What's up with all the lackluster teams across Major League Baseball this season? We've finished two full calendar months and are more than a third of the way done with the games, and to this point, only 11 teams have winning records. In case you've forgotten, there are 12 teams in the postseason nowadays. So for even the most savvy rankings specialist (nods in modesty), it becomes a challenging job to put together the MLB power rankings when none of the teams seem to warrant top-half spots.
But in spite of the mediocrity, baseball season is still reaching a fever pitch. This weekend featured ejections. It featured dramatic sweeps. It featured a man on the worst team in baseball telling the world he was ready to fight us all. And yes, we just might have ourselves a new number one. Even if we aren't sure who's actually good, there's no denying this season is a heck of a lot of fun.
Where did your team land in this week's MLB power rankings? Read on to find out!
1. New York Yankees (+1)
Even the most skeptical MLB power rankings czars have to admit that it's finally the Yankees' time. They took over the best record in baseball on a day Juan Soto hit two homers, including one to win the game against electric closer Camilo Doval, to parts of Oracle Park only Barry Bonds used to challenge. And notably, Aaron Judge did not homer on Sunday, which has become a rare occurrence of late. The rotation's great, the lineup's great and right now, no one's playing better ball than the Yanks.
2. Philadelphia Phillies (-1)
Maybe trying to rank every team every week is a little silly if only because the Phillies winning their extra-innings game on Sunday Night Baseball probably would have kept them in the top spot for another week. Yet that game was just one of 162 (0.62% of a big-league season) and it was the only game of the series against the St. Louis Cardinals the Phils happened to lose. As long as Bryce Harper is wearing red and hitting bombs, there's not much for Philly to complain about.
3. Baltimore Orioles (no change)
All the Orioles did this week was win a pair of series against bitter division rivals, yet they lost another game on the surging Yankees in the standings. But it's only the first week of June and Baltimore still gets to face New York another nine times this season, so there's no reason to scoreboard watch at this point in the year. And yes, the starting pitching injuries have been tough to weather, but that's just more incentive for Mike Elias to trade for another workhorse at this year's deadline.
4. Cleveland Guardians (no change)
Alas, Cleveland's nine-game home winning streak came to an end Sunday at the hands of the plucky Washington Nationals. But if you can play .900 baseball at home all season, you'll probably like where you end up in the standings. Even better, the Guardians got some much-needed separation in the AL Central standings, thanks to Kansas City's recent struggles. And yes, the field is more loaded than perhaps it's ever been before, but is it too soon to start dreaming of a José Ramírez MVP?
5. Los Angeles Dodgers (no change)
You have to show up and play no matter who your opponent is in this league and the Dodgers did exactly what they needed to when they faced the reeling Mets early in the week. Though they didn't play their best ball, the Dodgers swept that series and did just enough to win their weekend tilt with the Rockies, extending their record back to 38-23. They're now 6.5 games up on San Diego atop the NL West and even if they aren't going to be a historically great regular season team, they're still on autopilot mode until at least August.
6. Milwaukee Brewers (+2)
What a week for Milwaukee! The Brew Crew made the entire city of Chicago feel blue, kicking the Cubs while they were down early in the week and then sweeping the White Sox out of town with some bruised egos to boot. To make matters even better, Jackson Chourio finally showed some of that all-world potential with a monster three-run bomb on Sunday that played a big role in finishing the sweep. This is one of the most cohesive teams in the entire sport, with a real shot to make some noise in 2024.
7. Atlanta Braves (no change)
On the downside, Chris Sale finally had a bad start after a May that was on par with anything he'd ever done in his decorated career. The Braves also dropped three of four to the nationals early in the week, so the vibes were certainly dragging in the wake of the Ronald Acuña Jr. injury. But the Braves aren't getting too caught up in wins and losses just after Memorial Day. They still have the seventh-best record in spite of all that's gone wrong and at some point, they know things will start breaking their way.
8. Seattle Mariners (+1)
After a 6-1 week, the Mariners ought to be puffing their chests just a little bit. They've finally put some distance between themselves and the .500 mark, they handled business at home against a pair of division opponents and they had some pretty memorable moments along the way. Starting pitching continues to be the key ingredient to the Mariners' success and after gems from basically the entire staff this week, there's a lot of cause for confidence in the Pacific Northwest.
9. Minnesota Twins (+1)
Once again, the Twins are going streaking. They've won four series in a row after their humbling sweep in Cleveland two weekends ago and they showed some real fortitude in taking down the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park in comeback fashion Sunday afternoon. Not everything is rosy, as Edouard Julien appears bound for AAA after an extended slump and Joe Ryan had a rare clunker when the Astros mashed four homers in five innings. But as you'll see as the list goes along, there are a lot of teams with much bigger worries around MLB.
10. Kansas City Royals (-4)
Regression is starting to hit for the Royals, losers of six of their last eight in spite of a Sunday win over the San Diego Padres to avoid a sweep. K.C. played great baseball to get to where they are, but also undeniably faced a lot of the right teams at exactly the right time, and their upcoming schedule is much more of a gauntlet. Their next four series: at Cleveland, Seattle, N.Y. Yankees, at L.A. Dodgers.
11. San Diego Padres (no change)
They're still only two games above .500, but the Padres are starting to stand out from the complicated middle class so prevalent in the expanded playoffs era. They put up 11 hits in a single inning to win the series opener against the Royals and probably have a good case to be ranked above K.C., even with a much worse overall record. But the Luis Arraez injury also put a pretty serious damper on the weekend as a whole, so San Diegans are sure to be nervously checking their phones until we know more.
12. Texas Rangers (+8)
Alright, Rangers, I'm willing to admit your demotion to 20th place last week was a bit of an overreaction. Texas was playing some truly uninspired baseball, but a visit from their World Series punching bag, the Arizona Diamondbacks, seems to have brought some of the spark back. Winners of five of their last six, the Rangers are one win away from escaping losing record territory. And if nothing else, at least they're feeling better than the NHL's Rangers at the moment.
13. Boston Red Sox (-1)
Sheesh. Do the Red Sox really deserve to be ranked this high? Ask most of their fans and I doubt many would say so, but they're the last remaining team without a losing record at the moment. Within a four-game series split against the Detroit Tigers, they looked fantastic in the middle two games but borderline incompetent at times in the other two, both losses. And when Dominic Smith is unironically batting third in the order, you know your lineup is truly in a dark place.
14. San Francisco Giants (-1)
The Giants were just the latest team to feel the wrath of the 2024 Yankees, who caravanned into town with their West Coast army of fans and swept San Francisco with a barrage of Aaron Judge and Juan Soto nukes. Losses like the ninth-inning collapse Sunday afternoon can be discouraging, but the Giants showed some spunk at times against what is clearly a superior opponent at this exact moment. The key is to not be discouraged and continue playing good baseball as they were before the Bronx Bombers stormed into town.
15. Tampa Bay Rays (no change)
If there's one reason that indicates why the Rays are still in the playoff discussion, it's their 12-4 record in one-run games. They won three of them this week, primarily because Jose Siri is apparently the Oakland Athletics' number one tormentor. But they also have a real starting pitching problem, as no starter has even a 50% quality start rate on the season. If Taj Bradley can't hold up as a member of this year's rotation, the Rays are going to almost certainly be sellers at the deadline.
16. Detroit Tigers (no change)
The Tigers are a confounding watch this year. Their lineup can look hapless at times, but then they have clutch rallies to spark a comeback win at Fenway Park and you start to dream about the long-term potential. Wenceel Perez is a very real AL Rookie of the Year candidate and Riley Greene is starting to come into his own as the most feared bat in this lineup. But if newly-demoted Spencer Torkelson never becomes the hitter the Tigers believed he could be, their ceiling is still somewhere around .500.
17. Chicago Cubs (-3)
The Cubs found out this week how low morale can get in Wrigleyville if Shota Imanaga has even a single outing where he isn't lefty Superman. They've now dropped 14 of their last 19 games and haven't had a win from a starting pitcher since Javier Assad beat the Braves on May 15. At one point they looked like a lock to make the playoffs in a down year for the NL, but now they've become just another one of the stragglers.
18. St. Louis Cardinals (+1)
The Cardinals continue to creep closer to .500 and with that progress, their chances of selling are slowly starting to diminish. Masyn Winn would be a frontrunner for Rookie of the Year if not for Imanaga's existence and the Paul Goldschmidt/Nolan Arenado duo is starting to show signs of life. It's hard to say what would be an ideal season-end result besides an unexpected deep playoff run, so maybe the Cards will have to simply shock the world and win a pennant.
19. Toronto Blue Jays (+4)
They did beat up on a weak schedule, but the Blue Jays nonetheless had a much-needed 5-1 week to get back into a fourth-place tie with Tampa Bay. Their topsy-turvy season took yet another unexpected turn with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. playing third base on Sunday for the first time since 2019, his rookie year. Though Guerrero and first base stand-in Justin Turner went just 1-8 in the game, Guerrero's defense was solid enough and the Jays got a win, so who knows what the move means for the short and long-term future of Vladito in a Jays uniform?
20. Arizona Diamondbacks (-3)
Thank goodness for the New York Mets' incompetence. Arizona was 0-4 on the week and Zac Gallen was headed to the IL, so the mood was getting rather dark in the desert. Then the Mets handed them two wins on a silver platter over the weekend and the D-Backs remained just a stone's throw away from a playoff spot. Christian Walker and Ketel Marte are both pulling their weight, but Corbin Carroll needs to join the party for Arizona to start being taken seriously again.
21. Houston Astros (-3)
A frustrating season just keeps on getting more frustrating. Houston was right in the thick of every game it played this week, but only went 2-5. Saturday was the latest in a long line of games this season where it looked like the tide was turning, as Yordan Alvarez finally started driving in runs and Framber Valdez flirted with another no-hitter. But then the bullpen coughed up another one as Ryan Pressly ran his season ERA all the way to 5.24 and the ‘Stros dropped another winnable series at home. We all expect the tides to turn still… but when?
22. Pittsburgh Pirates (-1)
Hey, the Pirates are 22nd in the same week Paul Skenes celebrated his 22nd birthday! That's kind of fun, no? Unfortunately, the fun ended when Pittsburgh went up to Toronto and dropped a very winnable 14-inning heartbreaker, then blew the series Sunday against the almighty Daniel Vogelbach. Fortunately, the Pirates' job is to be entertaining and develop young players, rather than to be good at baseball just yet.
23. Cincinnati Reds (no change)
Won a series at Wrigley Field? Check. Watched Elly De La Cruz make one of the sweetest relay throws of the year? Check. Escaped last place in the NL Central? Nope, unfortunately still on the to-do list. I'm not fully giving up on the Reds yet this season, but the bats have been so bad for so long that it's hard not to feel a little discouraged.
24. Washington Nationals (no change)
The Nationals continued to show some moxie by taking three of four from the Braves, taking the series clincher on national TV thanks to a virtuoso performance on the mound from Mackenzie Gore. C.J. Abrams' shoulder injury was a very unfortunate setback for a young team trying to set the foundation for future seasons, but the Nats are playing competitive baseball and still setting themselves up for a lucrative deadline prospect haul. That was probably the ideal season trajectory for fans with realistic expectations.
25. New York Mets (no change)
What's truly incredible is that the Mets had already fallen so far that even this past week, which was one of the most turbulent in recent history for any baseball team, couldn't sink them any farther. As the Mets themselves have said all week, they do still have the talent to be half decent. But the Jorge López incident was the kind of thing that only happens to a team in crisis, and the 2024 Mets are certainly that.
26. Oakland Athletics (no change)
On any given day, the Athletics can show up and mash a bunch of home runs. They made Chris Sale, who's been one of the best pitchers in the sport all season, look positively pedestrian on Saturday. But they're still far too inconsistent to be anything but a spoiler for the rest of the season. And when the season does end, they're still going to leave the city they've called home for 56 years and no one really knows which of the players is coming along for the ride.
27. Miami Marlins (+1)
The main takeaway from this week in Marlins-land was nothing related to the games played on the field, but the increasing notion that Jesús Luzardo is going to be traded this season. It probably makes sense, given Luzardo has the same amount of team control remaining as Luis Arraez would have if he were still a Marlin, but it still feels so sudden. Will Marlins fans really look back on 2023 as the high point of the entire decade? It sure seems like it, based on how quickly and completely they seem determined to tear this thing down.
28. Los Angeles Angels (-1)
The Angels have finally done it. After weeks upon weeks of barely avoiding the bottom three of the MLB power rankings, they went 1-5 and tied with Miami in the win column, which is enough to bump the Halos down given their far worse record since the start of May. Ron Washington's first season in Anaheim is already becoming exactly what no one had hoped: a meaningless slog to the finish line, punctuated by position players pitching and home games full of opposing fans.
29. Colorado Rockies (no change)
I guess the Rockies won a series against the Guardians this week? That's kind of a rad accomplishment, so props to Brendan Rodgers, Ty Blach and all the other household names that helped seal the deal. But at 21-37, it's going to take a heck of a lot more series wins before I actually tune into a Rockies game.
30. Chicago White Sox (no change)
The White Sox are 15-45, which is good for a .250 winning percentage. Their worst season ever, 1932, was a 49-101 record, or a .326 winning percentage. If they keep going like this, they could challenge the 162-game “record” of the 2003 Detroit Tigers, who went 43-119 (.265). The ball is in your court, Chicago. Do you want to be merely terrible, or do you want to be HISTORICALLY terrible?
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