| AL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Dylan Cease | pi sp | Blue Jays | 20.4 | 1 | Jacob Misiorowski | pi sp | Brewers | 21.4 | |
| 2 | Cam Schlittler | pi sp | Yankees | 18.7 | 2 | Jesus Luzardo | pi sp | Phillies | 21.0 | |
| 3 | Gavin Williams | pi sp | Guardians | 15.7 | 3 | Cristopher Sanchez | pi sp | Phillies | 17.7 | |
| 4 | Jacob deGrom | pi sp | Rangers | 15.4 | 4 | Braxton Ashcraft | pi sp | Pirates | 16.4 | |
| 5 | Bryan Woo | pi sp | Mariners | 14.4 | 5 | Shohei Ohtani | pi sp dh | Dodgers | 15.7 | |
| 6 | Taj Bradley | pi sp | Twins | 14.4 | 6 | Zack Wheeler | pi sp | Phillies | 14.0 | |
| 7 | Logan Gilbert | pi sp | Mariners | 13 | 7 | Kyle Harrison | pi sp | Brewers | 13.7 | |
| 8 | Drew Rasmussen | pi sp | Rays | 13 | 8 | Yoshinobu Yamamoto | pi sp | Dodgers | 13.4 | |
| 9 | Sean Burke | pi sp | White Sox | 12.1 | 9 | Chris Sale | pi sp | Braves | 13.4 | |
| 10 | Sonny Gray | pi sp | Red Sox | 12 | 10 | Paul Skenes | pi sp | Pirates | 12.7 | |
| AL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Pete Alonso | 1b | Orioles | 8.2 | 1 | Shohei Ohtani | pi sp dh | Dodgers | 15.7 | |
| 2 | Yordan Alvarez | dh | Astros | 7.5 | 2 | Sal Stewart | 1b | Reds | 13.0 | |
| 3 | Yandy Diaz | dh | Rays | 7.5 | 3 | Dansby Swanson | ss | Cubs | 9.2 | |
| 4 | Willson Contreras | 1b | Red Sox | 7.0 | 4 | Jake McCarthy | cf lf rf | Rockies | 8.7 | |
| 5 | Nick Kurtz | 1b | Athletics | 7.0 | 5 | Pete Crow‑Armstrong | cf | Cubs | 8.5 | |
| 6 | Kody Clemens | 1b rf | Twins | 7.0 | 6 | Michael Harris | cf ph | Braves | 8.5 | |
| 7 | Munetaka Murakami | 1b | White Sox | 7.0 | 7 | Ty France | 1b | Padres | 8.5 | |
| 8 | Jac Caglianone | 1b | Royals | 6.9 | 8 | Alec Burleson | 1b | Cardinals | 8.5 | |
| 9 | Jazz Chisholm Jr. | 2b | Yankees | 6.5 | 9 | Daylen Lile | lf | Nationals | 8.2 | |
| 10 | Dillon Dingler | ca | Tigers | 6.5 | 10 | CJ Abrams | ss | Nationals | 8.0 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski leads Box-Toppers overall player rankings for an eighth consecutive week.
All Box-Toppers category leaders remain unchanged since last week:
AL Pitchers: Dylan Cease, Blue Jays
NL Batters: Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers
AL Batters: Pete Alonso, Orioles
Misiorowski leads all players and National League pitchers with 21.4 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week. He stays ahead of Jesús Luzardo of the Phillies (21.0 points), who ranks second to Misiorowski overall and among NL pitchers.
American League pitchers
Dylan Cease of the Blue Jays leads AL pitchers for the eighth consecutive week with 20.4 Box-Toppers points, gaining 2.0 points in the past week. He stays ahead of Cam Schlittler of the Yankees (18.7 points). Cease ranks third overall.
National League batters
Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers leads for the 15th straight report with 15.7 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week. He leads second-place NL batter Sal Stewart of the Reds (13.0 points).
Ohtani ranks eighth overall.
Ohtani has earned Player of the Game honors 13 times this season—six as a batter (7.0 points) and seven as a starting pitcher (8.7 points). Because at least 25% of his honors came from each role (46.2% batting, 53.8% pitching), he qualifies to rank at both positions with his full 15.7-point total.
Looked at individually, his 8.7 points as a pitcher would rank 18th among NL pitchers and his 7.0 points as a designated hitter would rank 11th among NL batters.
American League batters
Pete Alonso of the Orioles leads for the second week with 8.2 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week. He ranks ahead of second-place Yordan Alvarez of the Astros (7.5 points). Alonso ranks 48th overall.
AL batters continue to lag significantly behind NL batters in total points earned this season (468.1 vs. 537.4)—in fact, eight of the top 10 NL batters have higher point totals than Alonso.
With three weeks remaining, the top AL batter is on pace to potentially set a record for the lowest point total to lead a category in a full season since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995. The record low was set last season when George Springer of the Blue Jays led AL batters with 9.7 points; Alonso needs 1.5 more points to reach that mark.
Box-Toppers almanac
After winning a majority of Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors last week for the first time this season, batters fell back to earth this week. Batters won in 38 of the 97 games played (39.2%), while pitchers won in 59 (60.8%).
Batters’ overall share of points this season decreased from 40.2% 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 that mark 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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