MLB midseason superlatives

Through the first three and a half months of the 2024 MLB season, Major League Baseball has seen new faces emerge, old faces fall and rise and memorable things have emerged aplenty.

Best player: Aaron Judge, OF, New York Yankees

If Judge’s April, which was sluggish for him, was to be taken away, he might top his MVP season of 2022 in which he hit an American League record 62 home runs.

Judge’s May was something to behold, as he slashed .361/.479/.918 with 14 homers.

A Triple Crown seems unlikely, as the Cleveland Guardians’ Steven Kwan is batting .352 compared to Judge’s .306, but that shouldn’t stain what Judge has done to put the Yankees in striking distance of the AL East lead.

Judge leads the major leagues with 6.4 WAR, 34 home runs and 85 RBIs.

Honorable mentions: Shohei Ohtani, DH, Los Angeles Dodgers and Gunnar Henderson, SS Baltimore Orioles

Best pitcher: Tarik Skubal, LHP, Detroit Tigers

Skubal has improved every season since making his major league debut in 2020, culminating in his first All-Star selection.

Skubal’s excellent four-seam fastball highlights his repertoire, combining it with a sinker and slider he primarily uses against left-handed batters as well as a changeup.

Leading the American League with a 2.41 earned run average and all pitchers with 4.5 WAR, Skubal is one of the few memorable players on a Tigers squad that is fourth in the AL Central.

Honorable mentions: Garrett Crochet, LHP, Chicago White Sox and Paul Skenes, RHP, Pittsburgh Pirates

Best rookie: Paul Skenes, RHP, Pittsburgh Pirates

Since being called up to the major leagues on May 8, Skenes has been nothing short of dominant for the Bucs.

In his first 11 major league starts, Skenes has given up no more than three earned runs in a single start and has struck out at least eight batters in eight of them.

Skenes, the 2024 All-Star Game starting pitcher for the National League, also has two no-hit outings of at least six innings, and he is the only player in Baseball Reference’s database to have multiple such starts as a rookie.

With Mitch Keller and fellow rookie Jared Jones, Skenes is part of Pittsburgh's great young pitching staff and the team is 48-48 at the All-Star break.

Honorable mentions: Jackson Merrill, OF, San Diego Padres and Luis Gil, RHP, New York Yankees.

Best team: Philadelphia Phillies

The Phillies lead the major leagues with 62 wins and eight All-Star selections, the latter tied for a major league record.

The Phillies have shown that they can beat teams in various ways, as their pitching staff ranks second in the majors with a 3.41 ERA and their offense ranks fourth in runs scored.

Philadelphia has also shown it can handle adversity, as the team was without All-Star shortstop Trea Turner for about a month and a half and Kyle Schwarber and 2015 and 2021 NL MVP Bryce Harper for about two weeks.

Catcher J.T. Realmuto has also been out for about a month and a half, but the Phillies are still rolling and close to full strength.

Honorable mentions: The Cleveland Guardians and the Baltimore Orioles.

Worst team: Chicago White Sox

The White Sox, who sit at 27-71, are on pace to finish with the most losses in the franchise’s 124-year history and three losses fewer than the 1962 New York Mets, the holders of the most losses in a single season in Major League Baseball.

Southside ranks last in the majors with 313 runs scored, 23 less than the second-worst team, the Miami Marlins, and the pitching staff’s ERA is fourth-worst in the game at 4.57.

The White Sox will be looking to sell what they can before the July 30 trade deadline, including starting pitchers Crochet and Erick Fedde and outfielders Tommy Pham and Luis Robert Jr., who has been a franchise cornerstone since his rookie season.

Honorable mentions: The Colorado Rockies and the Miami Marlins.

Biggest surprise: The AL Central

The AL Central has had only one team with a record above .500 in each of the last three seasons, but in 2024 it looks like that will change.

Three teams in the division are above .500 as of the 2024 All-Star break, and its leader, the Guardians, lead the American League with a .611 winning percentage.

The Minnesota Twins, 2023’s AL Central champions, are in the second wild-card position at 54-42, and the Kansas City Royals, who have not finished above .500 since 2015, are only two games out of a wild-card spot at 52-45.

The Tigers have a chance to finish with their first winning season since 2016, as they are only three games under .500, but White Sox fans will want to forget the 2024 season.

Honorable mentions: Jurickson Profar, OF, San Diego Padres and Reynaldo López and Chris Sale, RHP and LHP, Atlanta Braves.

Biggest disappointment: Corbin Carroll, OF, Arizona Diamondbacks

Carroll, the 2023 NL Rookie of the Year, has seen his play decline sharply in 2024, which is what the Diamondbacks have not needed as they attempt to defend their NL title.

In 2023, Carroll slugged .506, good for 11th in the league, but in 2024, he’s slugging just .334, now fifth-worst in the league, and the decline is especially apparent against breaking pitches.

Carroll still runs well, but he also hasn’t been able to get on base as often, which has led to a decline in stolen bases from 54 in 2023 to 18 in 2024.

In a crowded National League wild-card race, Carroll turning around his play would be a boon for the Diamondbacks.

Honorable mentions: Toronto Blue Jays and Blake Snell, LHP, San Francisco Giants.

Best miscellaneous: José “Candelita” Iglesias’ hit song, “OMG”

In an up-and-down Mets season that saw the Grimace era begin around mid-June, the Mets have also rallied behind one of their players’ musical prowess.

Iglesias, a Cuban-American Mets infielder, sang his song “OMG” at Citi Field after the Mets’ game against the Houston Astros on June 28 and on Monday at the All-Star Game festivities in Arlington, Texas.

On June 29, “OMG” became the No. 1 Latin song on iTunes and it debuted on a Billboard ranking atop its Latin Digital Song Sales chart on July 10.

“OMG” has also become a sign used in home run celebrations for the Mets.

Honorable mentions: New York Mets’ “Grimace Era” and Kansas City Royals’ “The Boys are Playin’ Some Ball.”

Owen Klein is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email ojk5092@psu.edu.