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Six MLB One Season Wonders Who Fell Off Fast

by Jeremy Block - 9/3/2025

MLB one season wonders Jesus Aguilar

Baseball is full of players who lit up the stat sheet for one oddly standout season, then vanished like they owed the league money and skipped town. For every player with a long, solid career, there’s someone who showed out for one season and then quickly faded. One year they’re an All-Star; the next, they’re out of the majors altogether.

Some of them got figured out. Some broke down. A few just straight-up ran out of magic. Whatever the reason, they hit their peak, and then quietly drifted out of the spotlight like nothing ever happened. Here’s a look at six one-season wonders who went from the headlines to suddenly disappearing.

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Chris Davis (2013)

Few power hitters came with as much hype and heartbreak as Chris Davis’s 2013 season. After a decent career leading up to it, Davis exploded for 53 home runs and 138 RBIs, after never recording a season with more than 33 homers or 135 RBIs prior. Orioles fans instantly thought they’d found their franchise slugger, and could you blame them with numbers like this?

But then the free fall happened. After 2013, Davis’s batting average plummeted, turning into a strikeout machine—with two seasons of 208 or more strikeouts. His droughts dragged on for seasons, and his name became shorthand for “can’t hit water if he fell out of a boat.” Davis eventually retired in 2020, but real Orioles fans will never forget how unstoppable he was in 2013.

Brady Anderson (1996)

Maybe it was something in the water—or the weight room—that had Brady Anderson looking like a comic book superhero in 1996. After 10 seasons in the league, with not a single year over 21 homers or 80 RBIs, Anderson was shaping up as just another “role player.” Then 1996 happened, and suddenly something flipped. He blasted 50 home runs and racked up 110 RBIs out of nowhere.

Then came the crash. Anderson never hit more than 24 homers again, and most of his career after that was a steady mix of singles and strikeouts. That one year? That was Anderson’s superhero moment. The rest of his career played out more like the origin story of a pretty average hitter.

Chris Shelton (2005)

If you played fantasy baseball in 2005, chances are Chris Shelton helped you out a ton—and then disappeared like he was never there to begin with. The Tigers' first baseman had an “eh” kind of debut in 2004, posting a .196 batting average in just 46 at-bats. But hey, rookie season, right? Then 2005 happened, and he exploded out of the gate. Shelton hit a career-high .299 with 18 home runs and 59 RBIs.

After that? Shelton cooled off hard. Over the next few seasons, he would go on to never hit more than 16 homers in a season and totaled only 129 hits in three years. He looked nothing like the power machine he was back in 2005. The following year he was sent down, and shortly after that, he faded into baseball stories of “Whatever happened to”. 

Dontrelle Willis (2005)

If anyone earned the ‘unorthodox’ label for their pitching form, it was Marlins southpaw Dontrelle Willis. But don’t let the funky delivery fool you—the “D-Train” was as dangerous as they come. With his high leg kick, and notorious hat tilt, Willis looked like the face of pitching in 2005. He went 22-10 with a 2.63 ERA and finished runner-up for the Cy Young Award. The Marlins seemed to have the next big thing on their hands.

Then the train went off the rails. Literally. A few seasons later, Willis gave up a career-high 118 hits, and it only got worse from there. His control disappeared, his ERA ballooned, and teams kept hoping they could fix him. Nobody could. By 2011, Willis hung up his cleats before things got any uglier. That one season, though? He was untouchable on the mound.

Brad Lidge (2008)

Closers usually have shorter careers, but Brad Lidge’s 2008 season was something special. He was a flamethrower that year, going a perfect 48-for-48 in saves, and posted a 1.95 ERA over 72 appearances. Yeah, you read that right. Lidge was the kind of closer you prayed your team had in the ninth—the ultimate closer’s closer.

Sadly after, things went south fast. Real fast. The next season, his touch on the mound disappeared, walks piled up, and his ERA skyrocketed to a 7.21, and went 0-8 on the season. He never regained his 2008 form, and continued bouncing around teams. For one season, though, Lidge was among baseball’s best closers.

Jesus Aguilar (2018)

For a brief moment in 2018, Jesus Aguilar looked like a wrecking ball in cleats. The Brewers’ first baseman smashed 35 home runs, drove in 108 RBIs, and earned an All-Star selection—not bad for a guy who hadn’t topped 74 hits in any of his four seasons prior.

But then, his bat power vanished just as fast. By 2019, Aguilar managed to hit only 24 homers while bouncing between two teams. As time went on, pitchers adjusted, and Aguilar never quite did. He kept getting chances, kept changing jerseys, but that breakout year in Milwaukee? That was the peak of his career—and it came and went in a flash.

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