A major league baseball season consists of 162 games. 81 games played at home and 81 games played on the road.
To play in all 162 games, a player has to be better than merely good. This player has to be a proven linchpin to his team’s success. You want this bad man in your lineup every goddamn day. You need this soldier in your lineup every day.
To these 162 men of iron, posting up is what they do. They show up at the ballpark every day knowing their name is going to be in the lineup. There are no days off. Days off are for chumps — not champs. These guys are heroes – not zeros.
For the 2025 season, only six players showed up every day, laced up their spikes and hunkered down at home plate to take their hacks. Six. (One of the six actually played in 163 games.) These guys didn’t take a night off because they went on a bender in South Beach and ended the night at Tootsie’s. They didn’t see Tarik Skubal scheduled as the next day’s starter and ask for the day off. These guys buckled up and showed out.
Here are 2025’s Iron Men:
- Rafael Devers (163 Games Played)
- Pete Alonso
- Elly De La Cruz
- Matt Olson
- Brett Rooker
- Kyle Schwarber
You might be asking yourself, how did Rafael Devers play in 163 games? After being traded from the Boston Red Sox to the San Francisco Giants, on June 15th, Devers picked up an extra game.
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Devers Aside: When the Chief Baseball Officer (Who makes up these titles in baseball? Is this a Tom Werner production?) of the Boston Red Sox, Craig Breslow, realized his relationship with Rafael Devers had cratered to the point of a JLo marriage counseling session, Devers was shipped to San Francisco for the mercurial flamethrowing reliever/failed starter Jordan Hicks, starting pitcher Kyle Harrison, minor league outfielder James Tibbs III since moved to the Dodgers for the rental of Tormund Giantsbane wannabe Dustin May, and minor league pitcher Jose Bello.
Before Devers’ plane could leave town, he was hit with the usual crap of not being a good teammate, he was lazy — out of shape. The guy only played in 163 games. 1-6-3!
And if Devers’ replacement at third base, Alex Bregman, decides that he’s not a Dunkin’ type of guy — the Red Sox will again be looking to fill a void at third base. I’ll allow Alex Bregman’s uber agent Scott Boras to explain how that works:
“In Boston, we learned a lot about Bregman in ‘25,” Boras said at last week’s GM Meetings in Las Vegas. “Because in Boston prior to ’25 they had a lot of lineup donut holes and certainly prior to ’25, Boston has been kind of a club that has dunkin’ well below the playoff line. So I think it was a bad roast in Beantown. Give the owners credit in ’25. They went out, spent some Starbucks to bring in a Bregman blend that led them to the playoffs. I’m sure the Boston fans don’t want this to be just a cup of coffee and no one wants a Brexit.”
Who knew that Boras was a former hack ad agency copywriter? Twelve-year-olds come up with better shit on TikTok.
Red Sox/Liverpool FC/Pittsburgh Penguins/RFK Racing/Boston Common Golf fans will revel in their schadenfreude at the fact that Devers was the only 2025 Iron Man not to be named an All-Star.
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All of this is mere artifice to get to my main point, which is; how do the Mets or the Phillies allow Pete Alonso or Kyle Schwarber to depart via free agency? These guys don’t grow on Pedro Martinez’s mango tree in the Dominican Republic?
Quick Elly De La Cruz Hug: But Elly De La Cruz did grow up in the Dominican Republic — not sure he ever sat under Pedro’s mango tree. De La Cruz played 162 games — almost exclusively at shortstop — and is the first Cincinnati Red to play 162 games since Joey Votto in 2017. De La Cruz played through the death of his sister and a nagging quad injury. Stole 37 bags. Absolute stud.
If you haven’t been paying attention at home because you’re mourning the death of Alice Glick, I write this stuff through the perspective of a Mets fan. And maybe this outsized passion and commitment to the Mets sometimes makes folks think I am an agoraphobic loser — not that agoraphobics are losers — but I do watch a lot of Mets games. In a Mets fan survey on The Athletic, one of the questions was: How many Mets games did you watch in 2025? I answered 100. Sounds about right — maybe a little more — but that feels like the number. For the folks who watched 140 or more games, that is sick. Also, it makes me think; is a baseball incel a subset of the larger incel populace?
All of this has been a touch of smoke and mirrors to get to this salient point: The Mets need to re-sign Pete Alonso.
The ability to post up and play every day is undervalued. Staying healthy is a talent and the ability to play through pain and minor dings should not be overlooked.
David Stearns bring back the Polar Bear. Changes are needed. But I’m not sure the right move is to move on from Pete Alonso. Yes, Alonso has defensive shortcomings but when did first base evolve into a defense first position? You want a guy who can bash the ball at first.
When you add it up all six of 2025’s Iron Men bring value to their teams. Can their true value be quantified? Does an opposing pitcher want to see A’s right fielder Brent Rooker step into the box or a guy that has been working the Sacramento and Las Vegas Aviators shuttle? Presence alone can make or break a lineup on a particular day. Pitching to Juan Soto and then having to face Pete Alonso ain’t no walk in the park.
Iron men are valuable. It goes beyond the stats.
(I forgot to give any love to Matt Olson. With all due respect, fuck the Braves.)
toughdsheridan 