So many seasons rely upon whether or not a crew’s proficient younger hitters can attain their potential. It doesn’t at all times occur, however when gamers can alter to the Main Leagues and discover their footing offensively, it could energy a membership all the best way to the postseason — or to a World Sequence championship.
Listed below are 10 hitters age 25 or youthful who’ve made main strides from 2024 to 2025.
Stats up to date by way of Wednesday, Could 7.
Jonathan Aranda, 1B, Rays
Aranda is getting his probability within the Main Leagues, and he’s been operating with it. The 24-year-old is off to a superb begin to 2025, batting .317 with 5 homers and a .971 OPS — greater than 200 factors increased than his OPS in any prior season. He’s been mashing right-handed pitching (1.066 OPS) and dealing with breaking pitches exceptionally nicely (.435 common).
Aranda’s Statcast quality-of-contact metrics put him in elite firm — his hard-hit charge, for instance, is second in MLB behind solely Shohei Ohtani. The one common Rays hitter with an OPS over .800, he’s been a welcome addition to the Tampa Bay lineup after taking up because the crew’s main first baseman.
Maikel Garcia, 3B, Royals
Garcia’s enhancements from 2024 to 2025 have been among the many largest of any hitter, going from a .231 common and .613 OPS final season to a .323 common and .888 OPS to this point this spring. It doesn’t appear to be a fluke, both: His underlying metrics help a burgeoning breakout for the 25-year-old, who has seen time at third base, at second base and within the outfield.
Garcia didn’t produce a lot on the plate because the Royals’ main leadoff hitter final 12 months, however he appears to have remodeled right into a official middle-of-the-order bat in 2025. With pace (9 SB in 2025), a batting common north of .300 and a slugging share hovering round .500, Garcia has been all the things Kansas Metropolis might have requested for.
Hunter Goodman, C/DH, Rockies
Goodman has at all times had energy — he homered 13 occasions in 211 at-bats final season — however he’s elevated the remainder of his offensive recreation to this point in 2024. Batting .271 with 5 homers and an .784 OPS in 2025, the Colorado catcher and designated hitter has been the Rockies’ finest offensive participant by WAR.
With well-above-average bat pace and a positive residence ballpark, Goodman has the pop to be top-of-the-line energy threats at his place. If he can try this whereas persevering with to stroll greater than twice as a lot as he did in 2024, he can turn out to be a cornerstone participant for the Rockies at an important place.
Kyle Manzardo, DH, Guardians
Manzardo greater than doubled his stroll charge from final season, and he’s hitting for significantly extra energy, too. Regardless of a low batting common, the Cleveland slugger already has a team-leading eight residence runs and a .798 OPS.
The positive aspects the 24-year-old has proven from Yr 1 (.703 OPS) to Yr 2 have made Manzardo a real on a regular basis participant at DH or first base. If he can get his batting common up and strike out rather less, he could possibly be even higher — however even when not, he’s nonetheless been a stable substitute for the Guardians after Josh Naylor was traded to Arizona.
Zach Neto, SS, Angels
Neto missed the Angels’ first 18 video games whereas recovering from offseason shoulder surgical procedure, so his 2025 pattern measurement is smaller than that of most gamers on this record. However the younger shortstop has been dynamic ever since his return: With 4 homers and 7 steals in simply 17 video games, he’s on tempo for a superb power-speed season.
That was the case final 12 months, when Neto had 23 homers, 30 steals and a .761 OPS. However with the best way he’s swinging the bat and operating the bases this 12 months — simply take a look at his promising Statcast metrics — Neto could possibly be making a case as one of many best-hitting shortstops within the Majors.
Logan O’Hoppe, C, Angels
O’Hoppe flashed his offensive expertise within the huge leagues as early as 2023 (14 homers in simply 51 video games), however 2025 has been his finest 12 months so far on the plate. His 9 homers and .869 OPS getting into Tuesday are each second amongst all Main League catchers, trailing solely Mariners backstop Cal Raleigh.
O’Hoppe is barreling the baseball 19.4% of the time, one of many prime charges in MLB and an enchancment on his 12.0% clip from 2024. His excessive strikeout charge — 34.8% to this point this 12 months — stays a serious concern, however when O’Hoppe makes contact, the ball remains to be going a great distance. He and Neto have been main shiny spots for an Angels crew that, with Mike Trout on the injured record, has few different affect batters.
Andy Pages, CF, Dodgers
Pages has upped his OPS from .712 in 2024 to .838 in 2025, a welcome growth for a Dodgers outfield that has gotten little or no from Michael Conforto and now has Teoscar Hernández coping with a hamstring situation. The second-year outfielder entered Thursday at 1.4 Wins Above Alternative this season — a tick above the 1.3 complete he had in 116 video games final 12 months.
Pages was hitting .183 as late as April 23 earlier than occurring a tear, batting 21-for-51 (.412) over his 12 video games since. It might simply be an remoted scorching streak, but when Pages’ strides in 2025 are the truth is actual, he could possibly be a long-term match within the Dodgers’ lineup and possibly even one of many top-hitting heart fielders within the Majors.
Geraldo Perdomo, SS, D-backs
It appears like Perdomo — who made his MLB debut in 2021 at age 21 — has been round some time, however the Arizona shortstop remains to be simply 25 with room to develop. He’s proven that capability to enhance on the plate in 2025, getting into Thursday with 5 residence runs, 9 steals and profession highs in batting common (.285), on-base share (.395) and slugging share (.454).
This isn’t the primary time Perdomo has began the season scorching, after all. In 2023, he had a mean over .400 and an OPS over 1.100 as of an analogous time limit (Could 3) earlier than cooling down because the season wore on. But when his elite plate self-discipline (18 strikeouts to 26 walks to this point) holds up, he’ll be one other huge bat together with Naylor, Corbin Carroll and Ketel Marte in what was MLB’s highest-scoring lineup in 2024.
Victor Scott II, CF, Cardinals
Scott has continued his stellar protection from his first MLB season to his second, however his bat has taken an enormous leap ahead. He hit simply .179 with two homers and a .502 OPS in 2024, however he’s as much as a .289 common and a .772 OPS this 12 months. Being on base extra has let Scott unleash his elite 30.0 ft/sec dash pace (tied for third in MLB): He has already stolen 11 bases in 2025.
Curiously, Scott is succeeding in 2025 regardless of pulling the ball a lot much less, though he has been hitting the ball within the air far more than final season. He’s crushing fastballs (.373 common towards) — notably four-seamers (.455) — and he’s boosted his stroll charge by multiple and a half occasions. Scott has already accounted for 1.2 WAR in 2025, second to Brendan Donovan for essentially the most on his membership.
Brice Turang, 2B, Brewers
Now in his third MLB season, Turang is hitting the ball significantly tougher — and what a welcome growth that has been for him. A .239 hitter over his first two seasons, he’s batting .318 in 2025 with three homers and eight steals to this point.
After rating towards the underside of MLB in barrel charge (third percentile) and hard-hit charge (ninth percentile) final season, Turang is now within the forty eighth and 71st percentiles in these respective classes. His common exit velocity has elevated by 5.4 mph, a major bounce. Turang is an entire new hitter in 2025, and he’s been certainly one of Milwaukee’s largest offensive threats.
