10 struggling MLB stars poised to bounce back after the 2026 All-Star break

Be it injuries, an offseason change that just hasn’t clicked, or even just sheer bad luck, slow starts can plague even the brightest stars that baseball has to offer. Don’t believe me? Just look at stats for many of MLB’s biggest names.

That doesn’t mean these players are going to have completely lost seasons. In fact, we’ve seen plenty of guys use the All-Star break as a launching pad for second-half success. 

MLB players who could turn their seasons around after the All-Star break

With SeatGeek serving as the Official Ticket Marketplace of MLB, we’ve been closely monitoring the biggest names across baseball all season long. We’ve identified 10 players – five hitters and five pitchers – we feel can put together strong second halves after tough starts to 2026.

Hitters

Mariners C Cal Raleigh

Look, Raleigh was never going to hit 60 home runs after his historic 2025 campaign, but he’d hit 27, 30 and 34 homers the previous three seasons, so something in that neighborhood seemed like a pretty easy target for Seattle’s backstop. But Raleigh got off to a dreadfully slow start to 2026, missed more than a month with an oblique strain and is only now starting to come around. He’s hitting under .200 with way too many strikeouts and not enough slug. While Raleigh isn’t going to hit for a high average really ever and he is going to strike out his fair share, what really needs to occur is more slug and walks. 

He is far too talented to be playing this poorly for this long, and considering his place of importance for the Mariners, there’s an extra emphasis on “The Big Dumper” to shine in the second half. Even if he really only flirts with a .200 average overall for the season, Raleigh has the power to change games and series, and we should see more of that coming out of the All-Star break.

Padres 3B Manny Machado 

Something that’s been interesting to monitor in recent years is bat speed, which Baseball Savant (Statcast) now tracks. It’s something I immediately look to when a player – especially a veteran – starts to struggle. In Machado’s case, his bat speed is right in line with where it was from 2023-25, so that’s not an issue. 

Machado’s hitting under .200 for the Padres and not making a ton of contact, which is a bit of a surprise. Additionally, his exit velocity and hard hit numbers have seen a sizable drop from previous seasons. He does have 19 home runs, so his power is still there, but to me it seems like a timing thing as the veteran third baseman has seen a pretty substantial dip in his batting average against fastballs. With his timing off, Machado has been very susceptible to breaking balls and offspeed offerings, and he’s doing next to nothing on those pitch types. 

Machado has historically hit very well in July and August, so it would not surprise me if he comes out of the break in a major way to help kickstart a Padres lineup that needs a jolt in the worst way. 

Guardians OF Steven Kwan

Kwan is still an elite bat-to-ball guy. The Guardians outfielder remains one of the game’s best at making contact, not striking out, staying in the strike zone and working walks. He’s just not finding hits. 

Kwan’s style of hitting is different from most as he is a fairly soft contact-oriented slap hitter who uses his contact skills to annoy opposing pitchers and defenses. Considering Kwan is still elite at making contact and drawing walks, he’s clearly seeing the ball well enough. Kwan’s .225 batting average is certainly a big step back as he typically hits at least .270, and he’s not finding many doubles as he actually has a slugging percentage under .300 so far at .282. Kwan is usually very good against non-fastballs, but that hasn’t been the case in 2026. I’d expect that to change in the second half and for Kwan to be more of a driving force for the Guardians over the final few months of the season. 

Braves 3B Austin Riley 

The good news for the Braves is they’ve largely been able to handle Riley’s struggles and Ronald Acuna Jr.’s injuries this season. But Riley is barely hitting over .200, has a sub-.300 on-base percentage and has just nine home runs and 13 doubles. 

Riley still has elite bat speed. His exit velocity, hard-hit rate and barrel rate are all above average, though not elite as they’ve been in recent years. Something of note is Riley isn’t hitting the ball in the air as often as he usually does, and his line drive numbers in particular are way down. He’s rolled over to the pull side at a very high rate, and he’s not pulling the ball in the air at a good clip, either. That all points to timing, and middling numbers against the fastball suggest as much as well. 

Riley has a track record of being a premier slugger, and it’s hard to see him being a sub-par hitter for a full 162-game season so long as he remains healthy. If he starts mashing on fastballs, everything else should fall into place. 

Blue Jays 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 

Guerrero’s postseason heroics for the Blue Jays haven’t exactly translated to the 2026 regular season, which is surprising. A look at his advanced metrics makes it even harder to understand why Guerrero doesn’t have better numbers.

Guerrero’s batting average of .262 is far below his xBA of .289, which suggests he may be getting a bit unlucky. Guerrero remains elite in the bat speed department as well as limiting strikeouts and whiffs, so he’s not giving away at-bats like you may think considering he has a .703 OPS. 

His hard-hit numbers are down from what we’re used to seeing, and Guerrero is hitting more ground balls and fewer balls in the air in 2026. That will naturally crater a player’s slugging numbers. Guerrero is hitting fastballs well, but he’s just not doing a ton of damage off them. His track record is too good to fade for the second half, especially considering the star first baseman is making as much contact as he is with elite bat speed. It should start to click any time now. 

Pitchers

Mets RHP Freddy Peralta 

The velocity is down a bit, which has resulted in limited chase and whiff numbers, but something important to note is Peralta’s 87.8 mph average exit velocity is still very good, and his 5.0% barrel rate is borderline elite. If the veteran right-hander can find a second gear after a poor first half – 4.68 ERA – he should see his numbers improve. Peralta is also extra incentivized to have a strong second half as he’s a pending free agent and the Mets could trade him to a contender at the deadline.

Phillies RHP Aaron Nola 

Do I think Nola will ever be the All-Star-type arm he was in his prime? No, those days appear to be gone. But he can still be a very strong back-end starter for a contending team like the Phillies. There’s a lot to scoff at with Nola’s first half, namely the 5.75 ERA, .368 BA and .737 SLG off his 4-seamer and .357 BA and .667 SLG off the sinker. But opponents are hitting under .200 off his curveball – his go-to pitch – as well as his changeup. Nola is also above-average in chase and whiff rates and is throwing enough strikes to stay competitive, so it wouldn’t surprise me if his second half is much better than his first. 

Tigers LHP Framber Valdez 

Valdez remains elite at getting chase and groundballs – he’s just been very inconsistent for his new team. The veteran lefty has lowered his season ERA to 4.10 entering the break as he has a 3.60 ERA since the start of June. It hasn’t been pretty for Valdez and the Tigers, but he’s a proven starter who can be one of the best pitchers the game has to offer. It looks like he’s started to turn a corner, and if the Tigers can stay hot and get back into the playoff picture, Valdez may be motivated to really turn it on and show why he’s earning $115 million over a three-year deal.

Blue Jays RHP Kevin Gausman

Few pitchers in baseball have been better and more consistent than Gausman this decade. The veteran right-hander had a 3.36 ERA from 2020-25, and he’s been especially excellent with the Blue Jays with an All-Star nod and two top-10 Cy Young finishes in four years. He’s in the fifth and final season of his contract, and the 35 year old has a 4.32 ERA across 19 starts, which is on pace for his worst mark since 2019.

But Gausman is having better strikeout numbers than he had each of the last two years, and he’s still elite at getting hitters to chase – especially against his splitter – while attacking the zone and limiting walks. He does need to find the slider, though, as opponents are slugging an absurd .857 off that pitch. Part of Gausman’s issue is a 5.57 ERA on the road compared to a 3.50 ERA in Toronto. If Gausman can get back into a rhythm on the road, he should have a strong second half heading into free agency. 

Rangers LHP MacKenzie Gore

Gore was brought to the Rangers to be a key part of a pitching staff that led MLB in 2025. The Rangers’ pitching staff is more good than great this season, and Gore has taken a big step backward after a 3.90 ERA in 2024 and 4.17 last year.

Gore enters the break with a 4.63 ERA in the first half in his first year in Texas. He’s missing fewer bats and generating less chase than he did a year ago, but there are still some promising signs. For instance, his .232 opponent batting average is down from .252 a year ago and .263 two seasons ago, and his 1.29 WHIP is lower than it was each of the last two seasons. Additionally, Gore’s xERA is 3.96, suggesting some positive regression is in order. 

The young lefty has great stuff and is getting good results with his fastball, changeup and slider. His curveball – his top secondary pitch used against right-handed hitters – has been more of an average pitch than the plus offering we saw in 2025. If Gore can find the curveball, he should finish the second half very strong, especially with Texas trying to hold down the AL West.