MLB Power Rankings: Dodgers reclaim their spot at No. 1, plus which teams have best overcome slow starts
MLB Power Rankings: Dodgers reclaim their spot at No. 1, plus which teams have best overcome slow starts
After sitting around all winter and then getting excited for the new season to finally start, it’s easy to take a mental gut punch pretty early in the Major League Baseball season. That is to say that all the emotions are extra heightened early on, to the point that it is incredibly easy to overreact. You just sat around missing baseball for months and then got all excited, only to watch your team start the season 1-3? Yeah, it’s a total bummer.
That happened to me. It’s easy to put on my analyst hat and tell everyone else to settle down. But when the Cubs fell to 1-3, I was internally kind of freaking out, I’ll admit. I had that sweeping, woe-is-me, “I’m sure glad I was excited for this nonsense” feeling. They now have a multi-game lead in first place and it’s still way early.
Several other teams started worse and have since mounted a comeback, salvaging the feelings of their once-down-in-the-dumps die-hard fans.
The Braves really dug quite the hole for themselves, starting a pitiful 0-7. They weren’t much better at 5-13, but then ripped off nine wins in 11 games to claw back within one game of .500. It’s still plenty early and there’s enough talent to make the playoffs, but man, that had to suck for the fans to see that 0-7 to start the season.
No team expected to contend dug a hole for themselves to the extent that the Braves did, but the Reds lost four straight games to fall to 2-6, a stretch that included three consecutive 1-0 losses. That has to be miserable to watch, and the Reds have been more disappointing than not for quite a while. I can just see a bunch of people screaming in frustration about how “it was supposed to be different with Terry Francona!” And it has been since. The Reds are now above .500 and had a stretch where they won 11 of 17.
Over on the American League side, the Guardians had to start with a nine-game road trip before getting to come home. They went 3-6. That’s tough. They won 11 of their next 14, though, and remain competitive in the AL Central. The leaders of that division are the Tigers, of course, who started the season by being swept. After that amazing playoff run, it had to be at least slightly annoying to start the season 0-3 and then 2-4. They’ve been excellent ever since.
Perhaps no team in baseball has been better than the Seattle Mariners since they woke up, though. The Mariners lost a 12-inning game on April 8 to fall to 4-8 on the season. Since then, they’ve gone 16-5 — the best mark in baseball during that stretch — with a +43 run differential.
Many people have gotten used to assuming the Mariners are a low-scoring team, heavily dependent on their pitching staff. That’s how the ballpark in Seattle plays, after all. They do have a good rotation, too. And closer Andrés Muñoz has arguably been the best reliever in baseball so far this season.
The Mariners can rake, though. The offense is one of the best in baseball, especially when adjusted for ballpark settings. Only three teams — Yankees, Dodgers and Cubs — have more home runs. The Mariners rank second in the majors in on-base percentage. They are even in the top 10 in slugging, paving the way to sit fifth in OPS. Remember, they play half their games in a pitcher’s paradise, too, so the stats that adjust for the ballpark are very kind. The team OPS+ is 126 and that’s second only to the Yankees (who, by the way, have a cheat code in Aaron Judge). If you prefer weighted runs created plus (WRC+), the Mariners are second there, too, at 125.
Basically, when factoring in the hitting environments, the Mariners this season have been about 25% better at hitting than the average team.
Add in their pitching staff and that’s a damn good ballclub. And after starting 4-8, there were surely legions of Mariners fans hating themselves for caring as much as they do. That’s the life of a fan.
I wouldn’t have it any other way and I’m certainly I’m not alone here with this opinion.
Biggest Movers
|
Rk |
Teams |
Chg |
Rcrd |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
|
The seven-game winning streak that was snapped Sunday was their second-longest of the year. | 2 | 23-11 |
2 |
|
After enduring their first bad stretch of the season, the Padres did what great teams do. They bounced back with a 5-0 week. | 5 | 22-11 |
3 |
|
The Cubs have won 15 games against teams over .500, most in the majors. | 1 | 21-14 |
4 |
|
They’ve lost four of five, but the Mets were playing at a 113-win pace before that. A backslide was bound to happen. | 3 | 22-13 |
5 |
|
Javier Báez is hitting .309 and playing the hell out of center field. He’s already over 1.5 WAR. Last season he posted -1.1. | — | 22-13 |
6 |
|
One of the key pieces in the offense being awesome now would be Jorge Polanco. He looked like a bust of an acquisition last season, but so far this year he’s slashing a ridiculous .380/.419/.785. | 2 | 20-13 |
7 |
|
Regular readers know I love to mention Rob Deer. I mentioned him last week in the Marlins’ comment. This time around, I’m gonna point out that Matt Chapman is hitting .198 while being on pace to homer 32 times. | 3 | 22-13 |
8 |
|
Losing series in Baltimore and at home against the Rays qualifies as a pretty bad week. | 2 | 19-15 |
9 |
|
They’ve now won six of eight since falling back to .500 on April 25. Also, Aaron Nola’s last two starts? Only one run allowed on seven hits in 13 innings. He’s struck out 14 against two walks. | 3 | 19-15 |
10 |
|
They are doing well despite Emmanuel Clase having been terrible and the rotation posting a less-than-average 4.20 ERA. | 4 | 20-14 |
11 |
|
I didn’t mention the Royals in the intro since it wasn’t the start that was bad. They did lose eight of nine at one point though. Since then, the Royals have played like one of the best teams in baseball, having gone 11-2. | 6 | 19-16 |
12 |
|
If the season continues on this path, the Diamondbacks are going to end up one of the greatest fourth-place teams we’ve ever seen. Remember, they’ve played a tough schedule and Ketel Marte has now only appeared in 11 games. | 2 | 18-16 |
13 |
|
It was cool to see Lance McCullers Jr. finally get back on an MLB mound. That hadn’t happened since the 2022 World Series. Less cool? Losing a series to the White Sox. | 2 | 17-16 |
14 |
|
The Reds closed their homestand losing four of six and now they have to hit Atlanta and Houston on the road. Tough stretch. | 1 | 18-17 |
15 |
|
The A’s have now won 13 of their last 19 games and are starting to resemble a contender. | 5 | 19-16 |
16 |
|
Tanner Houck was an All-Star last season. He had a 2.18 ERA through 16 starts. His numbers are brutal right now, but he looked great last time out and a lot of the horrible numbers could be pinned on one start. It’s worth watching. | 3 | 18-18 |
17 |
|
They’ll be over .500 by Memorial Day. | 1 | 15-18 |
18 |
|
Jonathan Aranda is hitting like an MVP against righties. The Rays mostly protect him from lefties, but he’s been amazing so far this season overall. | — | 16-18 |
19 |
|
Before salvaging a win on Sunday, the Brewers had lost seven of 10 and two of those three wins came against the White Sox. Rough stretch. | — | 17-18 |
20 |
|
The Rangers haven’t won a game started by someone other than Jacob deGrom since April 25. They’ve been doing a lot of losing. The culprit would be the offense. They scored 15 runs on April 29 and eight on Sunday, but they’ve scored two or fewer runs in eight of their last 10 games. | 11 | 17-18 |
21 |
|
Through last Tuesday, the Blue Jays had lost eight of nine, but they then strung together a three-game winning streak. Still, there hasn’t been much reason for optimism for a few weeks. | — | 16-18 |
22 |
|
The Nats have the makings of one of the non-contending pests. That is, they won’t be a strong playoff contender, at least I don’t think so, but they will have plenty of series where they stand toe-to-toe with good teams. | — | 16-19 |
23 |
|
After a slow start, Willson Contreras is now on fire. He was hitting .139/.195/.222 through 18 games. In 16 games since, he’s raised that line to .244/.322/.374. | 1 | 16-19 |
24 |
|
Last week, I noted that the Twins’ small stretch of winning could’ve simply been a case of beating up on bad competition and that I wanted to see how they managed a tougher week. They went 3-4, though taking a series in Boston is nice. Still, they’ll need to do more to convince me they are fixed. | 1 | 15-20 |
25 |
|
Their team ERA is now 5.43. The rotation? 5.69. | 2 | 13-20 |
26 |
|
Sandy Alcantara is not cooperating with the trade rumors. In six starts, he has an 8.31 ERA and has nearly walked as many as he’s struck out. | — | 13-20 |
27 |
|
We’ve mentioned multiple times that the Pirates haven’t done enough to try and take advantage of the window with Paul Skenes not making much money. They are now off to their worst start in a full season since 2006. Shame on ownership and the front office. | — | 12-23 |
28 |
|
Opposite of the teams I mentioned in the intro, the Angels got some of their fans’ hopes up with a 7-3 start. They split the next four games to sit 9-5. Since then? They’ve gone 4-15. Pathetic. | — | 13-20 |
29 |
|
The Sox have won three of four and five of their last 10. They are still terrible, but not nearly as bad as last season or the 2025 Rockies. The Pale Hosers are now on pace to win a whopping 48 games. | — | 10-24 |
30 |
|
Not only are the Rockies awful, but they aren’t even fun to watch. I think I’d rather pull taffy than watch a Rockies game. | — | 6-28 |
