MLB stars off to slow starts in 2026: Bounce back or panic time?

While we’d love to see the biggest and best that MLB has to offer get off to excellent starts each and every year, that’s just not how the game of baseball rolls. 

We see big names get off to cold starts every season, and while some shake off those tough early results, others let it linger and wind up putting up numbers we’re unaccustomed to seeing on the back of their baseball cards. 

Which MLB players off to slow starts should you worry about?

With SeatGeek serving as the Official Ticket Marketplace of MLB, we’ve been keeping close tabs on all of the biggest superstars that the game has to offer, and we’re going to look at 10 players – five hitters and five pitchers – and break down what’s going wrong with these guys and what level of panic we have with them on a 1-5 scale. 

Struggling big-name bats

Cleveland Guardians 3B Jose Ramirez: 1 out of 5

Ramirez has been maybe the most steady star hitter of his generation. The veteran third baseman seemingly hits .280 every year while working nearly as many walks as strikeouts and hitting 25+ homers and stealing a lot of bases. That’s why his .215/.344/.380 (.724 OPS) slash line with six homers and 16 RBIs stands out so much.

Ramirez has been so consistent for Cleveland, and he’s often the biggest reason the Guardians haven’t completely cratered offensively in recent years. The Guards have gotten more production from other bats like Chase DeLauter, David Fry and Daniel Schneemann, but things won’t truly click until Ramirez gets going. 

The .344 on-base percentage is a good place to look when it comes to positive signs, as that’s nearly in line with his career .353 on-base percentage. He’s also still on pace to hit 23 homers and steal over 60 bases. 

It’s hard to bet against Ramirez, and I certainly won’t here. He’ll be just fine. 

Seattle Mariners C Cal Raleigh: 4 out of 5

Nobody expected Raleigh to even come close to what he did last year when he hit 60 home runs – the most in a single season by a Mariner, switch-hitter and catcher. But “The Big Dumper” has been more of a “Big Bummer” to start 2026.

Raleigh is slashing just .157/.238/.320 (.558 OPS) with seven home runs, and he’s also struck out 54 times in 39 games played. Things have been especially bad of late as Raleigh is in the midst of an 0-for-36 stretch. He missed some time recently with what was diagnosed as a side injury, and when he returned, he initially stuck to DH work. He’s back behind the plate, however, so he’s clearly healthy by catcher standards.

Again, anything close to 60 homers was unrealistic, but Raleigh hit 27+ bombs in 2022, 2023 and 2024. He’s not a high batting average guy by any means, either, but that .157 mark is startling. Raleigh is also not hitting the ball nearly as hard as last year with the Mariners, which is worth mentioning. 

San Diego Padres OF Fernando Tatis Jr.: 5 out of 5

It looks like Tatis’ 42-homer campaign of 2021 is a thing of the past, but he’s still been good for about 25 home runs a year ever since. That’s why it’s so shocking to see the star outfielder has yet to leave the yard this year. 

The Padres have been just fine despite Tatis’ cold start, but the numbers are startling. He’s slashing .243/.319/.292 (.611 OPS) with the aforementioned zero home runs and six total extra-base hits. The Padres clearly have the pitching and lineup talent to help manage Tatis’ struggles, but at some point they’ll need his bat to start coming through like he has in the past. The lack of power from someone with a career slugging percentage over .500 is one of the more eye-catching numbers of the early stages of 2026.

San Francisco Giants 3B Rafael Devers: 4 out of 5

Devers has started to heat up amid what’s been an awful start to 2026, and he’s coming off maybe his best game of the year to date – a 2-for-3 night with a homer and two walks against the Dodgers. But there’s no denying Devers hasn’t performed up to his usual expectations thus far, especially considering he’s one of the highest-paid hitters in all of baseball. 

Devers’ slash line is .240/.292/.390 (.682 OPS) on the year, though those numbers have collectively started to tick up over the last week-plus. He, like essentially the entirety of San Francisco’s lineup, just hasn’t done enough early on, and the numbers – and 17-24 team record – certainly reflect that. 

Devers is a regular .850+ OPS guy, so seeing him fight to get to .700 is a shock. Things have started to move in the right direction, but we’ll need to see more over a long period of time. His name has also been at the center of trade rumors over the last week as the Giants appear to be heading towards a full-scale reset after trading catcher Patrick Bailey to Cleveland. 

New York Mets IF Bo Bichette: 3 out of 5

One of the most coveted free agents on the market, Bichette left the Blue Jays after their World Series run for a massive payday with the Mets. Bichette was the biggest bat to join New York this offseason, and he was tasked with helping minimize the loss of Pete Alonso to Baltimore, even if Bichette has never come close to that kind of power in his career.

The early results? Pretty dang bad. Bichette owns a .222/.269/.290 (.559 OPS) slash line as the season has been a disaster for both the Mets and their prized offseason addition. Bichette has yet to look like the steady force he was atop Toronto’s lineup for all these years, and when you’re not adding much slug, it’s tough to overlook a .222 average or .269 on-base percentage. 

That being said, there are at least some metrics to suggest Bichette could start to really turn things around, namely an expected batting average of .283 (85th percentile, per Statcast), a 70th percentile hard-hit rate, 77th percentile average exit velocity, 80th percentile squared up rate and 80th percentile whiff rate. There are at least some seeds of a breakout on the horizon.

Struggling starting pitchers

Cincinnati Reds LHP Andrew Abbott: 2 out of 5

With Hunter Greene sidelined, the Reds tabbed Abbott to start on Opening Day and lead the rotation. The early results have been poor overall. In nine starts, the 2025 All-Star has a 4.47 ERA and 1.51 WHIP – far cries from his 2.87 ERA and 1.15 WHIP a year ago. 

The good news for the Reds is even as the young southpaw struggled, Chase Burns has dazzled, taking less pressure off Abbott. Additionally, Abbott appears to have turned a corner of late. Abbott’s ERA got up to an ugly 6.59 after six starts, but he has allowed just two runs over 17 2/3 innings across his last three starts to get down to a 4.47 ERA. There’s less swing and miss in his game than we’re used to seeing and he’s allowing more overall hard contact than a year ago, but things are overall trending in the right direction, which is a good sign for a Reds team in a very competitive NL Central.

There are still some things Abbott needs to improve on, namely that aforementioned hard contact, but he’s been very good over the last two weeks. 

Seattle Mariners RHP Luis Castillo: 4 out of 5

From a current Reds star hurler to a former one, Castillo has had an awful start to 2026. This comes after so many years of consistency dating back to his Cincinnati days, which makes the sudden drop off so stunning. 

After allowing four runs in four innings to the White Sox on Saturday, Castillo’s ERA is up to 6.57. He’s allowed four or more runs in each of his last three starts and four of his last six. His velocity is down, he’s getting hit far harder than he ever has and he’s not missing very many bats at all. This is not the Luis Castillo we’re accustomed to seeing. 

With Bryce Miller set to return from the injured list, Emerson Hancock off to such a strong start to 2026 and Castillo struggling so much right now, the Mariners may have a tough decision to make with one of their most veteran players. With the team in the midst of 13 games in 13 days, though, that decision may not come until later this month. 

Texas Rangers LHP MacKenzie Gore: 2 out of 5

The Rangers brought Gore in to create a three-headed monster atop their rotation alongside Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi. It’s been a rather mixed bag for the young lefty in his first year in Texas. 

Gore started off well enough with a 3.00 ERA in his first four starts in 2026, but he’s allowed 16 runs in 19 innings over his last four starts – 7.48 ERA – and his 2026 ERA is now up to 5.18 after giving up five runs to the Yankees on Thursday. 

Gore’s Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) is 4.01, which suggests he may be a bit unlucky to kick off the season. Additionally, his worst advanced metrics – barrel rate, hard-hit rate, average exit velocity – are all basically in line with what he did last year with the Nationals, if not better. He’s not pitching like an All-Star, but he’s not as bad as his 5+ ERA suggests. He should be fine moving forward. 

Philadelphia Phillies LHP Jesus Luzardo: 1 out of 5

Look, Luzardo’s stats look rough from a glance. His 5.98 ERA is second-worst among qualified starters  and his WHIP is up at 1.40. But stay with me here as I explain why he may just be a bit unlucky.

First, he’s punching tickets with 57 strikeouts in 43 2/3 innings. That’s a good place to start. Then, when you look at the underlying data from Statcast, you see a lot to like. Luzardo ranks among the best in the game in average exit velocity, chase and whiff rates, hard-hit rate and more. The difference between his actual ERA of 5.98 and expected ERA of 3.22 is among the widest gaps in baseball. His numbers are largely inflated by two bad starts and one awful one. 

The Phillies have had their issues this year, but Luzardo isn’t someone I’m worried about just yet. Baseball has a way of evening things out, and I feel like we’ll see that happen with the veteran southpaw.

Arizona Diamondbacks RHP Merrill Kelly: 4 out of 5

Kelly is an interesting name to examine here. He has made just five starts for the Diamondbacks because he opened the year on the injured list, and he’s coming off an excellent outing on Saturday where he gave up just one run in seven innings. That cut his ERA down to a still-whopping 7.62.

There’s a lot to break down, though. First off, that start was against the Mets, who have maybe baseball’s worst lineup outside of San Francisco. Second, Kelly’s ERA still starts with a 7. Third, Kelly has allowed five or more runs in three of his five starts. And finally, Kelly ranks at or near the bottom of baseball in metrics like average exit velocity, hard-hit rate, expected batting average, expected ERA, strikeout rate and walk rate. It’s been tough sledding. 

Perhaps the Mets outing was a get-right spot for a veteran arm. But Kelly is one more rough outing away from a full-blown 5-out-of-5 on the panic meter. We were this close to doing that here. 

Also worth noting: San Francisco Giants RHP Logan Webb and Boston Red Sox LHP Garrett Crochet

I don’t think either should fall into the actual rankings here as both are on the injured list, and those injuries may have played a role in their poor starts. Webb has a right knee injury and Crochet has a shoulder injury. Webb has a 5.06 ERA and 1.40 WHIP in eight starts while Crochet owns a 6.30 ERA and 1.47 WHIP. Both were underperforming relative to expectations as Webb and Crochet were each considered Cy Young contenders before the year began.