer was the No. 3 pick in the 2020 draft, reached the majors in 2022 and then blew out his elbow after two starts, missing all of 2023. He made 26 starts between Triple-A and the Marlins last season but wasn't exactly effective, with a 5.68 ERA in 11 starts with Miami. But his 14-strikeout game last week against the Cincinnati Reds heralded a new and improved Meyer. His four-seamer isn't fooling too many batters -- like on Sunday, when he also struggled with his command -- so maybe, similar to Brown last season, Meyer needs to use his two-seamer more often.
Disappointment: Aaron Nola, Philadelphia Phillies
He's 0-5 with a 5.40 ERA while allowing a .272 average and .456 slugging percentage. It could be nothing -- Nola's strikeout rate is still solid -- but the fastball velocity is down a tick, and a 91 mph fastball in this day and age should at least raise a red flag when you're getting hit this hard.
Relief pitcher
All-Star: Robert Suarez, San Diego Padres
Suarez has 10 saves, has allowed just one run and has given up five hits in 12 innings, leading what has been a lights-out San Diego bullpen.
Player to watch: Randy Rodriguez, San Francisco Giants
A typical fastball/slider reliever, Rodriguez has yet to allow a run -- or a walk -- as he has moved into a key setup role for the Giants.
Disappointment: Devin Williams, New York Yankees
Whoa. You can't help but wonder whether Alonso broke Williams with that home run in last October's wild-card series between the Brewers and Mets. Williams has been basically unhittable for the past five years, but in his first season with the Yankees, he's giving up hits, walking everyone and has allowed 12 runs in eight innings.
Yankees fans recently booed him before he blew a save in a loss to Toronto. Manager Aaron Boone just removed him, "for right now," from the closer role. It seems inexplicable that an elite closer such as Williams could lose it like this, but that has been the case -- and it's worth noting that Cleveland's Emmanuel Clase, who also struggled this past postseason, has already allowed more earned runs than he did in all of 2024.