April Players of the Month 🏆

A look into the top MLB and MiLB players through the first month of the baseball season.

AuthorAuthor

Elijah Evans & Cristian Crespo
May 01, 2025

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The first month of the MLB season has flown by and we’re heading into May when things start to get real, for better or worse.

If your team is off to a fiery-red-pepper-hot start, you’re probably stoking up ideas for a November parade. If they’re stumbling out of the gate (White Sox fan here! life is nothing but a dark void of despair), you may be planning for 2026 already.

At the end of the day, though, it’s only one month of a very long season.

Best MLB Players of the Month

MLB fWAR leaders as of 4/28

Hitters of the Month: Aaron Judge (AL) and Fernando Tatis Jr. (NL)

These names are not much of a surprise, like these players are, as the two are among the most talented players in the game.

Judge is coming off winning AL MVP (with ease some would say) last season but Tatis hasn’t quite shown this type of production since 2021, when he finished third in NL MVP voting.

Judge Season Stats: .427/.521/.761, 10 HR, 32 RBI, 262 wRC+, 3.2 fWAR

Is this guy serious? After winning MVP and nearly breaking his own HR record, Aaron Judge has been…even better to start the year.

At this point, his numbers feel like a cacophony of middle-school fictional storytelling anecdotes (“he’s stronger than Superman and also has super healing and can teleport!!”) as he’s been far and away the best player in MLB across the first month of the season. He’s the odds-on favorite (-550 at BetMGM) to win the AL MVP again, somehow, and it will be hard for anyone to stop his rampage.

Tatis Season Stats: .345/.409/.602, 8 HR, 18 RBI, 180 wRC+, 2.1 fWAR

Remember when Nando was viewed as a potential face of the league? An accident and suspension later, that hype was dialed down. But, oh boy, this version of the player? This, true believers, is the good stuff.

Tatis is playing the best ball of his career right now, particularly when you look at the strides he’s made to better his plate approach. He’s striking out at just a 15.4% clip compared to a 24.5% career strikeout rate.

The Padres have stumbled of late, but their huge start out of the gate was led by Tatis and he’s got a real shot to make a run at the NL MVP this season.

Pitchers of the Month: Hunter Brown (AL) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (NL)

Neither are the favorite for the Cy Young in their respective leagues due to more established stars also pitching quite well, but Brown and Yamamoto have been the sharpest arms in baseball so far.

Brown Season Stats: 37 IP, 1.22 ERA, 1.84 FIP, 40 K, 1.5 fWAR

The Astros needed some guys to take a step forward after an offseason roster overhaul and Hunter Brown has been that guy. He’s leading the pitching staff to a great start and may just be blossoming into a legit ace.

Brown has walked just seven batters while seeing his velocity jump 1.2 MPH on his fastball, making it the best heater in baseball thus far. All of the underlying metrics point to a true ace in the making with, perhaps even more importantly, a combination minimal hard contact and plenty of chase generated.

Yamamoto Season Stats: 34 IP, 1.06 ERA, 2.29 FIP, 43 K, 1.2 fWAR

The first outing of his career in Korea last spring unfairly skewed perception of Yamamoto a bit because the man is more than proving his worth of a $325 million dollar contract.

With the Dodgers dealing with pitching injuries to almost everyone (shocker, huh?), Yamamoto has been their steady ace and looks excellent. He’s striking out over 30% of batters faced with both his fastball and splitter being elite offerings.

Full articles on our players of the month will be live soon on Justbaseball.com!

Other Standouts

Many players will get their shine throughout the season, but let’s quickly look at a few others balling early.

Corbin Carroll and Pete Alonso are right there with Tatis in NL. These were the other two considered for NL Hitter of the Month and both have been excellent in leading their respective teams, especially considering some (admittedly, minor, but still there!) questions about them preseason.

Paul Skenes, Garrett Crochet, and Logan Webb are carving. The reigning Rookie of the Year remains the favorite for the NL Cy Young while Crochet has been the ace Boston needed and Webb, with a strong surrounding team, has been excellent and in some ways even sharper than usual.

Pete-Crow Armstrong, MacKenzie Gore, Jung Hoo Lee among top breakout players. PCA has become a star in center field for the surging Cubs, Gore is striking out over 35% of batters, and Lee has played like a man possessed — cackling, even, at the naysayers who believed his contract was an overpay.

Just Baseball Trivia of the Week

Our newsletter will have a trivia question every week to test and expand the baseball knowledge of our subscribers! The answer to the weekly trivia question will be at the bottom of the newsletter each week.

Aaron Judge currently has a 262 wRC+ this season. What wRC+ did he have at the end of April last season despite eventually finishing the season with a 218 mark?

A) 111

B) 115

C) 98

D) 107

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Top Prospects Performers of April

Tons of prospects are showing out early this season. Listen to our Mailbag episode of The Call Up as well as we highlight a variety of top prospects from around the league here!

Top 100 Hitters

Roman Anthony (JB #1)

It seems as if from game one of the MiLB season, Roman Anthony has been the walking man on fire meme.

Just Baseball’s — and what now seems like an industry-wide consensus — No.1 Overall prospect has slugged his way through April with a .306/.439/.565 while clobbering five home runs, 14 RBIs, and even walking 21 times across 107 plate appearances.

It seems that the Red Sox outfield prospect is ready for the promotion to the big league roster, but he might have to wait for an injury to one of the current Red Sox outfielders before getting the call.

Jordan Lawlar (JB #38)

Jordan Lawlar feels like a forgotten man across the league. Between struggles in a small sample size at the Major League level, a litany of injuries, and the multi-year extension given to Geraldo Perdomo to man the shortstop position for the D-Backs, Lawlar looked to be closer to being on his way out rather than a staple of the young core.

Well, Lawler doesn’t seem to be letting it affect him too much. Carrying a .392 batting average with six home runs, 10 stolen bases, and a 196(!) wRC+, he looks well underway to making it back up to Arizona again. Eugenio Suarez is hitting a lot of big-time home runs but, other than that, he has been struggling at the plate and is also a free agent at years end.

If Lawlar has truly regained his form, he should look to man the hot corner for the Diamondbacks fun, young, core.

Moises Ballesteros (JB #80)

There comes a time where teams say “forget the defense” and let a good hitter go boom. That is what it looks like the Cubs backstop prospect, Moises Ballesteros, is trending towards.

The power might not totally be there just yet with only two home runs in 104 plate appearances, but with the .402 average and an OPS above 1.000, the bat might be too attractive to ignore. It’s also possible, however, with the Cubs already-impressive lineup that the front office may end up deciding to dangle him in trade talks to help solidify their run towards hoisting another World Series trophy.

Top 100 Pitchers

Bubba Chandler (JB #20)

It was quite the head-scratcher when the Pirates decided on having Bubba Chandler start the year in Triple-A Indianapolis. Now, after multiple dominant outings, we are almost through the skull wondering when Bubba is going to make his debut.

Across 20.1 innings, his ERA sits at a minuscule 1.33 with 27 strikeouts, an opposing batting average of .106, and an 8.1% walk rate.

Chandler has been incredible across his first five starts, and should be debuting in Pittsburgh any day now.

Cade Horton (JB #45)

Much like Chandler, Cade Horton has been incredible in his first five starts for the Iowa Cubs.

Having only allowed 3 runs across 23 innings pitched, Horton is limiting damage across the board. The one concern so far would be the elevated walk rate, which is likely why he’ll continue to pitch in Iowa for a bit longer.

Once he is able to cut the walk rate in half (currently sitting at 14%) he should be knocking at the door of his Wrigley FIeld debut.

Jacob Misiorowski (JB #82)

The 6’7 fireballer continues to flash dominant stuff in each of his starts. There was once a concern with Jacob Misiorowski possibly being bound for the bullpen, especially towards the end of the 2024 season, but is now proving he is more than capable of being a starter in the Majors.

With the Brewers being “rich“ in arms, none of them possess the flashy upside that Misiorowski can provide that rotation. Expect for him to continue to develop a bit more in Triple-A and likely being a mid-season call up for a Brewers team looking to challenge the Cubs for the division title.

Non Top 100 Standouts

Robby Snelling (Marlins)

Since being acquired from the Padres, Robby Snelling has clearly bought in to the pitching philosophy in the Marlins organization that has helped develop multiple arms over the years.

His sub-2 ERA across 22.1 innings in four starts is impressive, but the addition of his 11.7 K/9 is quite the astonishing sight for a former top prospect that fell out of favor a bit towards the end of his time in San Diego’s farm system.

As the Marlins continue to run our their young talent this season, Snelling looks to be one of the next flashy fish to be a part of the next phase of baseball in Miami.

Sean Linan (Dodgers)

Sean Linan was part of the Dodgers 2022 International Signing class out of Colombia along with his teammate Josue De Paula. What was once seen as just another signing, Linan is turning heads in the Dodgers farm system.

Led by his high-spin changeup, the 20-year old has a 0.87 ERA in 4 games (3 starts) and an insane 17.4 K/9. He has an overall swinging strike rate just under 25%, which ranks at the top of the MiLB leaderboard.

Leave it to the Dodgers conjure up another prospect with eye-popping numbers seemingly out of nowhere.

Sal Stewart (Reds)

It seems like every day we’re seeing Sal Stewart highlights on our social media timeline since the Minor League season started.

Not only is he spraying the ball to all fields with authority, but the Reds minor league infielder is quickly rising across prospect board flashing his speed on the base paths.

He quickly made an impression on Reds Manager Terry Francona as an NRI during Spring Training, who even made it a point to note that Stewart is “A very advanced hitter” and that he will “no doubt be a good major league hitter.”

If Stewart is able to continue developing at this rate, there is no doubt that he will join an exciting Reds team.

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Trivia Answer: B) 115

Judge’s “bad” start to the year was still 15% better than the average hitter! Yeah, he’s cracked.

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