Building MLB’s 2025 All-Fun Team: Elly De La Cruz, Paul Skenes, Pete Crow-Armstrong and more

The sole purpose of being a Major League Baseball fan is to have fun. Sure, sometimes that escapes far too many of us when we get wrapped up in our fandom, but, ultimately, it’s a nice escape from the grind of everyday life for a good time. That brings us to our All-Fun Team. You watch your favorite team all the time, maybe even every day. What about the rest of the league? This isn’t necessarily the best players, though that matters. This is about who’s the most fun to watch. The moonshot home runs, the frisky stolen bases, the ridiculous strikeout counts. The players who make you want to tune into their at-bats and starts, regardless of rooting interests.

Now, this is just for the 2025 season. If a player has missed most of the season due to injuries or has had a miserable start, it’s tough to make this list. Apologies there to Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider of the Braves, who will likely be tons of fun by the end of the season. In fact, it really feels empty without Acuña here. 

The goal for me in this exercise is to speak for myself. That’s it. I’m not assuming every single baseball fan thinks and watches the same way I do. What an ego that would require, right? No, the goal here would be to picture us sitting side-by-side at a sports bar and going through our All-Fun squads together by position, alternating with our selections. Sometimes we’ll have the same player, sometimes we won’t. Sometimes you’d name someone I didn’t pick and I’d say, “you know what, I should have picked him” or maybe I’d disagree and say “he doesn’t seem that fun to me.” Anything goes, really, because it’s a subjective exercise where we’re trying to, you guessed it, have fun. 

There are no wrong answers. 

I will, of course, list some other players who garnered consideration because I wanted to list as many players as possible without getting outlandish. 

A final note: Every team is represented somewhere as I’d always want at least one player on each side of a game on any given night, but some teams, admittedly, had to be shoe-horned in. 

A switch-hitting catcher who is one of the best power hitters in baseball? He’s also great at blocking and framing and has a cannon back there behind the plate. Oh, and his nickname is Big Dumper. This is one of the easiest picks on the board for me. 

Runners-up: William Contreras, Brewers; Drake Baldwin, Braves

Mariners’ Cal Raleigh is having an MVP season for the history books — even if he won’t beat Aaron Judge

Dayn Perry

I actually like the mature, grizzled veteran version of Bryce more than the young up-and-comer and that’s an upset. It’s been a joy to watch what he’s become in the city of Philadelphia. He’s one of the leaders of what has become a perennial playoff team at this point and still flashes the talent that made him a two-time MVP. Also, bonus points for him being a shameless panderer to the fan base. 

Runners-up: Freddie Freeman, Dodgers; Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays

A slick defender at the keystone with enough power that he hit 36 bombs last season. He has great gap power as well and keeps the strikeouts under control while taking his fair share of walks. He’s both a well-rounded player and electric talent, a glorious combo here for this list. 

Runner-up: Jazz Chisholm Jr., Yankees, Nico Hoerner, Cubs

Third base: José Ramírez, Guardians

A power-speed combination is always a pleasing aesthetic — the perpetually underrated Ramírez was just one home run shy of the 40-40 club last season at age 31 — but keep in mind he’s also 5-foot-8 and stocky. That is to say that he might not look like a player who has topped 35 homers three times nor does he look like the type who can steal 41 bags in a season. He definitely doesn’t look like you’d imagine a player who can do both. He’s all that plus a grinder who is around winning an awful lot. 

Runners-up: Manny Machado, Padres; Matt Chapman, Giants

It isn’t surprising that shortstop would be one of the most crowded positions on this list, but it still wasn’t a tough choice for me (even if I was relatively sad to not have Misters Lindor or Witt on the first team). Elly is just that much fun. A spindly 6-foot-5 switch hitter with outrageous power and speed, you could see De La Cruz hit a 450-foot homer or an inside-the-park home run on any given night. He could even steal multiple bases in a game, including home. Oh and he has a rocket for an arm at short, too. 

Runners-up: Francisco Lindor, Mets; Bobby Witt Jr., Royals; Gunnar Henderson, Orioles; Zach Neto, Angels; Trea Turner, Phillies; Jacob Wilson, Athletics; Dansby Swanson, Cubs

At this time last year, Wood was just a big-time prospect for the Nats. Now he’s a blossoming star who will make the All-Star team this season. The 6-foot-7 behemoth swings smoothly though the zone, almost effortlessly, from his open stance. Lefties always have the prettiest swings anyway, but his is high on the charts. He also runs very well. This selection wasn’t quite as obvious as De La Cruz or Marte, but when sifting through the left fielders, Wood’s name immediately jumped out at me. I look forward to years and years of having fun watching him play.

Runners-up: Riley Greene, Tigers; Steven Kwan, Guardians; Jose Altuve, Astros; Kyle Stowers, Marlins

As a Cubs fan, this was the spot I filled out first. I can’t get over how much fun watching PCA this season has been. He was already fun last year and that’s before he was a threat with the bat. He got a little hot down the stretch last season to a point where 1) we knew he had to play every day, due to his value on defense and on the bases, and 2) there was hope for a decent offensive season. Instead, he’s become an utter force at the plate. He’s on pace for a 40-40 season at age 23 while sitting toward the top of the RBI leaderboard and still having the ability to bunt for a hit. All this from a guy who skates around the outfield like prime Andruw Jones. Are you kidding me? 

I entered the season thinking Elly De La Cruz was the most fun player in baseball and he still might be, but I think PCA has a case, too. 

Runners-up: Oneil Cruz, Pirates; Jackson Merrill, Padres; Daulton Varsho, Blue Jays; Jackson Chourio, Brewers; Luis Robert Jr., White Sox; Jung Hoo Lee, Giants

This is the most loaded position at the top. Good lord, man. The first two names under “runners-up” felt like first-teamers when I went into this exercise and I’m still not even sure I made the correct selection here. 

I wouldn’t argue at all if someone said both Fernando Tatis Jr. and Corbin Carroll are more fun to watch than Aaron Judge. There are certainly games that I’d agree. 

Fun comes in all shapes, sizes and forms, though, and Judge’s greatness is breathtaking to the extent right now that he has to win out. Sure, some of the stuff Tatis and Carroll do seems more in line with the rest of this list, but there’s also something fun about a player just being off-the-charts, ridiculously good at the sport and that’s what the Yankees slugger is in 2025. 

Aaron Judge is can’t-look-away great. If you don’t think that’s fun, maybe you don’t like baseball. 

Runners-up: Fernando Tatis Jr., Padres; Corbin Carroll, Diamondbacks; Kyle Tucker, Cubs; Lawrence Butler, Athletics. Also, Mike Trout is grandfathered in and if/when Juan Soto gets his smile back, he’ll re-join. 

Utility: Javier Báez, Tigers

Javy has been a favorite for me since before he ever debuted in the majors and was my favorite player through his prime with the Cubs. On a relative scale, of course, it was pretty depressing to see where he had fallen last season, so my heart has been full this year as he’s seemed to get his mojo back. He’s been productive for the first-place Tigers, still has a flair for the dramatic and has even made some highlight-reel plays in center field.

Runner-up: Brendan Donovan, Cardinals

One of the fastest players in baseball, Simpson sits at the 99th percentile in sprint speed and gives opposing pitchers fits every time he gets on base. I absolutely had to make room for him on this team, even though he recently got demoted, so he gets a special spot as a pinch runner. 

Designated hitter: Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers

C’mon. I said Judge is can’t-look-away great and that’s what Ohtani is for the duration of his prime, whether at the plate, on the bases or (hopefully coming soon) on the mound. This was true even before he became the first-ever 50-50 player last season, but that was just the proverbial cherry on top of the sensational sundae that is Shohei Ohtani the baseball player. We are all truly fortunate to get to witness such a player. 

Runners-up: Kyle Schwarber, Phillies; Rafael Devers, Red Sox; Seiya Suzuki, Cubs

The reinvention of Tarik Skubal: How Tigers ace mixed up his arsenal and became one of MLB’s best pitchers

R.J. Anderson

Skubal is the best pitcher in the world right now. He’s at that stage where he’s the perfect combination of an artist and the pitching version of The Terminator. He was another incredibly easy selection. 

Crochet is 6-foot-6 with a funky arm slot and misses a ton of bats. He’s a little more bulky, but the delivery and strikeouts might remind some people of Randy Johnson. I’m not all the way there on that comparison (all tall lefties aren’t alike), but Crochet is still a lot of fun to watch when he’s carving up the opposition. That’s more often than not these days. 

Also in the mix: Max Fried, Yankees; MacKenzie Gore, Nationals; Robbie Ray, Giants

Skenes has been in the majors for nearly 13 months and he’s already an ace-level workhorse. He hits spots, changes speeds, overpowers hitters when he needs to and is basically everything you’d want in an ace. Already. He’s still only 23. It’s incredibly frustrating the Pirates haven’t done much around him (yet?), but there’s still good reason to watch them every five days and that’s big ol’ No. 30. 

Yamamoto is pitching at a Cy Young level this season, but he’s here because of one pitch and that’s his splitter. To the hitters, it looks exactly like his fastball until it bottoms out as they’re already swinging. It is one of the best weapons a pitcher has in his arsenal in baseball this season and is riveting to watch when it’s working. 

Also in the mix: Hunter Greene, Reds; Hunter Brown, Astros; Jacob deGrom, Rangers

Relief pitchers: Andrés Muñoz, Mariners; Jhoan Duran, Twins; Edwin Díaz, Mets; Mason Miller, Athletics

Muñoz has been good throughout his time in Seattle, but it’s been pretty cool to watch him grow into a truly dominant force at the backend of that bullpen. It’s also pretty fun to see a closer who primarily throws an off-speed pitch, as for decades the closer position was generally reliant on a dude throwing heaters most of the time. Muñoz is nearly 50% sliders before getting to his fastball. 

Duran brings the heat. He’s one of the hardest throwers in baseball, averaging over 100 miles per hour with his four-seamer. We’ve seen him reach upwards of 105 miles per hour and it’s always fun to see the radar gun light up like that. There’s also his combo splitter-sinker (splinker), which is totally nasty. His stuff is simply electric. 

Díaz gets major bonus points for his amazing entrance. Closer entrances are getting cooler and cooler, but he’s got the gold standard right now. He’s also still very capable of being one of the most lights-out closers in baseball like in 2018 and 2022. 

Miller’s numbers don’t look great this season, but he’s still got the type of stuff worthy of our viewership any time he takes the hill. His off-the-charts strikeout rate lines up there, too. 

Rollie Fingers Special: Zach Agnos, Rockies

This actually works out perfectly. I need a dude from the Rockies, since I promised that every team would be represented in this exercise and they are the lone team I haven’t drafted from yet. It is fitting that I got through everything without having mentioned a Rockies player, because they are worst team in baseball by a mile and on pace to be the worst team ever. As such, it isn’t much fun watching them. 

Agnos, though, is having a good season and also is rocking the Rollie Fingers curl mustache. I’m generally not the biggest fan of going crazy over facial hair, but this one stands apart instead of just being a gigantic, unkempt beard. There’s actual effort and some level of creativity here. And he’s having success on the mound, too! Win-win.