Day by day, the 2025 MLB season steadily creeps upon us, and our winter-long yearning for the pleasant pops of the mitts, the sweet smell of the grass, and the rich regressions of the spreadsheets draws closer to being fulfilled. It may still feel like the dead of winter, but hope is on the horizon.
One of the most enticing aspects of brand-new baseball coming soon is the sheer number of possibilities lying ahead. For the optimists such as myself, anything can happen. That means your favorite prospects will develop into spectacular big leaguers, your injury-prone pitchers will finally stay healthy all year, and those breakouts you’ve been waiting patiently for are here at last.
Position player breakout candidates in 2025
Previously, I conducted deep dives on three starting pitchers and three relief pitchers whose games could be taken to the next level in 2025. Now, I will conclude my breakout series by analyzing three hitters I’ve deemed capable of becoming elevated versions of themselves in the upcoming season.
In my analyses, I will be using a project of mine called LASR (League-Adjusted Standardized Rating) which places all stats onto the same 20-80 scouting scale based on league qualifiers. On the scale, 50 is average and 10 points in either direction is one standard deviation (all data is sourced from FanGraphs).
I am also introducing a new slice of LASR. Though this isn’t available yet in my Tableau dashboards, I can now break down LASR stats on a monthly basis. For example, instead of analyzing full-season 2024 data in this article, I will look at subsets of the season, such as only August and September data.
This sheds new light on players who made significant progress last year and ended the season at a different level of performance than they began it. So, let’s see which three hitters look to continue their development and become stars in the making.