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Stolen base are one of the most exciting plays in baseball. The anticipation of a speedster reaching first, the murmur of a crowd knowing they're going to run, and the bang-bang play at second to try and catch them is intoxicating.

Sadly, they’d faded over the years until rule changes after the 2022 season brought them back in a big way.

This was another banner year for base stealers and I’m going to tell you all about who ran wild. Also, we’re going to walk through some disappointing base stealers – be it due to inefficiency or lack of desire – plus some interesting trends to watch league-wide.

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• D.J. Short
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2025 MLB Stolen Base Leaders

Here is the stolen base leaderboard from the regular season.

A surprising league-leader, José Caballero took the stolen base crown despite having just 370 plate appearances. Only Elly De La Cruz stole more than his 93 bases over the past two seasons, and Caballero got there with 542 fewer PA. When he plays, he will run.

How does José Ramírez keep doing it? He just completed his second straight 40-steal season. These were the first times he reached that milestone in his career and he waited until turning 31 to do so. He is a marvel.

Chandler Simpson was tied for second-most steals despite being called up three weeks into the season and then getting sent down again for most of June. He was also caught more than anyone in the league. His defense and offense are both questionable traits, so it’s anyone’s guess as to if he’ll go into next season as a starter in Tampa Bay.

Next, here’s the stolen base leaderboard for just the second-half.

Juan Soto, man. For him to have stolen 27 bases in 64 games after the All-Star break and wind up with the fourth-most in the league was astounding.

One of the key questions heading into next season is how many bags to expect as an encore. Soto gave most of the credit for this newfound abilityto now former Mets’ first base coach Antoan Richardson, who will have that same role with the Braves this coming season.

Can Soto hold the skills Richardson helped him develop? Should we expect some of the Braves players to run more? Both could wind up being true or untrue and it will be a hot-button topic during draft season.

Corbin Carroll and Gunnar Henderson each stole far more bases in the second half compared to the first when they were dealing with injuries.

Josh Naylor stole 26 consecutive bases successfully from May onward and 19 of which came after being traded to the Mariners in late July. He is still quite slow, so there’s a question as to whether this will sustain next season despite his return to Seattle.

Agustín Ramírez has a chance to be a true unicorn with 30-30 potential from the catcher position. He also could find himself on the razor’s edge of everyday playing time given his atrocious defense behind the plate and poor on-base skills.

Lastly, here’s a list of players who either ran far less than we’d have hoped or were inefficient when doing so.

Shohei Ohtani shouldn’t be considered over Aaron Judge for the first overall pick in any weekly set line-up leagues if he’s a 20-steal player like he’s been most of his career compared to the 56 he swiped in 2024 when he wasn’t pitching.

Jackson Merrill got a concussion on a stolen base attempt in June and did run again for the rest of the season. There could be sneaky upside on his projections heading into next season if he chooses to run again.

Masyn Winn offers next to no fantasy value if he can’t hit and doesn’t run, like last season.

Similarly, Jackson Holliday and Anthony Volpe couple poor seasons at the plate with woeful efficiency on the base paths. They need to take steps forward in some areas to be considered viable options heading into 2026.

It’s funny that Brice Turang’s steals fell by more than 50% and he was still the top second baseman in most leagues. He could approach first round value if he pairs this newfound 20-homer power with the 50 bases he stole in 2024. There’s also a chance he’s a colossal bust if he reverts to the slap hitter he was last season with this year’s low stolen base total.

2025 League Wide Stolen Base Trends

This was the third season of MLB’s new rules meant to put stolen bases back into the game and it’s clear that they’ve done that. Yet, it seems pitchers and catchers are beginning to better understand this new frontier.

Obviously, stolen bases boomed in 2023 when the new rules were implemented. Runners were successful far more often and in turn, that led to far more stolen bases being attempted. From the league’s perspective, this was both the hope and the goal.

Realizing the greater chance of success, teams pushed the envelope even further the following season. They were caught more often though. It’s possible that teams got a little cocky in deciding who should get the green light.

Then, this season, runners were caught more often and fewer stolen bases were attempted. While the difference is relatively small, that could signify a slight strategic shift with another full season of data.

Part of that may be the defense catching up. Jerry Weinstein is a baseball lifer who’s been coaching in some capacity since 1966. For reference, that’s 30 years before I was born. His current role is with the Cubs as a Special Assistant to the General Manager and his bio reads “professional baseball coach.”

He recently shared some interesting data from the legendary Tom Tango about throwing accuracy data when catching a would-be base stealer.

This tells us that catchers are now intending to throw more towards the first base side of second for a tag higher up on the base stealer's body rather than the old school adage of throwing directly to the base so the runner slides into it.

Part of this is the increased rate of head-first slides and ability of a runner to dodge a tag being placed directly next to the bag. Also, this could be a subtle strategic shift as stolen bases became easier to come by and teams try to fight back.

Correlation doesn’t lead to causation, but it’s interesting to note and feels like more and more tags at second base are being made higher up on runners’ bodies when watching games. That’s why baseball is the best, there’s always a solution to a problem. It will be fun to track these trends heading into the 2026 season.