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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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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.
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Tarik Skubal of the Tigers, left, who led American League pitchers in Box-Toppers points, was named AL Cy Young Award winner. Chris Sale of the Braves, middle, who was voted National League Cy Young winner, finished fourth among NL pitchers in Box-Toppers points. Zack Wheeler of the Phillies, right, who led all players in Box-Toppers points in 2024, finished second in NL Cy Young voting.
One of two Box-Toppers season pitching leaders won their league’s 2024 Cy Young Award while the other fell just short.
Tarik Skubal of the Tigers, who led American League pitchers with 21.1 Box-Toppers points, won the AL Cy Young Award. However, Chris Sale of the Braves won the National League Cy Young Award ahead of Zack Wheeler of the Phillies, the overall season leader in Box-Toppers points.
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.
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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.
Mets 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.
Mets pitcher Sean Manaea and Padres closing pitcher Robert Suarez are Box-Toppers Player of the Game winners in Tuesday’s two National League Division Series playof games.
The Mets and Padres both take 2-1 leads in their best-of-five game series as both series resume Wednesday with Game 4s. Both American League Division Series also resume Wednesday’s with two Game 3s.
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Source: MLB.com
Both American League Division Series begin Saturday.
The Detroit Tigers face the Cleveland Guardians in one best-of-five game series and the Kansas City Royals face the New York Yankees in the other. The top two AL seeds, the Yankees (first) and the Guardians (second) received byes from the first round of playoffs and face the winners of the best-of-three Wild Card series played this week.
Read MorePadres pitcher Michael King tops players in Tuesday’s four Wild Card playoff games:
Other Player of the Game winners in Tuesday’s Wild Card series games:
Royals pitcher Cole Ragans.
Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal.
Mark Vientos of the Mets.
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.
Read MoreDodgers pitcher Gavin Stone is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Monday, Royals pitcher Seth Lugo rises to ninth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Read MoreJose Ramirez of the Guardians is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Thursday, Royals pitcher Seth Lugo rises to 10th place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Read MoreCubs pitcher Shota Imanaga is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, rising to third place in season player rankings.
Imanaga struck out 10 over seven innings, allowing one run, two hits and one walk, in the 2-1, 10-inning win over the Diamondbacks. Imanaga did not earn the win, picking up a no-decision, because the Cubs trailed when he exited.
Read MoreYankees pitcher Luis Gil is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, rising to fifth place in season player rankings and rising to lead American League pitchers.
Also Saturday, Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga rises to the overall lead in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors. Plus, Royals pitcher Seth Lugo rises to sixth place.
Read MorePirates pitcher Paul Skenes is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Friday, Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler regains the lead in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors. Plus, Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal rises to sixth place overall and first place among American League pitchers after earning AL Player of the Day honors.
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Padres pitcher Dylan Cease leads Box-Toppers player rankings for the second straight week.
Also this week in Box-Toppers player rankings, Royals pitcher Seth Lugo rises to lead American League pitchers and Bryson Stott of the Phillies rises to lead National League batters. Meanwhile, Juan Soto of the Yankees maintains his lead among AL batters.
Read MoreTwins pitcher Bailey Ober is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Sunday, Royals pitcher Seth Lugo rises to first place among American League pitchers (fifth overall) after earning Player of the Game honors. In addition, Cardinals closing pitcher Ryan Helsley rises to ninth place in season player rankings.
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Phillies pitcher Ranger Suarez rises to lead this week’s Box-Toppers player rankings report.
Suarez also rises to lead National League pitchers, joining two other new category leaders this week—Tanner Houck of the Red Sox rises to lead American League pitchers and Francisco Lindor of the Mets rises to lead NL batters. Juan Soto of the Yankees remains this week’s leader among AL batters.
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.