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The Los Angeles Dodgers are the top-ranked team in Box-Toppers’ 2025 preseason rankings.
Meanwhile, the New York Yankees lead American League teams, the Toronto Blue Jays made the biggest offseason improvement in players’ accumulated Box-Toppers points and the Atlanta Braves had the biggest decline.
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The Los Angeles Dodgers are Box-Toppers’ top-ranked team going into 2025 but with player injuries factored in, the New York Mets hold the overall edge.
The current 2025 roster of last year’s World Series champion Dodgers accumulated 118.7 Box-Toppers points in 2024, most of any team. However, with several players injured and expected to miss time in 2025, their injury-adjusted Box-Toppers point total drops to 106.7, fifth among all teams.
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Box-Toppers points leaders Aaron Judge of the Yankees (left), Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers (middle) and Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal (left) also were winners of the 2024 Players Choice Awards as voted by members of the players’ union.
Three Box-Toppers category leaders also won Players Choice Awards for 2024 as voted by the players’ union:
Aaron Judge of the Yankees was voted American League Outstanding Player and also was Box-Toppers’ choice as AL Most Valuable Player.
Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers was voted National League Outstanding Player and was also Box-Toppers’ choice as NL Most Valuable Player.
Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal was voted AL Outstanding Pitcher and also was Box-Toppers’ choice as NL Cy Young Award winner.
While Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga is Box-Toppers’ most improved player in 2024, our choices for Comeback Players of the Year are Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes and Braves pitcher Reynaldo Lopez.
Meanwhile, one of the consensus choices for Comeback Player of the Year—Braves pitcher Chris Sale—ranks 13th among Box-Toppers’ most-improved players in 2024.
Read MoreAaron Judge of the Yankees and Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers, who both led their league’s batters in Box-Toppers points in 2024, won the season’s Most Valuable Player Awards Thursday.
Judge, who led American League batters with 13.0 Box-Toppers points, won the AL award and Ohtani, who led National League batters with 11.0 Box-Toppers points, won the NL award.
Read MoreBox-Toppers’ top two-ranked batters won the 2024 Hank Aaron Awards for top offensive players.
Aaron Judge of the Yankees, who led American League batters with 13.0 Box-Toppers points, won the AL award and Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers, who led National League batters with 11.0 Box-Toppers points, won the NL award.
Read MoreSeven Box-Toppers points leaders are among players selected for 2024’s 16-member “All-MLB” Team announced Thursday.
Three other Box-Toppers leaders were chosen for the “All-MLB” Second Team.
The All-MLB team was selected with half the vote coming from fans and half coming from an expert panel. Unlike the selections for baseball’s All-Star Game, players on not selected based on their affiliation with American League or National League. Rather, all players are chosen from all Major League Baseball regardless of league as “First Team” or “Second Team” players.
Read MoreEight of the 20 batters winning Silver Slugger Awards in 2024 were also among the leaders at their positions in 2024 Box-Toppers point totals.
The awards are given to the top batter in each position in both leagues, voted on by Major League Baseball coaches and managers. Box-Toppers, analyzing traditional box scores, tracks which players most helps their teams win the most games, awarding points for the top player in each game.
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In five of the six major postseason player awards, the 2024 Box-Toppers points leader for each honor is among the finalists announced by baseball writers Monday.
Here are the five awards for which Box-Toppers top-ranked players are among the finalists:
American League Cy Young Award—Tarik Skubal of the Tigers.
National League Cy Young Award—Zack Wheeler of the Phillies.
AL Most Valuable Player—Aaron Judge of the Yankees.
NL Most Valuable Player—Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers.
AL Rookie of the Year—Luis Gil of the Yankees.
Box-Toppers points leaders among 2024 free agents include Blake Snell, Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes and Clayton Kershaw.
Blake Snell and Juan Soto are among this season’s free-agent players with the most 2024 Box-Toppers points.
Snell leads the entire class, earning 15.7 Box-Toppers points in 2024 with the Giants, most among all free-agent players, seventh among all players and fifth among National League pitchers.
Soto has the most 2024 Box-Toppers points among all free-agent batters, earning 11.0 with the Yankees, seventh among all free agents, 43rd among all players in 2024 and second among American League batters (behind only teammate Aaron Judge’s 13.0).
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Box-Toppers points leaders have never won all four major postseason awards since tracking began in 1995.
But this year, in the 30th season of tracking, there is a chance that the four Box-Toppers points category leaders (both league’s batters and pitchers) may win the four major awards (both league’s Most Valuable Player and Cy Young awards).
Read MoreBox-Toppers favors the surging New York Mets in the National League Championship Series over the injury-depleted Los Angeles Dodgers.
While the Dodgers are the NL’s highest seed in the postseason and while they feature Shohei Ohtani, the NL Box-Toppers points leader among batters, their starting pitching lineup, once considered their greatest asset, has become threadbare this postseason due to numerous injuries.
Read MoreMets pitcher Jose Quintana tops players in Wednesday’s four league division series playoff games.
Other Player of the Game winners in Wednesday’s league division series games:
Beau Brieske of the Tigers.
Tommy Kahnle of the Yankees.
Gavin Lux of the Dodgers.
Source: MLB.com
Both National League Division Series begin Saturday.
The San Diego Padres face the Los Angeles Dodgers in one best-of-five game series and the New York Mets face the Philadelphia Phillies in the other. The top two NL seeds, the Dodgers (first) and the Phillies (second) received byes from the first round of playoffs and face the winners of the best-of-three Wild Card series played this week.
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The Wild Card round of Major League Baseball’s postseason begins Tuesday with four best-of-three series.
All series take place at the higher-seed’s home ballpark. The winners of each series will face one of their league’s top-two seeded teams in league divisional series beginning Saturday.
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Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler is 2024 Box-Toppers Player of the Year, holding the lead in Box-Toppers points since Sept. 6.
Meanwhile, Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers rises to first place among National League batters, making a meteoric rise from outside the top 10 NL batters until Sept. 19 and rising to first place only on Friday, Sept. 27, earning 6.0 of his 11.0 points for the season in a 13-day explosion.
Read MoreBraves pitcher Grant Holmes is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Monday, Francisco Lindor of the Mets rises to second place among National League batters in 2024 Box-Toppers points after earning NL Batter of the Day honors.
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Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler rises to lead Box-Toppers season player rankings this week, passing last week’s leader, Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga.
Wheeler also passes Imanaga to lead National League pitchers. All other category leaders remain unchanged: Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal leads American League pitchers, Aaron Judge of the Yankees leads AL batters and Brenton Doyle of the Rockies leads NL batters.
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Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga rises to lead Box-Toppers season player rankings this week, passing last week’s leader, Padres pitcher Dylan Cease.
Imanaga also passes Cease to lead National League pitchers. All other category leaders remain unchanged: Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal leads American League pitchers, Aaron Judge of the Yankees leads AL batters and Brenton Doyle of the Rockies leads NL batters.
Read MoreAstros pitcher Yusei Kikuchi is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Saturday, Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler rises to lead Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning National League Player of the Day honors. In addition, Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal extends his lead among American League pitchers in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Saturday.
Read MoreBox-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. Players earn Box-Toppers points for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.