MLB's 10 biggest surprises 2 months into season

The two-month mark of the MLB season is usually when the contenders begin to separate from the pretenders, and most of those early mirages fade away for good. However, some of those surprises are very real from a team and individual standpoint. Let's look at 10 of the biggest shocks from the first two months of the 2025 campaign.

Aaron Judge

Judge being great isn't a surprise. It's how great he's been that's the shocker. Even the most optimistic fans couldn't have predicted the reigning AL MVP flirting with .400 this late into the season. He's currently hitting .398 and was above the magic mark as recently as May 21. Judge also tops the majors in all four slash categories (.398/.492/.756/1.248), plus leads the AL in homers (18) and hits (80). Remarkably, he's on pace to shatter Babe Ruth's single-season record of 457 total bases, untouched since 1921. Judge is one homer and two RBIs short of leading all three Triple Crown categories.

St. Louis Cardinals

Left for dead by most before the campaign started, Oliver Marmol's Cardinals have defied the odds and sit one game out of a wild-card spot. Despite not having a single player with 10 home runs, St. Louis' plus-40 run differential helps confirm that the club isn't going away any time soon. NL hits leader Brendan Donovan and catcher Iván Herrera are leading a revitalized offense, while Matthew Liberatore is finally realizing his potential as an ace by authoring a quietly stellar breakout season. Not bad for a team that was actively trying to start a rebuild in January.

AL Divisional power

The balance of power has shifted dramatically in the American League. If the season ended today, three of the five AL Central teams - the division widely pegged to be baseball's worst - would make the playoffs. This isn't a case of beating up on the White Sox, either. The Tigers, last year's Cinderella story, own the AL's best record. The Twins clawed back into the race with a 16-6 May, highlighted by a 13-game winning streak. They're tied with Cleveland for the top AL wild-card spot, with the Royals one percentage point behind the Houston Astros for the No. 6 seed. By contrast, the juggernaut AL East has mostly fallen off a cliff. Outside of the 33-20 Yankees, only one of the other squads - the Tampa Bay Rays - are above .500. Injuries and inconsistency - and sometimes downright poor play - have left the division's other four teams barely clinging to relevancy.

Nathan Eovaldi

The 35-year-old has turned back the clock with a fantastic start that has him in the thick of the AL Cy Young conversation. Eovaldi owns the Junior Circuit's lowest WHIP, is tied for fourth in fWAR, sits third in ERA, and has thrown one shutout. He's also in the top 10 in several other important categories. His 9.5 K/9 marks his best rate since 2021, when he finished fourth in AL Cy Young voting. Long considered a good pitcher but hardly an ace, especially in a rotation featuring names like Jacob deGrom, Eovaldi is pitching like a frontline starter.

Baltimore Orioles

A team many picked to win its division finds itself with the AL's second-worst record and a managerial firing in the books. Plagued by a listless offense and a pitching staff in shambles, the Orioles have been a massive disappointment this year. The numbers paint a grim picture: Baltimore ranks 25th in runs scored, 20th in OPS, and owns a league-worst minus-92 run differential. But as bad as the bats have been, the pitching has been even rougher. The Orioles' 5.47 ERA and .272 opponent average are worst in the AL - only the Rockies have a higher team ERA. They've also allowed an MLB-high 84 home runs. Tomoyuki Sugano is their only starter with an ERA below 4.00, while free-agent addition Charlie Morton has morphed almost overnight from a helpful starter to arguably one of baseball's most inefficient arms. The depth of Baltimore's collapse has been so stark that it might be the most shocking development of the entire season thus far.

Báez's renaissance

Four years into what's been a disastrous contract, the Tigers are finally getting some production out of Javier Báez in ways they couldn't have imagined. The former Gold Glove shortstop easily transitioned to center field, making several highlight-reel plays at his new position and stabilizing an area of need for Detroit. He's also started hitting again, as his .286/.321/.468 slash line is by far his best since 2021. And he seems to have rediscovered the energy and flair that made him a fan favorite in Chicago. It's only May, and Báez may have already clinched AL Comeback Player of the Year honors. Who saw that coming? Certainly not the Tigers.

Atlanta Braves

Here's another team that entered the season among the most popular playoff picks and has instead fallen flat. The Braves dug themselves a massive hole early with an 0-7 start, made worse by losing top offseason addition Jurickson Profar to an 80-game PED suspension during the slide. Ace Spencer Strider returned from elbow surgery in April, only to immediately get hurt again. Atlanta's situation isn't as bad as Baltimore's, but it's far from ideal. The Braves clawed back to within .500 range, and with Strider and Ronald Acuña Jr. healthy again, there's optimism. However, history isn't on their side. No club has ever reached October after starting a year 0-7. This isn't where anybody expected Atlanta to be.

Colorado Rockies

The 2025 Rockies are the inverse of Judge: it's not that they're bad, it's how bad they are. Colorado's 8-42 start marks the worst record through the first 50 contests of a campaign since the 1895 Louisville Colonels. The team sits dead last in almost every meaningful statistic on both sides of the ball and has already endured three separate eight-game losing streaks. The Rockies have won consecutive outings just once and are still looking for their first series victory. They've also been shut out eight times, including a historic 21-0 drubbing that led to manager Bud Black's firing. The change hasn't helped, as they're 2-12 under interim skipper Warren Schaeffer. Colorado's on pace to finish with 135 losses, which would surpass the 1899 Cleveland Spiders' single-season record.

Mets starting pitching

The rotation was supposed to be the Mets' undoing. Instead, it's been the reason New York has kept pace with the Phillies in the NL East. Even without Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas, and Paul Blackburn, the Mets' starters boast MLB's lowest ERA (2.84) and have surrendered the fewest homers (21) of any rotation. David Peterson and Griffin Canning have been revelations, while converted reliever Clay Holmes has seamlessly transitioned to a starting role. Meanwhile, Kodai Senga has bounced back from missing most of last season to post an NL-best 1.46 ERA. This rotation is serving notice to the rest of the NL that the Mets aren't to be taken lightly.

Pete Crow-Armstrong

There was always a ton of hype around Crow-Armstrong as a prospect, but even the most optimistic Cubs fans likely didn't see this coming. The 23-year-old leads the NL in fWAR (3.1), trailing only Aaron Judge across all of baseball. With 14 homers and 14 steals already in the bag, Crow-Armstrong is flying toward the Cubs' first 30-30 season since Sammy Sosa in 1995 - and a 40-40 campaign might not be out of the question. He's also playing elite defense: his nine outs above average lead all center fielders, and he ranks in the 94th percentile for arm strength. The sky seems to be the limit for Crow-Armstrong and his NL Central-leading Cubs.