The 2026 season is under two months away, with play set to kick off on Wednesday, March 25th, when the San Francisco Giants host the New York Yankees. When play kicks off, the 2025 season will be in the past, giving every team and player a fresh start as they prepare for the grind of a 162-game schedule.
The 2025 season went well for some, while others struggled. Whether it was injuries or poor performance, many players will be looking to get back on track and have stronger 2026 seasons.
Here is a look at Sandy Alcantara, Adley Rutschman and Luis Robert Jr. as players who are poised to put together strong bounce-back years.
Three Players Who Look To Rebound in 2026
Sandy Alcantara
After missing all of the 2024 season while recovering from Tommy John Surgery, Alcantara returned on Opening Day in 2025, when the Miami Marlins hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates. For the 2025 season, Alcantara pitched to a record of 11-12, 5.36 ERA and 1.27 WHIP across 31 starts, totalling 174.2 innings.
The numbers as a whole were not pretty for the 30-year-old, but it was really the early stages of the season that ballooned the right-hander’s numbers. Alcantara pitched to ERAs of 9.28 in April and 8.64 in May, as Alcantara worked back into form. In the regular season’s final two months, Alcantara turned in ERAs of 3.69 and 3.71, getting more comfortable with each outing.
Alcantara’s final seven outings of 2025 give reason to believe that the 2022 National League Cy Young winner is going to be back to elite levels. In those seven starts, Alcantara went 5-1 with a 2.83 ERA and 0.90 WHIP over 47.2 innings pitched. The Dominican Republic native struck out 45 and walked only nine batters through that stretch. Alcantara threw seven innings in five of those seven starts, including seven innings of two-run ball to close out the year against the New York Mets.
Alcantara’s name has been thrown around in trade rumours due to the Marlins working through a rebuild. Alcantara is set to make $17.3 million in 2026, followed by a $21 million club option for the 2027 season, before becoming a free agent. Alcantara looks to be ready to bounce back to his pre-surgery level after a strong finish to 2025.
Adley Rutschman
Almost everything went wrong for the Baltimore Orioles in 2025. The team finished 75-87, good for last in the American League East, manager Brandon Hyde was fired, and the team dealt with a myriad of injuries. Rutschman turned in a slash line of .220/.307/.366, all career lows and well off the career slash line of .254/.344/.412.
In 2025, Rutschman appeared in 90 games, hitting a career low nine home runs, driving in 29 runs across 322 at-bats. For the first time in the catcher’s career, Rutschman made trips to the injured list, first in June with a left oblique strain, then two months later with a right oblique strain.
After a slow start to the season, Rutschman appeared to have turned a corner in June prior to suffering the injury. Rutschman was hitting .309 with three home runs and five runs driven in, while getting on-base at a .381 clip before suffering the injury on June. 19, against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Rutschman who returned from the injury on July. 28, clearly wasn’t the same player, slashing .208 in August and .071 in September. With an offseason to get healthy, Rutschman could be in line for numbers closer to the catcher’s second season that saw the two-time All-Star bat .277, with 20 home runs, 80 RBIs and a .374 OBP.
The Orioles signed fellow catcher Samuel Basallo to an eight-year, $67 million contract extension in August. This move could allow more off-days or days batting at the designated hitter spot, which could ultimately lead to a big year for the 27-year-old and former first overall pick.
With this season and next before hitting free agency, Rutschman could be in line for a big contract on his next deal, as offensive production from the catcher’s position is a dream for all 30 clubs.
Luis Robert Jr.
A perfect change of scenery candidate, and after years of trade rumours and speculation, Robert Jr. was finally moved this offseason from the Chicago White Sox to the New York Mets. The 28-year-old has spent all six years of his career on the south side of Chicago.
For Robert Jr.’s career, the outfield has a career slash line of .259/.313/.455, but those numbers have seen a fall-off in production in the past two seasons. Part of that could be due to the lack of protection in the lineup around Robert Jr. and the historically bad season in 2024, which saw the White Sox lose a MLB record 121 games.
Last season, Robert Jr. appeared in 110 games, batting a career-low .223, with 14 home runs, 53 RBIs across 382 at-bats. The season prior wasn’t much better, playing in 100 games, while batting .224 with 14 home runs and driving in only 35 runs.
These past seasons have made a lot of people forget that Robert Jr. batted .338 in 2021, batted .284 in 2022 and .264 in 2023, in a season that saw Robert Jr. blast 38 home runs, the ninth most in MLB. The speed in Robert Jr.’s game on the base paths has ticked up, stealing 20,23 and 33 bases in each of the past three years, while never being caught more than eight times in either of those seasons.
Set to join a Mets team and a lineup that includes Francisco Lindor, Bo Bichette, Marcus Semien and Juan Soto, to name a few, Robert Jr. will be hitting in a lineup with the most star power around him in his career.
Robert Jr. has a $20 million club option for this season and next, before hitting free agency for the first time in his career. Two big seasons could send the Cuban native towards a big payday at only 30 years old.
Main Photo Credits: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images