The 25 biggest MLB stories of the 2010s

While the chance at grabbing a foul ball has long been one of the most enticing parts of the live MLB experience, at the same time the chance of injury became far too frequent of an occurrence. An increasingly alarming number of fans — including some young ones — were being injured by foul balls, and the vast majority of Major League Baseball teams began taking action. By 2018 all teams had extended netting completely around the home plate area, but in coming years, there is the possibility that netting will be extended foul pole to foul pole, which the Chicago White Sox have already done.

Although his postseason struggles continue to haunt him, there is no disputing that Kershaw had one of the greatest pitching runs of all time. An eight-time All-Star with three NL Cy Young Awards and league MVP honors in 2014, Kershaw was the most decorated hurler of the decade. He had the lowest ERA in the majors five times, becoming the first player to ever do so in four consecutive seasons, from 2011 to 2014. His 2.44 career ERA since 2011 is 1.63 runs below the league-wide ERA for the decade.

Already in first place with a 5.5 game cushion on Aug. 24, following their 13-6 victory over the Boston Red Sox, the 2017 Indians wouldn’t lose again for nearly a month. Over the next three weeks, the Indians would win 22 straight games, a run that included seven shutouts and was capped by a thrilling 10-inning victory to clinch the second-longest streak of all time, outright. It was the longest winning streak in 82 years and pulled Cleveland 13.5 games up in the AL Central en route to a second consecutive AL Central title.

He seemed too good to be true: a two-way talent with a 98-mph fastball who can hit home runs with ease and can do both full time? But Shohei Ohtani showed as advertised upon his arrival in America in 2018, becoming the first player since Babe Ruth to hit at least 15 home runs and pitch at least 50 innings in the same season. On his way to the AL Rookie of the Year Award, Ohtani hit 22 home runs and went 4-2 on the mound while averaging 11 strikeouts per nine innings on the mound.

After being 12 games under .500 in late May, the Nationals won 65 percent of their games from June on and advanced to the World Series from the wild-card game. In the postseason they defied the odds to extraordinary levels, sandwiching an NLCS sweep of the Cardinals by beating two of the best teams in the NL and AL respectively, the Dodgers and Astros. Riding the potent rotation of Max Scherzer, Patrick Corbin and eventual 2019 World Series MVP Stephen Strasburg, Washington became the first team in history to win all of its World Series games on the road.

The youth was indisputably served in the 2010s, as there was a huge uptick in ready-to-play prospects reaching the majors. The single-season rookie home run record was broken twice in three years’ time, with Aaron Judge hitting 52 in 2017...before Pete Alonso hit 53 in 2019. Mike Trout became the youngest player to have a WAR of 9.0 or greater, in 2012, and Bryce Harper became the third-youngest MVP of all time, in 2015. Add in Ronald Acuna, Juan Soto, Jose Fernandez, Mookie Betts, Nolan Arenado, Corey Seager and Kris Bryant, and it was as potent of an early-career impact era as ever.

A two-time Cy Young Award winner and one of the two pitchers in history with a postseason no-hitter, Halladay was one of the greatest players of his era. Just shy of four years after his retirement, Halladay tragically crashed a plane he had recently purchased off the Florida coast. He was only 40 years old. In 2019, Halladay would go on to become the first posthumous first-ballot Hall of Fame selection since Roberto Clemente in 1973.

The controversial decision to award home-field advantage to the victorious league in the All-Star Game came to an end heading into the 2017 season. It also ushered in an era in which regular-season merit meant more than ever for the first time. The 2017 World Series was the first one ever to be hosted outright by the winningest regular-season team. From 1903 to 2002, home-field advantage was determined via a mixture of coin flips and alternating between leagues, and, as mentioned, from 2003 to 2016, the All-Star Game winner earned the rights.

In the first half of the decade, the Giants made capturing World Series championships a bi-annual event. Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner and manager Bruce Bochy were the mainstays for the franchise, as they captured the pennant in 2010, 2012 and 2014, their first since moving to San Francisco in 1958. Built around strong starting pitching, bullpen depth and defense, the Giants never won more than 94 games in any of their championship seasons but rose to the occasion in the postseason, going 12-4 in World Series play.

The Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers squared off in one of the biggest thrill rides the Fall Classic has ever seen. Over the course of the seven-game showdown, a record 25 home runs were hit, including a record-tying five by George Springer. The Astros hit a single-game record of eight in Game 2. The signature game of the series came in Game 5, a 13-12 thriller that featured five lead changes from the seventh inning on and had six game-tying home runs before a walk-off Alex Bregman single in the 10th inning.

Shortly after winning the 2011 World Series in St. Louis, Pujols headed into free agency for the first time in his career. Interest was obviously high in the three-time National League MVP, but it was hard to imagine him leaving the franchise he was synonymous with. But when negotiations with the Cardinals stalled, Angels owner Arte Moreno swooped in with a record 10-year, $254 million contract to bring Pujols west in one of the most stunning free agent coups of all time.

The decade also saw a string of tragic deaths to promising young talents still well shy of their 30^th birthdays. Promising Cardinals outfielder Oscar Taveras died in a car accident in the Dominican Republic at 22 years old in 2014. Three years later, promising Kansas City pitcher Yordano Ventura suffered the same fate. In 2016 Jose Fernandez, already a two-time All-Star at age 24, died via a boating crash in Miami Beach. Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs died suddenly in July due to complications from an accidental drug overdose.

Over the course of the decade, it became more prevalent than ever for non-competitive teams to sell off to extents never seen before. "Tanking" led to teams that struggled at times to resemble minor league rosters, as down-and-out teams broke up and jockeyed for draft pick positioning harder than trying for real-time wins. In the process parity hit all-time lows, as records were set for number of 100-win and 100-loss teams co-existing in 2018 and again in 2019.

Since Carl Yastrzemski last completed the Triple Crown in 1967, many had accomplished two legs of the pursuit but none had finished it. That was until Miguel Cabrera did so in 2012, completing what was becoming believed to be impossible in the contemporary game. In claiming the crown, the Detroit Tigers slugger hit for a .330 batting average, with 44 home runs and 130 RBI en route to the American League MVP Award as well.

The dual free agency of Harper and Machado was a spectacle that was over a year in the making, as the two precocious talents reached free agency together in the winter of 2019. While neither reached the rumored $400 million level during their time on the open market, both did set new records for free agent pacts. Machado struck first, getting 10 years and $300 million from the San Diego Padres, followed by Harper’s $330 million over 13 years from the Philadelphia Phillies.

Of all the legends who have reached the Baseball Hall of Fame, there had never been one who received unanimous approval for entry. But the Sandman made history when his name appeared on all 425 voting ballots in 2019, breaking the two-year old record of Ken Griffey Jr. at 99.3 percent. An estimated 55,000 attendees went to Cooperstown to see Rivera officially be enshrined, the second-largest crowd for the event in history.

The do-it-all star center fielder was a sensation upon arrival, becoming the top player in the game at an earlier age than any other in history. Trout led the American League in WAR over his first five full seasons and finished outside the top two in AL MVP voting only once  — when he missed over a month in 2017. He was voted an All-Star starter for seven consecutive years and won AL Rookie of the Year in 2012 and MVP in 2014, 2016 and 2019. In 2019 Trout received a 12-year, $426 million contract extension with the Los Angeles Angels, the richest contract in North American pro sports history.

A fifth playoff spot was added to both leagues in 2012 via the wild-card game. The one-game playoff stood in stark contrast to the traditional series-based structure that had defined the MLB playoffs since its inception. The urgency of the game added a refreshing boost of life to the postseason, especially with the guaranteed element of a full 162-game season coming down to single day for two teams. Subsequently, two World Series winners would emerge from wild-card games: the 2014 San Francisco Giants and the 2019 Washington Nationals.

While many teams have changed leagues and location throughout the history of the game, none has had as big of an impact on the game as Houston’s 2013 switch to the American League. After losing 90-plus games in each of their first two AL seasons, Houston soon became one of the premier franchises in the league. Its presence has changed the competitive landscape of the league, with the Astros reaching the postseason in four of seven AL seasons, including three straight 100 win campaigns and two World Series appearances, winning it all in 2017.

Another contributing factor to the decade of change in the game was expansive changes to how the rules are applied. Video replay and pitch clocks were inserted in an effort to increase the accuracy of umpiring and pace of play. In-game manager challenges were introduced in 2014, with a league-wide replay center being introduced. Home plate collisions with catchers were outlawed as a safety precaution, while intentional walks no longer require actual pitches to be thrown. And an even larger set of new guidelines are set to kick off the new decade, ensuring that the evolution of the national pastime slow down anytime soon.

The style and pacing of the sport changed dramatically, as home run rates hit historically stunning levels. Over the last decade, five of the highest single-season team home run totals came in the last 10 years — including the four highest totals coming in 2019. Four of the top five all-time league wide home run totals have been hit since 2016, with 2019’s 6,776 being 671 more than the previous high. Among that rate, strikeouts have climbed annually each of the past 12 seasons, with a new high of 42,823 in 2019.

Beginning in 2015, Manfred’s tenure has been primarily focused on how to make the game a more contemporary event, with an emphasis on pace of play and an aggressive commitment to MLB’s media initiatives. Manfred has also advocated for new markets for the game to expand to and implementing the MLB’s initiatives with legalized gambling. Manfred, however, has taken heat over covert changes to the baseball amid an offense boom and has potentially severe labor relations issues ahead with the MLBPA, so he has been (predictably) busy in his first half-decade in the commissioner’s chair.

The relationship between professional sports and gambling has long been a contentious one, but the previously forbidden alliance became stunningly real in 2018. In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, sports gambling was made legal nationwide. Shortly afterward, Major League Baseball struck a deal with MGM Resorts International to become the league’s official gambling partner. The full scope of how this decision will impact the game will be shaped in the coming decade, but this decision provided a seismic shift in the past and future of outside engagement and interest in the sport.

Although the usage of deep-dive data and analytics stretches back to the "moneyball" era of the early 2000s, the application of competitive data usage jumped to an entirely new level over the past decade. The Houston Astros led the charge during comprehensive franchise rebuild, but now there is no team whose player assessment, salary decision and even in-game decision making isn’t influenced by an in-house data department. The analytics revolution changed the game fundamentally, as the statistics and measures that defined the game for over a century were challenged  — and outright replaced — over the course of just 10 years.

The day that had eluded three generations of fans on the north side of Chicago finally came to pass on Nov. 2, 2016. It had been 39,467 days  — more famously broken out as 108 years — since the Chicago Cubs had last captured a World Series title. It came on the heels of a dominant 103-win season, where they captured the NL Central title by 17.5 games, marking the first time the Cubs had reached the World Series since 1945 or won 100 games since 1935. In the end the Cubs came back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Cleveland Indians in seven games, crowning the most anticipated championship ascent in MLB history.