The 2025 MLB regular season had a little bit of everything. Well, it didn't have one thing: a no-hitter.
MLB hasn’t seen a no-no since three Cubs pitchers combined to no-hit the Pirates on Sept. 4, 2024. The last solo no-hitter belongs to Blake Snell on Aug. 2, 2024. There were a handful of close calls this season, but it has come and gone without a single no-no, and that’s rare.
How rare, exactly? It's the first year without a no-hitter since 2005 and just the fifth year without a no-no in the Divisional Era (since 1969).
Let’s take a look at the historical context surrounding MLB’s no-hitter drought, examine what might be the cause and revisit some of 2025’s most promising no-hit bids.
Rare -- but not unprecedented
It’s fair to say baseball fans have been pretty spoiled in recent years when it comes to no-hitters. There were four in each season from 2022-24, and there were a single-season-record nine in 2021. With 39 no-hitters in all since 2015, we’re in a relative Golden Age for the feat. (Though it should be noted that 10 of those 39 were combo no-hitters.)
While there are more no-hitters nowadays, they’ve still happened with relative regularity over the years -- one would have to go back to 1932-33 to find two consecutive seasons without a single no-hitter.
Average number of no-hitters per season
1876-1899: 1.8
1900-1925: 2.2
1926-1950: 1.0
1951-1975: 2.9
1976-2000: 2.2
2001-2025: 3.1
There have been 326 no-hitters all time, dating back to George Bradley’s no-no for the St. Louis Brown Stockings back on July 15, 1876. Since then, just 30 of 151 Major League seasons (19.9%) have resulted in zero no-hitters. Even the 60-game “sprint to the finish” in 2020 produced two.
Here’s what might have contributed to the lack of no-nos this season.
What’s causing it?
There’s not much data to suggest any major statistical difference leaguewide that would account for a surprise drought in no-hitters in 2025 alone. It might just be noise. Still, there are a few factors that could point to a relative downward trend in no-nos in the coming years.
For one, starting pitchers are not going as deep into games over time -- starters averaged 5.88 innings per game between 2000 and 2016, compared to just 5.21 innings per game since then. While combined no-hitters have grown more common (there have been five since the start of 2022), that requires multiple pitchers to display no-hit stuff rather than just one. Complete games have fallen drastically, too -- from 123 as recently as 2013 to just 29 in 2025.
We're also seeing less Minor League talent during the regular season's final month. Prior to 2020, MLB active rosters could expand to 40 players at the start of September. That meant more playing time and at-bats for hitters who may not be ready for The Show and more lineups that may be ostensibly easier for an opposing ace to hold hitless. But now, MLB rosters can only expand from 26 players to 28 in September.
One of the rule changes implemented before the 2023 season might be playing a part, too. Limits on defensive shifts might not seem to be a major barrier to no-hitters, but when a ball that might be snared by a second baseman in shallow right instead sneaks through the infield, it can make all the difference.
Who has come the closest?
This year's closest call came from Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who was one out away from throwing the Dodgers' first no-hitter since 2018 on Sept. 6 (a combined effort by four pitchers). Oddly enough, after Jackson Holilday broke up Yamamoto's no-hit bid with a solo blast, it propelled the O's to a four-run comeback win.
Two days later, the Dodgers carried another no-hit bid into the ninth inning thanks to Tyler Glasnow and Blake Treinen. But a leadoff double in the ninth spoiled that effort. Orioles rookie Brandon Young certainly caused a stir on Aug. 15 in Houston. Young carried a perfect game through seven innings, not allowing a baserunner until former Oriole Ramón Urías reached on an infield single with two outs in the eighth.
This season, there were 11 pitchers to have a no-hit bid of seven-plus innings, a group including Young, Garrett Crochet (April 13 at White Sox) and Jacob deGrom (June 25 at Orioles). Just three of those pitchers completed eight no-hit innings on their own: the aforementioned Yamamoto, the Reds’ Nick Martinez on June 27 and the Guardians’ Gavin Williams on Aug. 6.
Martinez’s bid against his former team, the Padres, ended after a double to Elias Díaz with nobody out in the ninth. Williams began the ninth against the Mets at Citi Field by striking out Francisco Lindor, but he gave up a one-out homer to Juan Soto to bring his no-hit effort to an end.
As the season aged, it seemed like we were getting closer and closer to a no-hitter. But ultimately, MLB's next no-no will have to wait 'til next year.