2026 MLB breakout candidates: 10 players ready to become baseball’s next stars

The 2025 MLB season saw quite a few players really emerge as breakout stars, such as Junior Caminero hitting 45 home runs for the Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong joining the 30-30 club while earning a Gold Glove and his first trip to the All-Star Game.

The 2026 season features a lot of interesting young players primed and ready to truly break out, and we’ve highlighted five pitchers and five hitters who fit that bill. And if you want to see the next wave of stars before they fully explode, you can grab tickets to any of their games all season long on SeatGeek, the official ticketing partner of MLB.

2026 MLB breakout pitchers to watch

From Great American Ball Park to loanDepot park and beyond, here are the breakout arms poised to start shoving in 2026.

Chase Burns (Cincinnati Reds)

The No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, Burns is set to enter his first full MLB season after making his debut in 2025. The early results were solid with a 4.57 ERA across eight starts and 13 total appearances, and Burns was especially devastating when it came to strikeouts with a 13.9 K/9 clip. His 2.65 FIP also shows that he may have gotten a hair unlucky when it came to some batted ball results. 

Burns has as good of pure stuff as there is in the game, and he could soon challenge teammate Hunter Greene for the role of the best starter on the Reds. The stuff is electric and as long as he has at least average control, Burns should be viewed as a long-term piece for Cincy’s rotation as soon as this year. Few pitchers have Burns’ mix of velocity and breaking ball offerings, and he has as high of a ceiling as any young starter in the game.

Eury Perez (Miami Marlins)

Perez put together a very solid 2025 season for the Marlins with a 4.25 ERA and 9.9 K/9 after missing all of 2024, but he pitched fewer than 100 innings. With just 39 career starts under his belt, Perez can really put himself on the map with a strong and healthy 2026 season. Perez has an electric fastball and a slider and changeup that opposing hitters had few answers for in 2025. 

What makes Perez’s profile so interesting is that he ranked in the 81st and 74th percentiles in strikeout and whiff rate, respectively, despite being below average when it comes to chase rate (48th percentile), according to Baseball Savant. If Perez can get more swing and miss outside of the strike zone, he can really take his game to another level. He also needs to generate more weak contact after giving up some tough hard-hit numbers, but Perez did keep the ball in the ballpark with a 1.1 HR/9 last season.

Joey Cantillo (Cleveland Guardians)

Cantillo, a southpaw, was a bit of a surprisingly important player for the Guardians during their postseason run in 2025. He made 13 starts across 34 appearances and pitched to a 3.21 ERA with a 10.2 K/9 rate. Cantillo also had better overall numbers as a starter rather than pitching out of the bullpen.

The young lefty is certainly penned in for a big role for Cleveland for the 2026 season, and his development would go a long way toward fueling another potential playoff run. Cantillo has elite extension in the 99th percentile, per Baseball Savant, and that allows his stuff to play up. He has well above-average rankings when it comes to missing bats, but he ranked in just the 2nd percentile in chase rate. More whiffs on pitches out of the zone could help Cantillo really break out in 2026, and his four-pitch mix profiles really well heading into the season.

Reid Detmers (Los Angeles Angels)

A 2020 first-round pick, Detmers has had a rollercoaster start to his career. He bounced back from a disastrous 2024 season with a strong 3.96 ERA in 2025, but that was exclusively as a reliever. Angels brass have said Detmers will return to the rotation in 2026, and I’m not ready to give up on the young lefty as a starting pitcher in this league. 

Detmers showcased elite swing-and-miss stuff as a reliever in 2025, but missing bats has never been his problem, as evidenced by a career 10.0 K/9 ratio. Hard contact has been the biggest issue for Detmers, though he showed some improvement in that department last season. He started to use his curveball more last year than he did in 2024, and while it’s not a big pitch for strikeouts, opposing hitters didn’t do much against it. He’ll need something to get right-handers out, but Detmers has great pure stuff from the left side and could break out after a strong 2025 season as a reliever.

Michael McGreevy (St. Louis Cardinals)

I think there’s more to McGreevy’s game than some. It’s hard to find pitchers who repeat their mechanics consistently and pound the zone like he does. McGreevy is never going to be a big strikeout guy, and he has just a 5.8 K/9 mark in 21 career MLB appearances with the Cardinals. But you can’t not miss bats and also give up a ton of hard contact, which is exactly what happened with the young right-hander in 2025.

McGreevy ranked in the bottom quarter of MLB in average exit velocity and was in the bottom half in barrel rate as well. He missed barrels in a brief stretch in 2024, and there’s no reason to think he can’t do it again. More competitive strikes and being more appetizing just off the plate will help him a lot, as will using his sinker more as he had far more success with that pitch than his four-seam fastball. He also needs to find a more reliable secondary offering as an out pitch. 

2026 MLB breakout hitters to watch

If you’re circling games to see these young bats in person, prioritizing their early-season starts and homestands is a great way to spot a breakout before the numbers fully pop.

Jac Caglianone (Kansas City Royals)

It’s hard to find a player with Caglianone’s raw strength at the plate, especially at 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds. His lowly .532 OPS as a rookie in 62 games last year certainly leaves a lot to be desired, but Caglianone has elite bat speed and can generate hard-hit numbers few others can. The big issue is just generating  more contact, and while that wasn’t a strength of his in 2025, Caglianone had a career .308 batting average in the minors, so it’s not like he doesn’t have it in him. 

His Royals rookie season may suggest Caglianone is an all-or-nothing bat who will hit his share of home runs while striking out far too often, but if he cuts his chase rate down (38.5% in 2025), his numbers across the board will shoot up. And he figures to get every opportunity possible in 2026, which should only help.

Addison Barger (Toronto Blue Jays)

A big part of the Blue Jays’ playoff success was getting contributions from the bottom of the lineup. Barger, a second-year player, was a conductor in that sense, posting an OPS over 1.000 across 17 games. 

Barger had a solid regular season before his playoff heroics, hitting 21 home runs with a .756 OPS, but his postseason showed there’s more potential there. Barger had some great numbers in the batted ball department, earning high marks for bat speed, hard-hit rate, average exit velocity and barrel rate. He also cut his swing and miss in the postseason, which was one spot where he did struggle at times during the regular season. 

Barger is in a very good Jays lineup, but with Bo Bichette gone, he could really emerge as a top hitter for Toronto after showing some great signs in 2025.

Colt Keith (Detroit Tigers)

It looked like Keith was going to be a true breakout player in 2025 after a strong first half, but an OPS under .700 really cut down his playing time in September with the Tigers fighting to make the postseason. All in all, though, there’s a lot to like with Keith. He works walks, squares the ball up and stays in the zone. He also had above-average marks in expected batting average and slugging percentage last year as well as squared up, chase and whiff rates. 

There’s plenty more in the tank for the young third baseman, and Keith should get considerable playing time again in 2026. Many youngsters you might hesitate to buy stock in come with questions around their ability to make contact. Keith has a good approach and floor already, and 2026 could be the year he really emerges as a cornerstone for Detroit.

Daylen Lile (Washington Nationals)

If you don’t know Lile, you likely will soon. The young Nationals outfielder was tied for fourth in MLB in triples with 11, and he did so in just 91 games. Speed is the name of his game, and Lile made a ton of contact in 2025, slashing .299/.347/.498 with nine home runs and eight steals. Lile makes a ton of contact and only struck out 56 times in those 91 games, and he profiles as someone who could hit leadoff for Washington for years to come. 

A lot of attention will be placed on former No. 2 overall pick Dylan Crews in Washington’s outfield, but Lile hit the ground running last year and put up All-Star-caliber numbers in just over half a season of work. He’s a player to watch in 2026 who may not be on your radar just yet. 

Sal Frelick (Milwaukee Brewers)

Frelick is already well known to many MLB fans after putting together a 3-WAR campaign in 2025 and winning a Gold Glove in 2024, but I think he could very well be an All-Star in 2026. The young Brewers outfielder isn’t much of a slugger, but he makes a ton of contact and can steal his share of bases. A 20-steal season while playing elite defense in the outfield is hardly out of the question. Few players make as much contact as Frelick does, but it’s largely been soft contact while he showcases elite speed. 

I think there’s more in the tank for Frelick offensively, especially as he boasted one of the best squared-up rates in MLB last year at nearly 30%. He also started to lift the ball more in the air in 2025, so we could see some extra-base hit numbers start to really tick up in 2026 while he also has the ability to hit .300 after hitting .288 in 2025.