No no-nos?! Here’s how rare 2025’s no-hitter drought is

Do you feel like it’s been a while since there was a no-hitter in the Major Leagues? Your instincts are right: It sure has.

MLB hasn’t seen a no-no since three Cubs pitchers combined to no-hit the Pirates on Sept. 4, 2024. The last solo no-hitter belongs to Blake Snell on Aug. 2, 2024. That’s right: Despite a handful of close calls, 2025 has yet to see a single no-no, and that’s rare. (Yes, we’re tempting fate by publishing this story.)

How rare, exactly? Well, if no one (or no team) can pull off the feat before the end of the season, it will be the first year without a no-hitter since 2005 and just the fifth year without a no-no in the Divisional Era (since 1969).

Let’s take a look at the historical context surrounding MLB’s current no-hitter drought, examine what might be the cause and revisit some of 2025’s most promising no-hit bids.

Rare -- but not unprecedented

It’s fair to say baseball fans have been pretty spoiled in recent years when it comes to no-hitters. There have been four in each of the past three seasons, and there were a single-season-record nine in 2021. With 39 no-hitters in all since 2015, we’re in a relative Golden Age for the feat. (Though it should be noted that 10 of those 39 were combo no-hitters.)

So any season that has yet to see a no-hitter by mid-to-late-August is, by definition, an anomaly. The last time a season’s first no-hitter came in August or later (not counting the shortened 2020 season) was 2006, when Aníbal Sánchez tossed the year’s only no-no on Sept. 10 -- MLB’s first no-hitter since Randy Johnson on May 18, 2004.

Compared to the current no-no drought (351 days as of Friday), that 844-day cold spell seems like an eternity. While there are more no-hitters nowadays, they’ve still happened with relative regularity over the years -- one would have to go back to 1932-33 to find two consecutive seasons without a single no-hitter.

Average number of no-hitters per season
1876-1899: 1.8
1900-1925: 2.2
1926-1950: 1.0
1951-1975: 2.9
1976-2000: 2.2
2001-2025: 3.1

There have been 326 no-hitters all time, dating back to George Bradley’s no-no for the St. Louis Brown Stockings back on July 15, 1876. Since then, just 29 of 150 Major League seasons (19.3%) have resulted in zero no-hitters. Even the 60-game “sprint to the finish” in 2020 produced two.

So while it would be rare, it’s hardly the end of the world if 2025 goes down as the year without a no-hitter. Here’s what might be contributing to the lack of no-nos so far this season.

What’s causing it?

There’s not much data to suggest any major statistical difference leaguewide that would account for a surprise drought in no-hitters in 2025 alone. It might just be noise. Still, there are a few factors that could point to a relative downward trend in no-nos in the coming years.

For one, starting pitchers are not going as deep into games over time -- starters averaged 5.88 innings per game between 2000 and 2016, compared to just 5.21 innings per game since then. While combined no-hitters have grown more common (there have been five since the start of 2022), that requires multiple pitchers to display no-hit stuff rather than just one. Complete games have fallen drastically, too -- from 123 as recently as 2013 to just 28 in 2024. There have been 26 complete games already this season, but none has resulted in a no-hitter.

One of the rule changes implemented before the 2023 season might be playing a part, too. Limits on defensive shifts might not seem to be a major barrier to no-hitters, but when a ball that might be snared by a second baseman in shallow right instead sneaks through the infield, it can make all the difference.

Who has come the closest?

Orioles rookie Brandon Young certainly caused a stir on Aug. 15 in Houston. Young carried a perfect game through seven innings, not allowing a baserunner until former Oriole Ramón Urías reached on an infield single with two outs in the eighth.

Young is the most recent of the eight pitchers to take a no-hitter through seven innings this year, a group including Garrett Crochet (April 13 at White Sox) and Jacob deGrom (June 25 at Orioles). Just two of those pitchers have completed eight no-hit innings: the Reds’ Nick Martinez on June 27 and the Guardians’ Gavin Williams on Aug. 6.

Martinez’s bid against his former team, the Padres, ended after a double to Elias Díaz with nobody out in the ninth. Williams began the ninth against the Mets at Citi Field by striking out Francisco Lindor, but he gave up a one-out homer to Juan Soto to bring his no-hit effort to an end.

With Williams’ and Young’s bids both coming in the past few weeks, it seems as if we’re getting closer and closer to a no-hitter. But will it happen before the 2025 season reaches its end? We’ll have to wait and see.