A year after Cal Raleigh’s 2025 season for the ages, another Major League Baseball star was born this season in Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong.
The presumptive National League MVP hit 21 homers over the final two months of the season to finish tied with Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber for the major league home run lead with 45, leading Chicago to its second postseason appearance in the last six years.
He also stole 41 bases, tied for fourth in the majors, to deliver the first 40-40 season in Cubs franchise history.
Schwarber, who led the NL but not the majors last season with 56 homers, claimed the co-homer lead while also leading the NL in strikeouts (220).
On the American League side, Pete Alonso made a splash in his first season in Baltimore, leading the AL in homers (43, one ahead of Houston’s Yordan Alvarez and Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero) and RBIs (113).
Alonso entered the final day of the season within range of the major league RBI lead, but the Orioles’ finale was canceled due to weather while Alec Burleson was not in the St. Louis Cardinals’ lineup on Sunday and finished with an MLB-best 116 RBIs.
Alvarez, a runaway favorite to win his first AL MVP honor, led the majors with a .316 batting average, coming one homer and seven RBIs from the AL triple crown and the first in the majors with the achievement since Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera in 2012.
Diamondbacks catcher Gabriel Moreno narrowly won the NL batting title, beating Philadelphia’s Luis Arraez by one point (.311 to .310) to deny the journeyman his fourth batting title. Arraez missed the entire final weekend due to a sprained left ankle.
Nationals infielder Nasim Nunez led the majors with 49 stolen bases.
On the negative side, White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery struck out a major league-record 227 times, breaking Mark Reynolds’ mark of 223 set in 2009 for Arizona.
On the pitching front, Cy Young favorites Jacob Misiorowski (Milwaukee) and Cam Schlittler (Yankees) were No. 1 and No. 2 in ERA at 1.80 and 1.95, respectively. Misiorowski started Sunday and struck out five batters to also finish atop the major league strikeout leaderboard with 252 after entering the day one behind Cleveland’s Gavin Williams and also led the league in WHIP (0.80).
Boston’s Sonny Gray and Philadelphia’s Cristopher Sanchez shared the major league lead in wins (18). At the other end of the spectrum, Baltimore’s Shane Baz, Cleveland’s Tanner Bibee and Cincinnati’s Brady Singer were tied for the league lead with 15 losses.
A pair of unlikely closers in Bryan Baker of the Rays and Cade Smith of the Guardians shared the major league saves lead with 41. For context, Baker began this season with seven career saves while Smith had 17 before the 2026 campaign. A less surprising name, San Diego’s Mason Miller, tied with the Cardinals’ Riley O’Brien for the NL lead with 38 saves.
On the team side, the Milwaukee Brewers (103-59) set a franchise wins record for the second straight season, winning six more than the prior record (97) set last season.
The Los Angeles Angels (62-100) lost their last two games and five of their last seven to finish with 100 losses for the first time in franchise history. The Angels had previously been the only major league team to never lose 100 games in a season.
–Field Level Media
