The Biggest Busts of the 2024 MLB Season So Far

We’re checking in on the most important busts in baseball by way of the All-Star break.

1B Paul Goldschmidt (.230, 13 HRs, 37 RBIs) and 3B Nolan Arenado (.270, 8 HRs, 40 RBIs), St. Louis Cardinals

The cornerstones and future Corridor of Famers, with 15 All-Star appearances and 14 Gold Gloves between them, have been overtaken by a youth motion that’s helped catapult the Redbirds into the playoff race.

In his age-36 season, Goldschmidt—two seasons faraway from NL MVP honors—has seen his offensive numbers tumble throughout the board for the second consecutive 12 months. Has Father Time lastly caught up with Goldy, a free agent after 2024? Most gamers don’t enhance after their mid-30s.

As for Arenado, among the finest third basemen of his or any period, he’s on tempo for his lowest full-season homer and RBI totals since early in his 12-year profession. Has the 33-year-old hit the wall? Unlikely after a stable 2023 marketing campaign. 

He does have three extra years left on a nine-year, $275 million deal, so if there’s no second-half resurgence, it’ll be time for Playing cards followers to fret.

LHP Blake Snell, San Francisco Giants (0-3, 6.31 ERA)

His good recreation bid on Sunday however, the two-time Cy Younger Award winner has been a monumental disappointment in his first season within the Bay Space.

The 31-year-old didn’t signal till the center of March, then missed a month with an adductor pressure after posting an 11.57 ERA in three April begins. His first half was the alternative of what the Giants have been anticipating once they signed him to a two-year, $62 million deal to be their No. 1 starter.

LHP Jordan Montgomery, Arizona Diamondbacks (6-5, 6.44)

Sticking with the theme of a 31-year-old, left-handed, free-agent pitcher signing with an NL West staff late in spring coaching, he has flopped after enjoying an important function for the reigning World Collection champion Texas Rangers.

Anticipated to bolster the rotation of final 12 months’s Nationwide League winners, the southpaw has been so horrible that he’s been booed off Chase Subject a number of instances. To make issues worse, his $20 million participant choice for 2025 has already vested along with his tenth begin, and it’ll attain $25 million if he makes 12 extra begins this season. 

The excellent news for D-backs followers? He’s out with a knee damage, so at the very least he’s not pitching.

OF Randy Arozarena, Tampa Bay Rays (.202, 12 HR, 31 RBIs)

The 2021 AL Rookie of the Yr is one among three gamers to submit at the very least 20 homers and 20 stolen bases every of the final three seasons, and whereas he would possibly obtain that once more in 2024 (14 steals on the break), his batting common has plummeted greater than 50 factors under his profession common.

That’s not all that’s taken a tumble, because the 2023 All-Star’s slugging share (.362) and OPS (.671) are properly under his season averages (.437 and .781, respectively). It’s no shock that the Rays are languishing in fourth within the AL East, barely enjoying .500 ball, when gamers like Arozarena, who isn’t eligible without cost company till after the 2026 season, aren’t producing at their anticipated clip.

2B Vaughn Grissom, Boston Crimson Sox (.148, 0 HR, 3 RBIs)

Acquired within the offseason from the Atlanta Braves in alternate for All-Star Chris Sale, who couldn’t keep wholesome in his final 4 seasons in Boston, the 23-year-old has adopted within the left-hander’s footsteps, however not in a great way. Below staff management by way of 2029, Grissom’s missed 73 video games this season with strains of each hamstrings and hasn’t contributed when wholesome.

Out for greater than a month on his second IL stint, Grissom is slated to start a rehab project at Triple-A Worcester through the break, the Boston Globe reported on Monday. The Crimson Sox—one among MLB’s first-half surprises—have not missed him, and he might not take over as their full-time second baseman, particularly with two minor league choices remaining.