A torrid 10- or 12-game stretch to open the season offers no guarantees. But it does offer hope.
Hot streaks can raise expectations to an unfair degree and lead to disappointment down the line. They can also signal that big things are ahead.
Figuring out which is which is no easy task, but that was the challenge posed to a group of writers from MLB.com and Yahoo Sports, who teamed up to select six hitters whose excellent early performances they’re actually buying.
These are the strong starts that we expect to stand the test of time in 2025.
Michael Conforto, OF, Dodgers
I was bullish on Conforto as one of the more underrated free-agent position players available last winter after his strong finish to the season (.880 OPS over final 44 games) and lengthy track record of production at the plate. His underlying metrics in 2024 suggested that he was a lot closer to the All-Star version of himself than his surface-level numbers indicated and that a move away from hitter-unfriendly Oracle Park could do wonders.
Conforto’s one-year, $17 million deal with L.A. flew under the radar relative to some of the higher-profile Dodgers moves in the offseason, but he has fit in quite nicely as the lone new face in the defending champs’ lineup. His surprising success against southpaws last season (.886 OPS) has yet to translate (1-for-11), but he has looked plenty dangerous against right-handers, helping to bolster an offense that we haven’t yet seen at full strength. Conforto is taking his walks, hitting for power and giving pitching staffs another impact bat to think about once they get beyond the MVPs.
It’s probably a bit of a stretch to expect Conforto to have the level of impact that Teoscar Hernández did on his one-year deal last year, but I like his chances of sustaining an above-average batting line for L.A. all season, even if it goes relatively unnoticed on a roster full of superstars. — Jordan Shusterman, Yahoo Sports
Wilyer Abreu, OF, Red Sox
OK, so Abreu probably isn’t going to lead MLB in OPS all season. But there are multiple reasons to believe his hot start isn’t a fluke, even if his outrageous numbers — he entered Wednesday with a .412/.524/.765 slash — are bound to fall.
For one, this isn’t coming entirely out of nowhere. Although Abreu’s defense drew more attention than his offense during his rookie season, in which he earned a Gold Glove Award in right field, he was also solidly above average as a hitter, finishing with a 114 OPS+. That came with some promising contact-quality metrics, too, including a max exit velocity of 114.4 mph, a hard-hit rate of 50.5% and a pulled airball rate of 22.9% — all figures that hint at some impressive power potential.
The early results this season suggest that Abreu is poised to build on that success, with better swing decisions not only allowing him to tap into that power more often but also helping him reach base at a much higher clip. — Thomas Harrigan, MLB.com
Spencer Torkelson, 1B, Tigers
For most of last season, the former No. 1 overall draft pick was trending toward bust — or, at the very least, bust-adjacent. But Torkelson looks like a different hitter so far this season, much closer to the generational slugger he looked to be coming out of Arizona State in 2020.
Mechanically, Torkelson’s swing is much more connected and better sequenced than in years past. And most importantly, he’s pulling the ball in the air and doing so with authority. He was previously above average in that very telling metric. So far this season, his 39.1% pulled in the air rate is ninth in baseball.
Last year, it took “Tork” 190 plate appearances to hit his third home run. This year, he reached that milestone in 47 trips to the dish. This is tracking like a meaningful breakout based on a) the swing alterations and b) the prospect track record. — Jake Mintz, Yahoo Sports
Corbin Carroll, OF, Diamondbacks
Carroll entered Wednesday with four home runs, hitting .304 with a .696 slugging percentage. His numbers look a lot more like his 2023 Rookie of the Year campaign so far than last year’s. He seems to have added extra power as well. His average bat speed is up to 75 mph after being at 73.2 mph in the second half of 2023 and 73.7 mph last year.
With that added bat speed, Carroll is hitting the ball harder than ever and barreling it up more often. All of his quality of contact metrics — his expected stats, hard-hit rate, barrel rate and sweet-spot rate — are in at least the 86th percentile, indicating that the good results he’s having are not a fluke. Last year, he wasn’t in even the 60th percentile in any of those categories.
Carroll said in spring training that he worked on his swing in the offseason, and the results appear to be paying off. He’s currently in the 98th percentile in fielding run value and 97th percentile in batting run value. That combination is how you build to an MVP season. — Sarah Langs, MLB.com
Jung Hoo Lee, OF, Giants
Lee profiled as a top-of-the-order speedster when he signed with the Giants two offseasons ago. After a 2024 season largely lost to injury, he’s playing like much more than that in the early going of 2025, slashing .300/.349/.450. Lee is currently tied for the team lead in hits (12) and he’s tied for the MLB lead in doubles with six.
When he came to the U.S. after a successful career in South Korea, Lee brought with him skills that was sure to translate to the big leagues, and if not for a torn labrum that forced him to miss the majority of last season, we likely would’ve seen Lee’s bat-to-ball skills on display last year. If he continues to be a doubles machine, we’re looking at a sure-fire All-Star this time around. — Russell Dorsey, Yahoo Sports
Logan O’Hoppe, C, Angels
Despite what you might have heard, yes, the Angels are still here, as is one of their former top prospects. The people were reasonably hyped about O’Hoppe when he was getting started in 2023, but a left shoulder injury ate up about four months of his rookie season, and the enthusiasm around him never quite recovered — even though he came back and hit nine home runs that September and was pretty solid at the plate last year (.244/.303/.409, 20 HR).
O’Hoppe’s sweet-spot rate was second only to Freddie Freeman’s last year, and as we learned from the torpedo bat craze, using more of the barrel helps to compensate for poor bat speed. O’Hoppe also had that in 2024 — his 70.7 mph average ranked in the 28th percentile among qualifying hitters. That might not be the case anymore; his 2025 bat speed has been just above league average (72.1 mph), and not at all coincidentally, he has a 1.254 OPS with five home runs in his first eight games.
It’s responsible to acknowledge how few games have been played, but it does track. O’Hoppe has had almost two years to fully build back the strength in his front shoulder, and he turned 25 in February. — Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru, MLB.com
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