2025 AL East Breakout Stars

2025 AL East Breakout Stars

Welcome to Trey’s MLB Spring Training content. I’m not just a one-trick pony and actually worked in baseball for a decent period of time. We here at VSM really need to expand our baseball department but I want to give you the viewer at least a taste of some things to watch for when the 2025 MLB Season starts up. We’ll start out the annual series with the 2025 AL East Breakout stars.

If there is one thing you can expect from baseball… it’s that you should expect the unexpected. Every single year, players take huge strides that we don’t necessarily see coming. This is my attempt to try to pick one guy on each team who can take that next leap towards stardom. We’ve actually had some decent success projecting some of these guys in the past so I will drop the previous year’s prediction in the embed for all the posts this year.

This intro has gone long enough so I’m just going to get to the list if you don’t mind. The other divisions will be published in the coming days leading up to the season.

Baltimore Orioles: Jackson Holliday

This one might be low hanging fruit but Holliday was pretty terrible as a rookie. To the point where he almost can’t be worse. Last year, Holliday hit .189 in 190 at-bats and was a 0.1 WAR player. I’m going to take the over on those numbers heading into year two.

To me, this is the part you really need to watch for. If Holliday is really going to live up to the hype of his former prospect status, the power numbers need to be there. If we get to a point midseason when his power numbers still stink, that’s the time to start hitting the panic button.

Boston Red Sox: Garrett Crochet

Yes, I could easily list one of the top prospects the Sox have who are about to make their MLB debut. You know the list by now (Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell, and it’s way more than just them coming). With that said, I think it’s pretty safe to say Craig Breslow’s entire reputation is on the line with the Garrett Crochet trade.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m really not trying to sound negative. This is a player I really wanted the Sox to acquire. I just think they did it about nine months too late and subsequently overpaid with major prospect capital. Then didn’t get an extension done along with the trade.

If the Sox are going to get back to being a real contender, Crochet needs to be a horse. A legitimate 200-innings guy. The stuff is gross but the track record for being healthy really isn’t there. Breslow’s pitching lab is on the hot seat and now is the time to prove it. I do believe Crochet can do it but how dominant are we really talking? Breslow’s reputation depends on it.

New York Yankees: Will Warren

Gerrit Cole is going to miss the upcoming season with TJ surgery. Not exactly the type of news you want to hear in the midst of Spring Training. By the way, Luis Gil is hurt too. All of a sudden, Marcus Stroman goes from wanting to be shipped to the moon to becoming important. In reality, if the Yankees are going to remain at the top of the division, they need an expected arm to take a leap. I’m running out of candidates to pick who aren’t Will Warren.

The Yankees haven’t really produced a ton of top end prospects in recent years but they do have a track record of hitting on some of their middle round arms. Warren wasn’t exactly lights out as a rookie (that’s being generous with a 10.32 ERA in 2024) but he’s had a really nice Spring thus far (1.54 ERA in 11.2 innings).

The former 8th round pick in 2021 gets pretty good extension to the plate and his fastball plays better than the velocity would indicate. Despite a down year as a rookie, opposing batters hit just .074 against his fastball and it only comes in at about 94. A lot of that has to do with his extension to the plate. Now it’s about cleaning up the secondary offspeed stuff. Something that seems to be tracking better this Spring. Don’t be surprised if he becomes a number five starter for this team and looks good in that role.

Tampa Bay Rays: Taj Bradley

Sometimes these things take time. Even the best pitchers can take time to develop. Taj Bradley hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire but you can see he’s slowly becoming better and better. A 5.59 ERA as a rookie improved to a 4.11 mark in year two.

We’ve seen this story before with the Rays. You think they’re out of it. Then one of their young players pops and they’re right back in it. His fastball velocity has always been really good but his exit velo numbers stink. If the K and whiff rates can continue to climb while showing improvements in getting his balls clobbered, don’t be surprised if Bradley becomes a key starter for Tampa this year.

2024 AL East Breakout Stars

Toronto Blue Jays: Joey Loperfido

Acquired in the Yusei Kikuchi trade at last year’s deadline, Loperfido showed a few flashes when first acquired by Toronto. He needs to do a better job at just making contact and I have no idea what position he’s going to play long term. Outside of that, this player has some talent.

If the Blue Jays are going to prove to not be a total waste of time, it’s going to start with a guy like Loperfido becoming a mainstay in the lineup.

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