From PCA’s Rise to Vladdy’s Fall: Nine Stories We’ll Remember From This MLB Season

From fading superstars and stunning collapses to historic performances and a loaded rookie class, these are the stories that stuck out this year.

Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong was baseball’s best player in 2026. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Every baseball season becomes its own story as it unfolds. Stars emerge and fade, teams rise and fall, records are chased and, inevitably, things happen that no one saw coming. The 2026 MLB campaign was no different.

With the regular season coming to a close, it’s worth recognizing what we witnessed over the last few months. There were brilliant individual performances, historic turnarounds, disappointing collapses and the arrival of the game’s next generation of stars. 

We’re nearing the end of what could be the final season of baseball’s current era. Change looms on the horizon as the sport heads toward an uncertain future. We may eventually look upon the 2026 campaign as a line of demarcation, the end of baseball as we knew it before whatever comes next. 

As we prepare to turn that page, here’s a look at the nine stories that defined the 2026 MLB season.

Judge, Ohtani MVP Runs End

For the first time since 2020, neither Aaron Judge nor Shohei Ohtani will be taking home an MVP Award this season. The two most dominant players of their era finally proved vulnerable this year as injuries derailed both of their seasons. With both now well into their 30s, the stranglehold they have on the game may be waning. 

Judge missed 86 games thanks to a stress fracture in his right first rib, while Ohtani was forced off the mound due to knee and biceps injuries. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t themselves. 

Ohtani was having his best season on the mound before the injuries struck. In 14 starts, he was 8–2 with a 1.79 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and 95 strikeouts in 85 ⅔ innings. He hasn’t pitched since July 3, and there’s a legitimate question as to whether he ever should again. At the plate, Ohtani finished the season slashing .276/.377/.513 with 30 home runs, 81 RBIs and a wRC+ of 139. Most hitters would be thrilled with that line, but for baseball’s Superman, that qualifies as underwhelming. 

Judge will finish the season on the injured list thanks to a strained calf, ending his campaign with a whimper after posting pedestrian numbers for him. Barring a miracle recovery, he’ll finish the year slashing .241/.360/.511 with 18 home runs, 41 RBIs and a wRC+ of 141 in 66 games. Most players would kill for those numbers through 40% of the season, but they felt ordinary for the man who has mashed big league pitching for most of the last decade. 

It’s hard to pronounce their era of dominance over. But a changing of the guard might be at hand.

Mets infielder Bo Bichette was a below-average hitter in his first season in Queens. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

A Collapse in Queens

After a disappointing finish in 2025, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns set out to retool his team in the offseason. He made big trades, allowed a franchise icon to walk and signed a star free agent to a massive deal. The results have been disastrous. 

New York was officially eliminated from the playoffs on Sept. 14, and will finish the season occupying the cellar of the NL East. For a team built to contend for a World Series, the result has been stunning.

The biggest swings he took were swapping Brandon Nimmo for Marcus Semien, allowing Pete Alonso to walk in free agency and signing Bo Bichette to a three-year, $126 million contract. All three moves have backfired spectacularly, as Semien has struggled, Alonso led the American League with 43 home runs for the Orioles and Bichette’s wRC+ of 96 indicates he’s been a below-average big league hitter. The Mets’ biggest offseason bets somehow made a disappointing team even worse.

Manager Carlos Mendoza paid the price for Stearns’s moves, as he was fired in late June with the team floundering after a 34–47 start. His replacement, Andy Green, stabilized things a bit, but he still couldn’t salvage the season. The Mets nevertheless rewarded him with a three-year deal as the team’s permanent manager. 

New York had baseball’s highest payroll on Opening Day, as it shelled out more than $352 million for its roster. The season has been unacceptable given that level of spending. Stearns will be back in 2027. After this disaster, he’ll enter the offseason with little room for error.

The Rise of PCA

More than anyone, the 2026 season belonged to Pete Crow-Armstrong. After a coming-out party in 2025, the Cubs star center fielder kicked down the door to MLB stardom and made himself right at home.

Crow-Armstrong isn’t just going to win the NL MVP. He established himself as baseball’s best all-around player this season. Not only is he battling Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. for recognition as the best defender in the sport, he has also been the NL’s best hitter in 2026.

The 24-year-old ended the season’s final weekend hitting .280 with a .372 on-base percentage, leading MLB in home runs (45), runs (119), bWAR (9.8), fWAR (10.6) and OAA (25), as well as topping the NL in slugging (.570) and wRC+ (156). He also became the seventh member of baseball’s 40/40 club. The numbers don’t lie—he had an argument for being baseball’s best offensive and defensive player.

Crow-Armstrong didn’t just have a great season. He became a superstar.

The Falls of Cal and Vladdy

When the Mariners and Blue Jays were battling for the AL pennant last season, looking like the league’s new powers, no one would have predicted how quickly things would unravel. The two stars driving those franchises both fell off a cliff in 2026, taking their teams’ fortunes with them. 

Cal Raleigh was the toast of baseball last year, and was even named SI’s 2025 Breakout Star of the Year. The “Big Dumper” went toe-to-toe with Aaron Judge and nearly unseated him as AL MVP thanks to a historic 60-homer season. He posted a 161 wRC+ and led the AL in home runs and RBIs (125) while slashing .247/.359/.589. But he’s been utterly unrecognizable this year. 

Despite a late surge, Raleigh has limped through the 2026 campaign. He’ll finish the season slashing .182/.296/.368, with 23 home runs, 69 RBIs and a wRC+ of 93. He’s struck out in a shocking 31.0% of his plate appearances. It has been a season to forget for the 29-year-old catcher, but he hasn’t been alone in his stunning regression.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is in the process of wrapping up his worst big league season, and it has seemingly come from nowhere. He nearly dragged Toronto to a World Series title last October with one of the great postseason performances of all time. During those 18 playoff games, Guerrero slashed .397/.494/.795 with eight home runs, 15 RBIs and 14 walks against only seven strikeouts. That followed a regular season that earned him first team All-MLB honors. Like Raleigh, he simply hasn’t been the same guy in 2026. 

In 144 games this year, Guerrero posted full-season career lows in batting average (.260), on-base percentage (.332), slugging (.356) and wRC+ (95), while managing just nine home runs and 1.3 bWAR. He only has one more homer through those 144 games than he did in 18 playoff games last year, and didn’t hit his first home run in Toronto until Sept. 13. His light-hitting teammates Andrés Gimenez and Ernie Clement posted higher slugging percentages and hit the same amount of homers.

Two of the AL’s biggest stars became shells of themselves in 2026. It was an inexplicable fall for both, and it helped doom their respective teams.

Phillies pitcher Cristopher Sánchez may finish as the NL Cy Young Award runner-up for the second year running. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Red Sox, Phillies Stage Dramatic Comebacks

All offseason, the Red Sox and Phillies were expected to compete for World Series berths in 2026, but when both venerable franchises opened the season stumbling, most wrote them off. Boston and Philadelphia fired their managers within three days of each other, and suddenly everything changed. 

The Red Sox won a World Series under Alex Cora in 2018 and remained competitive during his tenure despite some up and down years. After a 10–17 start to the season, Boston pulled the plug, firing Cora and most of his coaching staff. The Red Sox replaced him with Chad Tracy in a move that drew puzzled reactions from the baseball world. Since the change, the Sox are 77–58 and have secured a playoff berth. Shows what we know. 

The Phillies had reached the playoffs in each of Rob Thomson’s first four seasons, but after starting 9–19, he was canned and Don Mattingly was brought in to replace him. A few months later, Philly is 79–55 on his watch after clinching a wild-card berth on the final day of the season.

Two seasons that once looked lost will now continue into October. Both teams flipped a switch after changing managers and have emerged as two of baseball’s best teams.

The Miz Becomes Baseball’s Ace

Jacob Misiorowski hit the majors like a Category 5 storm of velocity in mid-2025 and has only gained strength since. From the opening pitch of the ’26 campaign, The Miz has been virtually unhittable and, in the process, has become MLB’s unquestioned ace.

While several top pitchers took a step back in 2026, Misiorowski soared. He finished 16–5, leading all qualified MLB pitchers in ERA (1.80), WHIP (0.80), fWAR (6.4), strikeouts (252), strikeouts per nine innings (12.98), strikeout rate (38.2%) and average fastball velocity (a ridiculous 100.5 mph). If those numbers weren’t enough, his opponent batting average against (.157) ranks among the lowest ever recorded by a qualified starter in the modern era. He also regularly broke the record for the fastest pitch ever thrown by a big league starter. His current mark stands at 105.5 mph. 

Misiorowski is on the verge of winning the NL Cy Young Award in his first full big league season. What makes his campaign even more remarkable is that it came barely 15 months after his big league debut. 

The 24-year-old is just getting started and he still has room to improve his already excellent secondary offerings. It is genuinely scary that he has become this good this fast, and there’s no telling how much better he can get.

South Side Resurrection

In 2024, the White Sox lost a modern-era record 121 games. Two years later they’re a playoff team. Something incredible has happened on the South Side of Chicago. 

By clinching a postseason berth, the Sox have become the first team to follow three consecutive 100-loss seasons with a run to the playoffs. How did that happen? I’m not going to rule out divine intervention. Is it really a coincidence that, in the first full season after a White Sox fan was elected pope, the franchise has pulled a Lazarus and risen from the dead? 

There may actually be a few earthly explanations as well. Munetaka Murakami provided some much-needed thump, topping 30 home runs in his rookie season. Miguel Vargas and Colson Montgomery have joined him in that club as the White Sox have gone from 27th in runs scored last year to fifth in 2026. On the pitching side, Sean Burke became a legit No. 1 starter, Grant Taylor is an elite reliever, and former first-rounder Hagen Smith arrived to help the bullpen. 

FanGraphs gave the White Sox a 1.1% chance of making the playoffs before the season. It didn’t take a huge spending spree to turn things around. Chicago developed internally, made smart additions like Murakami and improved across the roster. 

Two years after a record level of futility, October baseball is back on the South Side. Maybe Pope Leo XIV had nothing to do with it. Then again…

Astros designated hitter Yordan Alvarez led the majors with a .316 batting average. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Yordan Chasing History

A batting Triple Crown is one of the rarest things in baseball, and one man got remarkably close to one in 2026. Astros DH Yordan Álvarez entered the season’s final weekend in striking distance of becoming just the second big leaguer to accomplish the feat since 1967, and while he ultimately fell one home run and seven RBIs short, the fact it was even within the realm of possibility in the final week is impressive in itself.

Miguel Cabrera won a Triple Crown in 2012, becoming the first to do so since Carl Yastrzemski 45 years earlier. Álvarez led all big leaguers in batting average (.316) and finished with 42 home runs, one behind Baltimore’s Pete Alonso, and 106 RBIs, seven behind Alonso.

Outside of the Triple Crown stats, Álvarez leads MLB hitters in on-base percentage (.432), slugging (.601), OPS (1.033), walks (109) and wRC+ (181). And he’s done that on a Houston team that hasn’t given him much help. As a team, the Astros rank 13th in runs scored. Álvarez has carried them into the playoffs by the skin of their teeth. 

His outstanding 2026 campaign comes after being limited to just 48 games by a series of injuries last season. A year later, he has put together the best campaign of his career and will end it by winning his first MVP Award.

The Best Rookie Class in a Generation

Entering 2026, we knew a truly excellent group of rookies was poised to join the big league ranks. We hyped them before the season, and this class has not disappointed. It has been the best rookie class in a generation. 

Kevin McGonigle has been the group’s premier performer this season. Our No. 2 prospect entering the campaign, the Tigers infielder has exceeded the lofty expectations surrounding him. In 156 games, he has slashed .278/.376/.430, with 18 home runs, 72 RBIs, 97 runs and a 130 wRC+. He ranked fifth in baseball in bWAR (6.9) and 12th among hitters in fWAR (5.2). 

But McGonigle isn’t alone. Cardinals second baseman JJ Wetherholt has posted a 4.4 bWAR season, Reds first baseman Sal Stewart had 111 RBIs and Royals catcher Carter Jensen mashed 25 homers. Mets hurler Nolan McLean neared 200 strikeouts, Guardians lefty Parker Messick logged a 2.56 ERA and Red Sox hoss Payton Tolle became a frontline starter. International rookies Munetaka Murakami and Kazuma Okamoto both topped 30 home runs, while Travis Bazzana, Carson Benge, Konnor Griffin and Chase DeLauter all made immediate impacts.

The 2015 rookie class featured Kris Bryant, Francisco Lindor, Carlos Correa, Kyle Schwarber, Noah Syndergaard and more. This year’s group has topped that one for instant impact, and the long-term potential is sky-high. 

Baseball’s next generation arrived in force this season and made a historic first impression. As the sport prepares for big changes, the 2026 rookie class will lead the charge into the future.

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