It really does take an entire 26-man roster and – as managers and executives will tell you – roughly 50 players worth of organizational depth to create a playoff team.
But some players’ performances are more crucial than others.
As this 2025 Major League Baseball season gets underway, USA TODAY Sports examines 30 make-or-break players whose bouncebacks or steady stat lines may determine their franchise’s fate over the next six months:
American League
Baltimore Orioles: C Adley Rutschman
For all the All-Star talent the Orioles added in recent years (Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg) and those likely on their way to that status (Jackson Holliday, Samuel Basallo) Rutschman remains their bell cow. His .194/.278/.564 line the final three months of the season coincided with Baltimore’s fade from a slim AL East lead to a quick and quiet wild-card exit. He’s shown a revamped approach with good results this spring and, at 27, remains in his offensive prime.
Boston Red Sox: RHP Walker Buehler
We’re assuming the best for this club: That marquee acquisitions Garrett Crochet and Alex Bregman have Cy Young and MVP-caliber seasons, that the rookie triplets Kristian Campbell, Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer contribute significantly, and soon. That still leaves a significant question about the rest of the starting rotation, which will start the year with three arms (Brayan Bello, Lucas Giolito and Kutter Crawford) on the injured list. Buehler, signed to a one-year deal, feels like the swing guy in their fortunes. He had a feast-famine aspect to his starts last year, when he pitched 75 innings and posted a 5.38 ERA in his first season back from a second Tommy John surgery. Yet he finished with two scoreless starts in the playoffs and famously recorded the final out of the year. He should nudge his innings count up and his ERA down, the extent to which may determine Boston’s fate.
Chicago White Sox: 3B Miguel Vargas
At one time a top-30 prospect, Vargas went from scant opportunity with the Dodgers to the endless onramp afforded young players in a moribund franchise. With the White Sox headed toward another 100-loss season while buttressing its farm system through trades and high draft picks, it’s imperative they produce some player development wins. Vargas, 25, acquired in the three-way deal that dealt away Michael Kopech, Erick Fedde and Tommy Pham, had a rough go in his two-month South Side audition, producing a .104/.217/.170 line in 157 plate appearances. For better or worse, he’s a decent test case for whether the White Sox are simply accruing prospects or have the capability to turn them into finished products.
Cleveland Guardians: RHP Gavin Williams
Perhaps no team must steer into its identity more than the Guardians. As such, a team that won its division despite ranking 17th in OPS made 38-year-old DH Carlos Santana its marquee offseason acquisition. Hey, why change now? As always, the Guardians must have excellent and preferably affordable starting pitching. Cue Williams. An elbow injury delayed his 2024 debut until July and the results were predictably uneven, all the way through a thumping by the Yankees in the ALCS. Now, he is healthy and looking every bit like a guy ready to build off a strong 2023 rookie season. With longtime ace Shane Bieber unlikely to return from Tommy John rehab until perhaps midseason, Williams can be a crucial bridge from No. 1 starter Tanner Bibee to promising right-hander Luis Ortiz. It’s also not out of the question the 6-foot-6 Williams finds another level of dominance and assumes the ace mantle himself. That’d be a very Guardians outcome.
Detroit Tigers: 2B Gleyber Torres
Goodness, what a fine piece of real estate to occupy: Batting third between a pair of potent left-handed bats in Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter, who posted .832 and .927 OPS, respectively, last year. Now, it’s on Torres to make it all go and at 28, he still has plenty of offensive prime left. His final season in the Bronx was a typically Gleyberish mixed bag, with a .307 first-half OBP preceding a 48-game finishing stretch with a .372 OBP and .790 OPS. He backed that up with a largely clutch postseason. But like their AL Central brethren Guardians, the Tigers are a pitching-dominated group (they finished 23rd in OPS in 2024) and after whiffing on Alex Bregman and demoting prospect Jace Jung, Torres is their best chance at upgrading this number. While Greene, Carpenter, Colt Keith and perhaps Spencer Torkelson represent strong chances for young hitters to take more steps forward, Torres must be a viable lineup hub in the middle of it all.
Houston Astros: INF Isaac Paredes
Hey, no dancing around the elephant in the room: Dude is getting the job of the franchise stalwart they didn’t re-sign. And he was acquired for a Silver Slugger in the peak of his career. OK, so the pressure of making up for the losses of Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker doesn’t fall entirely on the shoulders of Paredes, 26. And the Tucker trade can be won if slugging prospect Cam Smith pans out. Yet the Astros are expecting Paredes to consistently populate the Crawford Boxes at the former Minute Maid Park with baseballs, his new digs hopefully clawing back the 100-point loss in OPS he suffered last season. Hitting between potential Hall of Famers Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvárez should help that cause.
Kansas City Royals: RHP Carlos Estévez
Hey, who isn’t pumped for the AL Central race? The Royals might be the most complete team of all, but that’s assuming all their parts are in place and firing properly. Enter Estévez. Kansas City doled out a two-year, $22 million deal to land the former Rockies, Angels and Phillies closer, enabling the dominant Lucas Erceg to be deployed in the highest-leverage spots in earlier innings. But Estévez, 32, saw his strikeouts per nine innings drop by one and save percentage dip from 87 to 75 after his trade to Philadelphia, and gave up a huge postseason grand slam to Francisco Lindor. Keeping his footing as the Royals’ ninth-inning guy would significantly align the arms that come before him.
Los Angeles Angels: RF Mike Trout
Yes, that’s Right Fielder Mike Trout, signifying his new station in life. Trout, 33, was always a player who transcended the listicle, but after injuries limited him to 147 games in three of the past four seasons, he’s more of a working stiff like the rest of us. You know him well. It would be nice if he simply stayed healthy.
Minnesota Twins: RF Matt Wallner
It’s almost like the Twins have been stashing this guy only to unleash him on the world this year. Wallner played 67 games at Class AAA the past two seasons but check out his numbers over his 169 career major league games: 29 homers, 31 doubles, an .866 OPS. Now, the Twins are quietly licking their chops that he can become a Schwarberian leadoff man, his massive power and on-base acumen (.379 in five minor-league seasons, .366 with the Twins) overcomes his career 35% major league strikeout rate. Trimming that K rate and rattling the Target Field walls would greatly augment a lineup already missing Royce Lewis due to injury.
New York Yankees: Carlos Rodón
Rodón’s number of games started the past seven full seasons is a real seesaw ride: 20, 7, 24, 31, 14, 32. Those last two numbers represent his years as a Yankee, when he began his six-year, $162 million deal with an injury-plagued, subpar campaign but then came back with a solid season of health and prosperity and playoff reliability. Now, the Yankees simply can’t afford Rodón to continue that yo-yo. With Gerrit Cole off to Tommy John rehab, Luis Gil on the shelf a couple months and various Clarke Schmidt body parts barking, Rodón is both their Opening Day starter and needed horse. He and Max Fried aren’t enough, but minus a dominant Rodón, the defending pennant winners could get lost in the AL East sauce.
Athletics (Sacramento): 2B Zack Gelof
While owner John Fisher still seeks some $550 million in minority investment to finance their proposed ballpark in Las Vegas, the club has at least started to spend a few bucks on the roster while wishcasting their new yard into reality. Speaking of which, it was a year ago when a possibly accurate stadium rendering featured Gelof on the outfield scoreboard. Perhaps that was a jinx: His OPS tumbled from .840 his rookie year to .632 with an AL-high 188 strikeouts. A bounceback year from Gelof would solidify a nice and club-controlled core alongside Brent Rooker, Lawrence Butler Jr. and perhaps J.J. Bleday for their four years in Yolo County.
Seattle Mariners: CF Julio Rodríguez
After ownership’s response to an offense that ranked in the bottom third in almost every major statistical category was to add Donovan Solano and retain Jorge Polanco, it’s clear these Mariners’ fate lied in improvement from within. And while on paper the Mariners’ flaccid lineup will again betray its fabulous pitching staff, their resident superstar performing as such would go a long way toward preventing that. Rodríguez’s 2022 debut saw him post a 147 adjusted OPS and 5.5% home run rate while winning Rookie of the Year; in 2024, those tumbled all the way to 116 and 3.3%. The neighborhood around him isn’t getting any better: The club believes reclamation project Victor Robles can be a viable leadoff man all season long, while platoon situations will toss veterans Mitch Haniger, Mitch Garver, Polanco and Rowdy Tellez into an irregular and seemingly ineffective mix. So yes, a lot rides on Rodríguez’s 24-year-old shoulders.
Tampa Bay Rays: OF Josh Lowe
For one year, the Rays will be playing in a Yankee Stadium replica fueled by extreme humidity, baseballs whizzing out of their home ballpark as the summer creeps in. Sounds like a great time for a lefty slugger to bounce back from injury and take advantage of Steinbrenner Field’s 314-foot right field wall, eh? Enter Lowe, 27, who was dogged by an oblique strain from the jump and played in just 102 games last year, his adjusted OPS dropping from 128 to 98. With several starters returning from injury, the Rays are expected to pitch excellently, per usual. Offense has always been an issue, but perhaps their temporary Tampa yard can jump-start a few guys – and Lowe can realize the potential the Rays have been excited about for years.
Texas Rangers: CF Evan Carter
Carter was a microcosm of the Rangers’ fate in both 2023 and 2024, fueling their World Series title run with a startling display of offensive acumen, only to be hampered by injury the following season. A back injury limited him to just 45 games, casting some doubt on his roster security entering this spring, and he may share time with the switch-hitting Leody Taveras. Yet the Rangers are at their best when he’s both in the lineup and patrolling his piece of the outfield. If he’s healthy and productive, the lineup lengthens and the club’s depth is buttressed greatly.
Toronto Blue Jays: SS Bo Bichette
Talk about a symbiotic relationship: Bo Bichette needs a big year to shore up his pending free agency, and the Blue Jays are dying for better offensive production after a collective lineup funk put them in a 12-game hole by Memorial Day. While most of the attention has been cast toward Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s contract extension impasse, Bichette, 27, played in 81 games due to a calf injury and a broken middle finger, and he was bad (.225/.277/.322) when he was on the field. But this “last dance” element to the Jays’ season is fascinating, particularly as it concerns their shortstop, who can paint 2024 as an ugly aberration and get back into the nine-figure contract game with a third All-Star caliber season.
National League
Arizona Diamondbacks: RHP Zac Gallen
The bold-faced names in Arizona’s rotation stack up against almost anyone; in Gallen and $210 million free agent Corbin Burnes, they feature right-handers who started the past two All-Star Games. Yet Gallen will need to reverse a little slippage he experienced in 2024. A hamstring injury limited him to 28 starts, while a handful of key metrics – most notably a dip in strikeout-walk ratio from 4.68 to 2.79 – moved in the wrong direction. He’s also a free agent after this season, and a strong platform year would dovetail nicely with the D’backs giving the Dodgers a strong challenge for the NL West title.
Atlanta Braves: 1B Matt Olson
In Atlanta, an injury-ravaged year still means 89 wins and a playoff berth. And so many of last year’s ailing stars – Spencer Strider, Austin Riley, Michael Harris II and eventually Ronald Acuña Jr. – will be back and close to full go. Olson? Well, he played in 162 games yet again, because that’s what he does. But he’d surely prefer a return to even two-thirds of his 2023 self in 2025. One year after leading the majors in homers and RBI (54, 139) and the NL in slugging (.604), those numbers fell off to 29, 98 and .457, the first time since 2018 Olson failed to hit 30 homers in a full season. Olson’s hard-hit percentage was a career-low 47.3, down from 55.6. If anything else, momentum is on his side: Olson produced a .966 OPS in his final 56 games.
Chicago Cubs: RHP Porter Hodge
He’s wedged between 36-year-old Ryan Pressly and 37-year-old Ryan Brasier in the Cubs bullpen. And after an excellent debut in 2024, Hodge, 24, should be due to take the next step in his development as a top-flight reliever. He racked up nine saves in 40 appearances while posting a 0.88 WHIP, giving up just two homers in 43 innings. Hodge generated swings and misses on more than half the sweepers he threw, and finished the season unscored upon in 18 of his final 19 outings. Hodge might not be the closer in name at Wrigley Field, but he could be their most indispensable arm.
Cincinnati Reds: LHP Nick Lodolo
There are more pressing questions to sort in the near term, such as shaky closer Alexis Diaz or how to best integrate winter trade acquisition Gavin Lux at several positions. But the significant and real hope the Reds bring into this year still hinges on being able to outpitch opponents. And a healthy Lodolo would be a difference-maker. Injuries have limited him to just 47 starts since his 2022 debut, with four IL placements last year and a left tibia fracture impacting his past two seasons. Despite all the starts and stops, he’s been effective, recording an average of 16 outs per start and averaging 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings.
Colorado Rockies: CF Brenton Doyle
“Pivotal player” and “Rockies” is something of a misnomer until the franchise proves it has aspirations beyond winning, say, 70 games. Doyle, though, presents a rare opportunity: Completing the leap from solid player to superstar. He was a 4-win performer last year, now owns two Gold Gloves and paired 23 homers with 30 stolen bases. At 26, a 30-30 season is within reach for Doyle, and pairing that with improving upon a .260/.317/.446 line could give the Rockies their perennial All-Star.
Los Angeles Dodgers: INF/OF Tommy Edman
This dude was so good last year. Injuries delayed Edman’s debut to Aug. 19, by which time he’d been traded from St. Louis, and he blew up in the playoffs, with a .328 average, .860 OPS, two homers, 13 RBIs and an NLCS MVP trophy. And after signing a five-year, $60 million extension, Edman’s gone from great postseason story to indispensable piece. Sure, the Dodgers really are so deep that a lot can go wrong and things will still be all right. Yet Edman is so intrinsically tied to the Dodgers’ depth at multiple positions. His continued good health will make the club that much harder to beat.
Miami Marlins: RHP Sandy Alcántara
Hard not to feel mildly cynical and highly transactional about this team, so let’s get to it: Alcántara has looked great and has been unscored upon in spring training, his fastball reliably 99 mph as he looks fully operational after 2023 Tommy John surgery. So his reasonable contract, an additional year of team control and Cy Young resume would fetch a haul at July’s trade deadline. Somehow, the Marlins are back in the position of tearing down to build back up again – and a dominant Alcántara leads the way in that venture, too.
Milwaukee Brewers: LHP Nestor Cortes
Whether it’s David Stearns or Matt Arnold atop the Brewers’ executive pyramid, there’s always an “And now, for my next trick…” element to their roster construction. Trading Corbin Burnes and winning the NL Central anyway was pretty neat last year. This time? How about dealing All-Star closer Devin Williams to the Yankees and slotting Cortes toward the top of the rotation? Nasty Nestor was pretty solid in 2024, making 30 starts, consuming 174 ⅓ innings with a 1.15 WHIP. The Brewers would absolutely take that. Yet Cortes has never posted consecutive 100-plus innings seasons. With Brandon Woodruff returning from a year-plus absence due to shoulder surgery and Tobias Myers felled with an oblique, the Brewers will need that.
New York Mets: RHP Kodai Senga
Manager Carlos Mendoza bottom-lined it after Senga’s most recent incident-free spring start: “If he’s healthy, he’s an ace. We need that.” Particularly after injuries to Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas shelved them for the foreseeable future, and Opening Day starter Clay Holmes is converting from reliever. The Mets made the NLCS despite Senga’s shoulder strain that limited him to three starts, including the postseason. He was a 2023 All-Star. If his Ghost Fork is dipping and his health agrees with him, elbowing past the Braves and Phillies in the NL East is a possibility.
Philadelphia Phillies: RF Nick Castellanos
Those raucous Phillies are getting older: Six of their nine everyday players are between 31 and 34 years old, and even third baseman Alec Bohm turns 29 this year. Castellanos? At 33, he’s far from washed, and played in every single game last year as if to prove it. This year, the Phillies need just a little more quality regardless of quantity: His homers slipped from 29 to 23, his OPS from .788 to .742, his hard-hit rate from 43.3% to 38.2%. He’ll need to cash in opportunities from the five hole this year.
Pittsburgh Pirates: RHP Bubba Chandler
Wait, so a dude already shipped to the minor leagues who has just seven Class AAA starts under his belt is the pivotal player? Well, the Pirates aren’t your typical outfit. Their multi-decade boycott of the free agent market puts them behind the curve, and growing dominant starting pitchers seems to be their best way to get around this problem. Paul Skenes is in place. Jared Jones was practically there but now faces the dreaded spring elbow MRI shuffle. Enter Chandler, a consensus top 15 prospect who has been leveling up his secondary offerings to complement a 98-ish mph fastball. He’ll probably need at least half a season at Indianapolis to be Pittsburgh-ready. But completing that leap would go a long way toward expediting a PNC Park turnaround.
San Diego Padres: INF Jose Iglesias
OK, this is a 60% vibes-based selection. But lest we forget, Iglesias did not join the Mets until June, produced a .337/.381/.448 line and racked up 3.1 WAR, which was really the biggest OMG of all. In San Diego? Iglesias will DH, clean up some leftovers on the infield and hopefully usher in good tidings to a team that could use some. The Padres were World Series-caliber and had the Dodgers on the ropes in the NLDS, only to squander a 2-1 lead and return to an uncertain future. The trick this year: Stay viable and make sure pending free agent pitchers Dylan Cease and Michael King stay put. Having Iglesias from the jump should help.
San Francisco Giants: SS Willy Adames
Not a shock the guy with the franchise-record $182 million deal will matter. But it’s imperative the charismatic infielder not do too much in his first season by the Bay. Playing in a pitcher’s park, Adames’ home run total will almost surely diminish from the 32 he hit in Milwaukee. Playing alongside Matt Chapman, the Giants may have the best left side of the infield in the game. The greatest Giants teams always significantly skew toward pitching and defense. Adames will hopefully realize just being himself is enough.
St. Louis: 3B Nolan Arenado
The never-say-die narrative rumbles into the regular season. Simply, the better Arenado plays, the easier it will be for the Cardinals to trade him – and, perhaps, the less money they’ll have to assume in the deal and the better prospects they may get in return. St. Louis may not be able to have its cake and eat it too – getting someone to assume most of the $74 million (or whatever the amount is at the time of a trade) owed him and also receiving good players. An Arenado offensive renaissance – even for just two months – would help all that.
Washington Nationals: LHP MacKenzie Gore
Make no mistake: The Nationals got a great return in their 2022 trade of Juan Soto to the Padres. Their starting shortstop (CJ Abrams) and left fielder (James Wood) on Opening Day is evidence enough. Yet the guy taking the mound against Philadelphia is the one who can truly make it a franchise-altering transaction. Gore, 26, made strides in 2024, striking out 181 and completing at least six innings in 11 of his 32 starts. Yet command and efficiency still elude him: Gore made 10 starts where he threw at least 90 pitches yet did not pitch beyond the fifth inning and had a 1.42 WHIP. Gore’s complete ascension to ace would significantly move the Nationals closer to legit contender status.
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