
MLB Power Rankings: Are the Yankees back? And which NL power is on the rise?
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2 years agoon
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adminSeven weeks into the season, we’re still seeing dominant performances from a number of American League teams, with seven of our top 10 teams residing in the AL.
That has not been the case in the National League, with preseason juggernauts like the Mets and Padres — teams that went big this offseason to put together playoff-caliber rosters — struggling. Both are currently below .500 and stumbling in their divisional races, though the Mets’ 8-7 walk-off win Wednesday night over the Rays could be the catalyst they needed to get going.
Two teams, however, have risen above the rest to vie for the title of best NL team. After stumbling out of the gate, the Dodgers have overtaken the Braves for best record in the league. Who will reign supreme?
Our expert panel has combined to rank every team in baseball based on a combination of what we’ve seen and what we already knew going into the 162-game marathon that is a full baseball season. We also asked ESPN MLB writers David Schoenfield, Bradford Doolittle, Jesse Rogers, Alden Gonzalez and Joon Lee to weigh in with an observation for all 30 teams.
Record: 32-12
Previous ranking: 1
The Rays’ pitching factory is truly being put to the test, with Drew Rasmussen, Jeffrey Springs, Shane Baz and Tyler Glasnow all on the injured list. As it currently stands, the Rays are taking things day by day with their rotation — they haven’t officially announced their starting pitchers for the next four days. But Tampa Bay will likely be relying on arms like Jalen Beeks, who has made two opener-type starts in the past week, allowing no runs in six innings. The Rays do have a cushion to figure things out, currently sitting 3.5 games ahead of the second-place Orioles. — Lee
Record: 28-16
Previous ranking: 3
The Dodgers snapped a six-game winning streak when they lost to the Twins on Tuesday, the end of a stretch that saw them win 17 of 21 games. Their offense is clicking, their starters have been effective and their bullpen has turned things around. And as if that wasn’t enough, Walker Buehler, who’s recovering from his second Tommy John surgery, told reporters he hopes to be a member of the rotation by the start of September. Manager Dave Roberts says that might be a little overly aggressive, but Buehler in any capacity — in the rotation or out of the bullpen — would be a major lift. For now, though, the Dodgers seem to have plenty. — Gonzalez
Record: 27-16
Previous ranking: 2
The Braves were cruising along until they lost four straight to the Red Sox and Blue Jays in the past week — with A.J. Minter receiving the “L” in two of the games, dropping his record to 2-5 with an 8.06 ERA. His overall stats aren’t as bad as the ERA indicates, with two home runs in 19 innings and a fine 24-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio, but he has allowed a .500 average with runners in scoring position and a .340/.385/.511 slash line in “late and close” situations — thus the five losses.
“He’s a year removed from being one of the most effective relievers in baseball. This game’s cruel. It just keeps testing you,” manager Brian Snitker said. “He’s just going to have to keep getting after it and competing … and not be careful.” The Braves do have a cushion in the National League East, and given that there aren’t severe home run or control issues here, they’ll likely keep him in high-leverage situations for now. — Schoenfield
Record: 26-17
Previous ranking: 5
We’re not quite at Memorial Day — a common time to assess teams’ standings — but it’s looking more and more like Texas is in the race for the long haul. Playing the A’s over the course of four games doesn’t hurt either, as the Rangers took three of four over the weekend, but that doesn’t mean they’ll walk away with a division title. A wild-card spot still seems to be the most likely outcome, despite their current place atop the American League West.
In the absence of Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi has emerged as the leader of the rotation. He had gone three straight starts without giving up a run, all lasting at least eight innings, before giving up three runs in seven innings in Wednesday night’s loss to the Braves. Shutting down the A’s is one thing, but when he did the same against the Yankees and Angels, it made people take notice. Yes, New York had some injuries in its lineup, but Eovaldi passed the eye test either way. His stuff has been electric. — Rogers
Record: 25-18
Previous ranking: 4
The concerns about Alek Manoah‘s start to the season are getting more and more real. Through nine starts, Manoah has a 5.40 ERA, 1.80 WHIP and -0.4 bWAR. He has given significantly more hard contact this season and has not been throwing as many strikes, a problem for a pitcher who does not rely on strikeouts to get batters out. If Toronto hopes to achieve its World Series aspirations, it will need more from a pitcher it expected to lead the rotation. The team has gotten strong performances from Kevin Gausman, Yusei Kikuchi and Chris Bassitt, which has helped lessen the impact of Manoah’s struggles. — Lee
Record: 28-15
Previous ranking: 7
Baltimore continues to dazzle in the early going of the season. Its most impressive pitcher hasn’t been a starter — rather, it’s rookie reliever Yennier Cano, who has 25 strikeouts with no runs or walks in 21⅔ innings pitched. The Orioles’ bullpen duo of Cano and established reliever Felix Bautista looks like one of the most dynamic late-inning combos across the game. Combine that with Adley Rutschman putting together a season that could vault him in the MVP conversation and it’s hard to imagine this Baltimore team fading into irrelevance. — Lee
Record: 25-20
Previous ranking: 9
Yankees fans are inching away from the panic button after the team put together a strong week against the lowly Athletics, a series split against the Rays and high-scoring outputs against the Blue Jays (though, New York was shut out by Toronto on Wednesday). In the past week, Aaron Judge and Anthony Rizzo have carried the offense, hitting five and three homers, respectively. Meanwhile, rookie shortstop Anthony Volpe‘s statistics continue to creep up after a slow start — he has hit three homers in the past week. — Lee
Record: 24-19
Previous ranking: 6
Jose Altuve has been on a rehab assignment in the minors and his return from a thumb injury is approaching. Once Altuve resumes his place as the Astros’ everyday second baseman and leadoff hitter, the question then becomes: What does manager Dusty Baker do about Mauricio Dubon? It’s a good problem to have, since Dubon has sparkled as Altuve’s replacement, with a league-average bat (albeit one fueled by a sky-high BABIP) supported by terrific defense and production on the basepaths. Dubon has been particularly lethal against lefties, and you wonder if he might usurp some of Jake Meyers’ playing time in center field when a southpaw is on the mound. Dubon has started 79 games in center over the past three years but has yet to appear at the position in 2023. — Doolittle
Record: 24-20
Previous ranking: 12
Wrist injuries have hampered the progress of Alex Kirilloff over the past couple of seasons. While it’s still early, now that he’s healthy, he has been producing like the All-Star in the making that he was once ordained to be. After getting his feet wet with a few outings at Class A, Kirilloff advanced to Triple-A St. Paul, where he mashed a .316/.435/.605 line over 10 games. That propelled him back to the big league roster, and 10 games after that promotion, he put up pretty much the same line: .313/.450/.563.
Manager Rocco Baldelli is still limiting Kirilloff’s exposure to lefties, and as long as that’s the case, we can’t declare him a finished product. But if he keeps mashing righties the way that he has, Baldelli might be forced to expand his role. It might be happening already: Kirilloff was in the lineup May 16 at Dodger Stadium when the Twins were going up against future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw. — Doolittle
Record: 24-19
Previous ranking: 11
Milwaukee has quietly returned to the top of the NL Central after a series sweep of the Royals over the weekend. However, the Brewers’ 18-1 drubbing at the hands of the Cardinals on Monday was a reminder that nothing comes easy in the mediocre NL Central, though they did follow that up with a solid win over the Cardinals on Tuesday. Milwaukee’s top hitter (Rowdy Tellez) ranks just 39th in the majors in OPS while its top pitcher (Corbin Burnes) ranks 37th in ERA, but manager Craig Counsell’s group is doing what it always does — hanging around the top of the division. The Rays and Astros will be a big test over the next week. — Rogers
Record: 25-19
Previous ranking: 14
Brandon Pfaadt, the D-backs’ highly touted pitching prospect, was charged with 13 runs in 9⅔ innings during his first two starts but bounced back Sunday, pitching five innings of one-run ball against the Giants. D-backs manager Torey Lovullo had a talk with Pfaadt in the wake of those first two outings, essentially telling him he was capable of more and that something needed to be figured out. “He took that as a personal challenge,” Lovullo said.
Pfaadt benefited from getting back some of the late life on his fastball, heeding the advice of assistant pitching coach Barry Enright to get his fingers on top of the baseball and throw it more downhill, according to MLB.com. The D-backs need someone to step up in their rotation beyond Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly, and perhaps Pfaadt, 24, can be that guy. — Gonzalez
Record: 24-20
Previous ranking: 10
Boston fell back down to earth after rattling off an eight-game winning streak, dropping six of eight against the Phillies, Braves, Cardinals and Mariners. The Red Sox face questions about who will fill out their rotation following the return of James Paxton from the IL. After Wednesday’s victory over the Mariners, manager Alex Cora announced his decision to send a floundering Nick Pivetta to the bullpen, where he’ll work as a multi-inning reliever, while others like Corey Kluber have also struggled mightily this season. If Boston hopes to compete in the division, it will need more from its rotation. Every pitcher with at least three starts has an ERA above 4.45.— Lee
Record: 21-22
Previous ranking: 16
George Kirby is pitching his way into the All-Star discussion — and it would be in front of home fans, with the All-Star Game in Seattle this summer. After allowing one hit in 6⅔ innings to beat the Red Sox on Monday, he ran his record to 5-2 with a 2.45 ERA.
Following an impressive rookie season in which he walked just 22 batters in 130 innings, Kirby continues to pound the strike zone like few starters have ever done. He has walked just four batters in 51⅓ innings — at 0.7 walks per nine, that’s a better rate than Greg Maddux ever had (and would rank eighth best since 1901). His strikeout rate isn’t anything special, but he’s not allowing a ton of hard contact, with just two home runs and a hard-hit rate that ranks in the 79th percentile. It’s a unique profile in today’s game, but he’s proving that the old adage of “get ahead of the batter” is still an effective way to pitch. — Schoenfield
Record: 20-24
Previous ranking: 8
The perception from the outside was that the NL West had flipped. The Padres defeated the Dodgers in last year’s NL Division Series, then signed Xander Bogaerts — leading up to Fernando Tatis Jr.’s return — while the Dodgers mainly stood pat. But the Padres’ regular-season struggles against the Dodgers continue. They lost a combined five of six games to their bitter rivals on back-to-back weekends and have now dropped 11 consecutive regular-season series against them dating to 2021. When this week began, the Padres’ vaunted offense was amazingly batting just .198 with runners in scoring position, dead last in the majors. — Gonzalez
Record: 22-22
Previous ranking: 15
Shohei Ohtani is navigating through what is probably the worst pitching slump of his major league career, posting a 6.12 ERA over his past four starts. Ohtani allowed five runs in the first five innings in Baltimore on Monday — but he still recorded 21 outs, unleashed a 456-foot home run, fell just shy of the cycle for the second time in less than three weeks and wound up as the winning pitcher. In typical Ohtani fashion, he managed to attain greatness amid struggle. He’s helping to keep the Angels afloat within a hypercompetitive AL West. — Gonzalez
Record: 20-23
Previous ranking: 17
Ranger Suarez finally returned to make his first start since getting injured in the World Baseball Classic, and while he allowed seven hits and three runs in four innings, it was in Colorado and he gave up a couple of cheap ones (and the Phillies won anyway).
Meanwhile, the Phillies demoted Bailey Falter, which is not a surprise given he’s 0-7 in eight starts with a 5.13 ERA. It’s just hard for a lefty with a low strikeout rate to survive in today’s game, and Falter has allowed a .301 average and .825 OPS. Still, he’ll probably be back at some point, which leads us to this factoid: The record for most losses in a season without a win in Phillies history belongs to Russ Miller, who went 0-12 in 1928. You might remember Brad Lidge went 0-8 in 2009 as the closer — despite the Phillies advancing to the World Series (where he would lose a game, although he did get a win in the NLCS). — Schoenfield
Record: 21-23
Previous ranking: 13
Is it time to start panicking? Maybe not, after the Mets’ walk-off win over the Rays on Wednesday night, but New York still went a disastrous 4-9 in a stretch against the Tigers, Rockies, Reds and Nationals — probably the easiest four-series stretch it’ll have all season. Then on Tuesday against the Rays, Justin Verlander made his first home start for the Mets and allowed six runs and eight hits in five innings, serving up two home runs to Isaac Paredes, one with two runners on and one with a runner on. Verlander is hardly the biggest problem, as David Peterson got shelled again Sunday to fall to 1-5 with an 8.08 ERA and was optioned to Triple-A. Carlos Carrasco looks ready to return from the IL and take Peterson’s place in the rotation. — Schoenfield
Record: 19-23
Previous ranking: 20
The Guardians’ quest to generate some semblance of a contention-worthy offense is ongoing. They did get some good news on that front, though. Josh Naylor remarkably hit eighth-inning, go-ahead homers in three straight games over the weekend against the Angels, and he did so with nary a reprise of the baby-rocking celebration he unleashed on us all during last season’s playoffs. Cleveland’s offensive issues have been widespread, but Naylor has certainly been a part of the problem, with an OPS+ of just 84 despite the recent surge. Naylor and Josh Bell, who has struggled just as much, have occupied the 4- and 5-spots in the batting order for most of the season. The Guardians rank in the bottom third of the majors in OPS at those slots. — Doolittle
Record: 23-20
Previous ranking: 18
There’s a reason the Pirates were never that highly rated in our power rankings, as their place in the standings was bound to take a hit. It’s just hard to see their pitching staff, outside of Mitch Keller, performing at a high level over 162 games. Having said all that, Keller is a current Cy Young candidate who might be in the midst of a magical season. He followed up a complete-game shutout over the Rockies with a seven-inning, 13-strikeout scoreless performance over the vaunted Orioles. It was one of the better pitching performances of the season. Keller’s fastball has been electric, which makes his cutter just as dangerous. He’s a fun watch on the mound. — Rogers
Record: 18-26
Previous ranking: 23
The long-awaited turnaround for St. Louis has begun. Was the very public benching of Willson Contreras the catalyst? Maybe. Maybe not. But it certainly got the attention of the whole team, as the Cardinals had to answer for their own issues as they came to Contreras’ defense.
Slowly but surely the rotation is performing better — a notion that probably has little to do with Contreras. Miles Mikolas has found some mojo after a brutal start to his season. He has given up five runs in his past 16 innings in three May starts. With a potent offense behind him — Nolan Arenado is on fire — that kind of production from St. Louis’ pitching might be all the team needs to get back in the race. The Cardinals are not completely back, but their sweep of the Red Sox last week in Boston was as good a sign as any that they’re headed in the right direction. — Rogers
Record: 19-24
Previous ranking: 19
A brutal three-city road trip combined with key injuries has led to a poor May for Chicago. The Cubs are a decent team, but they have holes in every part of their game right now. One bright spot is Christopher Morel. He hit three 400-plus-foot home runs in the span of four days last week. One went for 461 feet, one of the longest in baseball this season. Teams should begin to pitch him inside as his power comes from extension. And fans have a right to question why he didn’t make the team out of spring training after he hit 16 home runs in a limited time span last season. — Rogers
Record: 22-21
Previous ranking: 21
The Marlins finally lost a one-run game on Saturday, when the Reds scored three runs in the eighth to take a 6-4 lead. Miami rallied with a run in the bottom of the ninth and had the bases loaded with two outs, but Alexis Diaz fanned Yuli Gurriel to close out the game. But the Marlins improved to 13-1 in one-run games on Tuesday (and then 14-1 on Wednesday) with a dramatic three-run rally in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Nationals 5-4. Garrett Cooper doubled with two outs, Luis Arraez singled him home and then Jorge Soler hit a walk-off home run.
The other big news was the MLB debut for 20-year-old right-hander Eury Perez, regarded by many as the top pitching prospect in the game. He allowed two runs in 4⅔ innings against the Reds with seven K’s, although those two runs were both homers. He averaged 97 mph with his fastball and got three strikeouts apiece with his slider and curveball. With 16 swinging strikes in just 18 pitches, his stuff was as good as advertised and he looks ready to contribute. — Schoenfield
Record: 20-23
Previous ranking: 22
Perhaps Michael Conforto is finally beginning to heat up. After a dreadful first six weeks of the season, Conforto has accumulated 10 hits — including three home runs — over his past 24 at-bats, adding 117 points of OPS in the process. The All-Star outfielder spent all of last season recovering from shoulder surgery. A slow start was to be expected. But if Conforto can get back to his production from as recently as 2020, it will serve as a major boost for a lineup that is also experiencing a resurgence from center fielder Mike Yastrzemski. — Gonzalez
Record: 19-24
Previous ranking: 25
Cincinnati is very quietly hanging around the edges of the NL Central race. Of course, every team in the division has a chance right now, as no one is running away with it. But considering their place in their rebuilding cycle, the Reds might be the most surprising team in the division. They won series against the Mets and Marlins over the past week — with the latter coming on the road. Perhaps it will all crater, though, as Cincinnati ranks in the bottom third in hitting and pitching — and the Reds are under .500 after all. But, catching the Cubs for third place earlier this week is a nice May feather in their baseball cap. — Rogers
Record: 19-22
Previous ranking: 24
Detroit’s run prevention has continued to trend in the right direction. Its park-adjusted runs allowed per game reached league average over the past month, a remarkable turnaround from the early weeks of the season. Through April 15, the Tigers were on pace to give up an unsightly 1,007 runs. Say what you will about early-season paces, but that’s not good. Detroit was giving up 6⅔ runs per game at that point.
Since then, the Tigers have given up just 3.6 runs per game and are on pace to allow 741 runs on the season through Tuesday. And while that is indeed just average once you adjust for Comerica Park, being average in something as a member of the AL Central is good enough to flirt with second place and be in a position where one short winning streak can vault you into the division lead. — Doolittle
Record: 18-25
Previous ranking: 28
The Nationals have played .500 baseball since their 4-11 start and CJ Abrams continues to show improvement at the plate. He’s up to four home runs after homering twice in the Mets series, has his OPS just below .700 and, perhaps most surprisingly of all, his hard-hit rate sits in the 45th percentile after he showed little pop as a rookie. The chase rate is still way too high at 41.4% and his defense at shortstop also remains a work in progress as he has made eight errors and ranks at the bottom of Statcast’s outs above average metric. Abrams is still just 22 and played just 114 games in the minors, so he’s a young and inexperienced player whose career could still go in any number of directions. — Schoenfield
Record: 19-25
Previous ranking: 27
The Rockies suffered a close loss to the Reds on Tuesday, but Chase Anderson, claimed off waivers to make that start, allowed only two baserunners over the course of five scoreless innings. The Rockies’ rotation is exceedingly short-handed at the moment, with German Marquez (Tommy John surgery), Ryan Feltner (skull fracture suffered on a comebacker) and Antonio Senzatela (ulnar collateral ligament sprain) all either out for the year or facing lengthy absences. The Rockies are enjoying a much better month of May, in all phases, but they’ll need more performances like Anderson’s if they hope to remain relevant. — Gonzalez
Record: 16-28
Previous ranking: 26
The White Sox are getting healthier, but it certainly has not been a linear process. Jake Burger returned to the lineup from an oblique strain and has seemingly picked up his power stroke where he left it. Yoan Moncada is back in the fold as well after mostly recovering from back trouble that kept him out of the lineup for over a month. Eloy Jimenez is still recovering from an appendectomy but is at least back with the team. Reliever Garrett Crochet rejoined the big league roster after completing the long road back from Tommy John surgery, and Liam Hendriks could be back in the big league bullpen any day now.
On the other hand, starting second baseman Elvis Andrus is now on the shelf with an oblique injury. The White Sox have not been whole all season and it might be a while before we see the full version of their roster. If Chicago doesn’t start playing better with some consistency, there might not be much left to play for by the time everyone is back, even in baseball’s worst division. — Doolittle
Record: 14-31
Previous ranking: 29
Salvador Perez‘s recent surge at the plate has lifted all of his numbers to better-than-career-norm levels. He very much looks like an experienced backstop with plenty of productive years left ahead of him, as he turned 33 last week, and is still remarkable to watch at the plate. He’ll swing at almost anything, with a chase rate that ranks in the last percentile of the majors. But his exit velocities are outstanding and he’s in the 87th percentile in hard-hit rate. This season, somehow, he has even cut down on strikeouts despite a swing percentage that is the highest in baseball. In more ways than one, Perez remains one of a kind. — Doolittle
Record: 10-35
Previous ranking: 30
Most of the news around the Athletics centers around their looming move to Las Vegas, but don’t discount the performance by left fielder and designated hitter Brent Rooker. He has put together a strong start to the season, hitting .295/.498/.605 with 11 homers through 38 games this season, placing him among the 15 most valuable position players in the game by Baseball Reference WAR (bWAR). This comes, though, as the A’s came to a binding agreement for $1.5 billion to develop a potential stadium on the Las Vegas Strip at the site of the Tropicana Hotel. Whether Rooker or anyone on this current roster is on that team is a whole other question. — Lee
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Midseason grades for all 30 MLB teams: ‘A’ is for Astros, ‘F’ is for …?
Published
8 hours agoon
July 10, 2025By
admin
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David SchoenfieldJul 9, 2025, 07:00 AM ET
Close- Covers MLB for ESPN.com
- Former deputy editor of Page 2
- Been with ESPN.com since 1995
We’re past due to hand out some midseason grades, so let’s hand out some midseason grades.
As we pass the 90-game mark in the 2025 MLB season, my team of the first half isn’t the well-rounded Detroit Tigers, who do get our highest grade for owning MLB’s best record, or the explosive Chicago Cubs or Shohei Ohtani‘s Los Angeles Dodgers, but a team most baseball fans love to hate: the Houston Astros. They lost their two best players from last season and their best hitter has been injured — and they’re playing their best baseball since they won the 2022 World Series.
Let’s get to the grades. As always, we’re grading off preseason expectations, factoring in win-loss record and quality of performance, while looking at other positive performances and injuries.
Jump to a team:
AL East: BAL | BOS | NYY | TB | TOR
AL Central: CHW | CLE | DET | KC | MIN
AL West: ATH | HOU | LAA | SEA | TEX
NL East: ATL | MIA | NYM | PHI | WSH
NL Central: CHC | CIN | MIL | PIT | STL
NL West: ARI | COL | LAD | SD | SF
Tarik Skubal is obviously the headline act, but the Tigers are winning with impressive depth across the entire roster.
Javier Baez is putting together a remarkable comeback season after a couple of abysmal years and will become the first player to start an All-Star Game at both shortstop and in the outfield. Former No. 1 overall picks Casey Mize and Spencer Torkelson have put together their own comeback stories, while Riley Greene has matured into one of the game’s top power hitters.
Given their deep well of prospects and contributors at the MLB level, no team is better positioned than the Tigers to add significant help at the trade deadline.
I heard someone refer to them as the Zombie Astros, which feels apropos. Alex Bregman left as a free agent, they traded Kyle Tucker, Yordan Alvarez has been injured and has just three home runs, and the Jose Altuve experiment in left field predictably fizzled.
But here they are, fighting for the best record in the majors and holding a comfortable lead in the AL West. They’re getting star turns from Hunter Brown, Framber Valdez and Jeremy Pena, while the risky decision to start Cam Smith in the majors with very little minor league experience has paid off, as he has now become their cleanup hitter.
If we ignore the COVID-19 season, the Astros look on their way to an eighth straight division title.
This could be at least a half-grade higher based on everything that has gone right: Pete Crow-Armstrong‘s attention-grabbing breakout, Tucker doing everything expected after the big trade, Seiya Suzuki‘s monster power numbers and Matthew Boyd‘s All-Star turn in the rotation. The Cubs are on pace for their most wins since their World Series title season in 2016.
There have been a few hiccups, however, especially in the rotation with Justin Steele‘s season-ending injury and Ben Brown‘s inconsistency, plus rookie third baseman Matt Shaw has scuffled, and the bench has been weak aside from their backup catchers.
Still, this is a powerhouse lineup, and the Cubs will seek to improve their rotation at the deadline.
They just keep winning of late, going from 25-27 and seven games behind the Yankees on May 25 to taking over first place from the slumping Bronx Bombers, a remarkable turnaround over just 36 games. They went 27-9 over a 36-game stretch ending with their eighth win in a row on Sunday.
George Springer‘s recent surge has been fun to watch, a reminder of how good he was at his peak, and Addison Barger has been mashing over the past two months.
Some of the stats don’t add up to the Blue Jays being this good — they’ve barely outscored their opponents — but there might be more offense in the tank from the likes of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and a healthy Anthony Santander, and the bullpen, a soft spot, is the easiest area to upgrade.
Their success is best summed up by the fact that Freddy Peralta is their lone All-Star, but they have a whole bunch of players who have contributed between 1 and 2 WAR.
Brandon Woodruff looked good Sunday in his first start in nearly two years, so that could be a huge boost for the second half.
I’m curious to see how Jackson Chourio performs as well. While his counting stats — extra-base hits, RBIs — are fine, his triple-slash line remains below last season, especially his OBP. He had a huge second half in 2024 (.310/.363/.552), and if he does that again, the Brewers could find themselves back in the postseason for the seventh time in eight seasons.
The Rays started off slow, with a losing record through the end of April, but then went 33-22 in May and June to claw back into the AL East race — as the Rays usually do, last year being the recent exception.
Two key performers have been All-Star third baseman Junior Caminero, who has a chance to become just the third player to hit 40 home runs in his age-21 season, and All-Star first baseman Jonathan Aranda.
Due to the league wanting the Rays to play more home games early in the season, the July and August slate will be very road-heavy, so we’ll see how the Rays adapt to a difficult two-month stretch, especially since their pitching isn’t quite as deep as it has been in other seasons.
No, they’re not going to be the greatest team of all time. But they might win 100 games — even though Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki, their huge offseason acquisitions, have combined for just two wins in 10 starts.
The lineup, of course, has been terrific, with Ohtani leading the NL in several categories and Will Smith leading the batting race. By wRC+, it’s been the best offense in Dodgers history.
If they can get some combo of Snell, Sasaki and Tyler Glasnow healthy, plus Ohtani eventually ramped up to a bigger workload on the mound, the Dodgers still loom as World Series favorites.
They are on pace for 95 wins, mainly on the strength of Zack Wheeler, Ranger Suarez and Cristopher Sanchez, who are a combined 23-7 with 11.8 WAR. Jesus Luzardo‘s ERA is bloated due to that two-start stretch when he allowed 20 runs, but he has otherwise been solid as well.
But, overall, it hasn’t always been the smoothest of treks. The bullpen has imploded a few times and the offense has lacked power aside from Kyle Schwarber. Bryce Harper is back after missing three weeks, and they need to get his bat going. Look for some bullpen additions at the trade deadline — and perhaps an outfielder as well.
The Cardinals have been a minor surprise — perhaps even to the Cardinals themselves. St. Louis was viewing this as a rebuilding year of sorts — not that the Cardinals ever hit rock bottom and start completely over. They had a hot May, winning 12 of 13 at one point, but the offense has been fading of late, with those three straight shutout losses to Pittsburgh and six shutout losses since June 25.
The starting rotation doesn’t generate a lot of swing and miss, with both Erick Fedde and Miles Mikolas seeing their ERAs starting to climb. Brendan Donovan is the team’s only All-Star rep, and that kind of sums up this team: solid but without any star power. That might foretell a second-half fade.
All-Star starting pitchers Logan Webb and Robbie Ray, plus a dominant bullpen, have led the way, although after starting 12-4, the Giants have basically been a .500 team for close to three months now. Rafael Devers hasn’t yet ignited the offense since coming over from Boston, and the Giants have lost four 1-0 games.
These final three games at home against the Dodgers before the All-Star break will be a crucial series, as Los Angeles has slowly pulled away in the NL West.
This was an “A-plus” through June 12, when the Mets were 45-24 and owned the best record in baseball, even though Juan Soto hadn’t gotten hot. Soto finally got going in June, but the pitching collapsed, and the Mets went through a disastrous 1-10 stretch.
The rotation injuries have piled up, exacerbating the lack of bullpen depth. Recent games have been started by Justin Hagenman (who had a 6.21 ERA in Triple-A), journeyman reliever Chris Devenski, Paul Blackburn (7.71 ERA) and Frankie Montas, who has had to start even though he’s clearly not throwing the ball well. The Mets need to get the rotation healthy, but also could use more offense from Mark Vientos and their catchers (Francisco Alvarez was demoted to Triple-A).
At times it has felt like Cal Raleigh has been a one-man team with his record-breaking first half. But he will be joined on the All-Star squad by starting pitcher Bryan Woo, closer Andres Munoz and center fielder Julio Rodriguez, who made it on the strength of his defense, as his offense has been a disappointment.
The offense has been one of the best in the majors on the road, but the rotation has been nowhere near as effective as the past couple of seasons, with George Kirby, Logan Gilbert and Bryce Miller all missing time with injuries. They just shut out the Pirates three games in a row, so maybe that will get the rotation on a roll.
They’re just out of the wild-card picture while hanging around .500, so we give them a decent grade since that exceeds preseason expectations. It feels like a little bit of a mirage given their run differential — their record in one-run games (good) versus their record in blowout games (not good) — and various holes across the lineup and pitching staff.
But they’ve done two things to keep them in the race. One, they hit a lot of home runs. Two, they’re the only team in the majors to use just five starting pitchers. The rotation hasn’t been stellar, but it’s been stable.
The Padres are probably fortunate to be where they are, given some of their issues. As expected, the offensive depth has been a problem.
Not as expected, Dylan Cease has struggled while Michael King‘s injury after a strong start has left them without last year’s dynamic 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation (although Nick Pivetta has been one of the best signings of the offseason). Yu Darvish just made his season debut Monday, so hopefully he’ll provide a lift.
The Padres haven’t played well against the better teams, including a 2-5 record against the Dodgers, but they did clean up against the Athletics, Rockies and Pirates, going 16-2 against those three teams.
For now, the Reds are stuck in neutral. Leave out 2022, when they lost 100 games, and it’s otherwise been a string of .500-ish seasons: 31-29 in 2020, 83-79 in 2021, 82-80 in 2023, 77-85 in 2024 and now a similar record so far in 2025.
The hope was that Terry Francona would be a difference-maker. Maybe that will play out down the stretch, but the best hope is to get the rotation clicking on all cylinders at the same time. That means Andrew Abbott continuing his breakout performance, plus getting Hunter Greene healthy again and rookie Chase Burns to live up to the hype after a couple of shaky outings following an impressive MLB debut.
Throw in Nick Lodolo and solid Nick Martinez and Brady Singer, and this group can be good enough to pitch the Reds to their first full-season playoff appearance since 2013.
The Yankees have hit their annual midseason swoon — which has been subject to much intense analysis from their disgruntled fans — and that opening weekend sweep of the Brewers, when the Yankees’ torpedo bats were the big story in baseball, now seems long ago.
Going from seven up to three back in such a short time is a disaster — but not disastrous. Nonetheless, the Yankees will have to do some hard-core self-evaluation heading to the trade deadline.
The offense wasn’t going to be as good as it was in April, when Paul Goldschmidt, Trent Grisham and Ben Rice were all playing over their heads. So, do they need a hitter? Or with Clarke Schmidt now likely joining Gerrit Cole as a Tommy John casualty, do they need a starting pitcher? Or both?
From the book of “things we didn’t expect,” page 547: The Marlins are averaging more runs per game than the Orioles, Padres, Braves and Rangers, to name a few teams. They’re averaging almost as many runs per game as the Mets, and last time we checked, the Marlins weren’t the team to give Soto $765 million.
An eight-game winning streak at the end of June has the Marlins going toe-to-toe with the Braves for third place in the NL East even though the starting rotation has been a mess, with Sandy Alcantara on track to become just the fourth qualified pitcher with an ERA over 7.00.
Heading into the season, I thought that if any team was going to challenge the Dodgers in the NL West, it would be the Diamondbacks. The offense has once again been one of the best in the majors, but the pitching issues have been painful.
After the aggressive move to sign Corbin Burnes, he went down with Tommy John surgery after 11 starts. Meanwhile, Zac Gallen, Eduardo Rodriguez and Brandon Pfaadt each have an ERA on the wrong side of 5.00. Rodriguez was better in June before a shellacking on July 4, while Gallen remains homer-prone, so it’s hard to tell if improvement is on the horizon. Their playoff odds are hovering just under 20%, so there’s a chance, but they need to get red-hot like they did last July and August.
It feels like it has been more soap opera than baseball season in Boston, with the Devers drama finally ending with the shocking trade with the Giants.
If you give added weight that this is the Red Sox, a team that should be operating with the big boys in both budget and aspirations and instead seemed to only want to dump Devers’ contract, then feel free to lower this grade a couple of notches, even if the Red Sox are close in the wild-card standings.
On the field, the heralded rookie trio of Kristian Campbell, Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer hasn’t exactly clicked, with Campbell returning to the minors after posting a .902 OPS in April. A big test will come out of the All-Star break, when they play the Cubs, Phillies, Dodgers, Twins and Astros in a tough 15-game stretch.
After last season’s surprise playoff appearance, it’s been a frustrating 2025 — although I’m not sure this result is necessarily a surprise.
There were concerns about the offense heading into the season and those concerns have proven correct. They were getting no production from their outfield, so they rushed Jac Caglianone to the majors to much hype, but he has struggled and might need a reset back in Triple-A. Even Bobby Witt Jr., as good as he has been (on pace for 7.5 WAR), has seen his OPS drop 140 points.
On the bright side, Kris Bubic emerged as an All-Star starter and Noah Cameron has filled in nicely for the injured Cole Ragans, so maybe they trade a starter for some offense.
Coming off a catastrophic 2024 season, nobody was expecting anything from the White Sox. Indeed, another 121-loss season loomed as a possibility. While they’re on pace to lose 100 again, they’ve at least played more competitive baseball thanks to their pitching.
Rookie starters Shane Smith and Sean Burke have shown promise, while rookie position players Kyle Teel, Edgar Quero and now Colson Montgomery are getting their initial taste of the majors.
There has been the mix of calamity: Luis Robert Jr. has been unproductive and is probably now untradable, and former No. 3 overall pick Andrew Vaughn hit .189 and was traded to the Brewers.
The Twins are one organization that might like a do-over of the past five seasons. It feels like they’ve had the most talent in the division, but all they’ve done is squeeze out one soft division title in 2023. Now, the Tigers have passed them in talent and other factors, such as payroll flexibility.
There’s still time for the Twins to turn things around in 2025, but outside of that wonderful 13-game winning streak, they haven’t played winning baseball.
Overall, it’s been yet another bad season, despite Paul Skenes‘ brilliance. Really, do we talk enough about him? Yes, we do talk about him, but he has a 1.95 ERA through his first 42 career starts. Incredible.
Here’s an amazing thing about baseball. The Pirates are not a good team, but they recently put together one of the best six-game stretches in history. That’s not stretching the description. First, they swept the Mets — a good team — by scores of 9-1, 9-2 and 12-1. Then they swept the Cardinals — a good team — with three shutouts, 7-0, 1-0 and 5-0. They became the first team since at least 1901 to score 43 runs or more and allow four runs or fewer in a six-game stretch. And then they promptly got shut out three games in a row, making them the first to win three straight shutouts and then lose three straight shutouts.
Eighteen of our 28 voters picked them to win the AL West before the season, but it’s looking more and more like the 2023 World Series might be a stone-cold fluke in the middle of a string of losing seasons. That year, nearly everyone in the lineup had a career year at the plate, and the pitching got hot at the right time.
This year’s Rangers, though, have struggled to score runs, and while some have pointed to the offensive environment at Globe Life Field, they’re near the bottom in road OPS as well. It’s been fun seeing Jacob deGrom back at a dominating level, and Nathan Eovaldi should have been an All-Star.
Put it this way: If the Rangers can somehow squeeze into the postseason, you don’t want to face the Rangers in a short series. Indeed, if any team looms as an October upset special, it might be the Rangers.
The Nationals received superlative first-half performances from James Wood and MacKenzie Gore, while CJ Abrams is on the way to his best season. But there remains a lack of overall organizational progress, which finally led to the firings on Sunday of longtime GM Mike Rizzo and longtime manager Dave Martinez. A 7-19 record in June sealed their fate, as the rotation has been bad and the bullpen arguably the worst in baseball.
Until the Nationals figure out how to improve their pitching — or, better yet, find an owner who wants to win — they will be stuck going nowhere.
That fell apart in a hurry. Sunday’s loss was Cleveland’s 10th in a row, a stretch that remarkably included five shutouts. Indeed, the Guardians have now been shut out 11 times; the franchise record in the post-dead-ball-era (since 1920) is 20 shutouts in 1968.
There’s nothing worse than watching a team that can’t score runs, so that tells you how exciting the Guardians have been. Last year, the Guardians hit exceptionally well with runners in scoring position, keeping afloat what was otherwise a mediocre offense. That hasn’t happened in 2025 (trading Josh Naylor didn’t help either). Throw in some predictable regression from the bullpen, and this season looks lost.
We can’t give this a complete failing grade due to the emergence of All-Star shortstop Jacob Wilson (the Athletics’ first All-Star starter since Josh Donaldson in 2014) and slugging first baseman Nick Kurtz, who have a chance to finish 1-2 in the Rookie of the Year voting. Plus, we have Denzel Clarke‘s circus catches in center field.
But otherwise? Ugh. The Sacramento gamble already looks like a disaster, three months into a three-year stay. The team is drawing well below Sutter Health Park’s 14,000-seat capacity, with many recent games drawing under 10,000 fans. Luis Severino bashed the small crowds and the lack of air-conditioning.
The A’s had a groundbreaking ceremony for their new park in Vegas, renting heavy construction equipment as background props. Maybe they should have spent that money on more pitching help.
Based on preseason expectations, the Braves have clearly been the biggest disappointment in the National League — fighting the Orioles for most disappointing overall.
What’s gone wrong? They haven’t scored runs, as the offense continues its remarkable fade from a record-setting performance just two seasons ago. The collapses of Michael Harris II and Ozzie Albies lead the way, with lack of production at shortstop and left field playing a big role as well. Closer Raisel Iglesias has struggled, and the team is 11-22 in one-run games. Spencer Strider hasn’t yet reached his pre-injury level and Reynaldo Lopez made just one start before going down.
The Braves haven’t missed the playoffs since 2017, but that run is clearly in jeopardy.
The Orioles have a similar record to the Braves but have played much worse, including losses of 24-2, 19-5, 15-3 and two separate 9-0 shutouts.
They will spend the trade deadline dealing away as many of their impending free agents as possible, and then do a lot of soul-searching heading into the offseason. After making the playoffs in 2023 and 2024, will this season just be a blip? While the pitching struggles aren’t necessarily a big surprise, what has happened to the offense? Are some of their young players prospects or suspects?
After two months of Cleveland Spiders-level baseball, it would be easy to make fun of the Rockies. Especially since they recently announced Walker Monfort — son of the owner — was promoted to executive VP and will replace outgoing president and COO Greg Feasel.
On the other hand, the Rockies are doing something right: They just drew 121,000 for a three-game series against the White Sox.
Sports
Ramirez, Brown out of ASG; McKinstry among subs
Published
8 hours agoon
July 10, 2025By
admin
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ESPN News Services
Jul 9, 2025, 05:52 PM ET
The Detroit Tigers have the best record in the majors. Now they are tied for having the most All-Stars, too.
Zach McKinstry was picked Wednesday to replace Houston Astros shortstop Jeremy Pena, who has been dealing with a rib injury. The infielder-outfielder will join Detroit second baseman Gleyber Torres and outfielders Javier Baez and Riley Greene — all AL starters — and staff ace Tarik Skubal, who also is among the candidates to start the All-Star Game on Tuesday night in Atlanta.
The five All-Stars for Detroit is tied for the most with the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, who have DH Shohei Ohtani, catcher Will Smith and first baseman Freddie Freeman starting for the NL along with pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Clayton Kershaw.
Yamamoto is scheduled to start Sunday for Los Angeles, so Cincinnati Reds left-hander Andrew Abbott has been picked to replace him.
Meanwhile, Astros third baseman Isaac Paredes was chosen for the AL team in place of starting third baseman Jose Ramírez, the seven-time All-Star who wants to spend the week rehabbing an Achilles injury; Twins right-hander Joe Ryan was selected as the replacement for Astros pitcher Hunter Brown; and Brewers closer Trevor Megill was added to the NL team in place of teammate Freddy Peralta, their scheduled starter for Sunday’s game.
The shuffling of replacements gives the Astros four All-Stars in Paredes, Peña, Brown and pitcher Josh Hader. The Brewers have two in Megill and Peralta. And the Twins have two with Ryan joining two-time All-Star outfielder Byron Buxton.
“This was the goal in the offseason,” said Megill, who struck out Freeman, Andy Pages and Tommy Edman in order in the 10th inning to secure the Brewers’ 3-2 win over the Dodgers on Wednesday. “Just worked my butt off for it, and here we are.”
Ramírez was hit by a pitch in a game against Toronto on June 26 and has struggled at the plate since. The seven-time All-Star was still hitting .299 with 16 homers, 44 RBIs and 24 stolen bases through 87 games for the Guardians.
“Everybody wants to go to the All-Star Game and especially for the support from the fans,” Ramírez said. “But I feel the best thing for the team is to be able to be resting (those) days and be able to contribute to the team in the second half.”
McKinstry, Paredes, Megill and Ryan make six total replacements and 71 players between the two All-Star teams. The other substitution was Rays third baseman Junior Caminero for Boston‘s Alex Bregman, who has been dealing with a strained right quadriceps.
The Tigers have been one of the surprise stories of the first half of the season. After going 86-76 and tying for second in the AL Central last season, they were 59-34 through Tuesday — the best record in the majors.
Along with playing every infield position besides catcher, and both corner outfield spots, McKinstry entered Wednesday hitting .283 with seven homers and 27 RBIs. The 30-year-old needs just three more homers and nine RBIs to set career highs.
Peña, who is hitting a career-best .322 with 11 homers and 40 RBIs in 82 games for the Astros, has been out since June 28 with a fractured rib. He had hoped to return by the All-Star break, but he has not been cleared to resume baseball activity.
Paredes, his teammate, is headed to his second straight All-Star Game in his first season in Houston. He’s hitting a career-best .255 with 19 homers and 49 RBIs for the Astros, who lead the AL West.
“My main focus is to work hard for the team and be able to give the most I can for the team,” Paredes said, “but as you can see now with the results that I’m getting … those results allow me to get to the All-Star Game, so it feels good.”
Megill earned his first career All-Star selection by going 2-2 with a 2.41 ERA, 21 saves and 43 strikeouts in 33⅔ innings.
The 29-year-old Ryan, whose name has surfaced in plenty of trade talk recently, was one of the biggest snubs when the initial All-Star Game rosters were announced. The right-hander is 8-4 with a career-best 2.76 ERA across 18 starts, and he’s struck out 116 against just 21 walks over 104 1/3 innings for the Twins.
“The last couple years, I’ve had really good numbers at voting, then I’ve kind of scuttled the last two outings or so. I can see why optically it might not look as good,” Ryan said. “But putting it together, it was kind of a shock not to be in (this year).
“At the same time, there’s so many good pitchers in the league right now. You’ve just got to hang with them and if you don’t like it, play better. That was kind of the mindset I was trying to shift into, but to get the news and be excited to go, it makes everything kind of go away and you just think about the future and going forward.”
The Associated Press and FIeld Level Media contributed to this report.
Sports
Yankees DFA LeMahieu after ‘hard conversations’
Published
8 hours agoon
July 10, 2025By
admin
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Jorge CastilloJul 9, 2025, 04:54 PM ET
Close- ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
NEW YORK — The Yankees designated two-time batting champion DJ LeMahieu for assignment Wednesday, presumably ending the infielder’s seven-year tenure with the organization despite being owed $22 million through next season.
“Tough decisions,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. “In the end, it ultimately comes down to how this roster sits and what’s best. You want to provide your manager with enough chess moves to deal with on a day-in and day-out basis in-game.”
Manager Aaron Boone explained that the move resulted from “an evolving conversation” in recent days that included multiple meetings with LeMahieu, a respected veteran in the Yankees’ clubhouse.
It comes a day after Boone announced that Jazz Chisholm Jr. would shift back to playing second base every day from third base, bumping LeMahieu from the team’s everyday second baseman to a bench role. Boone acknowledged LeMahieu took the demotion “not necessarily great” but emphasized that LeMahieu did not ask for his release.
“It’s been a tough couple of days,” Boone said. “Some hard conversations. And then ultimately coming to this decision, conclusion, obviously not easy for [who’s] been a great player. He’s done a lot of great things for this organization. So, difficult, but at the end [we] feel like this is the right thing to do at this time.”
LeMahieu, who turns 37 on Sunday, batted .266 with a .674 OPS in 45 games this season after starting the season on the injured list with a strained calf. He has been better since June 1, hitting .310 with a .754 OPS in 96 plate appearances as the Yankees’ primary second baseman, but Cashman ultimately decided the production wasn’t enough to offset his defensive liabilities.
The Yankees signed LeMahieu to a six-year, $90 million contract before the 2021 season — fresh off LeMahieu hitting .364 during the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign to become the first player to win a batting title in both leagues in the modern era — envisioning him as an everyday utility player bouncing between infield positions.
LeMahieu made 36 of his 55 starts last season at third base before going on the injured list in early September with a right hip impingement for the remainder of the year. That injury, according to Cashman, inhibited LeMahieu’s ability to play third base, and led to LeMahieu informing him that he couldn’t physically handle playing the position anymore.
“He was always just sharing that the recovery was really difficult,” Cashman said. “The physical toll on him to tee up at that position was a problem and so therefore that position is a problem.”
The limitation was cemented during spring training when LeMahieu strained his left calf in his first Grapefruit League game playing third base, forcing the Yankees to conclude that LeMahieu was no longer an option at the position. He only played second base in his nine rehab games before making his season debut May 13 as a second baseman with Chisholm on the injured list with an oblique strain.
Three weeks later, Chisholm, who started the season as the team’s everyday second baseman, came off the injured list to play third base despite LeMahieu’s range at second base being glaringly limited. Chisholm, who feels most comfortable at second base, accepted the assignment and returned to third base, a position he picked up last season after the Yankees acquired him from the Miami Marlins at the trade deadline through the World Series.
The calculus changed Sunday when Chisholm, with the Yankees in the midst of a six-game losing streak, told reporters that he hurt his shoulder making a throw from third base three weeks earlier and the injury impacted his throwing. Two days later, Chisholm, who had made three throwing errors in his final four starts at third base, was the Yankees’ starting second baseman again.
With Chisholm, an All-Star this season, stationed at second base, former MVPs Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger entrenched at first base and Giancarlo Stanton occupying the DH spot, playing time would have been sparse for LeMahieu.
Factoring in that the Yankees’ options at third base behind Oswald Peraza, who is also the team’s backup shortstop, would have been catcher J.C. Escarra, Cashman determined that LeMahieu’s presence hampered the team’s flexibility to an extent that would have handcuffed Boone’s in-game decision-making. Infielder Jorbit Vivas, a light-hitting versatile defender, was called up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to replace LeMahieu on the roster.
“I wouldn’t say he’s unwilling to still make the attempt and maybe spell over there,” Cashman said of LeMahieu. “But it was something that he was without sharing that was steering clear of to the extent he could.
“Because, again, like anything else, he’s got a lot of pride. He’s a great player. He wants to contribute to the team. He loves this team. He loves this organization. But he felt that was an avenue that was no longer a realistic avenue and that kind of ties our hands a little bit more moving forward.”
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