April 2025 in Review [ft. Brice Turang]

 

I've grown to enjoy doing my little month by month recaps as the season comes into its own. It's a very cool way of tracking trends and stories throughout a year, matched with expectation and conventionality. So I'm doing these again these year, even if I forgot to set season-long, or even April, predictions at the start of the month. I'll manage.

But ultimately, a lot of really cool stuff happened in April, and the 2025 season is off to a great start. Let's start off with 5 things from April 2025 that no one could have predicted.

1. The Mets are the best team in baseball. The Mets have a habit of bending against expectation, and after their last epic season was followed by a drastic restructuring, the continued Mets dominance, even with Juan Soto, would need to be proven. Well, they're 21-11 after a month of play. That's gotta be a sign in favor of the Mendoza regime. You're seeing so many points in favor of even the prior Mets backbone, like Pete Alonso hitting .342 in addition to a 1.132 OPS, Jeff McNeil hitting .316 in his first 5 games back from an injury, and David Peterson and Tylor Megill being among the Mets' strongest starters. Even with Juan Soto's comparatively modest start, he still had a two-homer day today in a loss against the Diamondbacks. The pieces are there, and the majority of them are surging. No wonder they're rivaling even the Dodgers for the top of the standings. 

2. The Orioles and Braves struggle. Both of these can honestly be chalked up to injuries. The Braves would be without Ronald Acuna, Reynaldo Lopez and Spencer Strider for a bit, while the Orioles lost the majority of their rotation [Bradish, Rodriguez, Eflin, Wells, eventually Suarez] as the month went on. The rest is inexcusable. The Orioles in particular just aren't hitting [save for Cedric Mullins], and the depleted rotation isn't doing the team any favors. The Braves at least have guys hitting but there are big holes in the lineup, and people like Jarred Kelenic, Grant Holmes and Nick Allen really shouldn't be filling them. The difference is that the Braves are beginning to pick up, but who knows if the Orioles will follow.

3. The NL West is a true three horse race. I don't say this to necessarily count out the Diamondbacks, who have 17 wins...but the Dodgers, Padres and Giants all have 19 more more wins and they've all had moments in first. People knew the Dodgers and Padres would be tight up there, but the Giants were a surprise contender, cemented by thrilling starts by multiple big pieces [Yaz, Webb, Lee, Chapman]. And even if the Dodgers are ahead now, they struggled so badly mid month that I can't guarantee this will be a runaway. Makes it more exciting anyhow.

4. The Tigers plow ahead in the AL Central. Even after their surprise playoff run last year, the Tigers weren't predicted to lead the division this year by many pundits, mostly favoring the Royals or Guardians. Well, the Royals have stuttered despite a huge streak from Bobby Witt Jr. and the Guardians have gotten clobbered regularly in the last week or so. Which means the Tigers, with a phenomenal starting rotation and a much sharper lineup, can take first and earn it. Zach McKinstry has become a really impressive on-base threat, Riley Greene's still an impressive hitter, Spencer Torkelson's figured it out and even Javier Baez is hitting around .300. I'd love for them to keep this up, they're a really fun team. 

5. Mike Trout, the power bat that can't hit for average. At the very least he's still relatively healthy, regardless of the scare that took him out early yesterday. But due to his updated mechanics he's striking out way more, and is hitting .179. Even if he's got 9 homers and 18 RBIs, that's not good. Either he's somehow cooked, and the Angels wasted his prime, or he's just trying to get the hell out of Anaheim. Whatever the case, I hope he figures his shit out. 

And conversely, here are 5 things from April 2025 that a lot of people probably predicted:

1. Aaron Judge is still really good at baseball. Here is this man's line through a month: a .427 average, a 1.287 OPS, 50 hits, 10 homers, 32 RBIs and a 2.9 WAR. All of those lead the majors. However the rest of this season goes, this man is simply on another level. 

2. Paul Skenes is the sole reason to go to Pirates games right now. The rest of the team just isn't great, at all, and it's clear Bob Nutting doesn't want to put money into making the team great. So we have a Paul Skenes season where he's, even with a 3-3 record, still outplaying everyone and performing to a very high standard. He's got a 2.74 ERA and had only allowed like 1 home run before the Cubs took 3 from him today. You take him away, the Pirates are probably Colorado levels.

3. Brice Turang got that platinum glove last year for a reason. Even with William Contreras and Christian Yelich having down years, Brice Turang has continued to be excellent in the field and is still a .300 hitter and prime base-stealer. As the Brewers continue to call-up more really good assets, the inclusion of Turang much earlier in the regime will become even more important. 

4. All Pete Crow-Armstrong needed was some time. The leaping OF plays were always there, the speed was always there, but after two seasons Pete Crow-Armstrong is also a truly vital hitter with so many perks. He's hitting .275 with 7 homers, 27 RBIs and 8 steals. 10 doubles as well. The man has finally figured it out, and is leading the Cubs as much as Tucker, Suzuki and Happ are.

5. The White Sox, even factoring in the starting pitching, still aren't that great. Alright, I suppose Shane Smith, Edgar Quero and Chase Meidroth certainly help, but Matt Thaiss, a guy that looks like Lou Costello, is the team's best hitter. There's a ton of mediocrity in this team [even big pieces like Andrew Vaughn and Brooks Baldwin], a lot of replacement level players tanking, and even Luis Robert still around the .180s. They wanted an improvement, and I guess they got one, but this still isn't great. 

Now here are, at least for my money, the 5 Most Valuable Players of April 2025:

1. Aaron Judge, New York Yankees
2. Fernando Tatis Jr., San Diego Padres
3. Pete Alonso, New York Mets
4. Paul Skenes, Pittsburgh Pirates
5. Alex Bregman, Houston Astros

And finally, 5 bold predictions for May 2025:

1. One guy who's been terrible in April gets insanely hot and commands the narrative again.

2. Conversely, a team we've seen April success from goes embarrassingly cold.

3. Either another 4-homer game or a genuine no-hitter happens.

4. A lot of usual Cy Young hopefuls are either hurt or slumping. Either a typical name goes on a tear or a new name enters the fold and makes the case for elite status.

5. Something incredible happens at the Pirates-Phillies game I am going to mid-month.

Obviously a lot to manage for April, but we've still got 5 months of this madness left.