We are conditioned, early in the season, to understand how hot starts or cold starts are more noticeable because everyone starts from the baseline of zero. Many hitters will go 2-for-20 at some point in a season, if not more than once, but it gets lost in the volume of numbers. Yet starting the season off 2-for-20 or 4-for-40 makes it tough for hitters to climb out of the hole. A good example of this would be Cedric Mullins, who wrapped up the month of April with a .126 batting average (12-for-95) and looking like he wasn't long for the Tampa Bay roster. However, Mullins has quietly turned his season around, hitting .264 with a 120 wRC+ since May 1 and becoming somewhat of a five-category contributor with eight homers, eighth steals, and 20-plus runs and RBI.
There are several other hitters who have turned things around since slow starts to the season who may be flying below the radar because the overall numbers are still a bit on the low side, especially their individual batting averages. We can start with Mullins's teammate, Jonathan Aranda. (All stats mentioned are as of the start of play on July 6.)
Aranda came into May hitting .220, albeit with seven homers and 25 RBI. He has hit six home runs since that hot first month, but he has improved his batting average by 102 points, as he has hit .322 while reducing his strikeout rate from 25.0 percent to 20.5 percent
We are conditioned, early in the season, to understand how hot starts or cold starts are more noticeable because everyone starts from the baseline of zero. Many hitters will go 2-for-20 at some point in a season, if not more than once, but it gets lost in the volume of numbers. Yet starting the season off 2-for-20 or 4-for-40 makes it tough for hitters to climb out of the hole. A good example of this would be Cedric Mullins, who wrapped up the month of April with a .126 batting average (12-for-95) and looking like he wasn't long for the Tampa Bay roster. However, Mullins has quietly turned his season around, hitting .264 with a 120 wRC+ since May 1 and becoming somewhat of a five-category contributor with eight homers, eighth steals, and 20-plus runs and RBI.
There are several other hitters who have turned things around since slow starts to the season who may be flying below the radar because the overall numbers are still a bit on the low side, especially their individual batting averages. We can start with Mullins's teammate, Jonathan Aranda. (All stats mentioned are as of the start of play on July 6.)
Aranda came into May hitting .220, albeit with seven homers and 25 RBI. He has hit six home runs since that hot first month, but he has improved his batting average by 102 points, as he has hit .322 while reducing his strikeout rate from 25.0 percent to 20.5 percent since May 1. His overall production is still very much driven by what he does against righties, but a .255 average against lefties keeps him in the lineup and out of the platoon situation that many expected him to be in this season.
Bryan Reynolds wrapped up the first month of the season with a .246 average and three home runs in 142 plate appearances. He has since hit .301 while tacking on 10 more home runs as part of that revitalized Pittsburgh offense. He has been particularly valuable in OBP leagues with his .396 on-base percentage, and that on-base ability is a big reason why he's third in runs scored league-wide since May 1, trailing only James Wood and Nick Kurtz. Reynolds is actually tied on that list at 41 runs scored with Sam Antonacci, who hit .225 in his first month in the majors but has hit a robust .296/.384/.409 with those 41 runs and 11 steals since May 1, showing why the White Sox thought so highly of the young man this winter.
However, by batting average, nobody is hotter than the scorching hot Blaze Alexander. Alexander leads all players with at least 150 plate appearances since May 1 with a .369 average after going 11-for-62 (.177) to open the season. Alexander has since posted a .369/.416/.532 line for the Orioles while reducing his 28.6 percent strikeout rate from March/April to 19.9 percent since and being a pest in the bottom of the Baltimore lineup. He has even chipped in 27 RBI and six steals from down in the lineup. Just up I-95 there is the equally hot Luis Garcia Jr., and this one hurts me personally. I kept Garcia Jr. at $13 in a dynasty league but dropped him in the montly free agent draft the first Sunday of May because he was hitting .253 with a single home run and losing playing time. Garcia Jr. has since hit .298 with 18 homers and only Kyle Schwarber has more homers since May 1. He has decided to lean into pulling the ball to take advantage of the heat in the Nation's capital as well as the livelier ball and has drilled 14 of his 18 homers since June 1:
Kyle Karros opened the season with a single homer, four RBI, and a .207 average. The Rockies held onto him rather than demote him, and the young man responded in kind with a .296/.384/.519 line since May 1 with 30 runs scored and 26 driven in. Karros is hitting .303 at home and .288 on the road since then, making him one of the rare Rockies which can be used away from Coors in deeper leagues where you are simply trying to help your average.
We will close with my forever nemesis, Pete Crow-Armstrong. PCA's first month of the season looked like an extension of his miserable second half from 2025, as he hit .241 with three homers, 13 RBIs, and six steals in the opening month of the season. Crow-Armstrong has since gone on to hit .316 with 16 homers, 36 RBI and 17 steals, producing like a first-round pick for the Cubs. By overall WAR, he is easily the most valuable hitter in baseball over that stretch with 4.8, followed by Bobby Witt Jr at 3.2. The only player close to his 181 wRC+ is the trio of the aforementioned Alexander as well as the power-hitting duo of Junior Caminero and Yordan Alvarez.
This is why looking into splits leaderboards can be beneficial to dig into recent production which is clouded by poor starts. Perhaps you have missed that Trevor Larnach is hitting .370 over the last 30 days, which is fueling his career-high batting average this season. Sure, Garcia Jr. and Caminero are leading in homers with 12 each, but Rafael Devers is coming back to life, joining those two as well as Hunter Goodman as the only players with 10 or more homers over the past month. Don't look now, but Nasim Nunez is hitting .351 with a .429 on-base percentage in the last month and is in a three-way tie with PCA and Jazz Chisholm Jr. with 10 steals over the last month. Nunez's .243 average and .294 slugging percentage may still have him on some wires despite his league-leading 33 steals, but that bat is hot right now making Nunez more than just a one-category jackrabbit.
