9 major storylines as the calendar flips to June

Now that the calendar has flipped to June, and we’re about a third of the way into the 2024 season, developments and trends in MLB are morphing from the “It’s still early” category into categories like “Is this sustainable?” or “Can __ (enter team or player name here) recover from a rough start?” and others.

So, with that in mind, we asked nine MLB.com writers to weigh in on what they see as the major storylines around baseball for the month of June.

Here’s what they said:

How will the Braves weather the storm without Acuña and Strider?
Spencer Strider made all of two starts before he succumbed to season-ending elbow surgery in April. A little over a month later, Ronald Acuña Jr. -- the reigning National League MVP -- had to undergo season-ending surgery of his own for a torn left ACL, the same injury and outcome he suffered on his right ACL in 2021. Suffice to say, replacing these two stars makes repeating as NL East champions for the seventh straight year difficult -- especially with the division-rival Phillies off to an MLB-best 41-18 record.

Complicating matters is the fact that the Braves’ record-setting offense from last season had taken a step back even before Acuña’s injury occurred. At the end of May, the Braves ranked ninth in baseball in wRC+ (105) and 16th in runs scored (245). Fortunately, hitters like Matt Olson, Austin Riley and Michael Harris II are playing well below their career norms and should help this unit rebound.

The Braves' pitching staff has also benefited greatly from offseason additions Chris Sale (2.12 ERA, 31.6 percent strikeout rate before his rough outing Saturday) and Reynaldo López (1.75 ERA), who helped lead Atlanta to a 3.44 team ERA and 6.9 wins above replacement (FanGraphs) as of May 31, both of which were top-10 figures in the Majors.

With a 32-24 record, Atlanta is still comfortable, holding the top NL Wild Card spot (4 1/2 games ahead) and still in the mix -- albeit with a significant deficit to make up -- for the division (7 1/2 games back of Philadelphia). But the Braves’ path to the World Series is trickier than it’s been in recent years.

-- Brent Maguire

Are the Phillies for real?
Not to explicitly admit to being low on the Phillies -- it’s just smarter not to form strong opinions about what we’re going to see from them. There is undeniably a ridiculous amount of talent there (there usually is), but the fundamentals have fallen through the cracks with such remarkable consistency that it’s difficult to know what we’re going to be watching.

Still, the Phillies have entered June swapping the “best team in baseball” label on and off with the Yankees. While it’s tempting to attribute that solely to the hardships being experienced by everyone else in the NL East, way too much is going way too well to settle for that as an explanation.

Phillies team rankings entering June:
Runs per game: 5.2 (1st)
BA: .258 (T-3rd)
OPS: .749 (4th)
Stolen bases: 67 (4th)
Team ERA: 3.07 (2nd)
Strikeouts per nine: 9.2 (2nd)
FIP: 3.28 (1st)

The Phillies have assembled a ragtag group of lights-out relievers. Ranger Suárez is one of the best pitchers in baseball and lines up behind Zack Wheeler (2.32 ERA, 10.4 K/9) and Aaron Nola (3.03 ERA, 1.03 WHIP) and in front of unexpected hit Cristopher Sánchez (2.83 ERA, 2.49 FIP) in the rotation.

In a similar situation is Alec Bohm, walking around with a team-leading .311 average while flanked by Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto and Kyle Schwarber, all of whom are having pretty solid seasons. They’re also doing all of this without Trea Turner, who was hitting .343 before hitting the injured list on May 4. None of this is guaranteed to be sustainable long-term, but it’s hard to be this good by accident.

-- Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru

A special night of baseball is on the horizon
There are 2,430 regular season MLB games scheduled for this season, and none of them will be quite like the one the Cardinals and Giants will play on June 20. That’s because this special contest will take place at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala. Not only will this be the first AL/NL game played in Alabama, but Rickwood (the oldest professional ballpark in the United States) offers a window into some incredible baseball history.

A teenage Willie Mays once roamed the outfield at Rickwood, when he began his pro career in 1948 with the Birmingham Black Barons, a Negro Leagues team that called the ballpark home.

Rickwood was renovated ahead of this first-of-its-kind event, and a number of former Negro Leagues players are expected to be in attendance to see both teams don throwback Negro Leagues uniforms. All of this comes on the heels of this week’s announcement that Negro Leagues statistics have officially entered the Major League record, another important step toward recognizing and honoring the greatness of these talented players who were excluded from the white Major Leagues.

The Cardinals and Giants are currently battling for position in the crowded NL playoff picture, but regardless of the outcome, this is going to be one of the most memorable nights of the season.

-- Andrew Simon

Will Ohtani win his first “one-way” MVP?
At this point, Shohei Ohtani winning MVP awards as a two-way player is old news. Sure, we all thought it was pretty unprecedented when some Japanese prodigy was coming over in 2018, with the intent to be a hitter and pitcher simultaneously. But after Ohtani won unanimous AL MVP Awards in 2021 and '23, along with finishing second behind Aaron Judge in '22, we’re simply numb to Ohtani's two-way dominance.

But can Ohtani still be the sport’s best player even when you take away half of what he typically brings to the table? Now that’s a topic worth following. After offseason elbow surgery, Ohtani won’t be pitching at all in 2024, and he’s still on the very short list of NL MVP candidates. Entering June, he led the NL in slugging percentage (.607), OPS (1.000) and total bases (136). His Statcast batting profile featured more “100s” than Stephen Hawking taking an elementary school math test. This includes a jump in expected batting average from .295 last year (a career high at the time) to a stellar .345 in 2024.

According to Baseball Reference, his 3.1 WAR trailed only teammate Mookie Betts’ 3.6 among NL players, giving him a very realistic chance of bringing home his third MVP trophy. To do so after an offseason marred by both injury and off-field distraction would be incredible -- but the incredible is what Ohtani does.

-- Cole Jacobson

Will either Judge or Soto separate himself in the AL MVP race?
Juan Soto enjoyed a terrific start to his Yankees career with a strong first month, hitting .325/.438/.581 with eight home runs through April 30. His new teammate and fellow superstar slugger, Aaron Judge, didn’t fare so well -- his slash line at the end of April was .207/.340/.414, and he had six homers.

But Judge had a historic May -- he seems to like that month -- with a 1.415 OPS, 14 homers and 26 extra-base hits overall. He became the first Yankee to produce 14 home runs and 12 doubles in the same month. If that weren’t enough, he set a Statcast Era record with 32 barrels in the same month, shattering the previous mark of 24 set by Shohei Ohtani (March/April 2024) and Matt Chapman (March/April 2023).

That incredible performance has Judge neck-and-neck with Soto in most offensive categories, as well as the early AL MVP discussion. Soto’s May, while not historic, was also great as he continued to help fuel the Yanks to the league’s best record. He hit .296/.384/.574 with seven homers. The question is: Will one of these titans of New York separate himself in the MVP race by the time we hit July?

Through May

Judge: 263 plate appearances, .282/.408/.648, 20 HR, 194 wRC+, 3.7 fWAR

Soto: 269 plate appearances, .311/.413/.578, 15 HR, 182 wRC+, 3.5 fWAR

There have only been six occasions on which teammates finished first and second in MVP voting, and none since 2000. It’s not hard to envision a Soto-Judge or Judge-Soto finish at the top in the AL this year.

-- Manny Randhawa

How will Gil follow up his spectacular May?
Luis Gil just put together one of the best months by a pitcher in Yankees history. He allowed just three runs across six starts.

He has six straight starts of at least six innings allowing one or no runs, entering June. That’s tied for the most consecutive such outings in Yankees history, with Steve Kline in 1972. He allowed three runs in May, tied with Lefty Gomez in September 1937 for the second-fewest runs allowed in a calendar month with at least 35 innings in franchise history, behind only Hank Thormahlen’s one in May 1918.

The question now is: What’s next? There’s the All-Star Game and Rookie of the Year considerations down the line. For June, we can’t wait to see how Gil continues to anchor the Yankees rotation.

-- Sarah Langs

Is Skenes about to become the best pitcher in the Majors?
The Paul Skenes era is here. And it's taken the big Pirates right-hander all of four career starts to establish himself as one of the most sheerly overpowering pitchers in baseball. So here's what we're on watch for: Can he become the best?

That's not hyperbole. Skenes already has the stuff to dominate anyone in the Majors. He's ripping in 100 mph fastballs -- in his four starts, he's already hit triple digits more than any other starter this season (he's done the same with 95 mph splitters). He has Jacob deGrom stuff, but at 6-foot-6 and 235 pounds, he looks like deGrom if deGrom were a football player. The six innings of no-hit, 11-strikeout baseball in his second MLB start are just the beginning. That type of game is a possibility every time Skenes steps onto a mound.

Forget the Rookie of the Year conversation. The real question for Skenes this summer is whether he can fireball his way into the Cy Young Award conversation.

-- David Adler

Can the Royals keep this up?
It’s time to take the Royals seriously. Kansas City is currently second in the AL Central at 35-25, the team’s fourth-best 60-game start in franchise history. Bobby Witt Jr. and Co. are squarely in the playoff picture in what’s been a surprisingly competitive division, something that would have been unexpected a couple of months ago.

The Royals are riding an excellent starting staff made up of veterans and an emerging ace. Cole Ragans has been one of the best pitchers in the Junior Circuit, posting a 3.36 ERA with 83 strikeouts over 67 innings. Veteran starter Seth Lugo has been even better, leading the majors with a 1.72 ERA. Brady Singer is also enjoying a much-anticipated breakout while Michael Wacha has provided solid innings at the back end of the rotation.

Perhaps the biggest single reason for the Royals’ hot start has been Witt, who has played himself into the AL MVP picture. Witt is slashing .314/.368/.544 with nine home runs and 17 stolen bases hitting in the two-hole of Kansas City’s lineup. He’s also playing Gold Glove caliber defense at shortstop, entering the new month with +10 Outs Above Average to lead all players at the position.

Witt’s superstar breakout has overshadowed a career resurgence from 34-year-old catcher and longtime Royal Salvador Perez. Perez is hitting .315 with 10 long balls while serving as the leader of a young Kansas City position player core.

There are few signs that the Royals aren’t legit -- their +73 run differential is the fourth-best in the AL. But when you haven’t made the postseason in nine years, and only twice since 1985, there are going to be doubters. June will tell us whether the Royals are true contenders or just pretenders.

-- Dylan Svoboda

Can the D-backs turn it around?
Being closer to last place than first place at the start of June was not something the D-backs or their fans envisioned as they were coming off the high of a World Series appearance. But that's where Arizona finds itself as the calendar flips.

After going 3-1 in early-season action in March, the D-backs had back-to-back losing months, winning just 11 games in both April and May, and found themselves on a five-game losing streak -- their second of the season -- heading into June. The D-backs are scoring enough to win, but the problem is that they've allowed more runs than they've scored, and their 4.33 team ERA through May was sixth-worst in baseball.

Though Brandon Pfaadt and Zac Gallen have been solid atop the rotation, offseason acquisition Jordan Montgomery has largely been a disappointment, pitching to a 5.48 ERA in eight starts, while Ryne Nelson and Slade Cecconi each have posted an ERA over 6.00. With Christian Walker, Ketel Marte and Joc Pederson still bringing the slug, Arizona will need more from its pitchers to keep hope alive for another postseason run.

-- Jason Foster