7 longtime stars who might be having their best season yet

Conventional wisdom tells us that athletes are supposed to begin to slow down after reaching 30 years old.

But even players who seem to have reached their peak in their 20s can surprise us by elevating to higher heights in the second half of their careers.

Here’s a look at seven longtime MLB stars who could be on their way to having their best season yet.

All stats below are through Saturday.

Pete Alonso, 1B, Mets
2025 stats: .292/.393/.526, 9 HR, 16 2B, 38 RBIs

This is the play of someone who feels disrespected by a shortage of offseason interest. Alonso signed a two-year, $54 million deal to return to the Mets just as Spring Training was beginning in February, and there are probably plenty of teams who wished they’d inquired about his services. With an opt-out in his contract after 2025, the 30-year-old Alonso is likely setting himself up for a bigger and longer-term payday. While Alonso isn't on his typical 30-plus home run pace at the moment, he is on track to set career highs in doubles, walks, on-base percentage and OPS+ (161).

Nathan Eovaldi, SP, Rangers
2025 stats: 1.60 ERA, 67 1/3 IP, 0.79 WHIP, 71/9 K/BB

The Rangers likely thought they had a firm grasp on what they were getting when they re-signed Eovaldi to a three-year, $75 million deal this past offseason. After all, the right-hander had posted an ERA between 3.63 and 3.87 in each of the past five seasons, three with the Red Sox and two with Texas. But instead of merely replicating that steady output, Eovaldi has far surpassed it in 2025. The 35-year-old leads the Majors in WHIP, allowing just 44 hits and nine walks in 67 1/3 innings, and ranks third in ERA. He has surrendered one run or fewer in each of his past six starts and is striking out more than a batter per inning -- a threshold he hasn't reached since 2021.

Freddie Freeman, 1B, Dodgers
2025 stats: .351/.420/.629, 9 HR, 34 RBIs, 13 2B

There isn’t much the 35-year-old Freeman hasn’t accomplished. He's won an NL MVP Award. He's a two-time World Series champion. And, oh yeah, he immortalized himself with his performance during the 2024 Fall Classic against the Yankees, hitting four homers -- including the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history -- en route to MVP honors. But Freeman isn’t just riding off into the sunset. Now he’s chasing his first batting title after already having led the league in doubles (four times), runs (three times), hits (twice) and on-base percentage (once). While Freeman continues to battle issues with his surgically repaired right ankle, which he initially injured last September and aggravated earlier this year, it hasn’t slowed him down at the plate -- he's batted .398 since April 25 with 13 multi-hit games.

Max Fried, SP, Yankees
2025 stats: 7-0, 1.29 ERA, 67/16 K/BB, 0.93 WHIP

What do you get when you combine one of baseball’s best winners with its most historically successful franchise? Well, you get a pitcher who hasn’t lost a game in 2025. Of the 46 pitchers who have made at least 160 starts since 2017, Fried’s .690 winning percentage (80-36) ranks second behind only Clayton Kershaw’s .717 (86-34). Fried’s 7-0 start is the second of his career -- he also went 7-0 to begin the shortened 2020 season. The 31-year-old left-hander was brought to the Yankees to slot in the No. 2 spot in the rotation behind 2023 Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole. But after Cole underwent Tommy John surgery during Spring Training, Fried has become the Yankees’ ace, forming a formidable 1-2 punch with fellow left-hander Carlos Rodón. Fried, who leads the Majors in ERA, allowed four runs in April and has surrendered five runs through five starts in May.

Aaron Judge, OF, Yankees
2025 stats: .395/.485/.759, 18 HR, 46 RBIs, 148 TB

With Judge in the midst of another remarkable season, it's time to start considering how his total body of work -- which is far from complete -- stacks up against some of the game’s all-time greats. Best right-handed hitter ever? The 33-year-old has slugged his way into the conversation. Yankees Mount Rushmore? His numbers haven’t been bested by many in the Bronx. In his last 162 games through Saturday, Judge had recorded a .362/.482/.759 slash with 64 home runs and 160 RBIs -- and that’s not even his best 162-game stretch since the beginning of last season. In 162 games he played between May 8, 2024 and May 12, 2025, Judge blasted 65 home runs with 163 RBIs, a 1.277 OPS and 131 walks. You can’t really put that into words; you can only try to put it into historical perspective. And you might not be surprised to learn that only one other player has reached those stratospheric numbers over any 162-game period: Babe Ruth.

Kyle Schwarber, DH, Phillies
2025 stats: .255/.397/.580, 18 HR, 40 RBI, 40 BB

While Schwarber ranked third in the Majors in both homers and walks over his first three seasons with the Phillies, his 29.4% strikeout rate and .221 batting average in that span limited his overall impact. This year, we’ve seen a new and improved version of the left-handed slugger, who is striking out less than ever (21.6%). With fewer K’s have come a higher batting average and on-base percentage, though Schwarber also has a career-high .324 ISO -- evidence that he isn’t sacrificing anything in the power department in order to make more contact. In fact, Schwarber is tied with Judge for the MLB lead in homers, and he’s still hitting plenty of tape-measure shots, with eight of his dingers traveling 420 feet or further. The 32-year-old designated hitter reached 300 career homers on May 19, and with the way he’s hitting this season, there could be many more milestones on the horizon.

Zack Wheeler, SP, Phillies
2025 stats: 6-1, 2.42 ERA, 70 2/3 IP, 88/14 K/BB, 0.88 WHIP

After another near-miss in the NL Cy Young Award race in 2024 -- he finished second to Chris Sale -- Wheeler had to know full well that capturing the elusive honor wasn’t going to get any easier in his age-34 season, especially with Pirates phenom (and consensus preseason NL Cy frontrunner) Paul Skenes entering his first full season. Wheeler, though, has managed to take his performance up a notch. The righty’s current ERA, WHIP and K/BB ratio would all be career bests, and he's on pace to tally more than 250 K's for the first time. Although Wheeler's season is hardly an outlier when considering what he’s done throughout his Phillies tenure, the improvements he’s made in 2025 could be enough to get him the Cy Young he’s been missing.