The MLB season is in full swing, and a few things have already become clear: The New York Yankees seem to be the biggest contenders to the Los Angeles Dodgers to end their dynasty, and the New York Mets might be the biggest disappointment in sports. Rookies are mashing balls at a record pace, and veterans are striking out more than ever. Players all across the spectrum are dominating and being dominated, depending on who you ask.
With salaries at record rates, we’d hope that the stats follow suit. Records in baseball, more than any other sport, are important to the bottom line. The 1990s home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa became must-see TV. Shohei Ohtani’s 50-50 season was a spectacle to behold. We love a record in MLB, and looking at the 2026 season, some historic ones are on the line. Let's dig into the records for the taking.
Aaron Judge
- American League home run record
- Current Record Holder: Aaron Judge, 62
Let’s start by saying that nobody is going to touch Barry Bonds’ MLB record of 73 home runs for a long time. Aaron Judge is probably the best power hitter we’ve seen since Bonds, but the San Francisco Giants superstar stood in a league of his own (and we’ll ignore how he got into that league, though we did compare the two greats here). However, breaking the American League record was incredibly fun when Judge did it in 2022.
Judge has been on pace to break it before and fell short, ending with 58 home runs in 2024 and 53 home runs in 2025. Once again, he’s coming close to record pace. Right now, he has 12 home runs through 30 games. Simple math shows us he’s hitting about 63-65 home runs this season if he stays on pace.
However, Judge is actually playing worse than he usually does. His .242 average would be a career low, and his OPS — just over 1.000 — would be his worst since 2021. If he heats up, 70 homers could come into play. Still, Barry Bonds’ record remains out of reach. A bigger goal might be pushing toward 500 career home runs.
Munetaka Murakami
- Rookie home run record
- Current record holder: Aaron Judge, 52
Ah yes, another Aaron Judge home run record. It’s surprising that after more than 100 years of baseball history, there are this many records that can be broken at this point, but Judge’s 2017 season was incredible. Not only did he break the rookie home run record with 52 dingers and win Rookie of the Year, but he also finished second in MVP voting.
This season, he might have a challenger in Chicago White Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami. He’s been incredible since surprisingly signing with the team. So far this season, Murakami has 12 home runs, the same number as Judge — they are tied for the AL lead.
That puts Murakami on pace to hit more than 60 home runs this season, which would crush Judge’s record. Of course, we expect some attrition in his statistics. He’s riding the high of starting his career in the U.S., but that will eventually wear off. Still, Murakami is built to last. He just turned 26 years old, so he’s in the prime of his career, and the rookie wall is less likely. He’s played professional baseball for years in Asia, so he’s used to the grind of a baseball season. We do expect some drop in his home runs, but Judge's record will stay in focus for the whole season.
Shohei Ohtani
- Season ERA
- Current record holder: Robert Keyes 0.64
- Current record holder at least 200 innings: Dutch Leonard 0.96
This one might feel impossible, but so did a 50-50 season, and Shohei Ohtani already achieved that. It felt impossible to do what Ohtani has already done, which is pitch for five starts at under a 1.00 ERA. If you look at the lowest ERAs in a single season, only five players in the almost 150 years of Major League Baseball have pitched under 1.00 for the entire year, and only two of them pitched 100 innings.
Through six starts, Ohtani has a 0.68 ERA. That’s psychotic to think about. It’s crazier that he “tanked” the number by allowing two runs in his start against the Miami Marlins. Ohtani has been on another level on the pitching mound, putting more distance between himself and Tommy John Surgery.
Ohtani is a generational player if we’ve ever seen one. He is dominating in the batter’s box, on the pitching mound, and on the bases. There is no five-tool player with better tools than him. But what’s crazy is Jose Soriano of the Los Angeles Angels has been right there with him, putting up a 0.84 ERA. However, we’ve seen Ohtani do crazy things, so if anyone is beating this “unbeatable” record, it’s going to be Ohtani.
Fernando Tatis Jr.
- Hardest hit ball
- Current record holder: O'Neill Cruz (122.9 MPH)
Balls have been getting crushed this season, and Fernando Tatis is at the top of the list of players who are doing it. His 64.7 percent hard-hit ball percentage is second only to James Wood, but Tatis swings the bat a helluva lot more than Wood, so he’s getting good wood on more balls in play.
This one is obviously a projection, as it’s a one-time record, but Tatis has been tattooing balls all season, and we see him getting into one to the tune of 123 miles per hour. While most would expect Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton to hold this record, right now, it’s actually held by the Pittsburgh Pirates’ O'Neill Cruz. He crushed the ball last year that now sits in the record books.
What’s crazy is that Tatis is doing this with a low barrel percentage on his hits. His barrel percentage is just under 15 percent according to Statcast. If he gets that number up to his career peak, which was over 20 percent, then he’s going to launch a ball straight to the moon. Oh, that’s why they call it a moon shot. Tatis won’t need SpaceX for this one; his rocket ship is a wooden baseball bat.
Sandy Alcantara
- Most innings pitched in 21st Century
- Current record holder: Roy Halladay, 266 innings
Again, we had to change some things for this to work, but what Sandy Alcantara is doing deserves recognition. He’s carrying the Miami Marlins every five days. The former Cy Young Award winner is trying to get another one in his trophy case. However, the actual record for most innings pitched is Will White with 680 innings pitched. Roy Halladay holds the record for the 21st century with 266. Alcantara would have to pitch 76 complete games to break the record.
So, Roy Halladay’s mark it is. Alcantara had a dreadful start against the Detroit Tigers earlier this month, allowing seven runs, but he still went six full innings. He’s up to 47.1 innings in seven starts after holding the Dodgers to just two runs (which is a feat).
If Alcantara can stay healthy and the Marlins continue to lean on him like they do, he should be able to get towards the Halladay mark. The Marlins are hoping to make a push for the playoffs. If they do that, Alcantara will be at the center of it. He will have to pitch a crazy amount all season to stay in the race. Think, C.C. Sabathia, that one season he pitched for the Milwaukee Brewers. We’re making complete games cool again, folks.
New York Yankees
- Team ERA
- Current record holder: 1919 Chicago White Sox , 2.06 ERA
If we look at the lowest team ERA in the history of baseball, that mark goes to the 1919 Chicago White Sox, owner of possibly the most famous gambling controversy in sports. They allowed 2.06 runs per game during the full season. Obviously, the Black Sox are redacted here.
Right now, the New York Yankees have a team ERA of 3.11 after some big contests, but we very much predict that the team will lead all of baseball soon. Luis Gil, who has struggled since he won Rookie of the Year, is about to be replaced in the rotation by Carlos Rodon. Superstar ace Gerrit Cole is about to return from Tommy John Surgery. This is on top of already having one of the best one-two punches to start the season with Max Fried and Cam Schittler at the top of the rotation.
The Yankees are stacked with pitchers, both starters and in the bullpen. Will they shave another run off their stat line this season? It’s a tall task to ask, but with the Rays and Red Sox not looking great in the division, and the American League once again falling behind their rivals across the aisle, it’s definitely possible.
New York Mets
- Worst record for salary leader
- Current record holder: New York Mets, 70 wins
The New York Mets are a new level of futility this season. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. They’ve dealt with injuries, new additions like Bo Bichette are playing poorly, the pitching hasn’t stepped up, and there is no direction for this franchise. They cannot seem to get out of their own way despite their $333 million salary this season.
Many might question why the Los Angeles Dodgers aren’t considered the top-salaried team every season, but their deferred money nonsense helps them stay away from the top of this list. The Mets are paying the most to their players this season, and that doesn’t even include Bobby Bonilla in July. So, the Mets are at the top of the salary list, but that’s the only list they are topping this season. This team has been terrible across the board.
What might change for the Mets this season? As of this writing, they have 10 wins in 31 games. They are on pace for 54 wins this season. That’s all-time bad already. It would break the record for the worst record of a salary leader by 16 losses. The fanbase is already quitting on this team, which just a year ago looked like the biggest rival to the Dodgers' World Series chances.
Pittsburgh Pirates, NL Central
- Most wins by a team last place in a division
- Current record holder: 1977 Chicago Cubs, 81 wins
Just once in the history of the league has every team in a division finished .500 or better. The 1977 Chicago Cubs finished 81-81 in the uber-competitive National League East. This year, the National League Central has been on fire to start the season.
Maybe this is way too early, especially with teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, and Cincinnati Reds feeling like they might be a year or two early, but this is all about looking way ahead. The Pirates are currently in last place with a record of 16-15. The entire division is within 3.5 games of each other. We can really see any of these teams winning the NL Central.
So much can throw this off its axis. An injury to Paul Skenes or a five-game losing streak could cause a team to fall under .500. Heck, if one team starts to pull away, we could see a team like the Cardinals deciding to sell at the MLB Trade Deadline, but as of right now, all five of these teams are competing at a high level. This might be the most competitive division in a long time.
Philadelphia Phillies
- Most wins by a team that fired its manager
- Current record holder: 2022 Philadelphia Phillies, 65 wins
It’s honestly pretty funny that some of these teams are looking to break their own records. The 2022 Philadelphia Phillies fired Joe Girardi with a 22-29 record in May, but this year, they jumped off the manager bandwagon early. Ironically, they hired another ex-Yankee great to take his place.
Phillies President of Operations Dave Dombrowski let Rob Thomson go this week with the Phillies holding a 9-19 record. The 2022 Phillies added 65 wins after they fired Girardi. That’s how Thomson got the job in the first place. He got that Phillies team back into contention. He actually took them pretty far, but something is off with this team. There’s too much talent for them to be struggling like this.
With Don Mattingly, the Phillies would just need 75 wins to finish the season to break the record. Does anyone really expect the Phillies to be this bad for the long term? It’s too good a pitching staff and way too good of a lineup for them to continue to be this bad. We feel like this one might be in the bag. Between Bryce Harper and Aaron Nola, the vets on this team will drag the Phillies back into contention in the NL East, especially with the Mets being this bad for a few free wins.
David Bednar
- Most saves in a season
- Current record holder: Francisco Rodriguez, 62
The New York Yankees look really good this season, and they have a fantastic pitching staff that’s only going to get better when they add Cole and Rodon to join Schittler, Fried and Will Warren. There will be a lot of wins for the Yankees this year, and Aaron Boone is not a manager that likes to switch things up in the bullpen. If it’s a save scenario, he’s going to go with David Bednar.
The Yankees made huge changes to the bullpen last season, and while it took some time to get the right combination working, this offseason, they found it. They let Devin Williams go to the Mets, and they put David Bednar into the closer’s role. Add in Camilo Doval, Fernando Cruz, and Tim Hill, and the Yankees are expected to take a game through the end with the win very often.
This is a team that’s been rolling, even if they aren’t putting up insane numbers yet. However, as they keep getting better, Bednar is putting up the saves. He already has nine saves in 13 games, and his 3.55 ERA isn’t the best, but we see him getting better and the Yankees putting up more and more wins. It won’t always be the prettiest, but the opportunities will open themselves up for Bednar to break Francisco Rodriguez’s record.
Add us as a preferred source on Google