| AL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Soriano, Jose 4884 | pi sp | ana al | 8.0 | 1 | Ashcraft, Braxton 5208 | pi sp | pit nl | 9.4 | |
| 2 | Schlittler, Cam 5261 | pi sp | nyy al | 7.7 | 2 | Skenes, Paul 5005 | pi sp | pit nl | 9.0 | |
| 3 | Fried, Max 4011 | pi sp | nyy al | 7.0 | 3 | Sanchez, Cristopher 4850 | pi sp | phi nl | 9.0 | |
| 4 | Williams, Gavin 4865 | pi sp | cle al | 6.7 | 4 | Ohtani, Shohei 3933 | pi sp dh | lad nl | 7.7 | |
| 5 | Martin, Davis 4657 | pi sp | chi al | 6.7 | 5 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | atl nl | 6.7 | |
| 6 | Woo, Bryan 4842 | pi sp | sea al | 6.4 | 6 | Vasquez, Randy 4841 | pi sp | sd nl | 6.4 | |
| 7 | Cease, Dylan 4231 | pi sp | tor al | 6.4 | 7 | Luzardo, Jesus 4282 | pi sp | phi nl | 6.0 | |
| 8 | Eovaldi, Nathan 2928 | pi sp | tex al | 5.7 | 8 | Misiorowski, Jacob 5200 | pi sp | mil nl | 6.0 | |
| 9 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | tex al | 5.7 | 9 | Harrison, Kyle 4914 | pi sp | mil nl | 6.0 | |
| 10 | Bradley, Taj 4780 | pi sp | min al | 5.7 | 10 | Burns, Chase 5301 | pi sp | cin nl | 6.0 | |
| AL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Jackson, Jeremiah 5277 | 2b | bal al | 4.2 | 1 | Ohtani, Shohei 3933 | pi sp dh | lad nl | 7.7 | |
| 2 | Arozarena, Randy 4331 | lf | sea al | 4.0 | 2 | Stewart, Sal 5288 | 1b 3b | cin nl | 5.0 | |
| 3 | Kurtz, Nick 5221 | 1b | oak al | 4.0 | 3 | Burleson, Alec 4874 | 1b | stl nl | 5.0 | |
| 4 | Okamoto, Kazuma 5331 | 3b | tor al | 4.0 | 4 | Harris, Michael 4682 | cf ph | atl nl | 4.5 | |
| 5 | Greene, Riley 4675 | lf dh | det al | 3.5 | 5 | Ruiz, Keibert 4616 | ca | dc nl | 4.2 | |
| 6 | Walker, Christian 3958 | 1b | hou al | 3.5 | 6 | Schwarber, Kyle 3536 | dh | phi nl | 4.0 | |
| 7 | Martínez, Angel 5212 | lf cf rf | cle al | 3.5 | 7 | Muncy, Max 3969 | 3b | lad nl | 3.7 | |
| 8 | Rocchio, Brayan 5100 | ss | cle al | 3.5 | 8 | Wood, James 5078 | rf | dc nl | 3.5 | |
| 9 | Raley, Luke 4868 | rf cf | sea al | 3.5 | 9 | Carroll, Corbin 4818 | rf | ari nl | 3.5 | |
| 10 | Murakami, Munetaka 5308 | 1b | chi al | 3.5 | 10 | Castellanos, Nick 3349 | rf dh ph | sd nl | 3.5 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Pirates pitcher Braxton Ashcraft is this week’s new Box-Toppers player rankings leader, passing teammate Paul Skenes, who led the past two weeks.
Also, Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers rises to lead National League batters, while José Soriano of the Angels continues to lead American League pitchers and Jeremiah Jackson of the Orioles maintains his lead among AL batters.
Ashcraft takes overall lead
Ashcraft jumps from third place last week to first overall this week with 9.4 Box-Toppers points, passing previous leader Skenes, who falls to second with 9.0 points. He also takes the lead among NL pitchers ahead of Skenes.
National League batters
Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers moved into first place among National League batters with 7.7 Box-Toppers points, passing last week’s leader Michael Harris II of the Braves, who falls to fourth place with 4.5 points.
While Ohtani leads batters with 7.7 points, only 2.0 of his points have been earned as a batter; the other 5.7 come as a pitcher. Sal Stewart of the Reds has the most points earned solely as an NL batter so far in 2026. His 5.0 points is second among NL batters.
Players qualify to rank at a position if more than 25 percent of their Player of the Game honors come at that position. Ohtani has earned Player of the Game honors six times, two as a batter (33.3 percent) and four as a pitcher (66.7 percent). (In last week’s rankings report, Ohtani did not qualify to rank among batters since only one of his four Player of the Game honors came as a batter.)
Overall, Ohtani ranks sixth on the leaderboard and fourth among NL pitchers. His 5.7 points earned as a pitcher would independently rank 10th in that category, while his 2.0 batting points would rank 29th among NL hitters.
American League pitchers
Angels pitcher José Soriano leads for the second week with 8.0 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week. He leads over second-place Cam Schlittler of the Yankees (7.7 points).
Soriano ranks fourth overall.
American League batters
Jeremiah Jackson of the Orioles leads for the fourth week with 4.2 points, picking up no points in the past week. He leads over second-place Randy Arozarena of the Mariners (4.0 points).
Jackson ranks 33rd overall.
Box-Toppers almanac
While pitchers won a majority of Player of the Game honors this week, batters increased their overall share of Box-Toppers points earned for the season to over 40 percent.
Though pitchers won a majority of the week's awards (55 of 96, or 57.3%), batters slightly increased their overall season share of Player of the Game honors, rising from 39.9% last week to 40.3%. Correspondingly, batters also increased their share of overall Box-Toppers points won from 39.8% last week to 40.1% this week.
Batters have won fewer than 40% of all Box-Toppers points awarded in four of the past five seasons (surpassing it only in 2023 at 40.7%) and set a record-low share of 37.2% in 2024.
While batters have struggled to reach parity with pitchers in recent seasons, it wasn’t always this way: From 1995 to 2009, batters generally won half or more of all Box-Toppers points each season. But their share of points dropped precipitously after 2009.
About Box-Toppers
Box-Toppers tracks who contributes most to their team’s victory. Using standard box score statistics, we identify the Player of the Game for every MLB contest. In the regular season, winners earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point, with bonus points awarded to the top overall and league-specific players of the day. More on how Box-Toppers works.
Help us stay accurate! Spot a mistake? Contact Box-Toppers here so we can fix it.
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