While it may not be the worst Williamsport Crosscutter season in the MLB Draft League, 2025 will be remembered as the most frustrating.

A campaign where both halves seemed destined for success, a peculiar amount of injuries, player transfers, and overall bad luck resulted in a Cutters season where what if’s dominant the storylines rather then the action on the field.

Once upon a time, Williamsport looked like outright contenders in the MLB Draft League. Closing out the month of June, Williamsport was a pragmatic 12-7 on the year, first in the MLB Draft League and had the best overall roster in the league.

Little did they know, the Cutters would win just seven more games the rest of the year.

What started in July could only be described as an unmitigated collapse. Williamsport would lose their last 11 games of the first-half season on route to a 12-game losing streak that marked the longest in franchise and Draft League history.

The resulting losing streak was due in large part to early leavers in the ballclub. With the first half highlighted by draft prospects, many would leave early with a resume already built up.

What remained was a team that was a shell of itself, as Williamsport would concede five or more runs in all 11 first half games during the streak while scoring five or more runs just twice in comparison.

Such dramatics were, on paper, not supposed to happen in the second half. With the formation of the MLB Draft League going from a college ball league in the first half into a professional league in the second half, teams are expected to retain talent more often when professional ball is being played.

But if it’s one thing that’s been known about the Williamsport Crosscutters in 2025, it’s that anything that could’ve gone wrong, went wrong.

Due to injuries, and exits ranging from performance to leaving to law school, Williamsport will start their final game of 2025 with four infielders, three outfielders, four catchers, and 11 healthy pitchers.

On the hill, the strain of a college season parlayed with summer ball resulted in numerous injuries, most notably to Cutters starter Tyler Valdez. A returner from 2024, Valdez would start just two games before going down with an injury that knocked him out the rest of the season. He was slated to be a top three starter in Williamsport’s rotation.

But nowhere was hit harder than the position players, specifically first base. To start, Williamsport did not have a natural first basemen, swapping between utility infielder Michael Zarillo and outfielder Max Mandler, with Safea Villaruz-Mauai joining as a proper first basemen a few weeks into the second half.

Fast forward to the last home stretch of the year, and all three have left the team. Villaruz-Mauai would be the first casualty, playing just seven games before a groin injury kept him out the rest of the year.

Zarillo would exit the team next, opting to enroll in law school at the University of North Carolina.

Even Max Mandler would be unable to avoid the injury bug, tearing a muscle in his lower stomach with two weeks left in the season.

The issues at first base only encapsulate the year for Williamsport. A season of could’ve been’s in Williamsport.