Every new Major League Baseball season brings a new allotment of potential comeback stories, and the 2025 campaign before us is no exception. So let’s dig into that a bit by focusing on those star-caliber players who are returning from various major injuries in the season just ahead of us. This, of course, is not an exhaustive list of every player battling his way back from malady, but these, it says here, are the biggest names and those like to give their teams the biggest boost, provided they’re able to find something close to their pre-injury forms.
On account of an acute case of Ranking-Things Fatigue, from which the writer hopes to recover in time for the 2026 season, these players will be listed in alphabetical order.
Ranking MLB’s top 100 players in 2025: Shohei Ohtani is No. 1, but how do baseball’s other stars stack up?
Dayn Perry
Acuña has now worked his way back from ACL surgeries on both knees. This time around, Acuña underwent surgery to repair a tear in his left knee, which he suffered last May. He’s taken part in baseball activities this spring, but Acuña is yet to appear in a Grapefruit League game. Likely, he won’t and will instead head out on a minor-league rehab assignment in April. An early tell will be whether the Braves place him on the 60-day injured list, which would open up a spot on the 40-player roster but would keep Acuña out at least until well into May. More likely, though, is that he’ll be placed on the standard 10-day IL and make his 2025 debut well before that 60-day timeline.
While Acuña wasn’t quite up to his usual standards before getting hurt last season, he’s not far removed from a legendary 2023 campaign, in which he became the first (and still only) 40-70 player in MLB history and won NL MVP honors in unanimous fashion. Now 27, he still has that kind of upside, but he may require some runway to get back to that level post-surgery.
Alcantara – a throwback ace in terms of stamina with the contemporary ace’s ability to overwhelm hitters – enjoyed a season for the ages in 2022, took a step back in 2023, and then succumbed to a UCL tear. He’s coming off October 2023 Tommy John surgery, and if spring training is any indicator, then the 29-year-old is ready to dominate once again. Assuming that’s the case in the early going, then Alcantara could emerge as the most coveted trade target leading up to the deadline (or even well before then). Needless to say, any number of contenders could use a starting pitcher like Alcantara provided he’s able to get back to his old ways.
Bautista was a lockdown closer and then some for his two seasons in the majors. From 2022-23, he pitched to a 1.85 ERA in 121 relief appearances with 198 strikeouts in 126 ⅔ innings. Along the way, he converted 86% of his save opportunities and logged 27 multi-inning outings. Needless to say, Baltimore’s hopes took a hit when he underwent Tommy John surgery in October of 2023, costing him all of the 2024 season. He’ll look to get back to dominance in 2025, and he’s had ample time to recover. He’s enjoyed a strong spring at the command-and-control level, which is an encouraging sign.
The “elite when healthy but rarely healthy” descriptive qualifier seems made for deGrom. On the one hand, he owns a career ERA+ of 156 (!) and a career K/BB ratio of 5.41 (!). On the other, less inspiring hand, he’s pitched a total of 197 ⅓ innings over the past four seasons. In 2024, he returned from his second Tommy John surgery in time to make three starts, which means the 2025 campaign will effectively be his true comeback season. There’s no doubting deGrom’s rate-based excellence or stuff, but his history of arm troubles is a hulking one. If he’s able to sniff 180 innings or so, then he’s probably a Cy Young frontrunner at age 36.
What is he doing here? How can this miserable scribe include with a piece notionally about comebacks a player who powered the Dodgers to the World Series last season and on an individual level crafted the first 50-50 campaign in MLB history? It’s all about the mound. Ohtani, you’ll recall, did not pitch last season as he recovered from a Tommy John hybrid procedure performed on his pitching elbow. This season, he’ll return to the mound. It’s not yet certain when he’ll make his 2025 pitching debut or how much work he’ll get this season in light of the organization’s rotation depth and sense of caution when it comes to Ohtani as a pitcher. If, however, Ohtani returns to mound dominance across a notable sample of innings, then he could follow up his 2024 NL MVP win with a 2025 NL Comeback Player of the Year Award. That sounds absurd on its face, but the two-way superstar is quite adept at making the absurd into the routine, at least for him.
The former first-rounder out of UCLA had a rookie season to remember in 2023. He put up a 3.6 WAR in just 89 games. In related matters, McLain boasted an OPS+ of 127 while serving as a primary shortstop. Going into 2024, however, McLain suffered a shoulder injury while diving to make a catch during a workout. The shoulder injury eventually required season-ending surgery, and his 2024 was over before it began. In 2025, he’ll be looking to build off that impressive 2023 as the Reds’ starting second baseman and likely No. 2 hitter in Terry Francona’s lineup. McLain has the skills to do just that, and he’ll be vital to Cincy’s contending hopes this season.
In McClanahan’s three seasons in the majors, he’s fetched a seventh-place finish in the Rookie of the Year vote, a sixth-place finish in the Cy Young vote, and a pair of All-Star selections. That’s basically an ideal start to a career, but then the lefty was forced to undergo Tommy John surgery, which cost him all of the 2024 season. McClanahan underwent the procedure in August of 2023, so he should be full go for 2025. Indeed, he’ll be the Rays’ Opening Day starter this season, and he’s primed to yield ace results once again.
Strider’s potent right elbow gave out just two starts into his 2024 campaign, and he soon underwent an internal-brace procedure to repair his UCL. That typically has a shorter recovery timeline than Tommy John surgery, but the Braves are prudently being conservative with Strider given that he also underwent Tommy John in college. Strider recently saw game action for the first time this spring (and was in vintage form), and barring setback he should be built up enough to rejoin the Atlanta rotation by late April or early May. There’s no doubting Strider’s capacity for utter dominance when he’s at his best and fully healthy. Across the combined 2022-23 seasons, Strider pitched to a sparkling 2.43 FIP over 318 ⅓ innings and struck out 37.4% of opposing batters. With his elite stuff and wipeout secondaries, Strider is a Cy Young threat provided his recovery goes as hoped and planned.
Trout unfortunately has become a reliable presence on lists such as this one. He authored perhaps the greatest start to a career in MLB history, but injury upon injury have decimated his overall value in recent years. Not since 2016 has the three-time AL MVP played in more than 140 games in a season, and over the last four seasons he’s played in a total of just 266 games. In 2024, he was limited to just 29 games, the fewest of his career across an entire season, because of a knee injury that eventually required season-ending surgery. Trout is still a bopper when he’s on the field (he had 10 homers in those 29 games, and in 2023 he hit 18 in 82 games), but he’s having so much trouble staying on the field. The hope is that a move from center to right field will help his durability and that he’ll have a big year in 2025 as a 33-year-old. Never doubt Trout, even if recent history says you probably should.
Yelich last season was enjoying a highly productive renaissance at the plate before finally being forced to address a chronic back issue via season-ending surgery in August. That caused him to miss the Brewers’ stretch-drive run to the NL Central title and their playoff series against the New York Mets. Compounding the miseries for Yelich is that he was producing at a high level before his back finally gave out. In 73 games last season, Yelich slashed .315/.406/.504 with 11 homers and 21 steals in 22 attempts. By all accounts, Yelich’s recovery has gone swimmingly, and he’s put up solid numbers in spring. The Brewers are no doubt hoping he’ll pick up where he left off in 2024 and put up strong numbers now that his back is finally feeling better.
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