They broke out in April -- but did they keep it up?

April represents about one-sixth of the baseball season and generally gives us about one-sixth of the information needed to predict what will happen by the end of September.

As we’re seeing in this and every other month, things you thought you knew can suddenly become unpredictable. What looks like a sure thing in April can take even less time to go off course.

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With that in mind, let’s look at 15 players who broke out this April, and the twists and turns their seasons took over the following five months. We’ll examine five who are finishing off consistently excellent campaigns, five who cooled off before another hot streak and five whose declines didn’t prove reversible.

All stats are through Friday’s games.

Stayed hot

Maikel Garcia, 3B, Royals
March/April: .282/.342/.417
Rest of season: .286/.354/.460

Garcia, a first-time All-Star in 2025, is finishing poorly, with a .537 OPS in September. But his five previous months more than solidified the best season of the 25-year-old’s three-plus-year career. After a strong April, Garcia slashed .349/.412/.548 in May, even though that was his worst month for hard-hit percentage at 32.2. Garcia followed that up with 12 extra-base hits in June and was off to the races, accumulating 5.3 bWAR to form a dynamite left side of the Royals’ infield with shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.

Hunter Goodman, C, Rockies
March/April: .268/.355/.475
Rest of season: .282/.319/.540

The 25-year-old Goodman has been a revelation for the Rockies, who have discovered a foundational player as they continue to rebuild. His 30 home runs have been well spread out, with at least five in March/April, June, July and August, and four so far this month. Goodman, with 88 RBIs, became the first Rockies catcher to hit 30 home runs and drive in 80 runs in a season. Goodman slugged .734 in June with an absurd 60.4 hard-hit percentage, and he's finishing strong, with a .590 slugging percentage in September.

Geraldo Perdomo, SS, Diamondbacks
March/April: .267/.379/.429
Rest of season: .294/.392/.468

Perdomo hasn’t just stayed hot since a first month with a .379 on-base percentage; he’s stayed consistent. Outside of a slow June, the 25-year-old shortstop has batted .300 in every month since May. He’s saving the best for last, too, slugging .610 with four home runs in 73 at-bats in September. Perdomo had more walks than strikeouts in April, July and August and is on track to do it again this month. An All-Star in 2023, Perdomo has taken it to the next level this year, with a chance at 7.0 bWAR (he’s at 6.7) and a likely top-five NL MVP finish.

Nick Pivetta, SP, Padres
March/April: 5-1, 1.78 ERA, 39 SO
Rest of season: 8-4, 3.07 ERA, 146 SO

With Paul Skenes dominating the conversation, Pivetta has quietly had a Cy Young-level season. He established that possibility way back in April, when he held opposing batters to a .169 batting average and a .468 OPS. And that might not even have been Pivetta’s best month. Batters were held to a .150 average against Pivetta in August and a .445 OPS in July. The 32-year-old right-hander has been as dependable as they come, with at least six innings completed in all but nine of his 30 starts and at least five innings in all but five. His first seven-inning start was a one-hit effort in his 2025 debut, on March 30, a tone-setter the best of Pivetta’s nine MLB seasons.

Kyle Stowers, OF, Marlins
March/April: .323/.396/.510
Rest of season: .277/.359/.544 (out since Aug. 15 due to injury)

Stowers, who left a rehab assignment earlier this month after a setback, will likely end up missing the season's final month and a half with an oblique injury. He packed plenty into his breakout season, thoug, carrying a .907 OPS into May and never really slowing down. Though he didn’t maintain a .300 batting average after May 26, the 27-year-old Stowers amped up his power, with 15 home runs in his final 46 games. That included a three-homer game against his former team, the Orioles, on July 13, with two more home runs against Kansas City the next day. Stowers slugged .818 in July and appeared on his way to the first 30-homer season by a Marlins outfielder since 2017.

Hot, cold, then hot again

Carson Kelly, C, Cubs
March/April: .272/.396/.553
Rest of season: .240/.306/.380

Even in a small sample size of the season’s first month, Kelly’s early numbers were like something out of a video game. When the calendar flipped to May, Kelly had a batting average (.360) that looked like an on-base percentage, and an on-base percentage (.507) that looked like a slugging percentage. His actual slugging percentage was an otherworldly .840. Nobody can continue that production, and Kelly did drop off significantly in May and June. But July was another fruitful month, and Kelly is putting up a strong September, slugging .531. The ups and downs still add up to 3.7 bWAR, third best among National League backstops.

Jung Hoo Lee, OF, Giants
March/April: .319/.375/.526
Rest of season: .245/.310/.369

Lee, aka Grandson of Wind, looked after April like he was on his way to a full-season breakout. He took a .901 OPS, 11 walks and 11 doubles into the season’s second month, displaying all of his best offensive attributes. He didn’t put it all together again until August, leading the Giants' late push for a postseason berth. Lee did his part with a .300 average and nine extra-base hits in August, including eight doubles. He was batting over .300 as late as May 8, but he went 31-for-165 over his next 45 games to drop to .240 before his recent turnaround.

Jesús Luzardo, SP, Phillies
March/April: 3-0, 1.73 ERA, 41 SO
Rest of season: 11-7, 4.68 ERA, 165 SO

Don’t be too fooled by that 4.68 “rest of season” ERA. Luzardo’s regression was stark but relatively brief. Carrying a 2.15 ERA into his final start in May, Luzardo surrendered 12 earned runs in 3 1/3 innings against the Brewers. The next time out, it was another eight earned runs against Toronto. Luzardo hasn’t quite recaptured his early season dominance, but his lows have not been nearly as low. With a 3.16 ERA since July 28, Luzardo appears to have solidified his spot in the Phillies’ postseason rotation.

Jorge Polanco, 2B, Mariners
March/April: .384/.418/.808
Rest of season: .241/.305/.426

A player whose free-swinging tendencies make him susceptible to more extreme ups and downs, Polanco has achieved a slightly better balance in 2025, especially in the second half of the season. After a cold May and an only marginally better June, Polanco has given the surging Mariners a lift as they chase the American League West crown. Polanco hit six homers in July and five in August, and he's slugging .629 in September with 14 extra-base hits.

Ben Rice, UTIL, Yankees
March/April: .266/.373/.585
Rest of season: .243/.320/.452

It was no Juan Soto, no problem for the Yankees early on, as Ben Rice helped pick up the slack with eight home runs before May. Rice’s prodigious power has kept him from too deep of a valley, except for a June swoon when he had a .181 average and five extra-base hits. The 26-year-old Rice has rebounded, first with a six-homer August in which he slugged .543. He was particularly hot during a 14-game stretch from Aug. 11-27, with a 1.230 OPS and all six of those homers. Rice is batting .294 in September with seven extra-base hits.

Dropped off

Javier Báez, IF/OF, Tigers
March/April: .296/.337/.407
Rest of season: .244/.267/.394

The Báez renaissance was one of many reasons for the Tigers to celebrate during the season’s first month and beyond. Báez’s surge lasted well past April; he had an OPS north of .800 as late as the final week of June, leading to his first All-Star selection since 2019. All while playing center field after a career as shortstop. Like the Tigers during September, Báez has endured a sharp dropoff: He hasn’t homered since Aug. 2 and has just two home runs since June 19. Over his last 49 games, Báez has 47 strikeouts and one walk.

Kristian Campbell, INF, Red Sox
March/April: .301/.407/.495
Rest of season: .159/.243/.222 (optioned to Triple-A on June 20)

Campbell was looking like a Rookie of the Year candidate early, taking little time to at least temporarily figure out Major League pitching. He was a multi-hit machine through May, collecting at least two hits in 13 games before June 1. The falloff started before that, though, as Campbell batted .134 with one extra-base hit in May. The multi-hit games went away, too – he had just four from May 14 until he was sent down on June 20. Still a big part of Boston’s future, the 23-year-old Campbell had a .793 OPS for Triple-A Worcester.

Clay Holmes, SP, Mets
March/April: 3-1, 2.64 ERA, 36 SO
Rest of season: 8-7, 4.05 ERA, 88 SO

The Mets had baseball’s best rotation for much of the first half of the season, and Holmes was a big part of that. A converted reliever who was a key part of the Yankees’ bullpen the previous 3 1/2 seasons, Holmes got a shot in the Mets’ starting five and made the most of it early on. He struck out 27.5 percent of batters through April, a number he has not approached since. Over his last 13 starts dating to July 8, Holmes has a 4.96 ERA and 68 hits allowed in 61 2/3 innings. He’s keeping the ball in the ballpark, though, with just three home runs allowed since July 3.

Casey Mize, SP, Tigers
March/April: 4-1, 2.12 ERA
Rest of season: 10-4, 4.36 ERA

As the Tigers have faltered in September, so has their starting pitching. Detroit owns a 5.28 ERA this month, better than only the Nationals, Twins, Angels and Rockies. Mize leads the club with 14 wins, one more than likely AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal, and he trails only Skubal and Jack Flaherty with 26 starts. But since July, those starts haven’t gone so well. Mize, the former No. 1 overall Draft pick, has seen his ERA jump from 2.63 to 3.88 in 11 starts. In that span, he has surrendered nine home runs and 62 hits, with a 5.96 ERA in 51 1/3 innings.

James Wood, OF, Nationals
March/April: .250/.360/.543
Rest of season: .255/.346/.440

Wood’s “rest of season” numbers look fine because he was cruising all the way through the first half, with a .905 OPS through July 21 that had him as a fringe MVP candidate. Wood had 24 home runs then, but his regression has come with a dramatic power evaporation. Wood has just three homers since July 9, with a .323 slugging percentage that has dropped his overall slug more than 80 points. Wood has also struck out 104 times over his last 58 games. The good news is that Wood just turned 23 and his future as a middle-of-the-order fixture remains bright.