Brewers’ Misiorowski leads player rankings for 8th week; Cease leads AL pitchers

Here are standings of the top 10 players by category (AL & NL pitching & batting) in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2026 season through games of Thursday, Sept. 3:

	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

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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.

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Related

Last week’s Box-Toppers player rankings report