Well, here we finally are. My first power rankings of the MLB Season come about 1/3 of the way through the seasons (it’s exactly 1/3 for my Phillies). I’ll start by just diving into the rankings, then we’ll talk about it after.
- Atlanta Braves
- Tampa Bay Rays
- Los Angeles Dodgers
- Milwaukee Brewers
- Cleveland Guardians
- San Diego Padres
- New York Yankees
- Arizona Diamondbacks
- St. Louis Cardinals
- Chicago Cubs
- Cincinnati Reds
- Sacramento Athletics
- Philadelphia Phillies
- Chicago White Sox
- Pittsburgh Pirates
- Washington Nationals
- Toronto Blue Jays
- Miami Marlins
- Seattle Mariners
- Minnesota Twins
- Baltimore Orioles
- Boston Red Sox
- Texas Rangers
- Houston Astros
- New York Mets
- San Francisco Giants
- Kansas City Royals
- Detroit Tigers
- Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
- Colorado Rockies
There’s a lot of surprises here, a lot of teams ranked in places I would not have expected them to be. Atlanta and the Dodgers aren’t shocking, although Atlanta not only survived early pitching injuries, but thrived through them. Tampa? Shocking. We all sat here thinking Milwaukee and Cleveland might drop back a bit, but they have not. San Diego and the Yankees are right in the discussion to win it all, no shock there. Same with the Cubs. Arizona might be a slight surprise, but not astounding. St. Louis? Shock.
It’s the next ten that are filled with surprises. Philadelphia, Toronto, and Seattle all have higher expectations than this. None have hit like last year. They can all pitch though, so don’t hit the panic button yet. Teams like the White Sox and Nationals have probably played a bit over their heads so far, but they probably don’t have the pitching to stay in the race. They will need to convince their front offices to go get them help.
And then there are teams in serious trouble already. Boston is disappointing. The Mets and Giants are cataclysmic. Kansas City may have to give up on this group. Detroit? Everything is going wrong. And of course you have the Angels and Rockies, who are both not going anywhere at all- like not into a rebuild, not into trying to win, they’re literally just existing.
Since we’re at the 1/3 mark, I’ll add here that right now I’d give the MVP’s to Drake Baldwin and Ben Rice, neither of whom will win. I’d give the Cy Youngs to Cristopher Sanchez and Cam Schlittler, of which I’d say Sanchez is more likely but both are a little bit of a surprise. I’d give the Rookie of the Year awards to Munetaka Murakami (who is going to get a lot of folks fired) and Sal Stewart, both guys that seem capable of keeping this pace. I’d give Manager of the Year to Walt Weiss and Kevin Cash, and neither would be remotely close.
Lots of baseball ahead. We’ll see where we are in the next rankings.
Apocalypse Vibes 