The arduous 162-game grind is now complete, and the 2025 Major League Baseball playoffs begin Tuesday.
But before we say goodbye to the regular season, it's time to look back at the best and worst players from 2025 ... in the hobby.
So take a break from the endless AL MVP debate and wondering what went wrong for the Mets, and enjoy cllct's awards for the '25 season.
Here's our look at how the baseball card market has moved since Opening Day.
Most Valuable Player: Shohei Ohtani
Ohtani’s place atop the baseball card market might eventually become a little exhausting to some collectors, but the data so far has been undeniable.
Of the cards and players tracked by Market Movers, Ohtani has been by far the best-selling baseball player since the start of the season with more than 43,000 sales logged over the last 180 days.
Ohtani’s total easily outpaces second-place finisher Paul Skenes’ roughly 36,000, and his popularity comes into even more focus when looking at his average sale price. Of the sales logged by Market Movers, Ohtani’s average is $235, which easily eclipses Skenes’ $67 and Aaron Judge’s $198.
The most popular card for Ohtani over the last 180 days has been his 2018 Bowman base, which has sold more than 1,200 times over that period.
For perspective, that single card alone has had more sales tracked by Market Movers than the entire markets for some All-Stars, including Jose Altuze, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Kyle Tucker and even former MVP Christian Yelich.
As expected, Ohtani has been by far PSA’s most graded baseball player since Opening Day, with more than 130,000 authenticated cards, according to GemRate. Judge has been the second-most graded player this season with a littlemore than 83,000 cards.
Least Valuable Player: Jac Caglianone
From both a collecting and on-field standpoint, there might not be many players who left fans and hobbyists alike more disappointed than Caglianone in 2025.
One of the best sluggers in the minors, Caglianone made his debut to much fanfare June 3 and within a month saw a stunning record sale when his 2024 Bowman Chrome Prospect Autograph Padparadscha 1/1 sold for $63,000.
Unfortunately for both collectors and Royals fans, Caglianone scuffled most of the way, finishing with -1.3 bWAR in 210 at-bats after slashing just .157/.237/.295.
Of the cards to collapse, his 2024 1st Bowamn Draft Chrome Autograph PSA 10 has been one of the biggest losers, dropping from a high of $1,300 over the last 180 days all the way down to a recent sale of $432.
A slow start shouldn’t doom Caglianone’s market, and he’ll have a ton of graded examples flooding the industry in the coming months. According to GemRate, PSA has graded more than 29,000 cards for Caglianone since the start of the season, which is fifth-most among all baseball players over that period.
Cy Young: Paul Skenes
Truthfully, Skenes’ card market since his debut has been nothing short of shocking. In addition to bucking the trend of hobbyists largely avoiding pitchers, Skenes has remained popular while shoving every five days for a Pirates franchise that hasn't sniffed the postseason in the last decade.
Of the players tracked by Market Movers, only Ohtani has had more sales logged over the last 180 days. The next closest pitcher to Skenes’ roughly 36,000 sales is Yoshinobu Yamamoto with fewer than 10,000.
Beyond his low-end market, Skenes also delivered the most expensive public sale for an active baseball player so far this year when his 2024 Topps Chrome Update Rookie Debut Patch Autograph 1/1 sold for $1.11 million to Dick’s Sporting Goods in March.
Skenes has been historically good on the mound to start his career, and that has more than spilled into his card market.
Cy Yuck: Roki Sasaki
Sasaki entered 2025 as one of the most intriguing players in baseball, but a slow start and then an impingement in his right shoulder more or less ruined his rookie season.
In total, Sasaki finished the regular season with a 4.46 ERA in 36.1 innings pitched across 10 games, including eight starts. The 23-year-old will surely recover long-term and have a great career, but collectors are complicated and can be quick to give up on even the best prospects.
Of the sales tracked by Market Movers, Sasaki’s market is down 44% over the last 180 days across nearly 5,000 sales. His best-selling card over that period, his 2025 Topps Heritage Base, has dropped 87% over that period from a high of $15 down to about $2.
Rookie of the Year: Nick Kurtz
The runaway favorite to win AL Rookie of the Year, Kurtz is also easily the hobby’s ROY winner for 2025.
It’s still early to call him a hobby star, but the early returns are extremely strong, with the Athletics first baseman piling up more than 7,000 sales over the last 180 days, according to Market Movers.
According to Market Movers, Kurtz’s market is up 120% collectively over that period with an average sale of $179 — though it’s easier for Kurtz to have a high price growth increase because his market started low. Still, it's important to remember it’s difficult to maintain positive price growth, let alone extremely high growth, across a high number of transactions.
Of the top 40 best-selling baseball players over the last 180 days, Kurtz is one of only nine active players with positive growth.
Breakout Player: Cal Raleigh
MVP or not, no non-rookie reshaped their card market more in 2025 than Raleigh.
Raleigh’s cards tracked by Market Movers are up 141% in price over the last 180 days across more than 9,300 sales, and his sales volume over that period is up more than 1,500%.
Prior to the start of 2025, Raleigh’s highest public card sale was the $5,000 spent on his 2021 Bowman Chrome Superfractor Autograph 1/1 in March 2024. The Mariners catcher now has had 19 sales top that since Opening Day, according to Card Ladder’s records, including the record $80,520 paid for his 2019 Bowman Chrome Prospect Superfractor Autograph 1/1 on Monday.
Among baseball’s best feel-good stories from 2025, collectors will likely monitor whether or not Raleigh is able to replicate his historic season before elevating him into hobby stardom.
Card of the Year: 2024 Topps Chrome Update Paul Skenes Rookie Debut Patch Autograph 1/1
Deciding how to choose a card for this space is complicated because of how product release cycles work, so we’re going to play a little loose with this category and select Skenes’ RPDA.
This card, which sold to Dick’s Sporting Goods for a record $1.11 million in March, was the most coveted card from the set, and it had one of the most captivating chases of any card created during the ultra-modern era.
Yes, it was released as part of 2024 Topps Chrome Update last November, but it did end up selling in 2025, and has been by far the most important modern baseball card to sell in recent years.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture. He was previously the Collectibles Editor at Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on X and Instagram @benmburrows.