Trade deadline season is every baseball fan's fever dream. Even as we speak, players are flying across the country at breakneck speeds trying to get themselves to their new teams, all hoping to join a roster that can go deep into October. But while the trades were hogging the spotlight, there were still games to be played as usual. And each game counts a little more than the last as July slowly gives way to August. The MLB Power Rankings see everything, taking the full picture into account when deciding where teams belong as the deadline approaches.
Where did your team end up in this week's MLB Power Rankings? Read on to find out!
1. Cleveland Guardians (+2)
No, the Guardians don't have the best overall record. No, they haven't done anything significant to improve their roster at the trade deadline. But when you walk into Citizens Bank Park and take two of three from the consensus top dogs in the Phillies, you deserve the number one spot. Here's hoping Cleveland can find some pitching to help them keep their crown moving forward.
2. Philadelphia Phillies (-1)
Is it just fatigue keeping the Phillies from the top spot at this point? Maybe, but they've also played some very poor baseball lately, having lost eight of their last 12. Fortunately, most of the top teams have struggled of late, so the Phils don't fall too far. But fans will start to worry if they keep this slide up much longer.
3. Baltimore Orioles (-1)
To be brutally honest, the Orioles aren't playing anything like a top-five team of late. They're 1-4 in their last five series and it seems like disaster lurks around every corner when the bullpen gate opens at Camden Yards. However, they're still in first place in the AL East and unless that changes, it's hard to see Baltimore dropping too far when there's so much potential on this roster.
4. Los Angeles Dodgers (no change)
If they hadn't blown a 5-0 lead on Saturday night in Houston, it's likely the Dodgers would have cracked the top three. L.A. has gone 7-3 since the All-Star break, an important change in momentum after a horrible end to their first half. If Shohei Ohtani keeps hitting balls that defy gravity and logic, it's easy to imagine that the Dodgers could get back to being the NL's favorites before the summer ends.
5. New York Yankees (+1)
It's hard to fathom that the Yankees hit a low point multiple times this week and still managed to end Sunday feeling like winners. But this is the 2024 New York Yankees, so things rarely make sense. Saturday night's comeback win in Boston could well be the type of turning point Aaron Boone always says is coming, but only time will tell if the rough patch is finally over.
6. Milwaukee Brewers (-1)
Losing a series to the Miami Marlins never feels good. But losing Christian Yelich for an indeterminate amount of time feels quite a bit worse. Milwaukee has become one of the best teams at replacing star players with a unit greater than the sum of their parts, but this feels like the type of unfortunate plot twist that can get in the way of what was a thoroughly impressive season to this point.
7. Minnesota Twins (+1)
Not many teams can say they have a player returning from injury that is better than any trade deadline addition they could make, but the Twins have two. Royce Lewis announced his return in the most Royce Lewis way possible by homering off AL Cy Young favorite Tarik Skubal, while Carlos Correa is still lurking in the wings. It would be nice if the Twins could also spend some money, but their roster is good enough to make some noise when it's at full health.
8. Houston Astros (-1)
Perhaps it was karma for our premature placement of the Astros in our MLB Power Rankings top 10 that they instantly lost a series in Oakland. But taking two of three from the Dodgers feels like all the validation they need. Though the Mariners kept pace in the AL West this week, it feels like the division is the Astros' to lose at this point.
9. Atlanta Braves (no change)
The mood was in the process of lifting around the Braves organization as of Sunday. The Braves appeared set to get Max Fried back soon, Matt Olson finally started impacting the baseball, and Atlanta took the final two games from the hated Mets. But losing Reynaldo López for any amount of starts would be an enormous blow. Braves fans are sure to be on pins and needles waiting for updates on López's status.
10. Seattle Mariners (+3)
The Chicago White Sox are everyone's “get right” series this season, and the Mariners certainly seemed to get themselves right this weekend. Cal Raleigh was mashing homers, the pitching staff was predictably shutting a feeble lineup down, and Randy Arozarena got his first three hits as a Mariner out of the way. Now, the question is whether or not Seattle can keep this momentum up when they play competent baseball teams.
11. Kansas City Royals (-1)
A lot of series tend to get lost in the shuffle of the trade deadline, and it felt like the Royals-Cubs matchup this past weekend basically never happened. But with the entire AL East scuffling, the Royals lost out on a chance to build themselves a much more sturdy lead in the playoff race, which could definitely come back to bite them down the road.
12. San Diego Padres (+3)
Jurickson Profar is on a mission to prove he can keep up his torrid start after making his first All-Star team at age He casually popped four more home runs this week, bringing his season total to 18, two shy of his career-high. And the Padres also had a no-hitter and five wins this week, so it's easy to find something to smile about in sunny San Diego.
13. Boston Red Sox (-2)
It's impossible to quit this Red Sox team after watching them come back the way that they did on Friday night. But two gut-punching losses followed, and now Boston is 2-7 after the break with a brutal schedule staring them down in August. There's lots of ball left to play, but this pitching staff needs a serious pick-me-up stat.
14. Arizona Diamondbacks (no change)
The Diamondbacks are right where they want to be. They quietly ripped off four straight wins this week, though they blew a golden opportunity to make it five. And while trading for A.J. Puk may have cost the D-Backs far more than your average trade for a lefty middle reliever, Puk undeniably makes this bullpen much more viable in the event of another October run.
15. New York Mets (+1)
If we had typed up these rankings on Friday night, the Mets would have made an even bigger jump. They swept the season series against their neighbors from the Bronx and snagged the first two games of their series against the archrival Braves. Unfortunately, the pitching staff ran out of juice over the weekend and left the Mets facing the reality that they don't exactly strike fear into the hearts of opposing hitters this season.
16. St. Louis Cardinals (-4)
It's time for a bit of a reality check in St. Louis. For over a month, the Cardinals were cruising along in playoff position, but they fell out of it with a home series loss to the lowly Nationals. Morale certainly improved with a Paul Goldschmidt walk-off homer on Sunday, but the Cards will need many more moments like that from their highly-paid veterans if they want to get back into the dance.
17. Pittsburgh Pirates (+1)
It hasn't always been pretty, but sometimes you have to take a step back and marvel at the fact that it's July 28, and the Pirates are actually above .500 in a Major League Baseball season. Playing meaningful baseball is a rare privilege in Pittsburgh, so Pirates fans are sure to be locked in from this point forward. Now, Ben Cherington and Bob Nutting, go make something happen before the deadline hits!
18. Texas Rangers (+2)
The Rangers simply cannot make up their minds about where their season is headed. Just as soon as they got hot enough to avoid becoming sellers, the Rangers inexplicably got swept by a Blue Jays team whose season has effectively been over for a month. Obviously, there's still lots of talent in Texas to make a second-half push, but this weekend was a big missed opportunity.
19. San Francisco Giants (+2)
For the past three seasons, it feels like whenever the Giants have been playing well, they run into the Dodgers, and whenever they're playing poorly, they get right against the Rockies. Both of those things happened this week, leaving the Giants at 52-55 and in one of the league's most precarious positions. Will they trade Blake Snell? Make a surprise addition? Do nothing and hope this team fixes itself? It's a very odd predicament.
20. Tampa Bay Rays (-3)
How on Earth is one supposed to rank the Rays after what transpired this week? Everything that has happened in this season for Tampa Bay has been heavily influenced by players that are no longer there. But while winning for the rest of this season doesn't seem like the number one objective, there's no doubt the Rays improved their future outlook by jumping the gun on an extreme seller's market.
21. Detroit Tigers (-2)
If there was any question about whether the Tigers were making the wrong decision by selling, getting exactly one hit against the Twins on Sunday should put those to bed. One would have to assume Jack Flaherty is next, assuming he hasn't been moved by the time these words reach your irises.
22. Chicago Cubs (no change)
Here's the thing: Nobody really knows what the purpose of the Isaac Paredes trade was. Typically, teams tied for last place in their division don't go out and trade prospects for All-Star third basemen. But when those third basemen have three more years of arbitration remaining, it's not hard for a team in a huge market like Chicago to pay whatever cost it takes to make him a part of the lineup indefinitely.
23. Cincinnati Reds (+1)
Compared to the optimistic tone of their 2023 season, the Reds have had a pretty strange vibe to them throughout 2024. There are currently 21 baseball teams either in the playoffs or within five games of them, and the Reds are somehow one of those teams. But for all the twists and turns their season has taken, it's hard to close your eyes and envision this group of players making any noise in October.
24. Washington Nationals (-3)
If there's one team that has been strangely quiet to this point of trade deadline season, it may well be the Nationals. They got in on the action early with the Hunter Harvey trade to Kansas City, but it's pretty much been crickets ever since. We've often remarked on how bright the future looks in D.C. in the years to come, but they have a golden opportunity to brighten that future even more by moving some of their veterans before Tuesday.
25. Toronto Blue Jays (no change)
It's a mark of how bad things have been in Toronto this season that a three-game sweep doesn't budge the Blue Jays from their spot in the MLB Power Rankings. And because it doesn't appear that either Vladimir Guerrero Jr. or Bo Bichette will be traded, that means the Jays have a lot of work to do if they want to turn themselves into contenders by next season. That means hitting on the deals Toronto does make at this deadline will be of utmost importance.
26. Los Angeles Angels (no change)
It is possible to watch the Angels on certain nights and think there's a competent baseball team forming out in Anaheim. They can sweep a first-place team and immediately be swept by a last-place team, which is the mark of a young team undergoing growing pains. But there's a chance we could look back on 2024 as the start of something good for the Angels, especially if their trade deadline haul turns into any future stars at the big-league level.
27. Oakland Athletics (no change)
We rarely do what-ifs regarding players who weren't traded, but it's worth wondering what the Athletics may have lost by virtue of Mason Miller's broken finger keeping him in Oakland through the trade deadline. Granted, it's no guarantee the A's would have traded Miller anyway, but getting a prospect haul for a relief pitcher is a rare opportunity, and dealing Miller may well have been the key to getting the A's future selves out of the seller.
28. Miami Marlins (+1)
One of the more fun subplots of the MLB Power Rankings is checking the standings every week to see whether the Marlins or Rockies have a worse record at the time because that's the only way to put one ahead of the other. The good news for Miami is that they not only have a one-game advantage over Colorado, but they also made some legitimately exciting trades this week, adding some very fun prospects in trades with the Diamondbacks and Yankees.
29. Colorado Rockies (-1)
It's almost like the Rockies are the only ones that don't know they're in a permanent bottom-three spot in the MLB Power Rankings. Any competent organization would have sold the farm if they were in the Rockies' position this week. But Colorado has made a habit of keeping their most tradable players on their roster, seemingly in hopes that someone will wave a magic wand and put them in the playoffs at the end of the year.
30. Chicago White Sox (no change)
Suffering one 14-game losing streak is a sign you've got a really bad baseball team. But two 14-game losing streaks in the same season is a sign you might be the worst baseball team of this century. And though this still seems likely to change by Tuesday, it's also worth noting the White Sox haven't dealt any of their biggest trade chips yet, which might be the worst loss the White Sox could suffer all season.
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