It’s the three-week anniversary of the 2026 MLB season opener, with barely 10% of the grueling season completed, and at least six weeks before anyone can adequately evaluate their team.
Yet, in the world of talk shows, social media, gambling sites and plain ol’ rancor and hostility, it’s never too early to rush to judgment and overreact, right?
So, here we are, prematurely jumping to our own conclusions, and passing out labels for the biggest surprises and disappointments of this terribly young season.
Biggest disappointment: New York Mets
Remember when David Stearns went into his chemistry lab, threw on his goggles, whipped out the glass beakers, mixed up the solutions, and decided that he found the magical formula to turn MLB’s most expensive payroll into a winner?
Well, back to the lab.
The Mets are an absolute mess. They are in last place with a 7-12 record. They have lost eight games in a row. They have scored three runs in their last 38 innings. They went down in order 15 times in the three-game series against the Dodgers. They have already been shut out five times. They have the second-lowest batting average in the National League. And they’ve had four players who have endured hitless streaks of at least 20 at-bats.
All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor, their $341 million man, has one RBI. Third baseman Bo Bichette, their prized free agent with a three-year, $126 million contract, is hitting .228 with one home run and a .575 OPS. Second baseman Marcus Semien, who was swapped for Brandon Nimmo, is hitting .194 with a .526 OPS. And starters David Peterson (6.41 ERA) and Kodai Senga (7.07 ERA) have yet to win a start.
Yes, it’s ugly in Queens.
Although it’s hardly manager Carlos Mendoza’s fault, someone is going to have to take the fall if this continues much longer.
Biggest surprise: Minnesota Twins
They conducted the biggest firesale in baseball last summer since the Miami Marlins in 1997.
They slashed their payroll to $96 million, more than $100 million less than the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central.
They lost their ace, Pablo Lopez, who underwent Tommy John surgery the first week of spring training.
And yet, here they are, with the best record in the American League at 11-8, hitting the daylights out of the baseball, slugging 26 homers, the third-most in MLB.
They took on the American League’s finest in Tarik Skubal, Garrett Crochet, Framber Valdez and Max Scherzer in the past week, and pounded them into submission. The quartet yielded a 19.76 ERA, giving up 32 hits in 13⅔ innings. Only Valdez managed to last five innings.
Are the Twins for real?
Probably not, but certainly they’ve got everyone’s attention.
Biggest disappointment (2nd place): San Francisco Giants
They hired a new manager, signed a couple of free agents, and went into the season believing that Rafael Devers would be back to being the same guy they acquired from the Boston Red Sox last summer.
Well, three weeks in, and they are tied for the worst record in baseball, 6-12. It’s tied for their second-worst start since moving to San Francisco in 1958, and their minus-27 run differential is their third-worst in the San Francisco era.
They are last in runs, last in home runs, last in walks, last in stolen bases, and have the worst outfield production in MLB: .184 with a .222 on-base percentage and .259 slugging percentage.
They have hit only nine home runs all season, which is only one more than Jordan Walker has hit for the St. Louis Cardinals this season.
It is getting ugly in a hurry in San Francisco, where fingers already are being pointed at who to blame.
Biggest surprise (2nd place): Jordan Walker, St. Louis Cardinals
This is the Cardinals’ young outfielder, who bounced back and forth from the minors to the big leagues the past three seasons, and was available in trade talks.
Well, what was forgotten is that he still is only 23 years old, and was probably rushed to the big leagues.
These days, he just so happens to lead all of MLB with eight home runs and a .734 slugging percentage, hitting .318.
He has more homers in 64 at-bats this year than he had in 363 at-bats a year ago (six).
Walker is the first Cardinals player to produce eight homers in his first 16 games since a future Hall of Famer by the name of Albert Pujols in 2006. Walker’s eight homers are the same Mark McGwire produced in 1998, when he broke Roger Maris’ record with 70 homers.
Biggest disappointment (3rd place): Boston Red Sox
The Red Sox believed their valued pitching depth would cover up any offensive deficiencies they had entering the year.
Well, never did they imagine they’d have five players in their lineup making the Mendoza Line look like Tony Gwynn, hitting below .200.
Their biggest blunder was their failure to re-sign third baseman Alex Bregman, and trading for Brewers rookie third baseman Caleb Durbin to replace him.
Durbin, who finished third in the NL Rookie of the Year race for the Brewers last season, is hitting .127 with a .226 on-base percentage and .164 slugging percentage, with two doubles as his only extra-base hits.
Biggest surprise (3rd place): Pittsburgh Pirates
OK, raise your hand if you thought that Pirates starters Carmen Mlodzinski (1.77 ERA), Braxton Ashcraft (2.12 ERA), Mitch Keller (2.86 ERA) and Bubba Chandler (3.86 ERA) would be pitching like this, with their defending Cy Young winner Paul Skenes (4.00 ERA) bringing up the rear.
They are tied for first place with the Cincinnati Reds in the NL Central with an 11-7 record.
Yes, for the first time in a decade, they really may be for real.
Biggest disappointment (4th place): Houston Astros
The Astros kept insisting all spring their pitching would be fine, believing that even with the departure of Framber Valdez, the free-agent signing of Tatsuya Imai would certainly be a big help.
Oops.
They just came off a 1-9 three-city trip, coughing up six or more runs in seven of the games, for their worst trip since 2013. They have the worst ERA in baseball at 6.28.
They’ve also been ravaged by injuries to starters Hunter Brown and Cristian Javier, All-Star shortstop Jeremy Pena, All-Star closer Josh Hader and center fielder Jake Meyers.
Oh, and Imai, who signed a three-year, $54 million contract, has been a disaster. He is yielding a 7.27 ERA and has lasted just 8⅔ innings in three starts. He’s now on the IL, saying that his inability to adapt to the American lifestyle has caused arm fatigue. Really.
Biggest surprise (4th place): Atlanta
Their pitching staff was in shambles before the season even started.
They lost starter Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep to elbow cleanup procedures during spring training. Joey Wentz, who was expected to step into the rotation, tore his ACL. Spencer Strider went down with a strained oblique. And outfielder/DH Jurickson Profar was suspended for the season after testing positive a second time for PEDs.
Yet, here they are, sitting in first place in the NL East, producing a 2.93 ERA, the lowest by any team in the National League.
Oh, and their biggest surprise has been journeyman Dominic Smith, who signed a one-year, $1.25 million contract.
Smith is the bargain of the year, hitting .381 with three homers, 15 RBI and a 1.043 OPS.
Biggest disappointment (5th place): Jesús Luzardo, Philadelphia Phillies
It was just a month ago when the Phillies, wanting to make sure Luzardo didn’t depart as a free agent, signed him to a fat five-year, $135 million contract.
Well, four starts into this season, the Phillies can’t help but wish they had waited.
Luzardo is 1-3 with an ugly 7.94 ERA, giving up 12 hits and nine runs (eight earned) in 5⅓ innings in the Phillies’ 10-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday.
Luzardo has given up five earned runs in three of his four starts, with the Phillies losing three times.
Biggest surprise (5th place): Sal Stewart, Cincinnati Reds
In the Year of the Rookie, with rookies dominating the landscape and bank accounts with record-setting extensions, there is Reds first baseman Sal Stewart.
Simply, Stewart is having the greatest start by a rookie in the last 100 years.
He is hitting .323 with four doubles, seven homers, 17 RBI, three stolen bases and 13 walks.
No rookie has achieved those numbers in an 18-game span since at least 1920, according to OptaSTATS.
Biggest disappointment (6th place): Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners
OK, so no one expected Raleigh to duplicate his surreal season of a year ago, when he hit 60 home runs, finished runner-up to AL MVP Aaron Judge, and didn’t allow a single passed ball.
There was bound to be a drop-off.
Still, no one envisioned that he’d get off to this rough of a start, hitting just .151 with a .274 slugging percentage with just two home runs, striking out 28 times in 73 at-bats.
It’s awfully early, of course, but it’s a heck of a crash after a spectacular year.
Biggest surprise (6th place): Andy Pages, Los Angeles Dodgers
The Dodgers, a $300 million team filled with All Stars, future Hall of Famers, Gold Glove winners and Silver Sluggers, has a clear-cut MVP these first three weeks.
Yep, the only guy in the lineup who hasn’t earned at least $10 million in his career, and is the only one not earning $1 million this year.
Say hello to Pages, who is hitting .409 with five homers, 20 RBI, a .443 on-base percentage, .692 slugging percentage and 1.135 OPS.
Not bad for a guy making just $820,000.
Biggest disappointment (7th place): Colorado Rockies
They flipped the franchise upside down to turn around this dormant team.
It was a new era, they cried.
Well, three weeks into the season, and it’s the same ol’ Rockies.
They are 6-12.
They are tied for the worst record in baseball.
And yes, once again, they are on pace to lose 100 games.
Biggest surprise (7th place): Mason Miller, San Diego Padres
OK, everyone knew he was good. Really good. But this good?
It’s super-human.
He has faced 27 batters.
He has struck out 20 of them.
He hasn’t given up a hit since April 1.
He hasn’t walked a batter since Opening Day.
And he hasn’t given up an earned run since Aug. 25, 2025.
No wonder he politely declined the Padres’ offer this spring to convert to a starter.
He could become the Padres’ fourth reliever to be inducted into the Hall of Fame one day, joining Trevor Hoffman, Rollie Fingers and Goose Gossage.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mets highlight MLB’s biggest disappointments, surprises of 2026 season
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