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Box-Toppers coverage of the 2026 Major League Baseball season begins with the first spring training games Friday.
Source: MLB.com
Since 1995, Box-Toppers has tracked each Major League game played, tracking who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. In regular season games, players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.
For example, in 2025, Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal led all players with 22.1 Box-Toppers points, Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes led National League pitchers with 21.1, Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies led NL batters with 12.0 and George Springer of the Blue Jays led AL batters with 9.7.
Two of those four Box-Toppers category leaders also won major postseason awards—Skubal won the AL Cy Young Award and Skenes won the NL Cy Young Award. Schwarber finished second in NL Most Valuable Player Award voting, behind winner Shohei Ohtani of the Dogers, whose 5.5 Box-Toppers points was 27th among NL batters. Springer finished seventh in AL MVP Award voting, behind winner Aaron Judge of the Yankees, whose 6.5 Box-Toppers points was 20th among AL batters.
Friday features seven games, including five MLB-vs.-MLB matchups listed in today's preview. (Two exhibition games against college teams are excluded from the chart below.) No Box-Toppers points are awarded for spring games, but a Player of the Game is named for every game that doesn’t end in a tie. Subscribe to our newsletter, follow us on X (Twitter), Bluesky, Facebook or via RSS for daily updates.
See the chart for a Box-Toppers look at the probable pitching matchup in Friday’s games, showing the starters’ Box-Toppers point totals in 2025, for the period 2021-25 and for their career.
The regular season begins Wednesday, March 25 with the Yankees facing the the Giants in San Francisco.
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A Box-Toppers look at Friday’s pitching matchups
A Box-Toppers look at the upcoming day’s probable pitching matchups. Teams are paired below with visiting teams on top and home teams on the bottom. Each team’s starting pitcher is shown with their Box-Toppers point total from 2026 (’26)†, last year (’25), over five years (’21-25), and their career point total.Back to top
| Game | Starter | ’26† | ’25 | ’21‑25 | Career |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NYY | Undecided | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| BAL | Rogers, Trevor 4311 | 0.0 | 11.7 | 26.7 | 27.7 |
| KC | Kolek, Stephen 5046 | 0.0 | 5.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| TEX | Undecided | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| CHW | Cannon, Jonathan 5036 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| CHC | Taillon, Jameson 3658 | 0.0 | 10.1 | 43.2 | 69.6 |
| ARI | Undecided | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| COL | Senzatela, Antonio 3760 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 4.0 | 15.0 |
| SD | Gillaspie, Logan* | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| SEA | Dunning, Dane 4317 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 12.4 | 15.4 |
Games shown are spring training games between MLB teams. Doesn't include games vs. non-MLB teams.
† Players don’t earn Box-Toppers points in spring training games, only regular season games, so no pitcher has earned any points in 2026.
* Player has yet to earn any career Box-Toppers points.
What are those numbers after players' names?
Chart is sortable. Click a column header to re-sort the chart by the values in that column. Refresh page to restore chart to default, game-by-game view.
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