Every spring, a group of stars find themselves in unfamiliar territory, with a stat line that doesn't match their reputations.
But not all slow starts are created equal. While some prove to be mere blips, others are warning signs of what's to come.
With May underway, we decided to take a look at 10 of this year's most disappointing players and determine which category they belong in: patience or panic.
All stats below are through Friday.
Exercise patience
Fernando Tatis Jr., 2B/RF, Padres
Tatis is in the midst of the longest home run drought of his career -- 139 plate appearances spanning back to last season -- and he owns a .665 OPS through 31 games this year despite posting the second-highest hard-hit rate among qualifiers at 63.6%. While he has been hitting rockets, he hasn’t been producing contact that’s conducive to slugging, recording the lowest pull and fly-ball rates of his career. At some point, though, the dam is going to break.
Ketel Marte, 2B, D-backs
Marte is slashing just .231/.291/.385 with an 87 OPS+ this season, well below the 150 OPS+ he produced across 2024-25. However, if you only looked at his Statcast percentile rankings, you wouldn’t know anything is wrong. Marte ranks in the 94th percentile in expected batting average (.304), the 86th percentile in average exit velocity (92.4 mph) and the 79th percentile in hard-hit rate (47.9%), but a .247 BABIP has put a dent in his numbers. Once his luck evens out, the results should follow.
Cal Raleigh, C, Mariners
We aren’t going to pretend everything is rosy with Raleigh, especially compared to the 60-homer monster he was in 2025. His expected batting average is below .200, he has the lowest squared-up rate in MLB and only two hitters have experienced a more pronounced drop (-18.9 points) in their hard-hit rate year over year. He was also scratched from the lineup on Saturday with "general soreness" that was severe enough to warrant imaging. That said, we aren’t going to write him off, either. The backstop recently hit five home runs in a seven-game span, and his expected wOBA over his past 10 games (47 PAs) is .381. If he's healthy, we expected better days ahead.
Jesús Luzardo, SP, Phillies
Luzardo has been one of the most confounding pitchers of 2026, part of an overall disappointing start for a Phillies team that is 13-20. The left-hander has recorded a 5.50 ERA through six starts, but he’s been missing bats, limiting walks and minimizing hard contact. All of his ERA-adjacent performance metrics look great, too: He owns a 3.25 xERA, a 2.76 FIP and a 2.94 SIERA. Poor luck and sequencing have been Luzardo’s biggest issues, but even with Philadelphia’s poor defense likely to remain an obstacle, his BABIP (.352) and LOB% (56.4%) -- two stats that can be especially noisy in small sample sizes -- aren’t going to be this bad all year.
Cole Ragans, SP, Royals
Ragans has struggled with his command this season, as evidenced by his lofty walk (5.8 BB/9) and home run (2.8 HR/9) figures -- never a good combination. His ERA is 5.29 through seven starts, and his FIP (6.57) is even higher. However, the left-hander’s stuff tells a different story. His velocity is normal, he ranks among the top starting pitchers in both whiff rate and strikeout rate and has the ninth-best Stuff+ rating (109, per FanGraphs) among qualifiers. The Royals have proven adept over the past few seasons at getting the most out of their starting pitchers, with Ragans himself a prime example after his rough stint with the Rangers. There’s a good chance they’ll figure this out.
Time to panic
Rafael Devers, 1B, Giants
This is one of the worst stretches of Devers' career. He's recorded a .540 OPS through 32 games this season and posted MLB’s fourth-largest drop in barrel rate (-8.9 points) and the largest drop in walk rate (-10.1 points) since last season. He's also struck out nearly 30% of the time as a member of the Giants after sitting around 21% during his stint with the Red Sox. Especially alarming is his struggles against four-seam fastballs -- he’s hitting .146 (6-for-41) with a 51.1% whiff rate and a 59.5% strikeout rate on those pitches this year.
Jackson Merrill, CF, Padres
Just last season, we saw Merrill deliver a 1.053 OPS with seven dingers in his final 20 games on the heels of an 80-game stretch with just a .603 OPS, so we’re not ruling out a turnaround this year. But at least while he was struggling last season he was still producing valuable contact, highlighted by a launch angle sweet-spot rate close to 40%. This year, only 31.4% of his batted balls have been in the LA sweet-spot range (8-32 degrees). It’s also hard to ignore the fact that the 23-year-old’s whiff (28.1%) and strikeout (24.2%) rates continue to rise after he flashed such strong contact skills as a rookie in 2024.
Jazz Chisholm Jr., 2B, Yankees
A free agent at the end of 2026, Chisholm said this past offseason that he was aiming for a 50-50 season, something only Shohei Ohtani has done. But while he’s on pace to come close in the steals department, it looks like he might not even reach 15 homers. Chisholm has gone deep just three times in 31 games -- including a 23-game drought to open the campaign -- recording the fifth-largest drop in barrel rate (-8.4 points) and the third-largest drop in expected SLG (-.151) of any qualifying hitter.
Luis Castillo, SP, Mariners
While Castillo finished 2025 with a 3.54 ERA over 32 starts, we saw signs of cracks forming in the foundations as his whiff, strikeout and barrel rates all regressed to career-worst levels. Those key metrics have continued to trend in the wrong direction this year, contributing to a 6.35 ERA through seven starts. That would be concerning for any pitcher, much less a 33-year-old who put a lot of mileage on his arm from 2018-25 (1,321 1/3 IP).
Pete Crow-Armstrong, CF, Cubs
Crow-Armstrong’s incredible center-field defense means he doesn’t have to be much more than a league average hitter to be one of the Cubs’ most valuable players. However, he hasn’t met that offensive benchmark for some time. He’s recorded three homers with a .664 OPS and a 93 OPS+ through 32 games, this after producing just four homers with a .578 OPS over his final 57 games last season. Crow-Armstrong’s penchant for swinging at pitches outside the strike zone is worse than ever -- his 45.5% chase rate is among the highest in MLB -- and pitchers are clearly taking advantage.