How the Rays proved in May that they can win it all in October
-
David Schoenfield, ESPN Senior Writer
For a long time, I’ve considered the Tampa Bay Rays to be baseball’s little miracle, succeeding in the sport’s toughest division — the American League East — despite low payrolls, low attendance figures and a stadium situation that remains unresolved.
That view is a little unfair, though, because in one sense, the Rays are no different from the New York Yankees or Los Angeles Dodgers or Houston Astros or Atlanta Braves — they expect to contend for a World Series every season.
They have made the playoffs the past four seasons, but there always seems some surprise that they’re doing it again. Perhaps that’s because they turn the roster over rapidly and often rely upon depth more than star power. In 2019, they won 96 games, but their four best players that season (Charlie Morton, Austin Meadows, Willy Adames and Tommy Pham) are long gone. They reached the World Series in 2020, but that was kind of a scrappy team with a great bullpen. The 2021 team hit a lot of home runs and won 100 games even though its two pitchers with the most innings had ERAs over 5.00. Last year’s team snuck in with 86 wins mainly due to the emergence of Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen and Jeffrey Springs. Now two of those three are injured — and this still looks like the best Rays team ever, except with two young stars to build around in McClanahan and Wander Franco.
Since 2019, only the Dodgers and Astros have won more games; since 2008, only the Dodgers, Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals. The Rays are not a miracle — they’re an exceptional organization, only one that’s less celebrated.
The national spotlight fell on them after they began the season with 13 consecutive wins and finished April at 23-6 with an incredible plus-103 run differential. That first month put them on an early pace to become one of the greatest teams of all time. There were still skeptics, however, since the Rays dominated a soft schedule and in their two toughest series, against the Toronto Blue Jays and Astros, they dropped four of six games.
May, on the other hand, presented a much more difficult slate of opponents, so we got a better idea of the Rays’ potential greatness. Let’s go back series by series and see what we learned.
The Pirates entered this series nearly as hot as the Rays, with a 20-9 record and as winners of 11 of their past 13 games. The Rays beat them 4-1, 8-1 and 3-2. In the finale, Zach Eflin tossed seven scoreless innings and struck out 10 with no walks — the first time in his career he recorded double-digit strikeouts with no free passes. Eflin was one of the more intriguing free agent signings of the offseason as the Rays gave him a three-year, $40 million contract — not only the largest free agent deal in franchise history but one to a pitcher with a 4.49 career ERA who had pitched just 181 innings over the previous two seasons.
What did the Rays see? A guy who throws strikes — Eflin averaged just 1.5 walks per nine over the 2021-22 seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies. “In an era of power and velocity, he’s an artist,” president of baseball operations Erik Neander said in December when the club signed Eflin. A better defense behind him — certainly better than the ones the Phillies have thrown out there during Eflin’s career — combined with the Rays’ ability to improve a pitcher’s repertoire meant the signing made a lot of sense.
Indeed, Eflin improved to 4-0 after beating the Pirates and is now 7-1 with a 3.17 ERA — allowing just seven walks in 54 innings. Sure enough, the Rays have tweaked things a little bit. He has increased his cutter usage from 15% to 31% and nearly completely ditched his four-seamer, which he threw 16% of the time last year, to stick with his sinker, with the cutter/sinker combo playing successfully off each other. The biggest change, however, might simply be the defense: He had a career .303 batting average allowed on balls in play with the Phillies and it’s at .280 with the Rays.
“Some guys out-stuff you. Some guys out-execute you. He’s got a little bit of a combination of both,” manager Kevin Cash said of Eflin after the win on May 4.
With the sweep of Pittsburgh, the Rays improved to 26-6 — the best 32-game start since the 1984 Detroit Tigers went 27-5.
Lesson learned: They already had one ace in McClanahan. They potentially had a second in Springs, but he went down for the season with Tommy John surgery in April. The Eflin signing now looks not only particularly astute, but necessary.
May 5-7: vs. New York Yankees
OK, so the Pirates had cooled after that hot April. This would be the first real test for the Rays — and it was a terrific series with three one-run games, two of those going the Rays’ way.
The Rays won the first game 5-4 while wearing their old Devil Rays uniforms — the retro look that’s now much more appealing than when the Devil Rays were losing 100 games every season. The go-ahead run scored in the seventh when Yankees left fielder Jake Bauers dropped a catchable fly ball and turned it into a double — and then kicked the ball, allowing Yandy Diaz to score from first base (instant replay overruled the tag play at home, as Diaz was originally called out). While bad Yankees defense lost the game, the Rays won with some good defense of their own. Jose Siri ranged into deep center field to corral the final out of the game, while Josh Lowe earlier made a diving catch in right field with two runners on.
When the Rays acquired Siri last season from the Astros, they knew he could play center field. Outfield defense has long been a Rays trademark, and when longtime center fielder Kevin Kiermaier left as a free agent, Siri was given the chance as the regular. He missed two weeks in April with a hamstring strain, but he’s now hitting .243/.292/.563 with nine home runs. He’s not going to be a high-average or high-OBP guy, but the power and defense make him useful. Lowe, meanwhile, has broken out in his sophomore season, hitting .300/.349/.581 with 11 home runs.
The Yankees won the next game 3-2 with three runs in the eighth off the Tampa Bay bullpen, but the Rays won the finale 8-7 in a game Gerrit Cole started for the Yankees. Christian Bethancourt hit a big three-run homer off Cole in the sixth, the Rays threw out a runner at home in the top of the 10th and then Isaac Paredes singled in the winning run.
Lesson learned: With guys like Siri and Lowe contributing, the Rays’ lineup is deeper than ever and much more powerful than last year’s team, which ranked 11th in the AL with 139 home runs. Through Monday, this year’s team already has 101 home runs — most in the majors — and owns a 136 wRC+ (park-adjusted weighted runs created), which easily leads the majors. In the wild-card era (since 1998), the highest single-season wRC+ belongs to the 2019 Astros at 124.
The Rays won 3-0 behind McClanahan to improve to 29-7, but then lost 4-2 and 2-1. At this point, the Rays were 29-9, on pace for 124 wins — but the Orioles were only 4.5 games back, off to their own blazing start.
Lesson learned: The AL East is going to be absolutely brutal and wonderful all season long.
May 11-14: at New York Yankees
In the first game of the series, Drew Rasmussen pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing just two hits, as the Rays won 8-2. In recent years, no team has been more astute at finding pitchers from other organizations than the Rays, and Rasmussen had been a shining example of this — although his journey to the majors began when the Rays drafted him 31st overall out of Oregon State in 2017. The Rays didn’t sign him due to concerns with his post-draft physical (he had Tommy John surgery as a sophomore), so Rasmussen returned to OSU, where he did indeed undergo a second TJ surgery. The Brewers drafted him in the sixth round in 2018, and he reached the majors as a reliever in 2020. The Rays acquired him early in the 2021 season along with J.P. Feyereisen for Willy Adames and Trevor Richards (in a deal, to be fair, that worked out for both teams).
The Rays eventually moved Rasmussen back into a starting role. He developed a new cutter and had a breakout season in 2022 (11-7, 2.84), and after his gem against the Yankees, he was 4-2 with a 2.62 ERA. Going back to 2021, he was 18-9 in 46 career starts with a 2.63 ERA. While still relatively anonymous, he had become one of the better starters in the league. Then came the crushing news: The day after his start, the Rays placed Rasmussen on the 60-day injured list with a flexor strain in his forearm, announcing that he would be shut down for eight weeks and then would start building up again — assuming all goes well, given that a flexor strain is often a precursor to Tommy John surgery.
This gets us to the dirty little secret with the Rays: As good as they are at finding and developing pitchers, they have trouble keeping them healthy.
They had turned Springs from a journeyman reliever into a potential Cy Young candidate before his injury. In recent years, Tyler Glasnow, Yonny Chirinos, Colin Poche and Jalen Beeks all underwent Tommy John surgery. So did Shane Baz, who is out for all of 2023 while rehabbing. Reliever Andrew Kittredge, an All-Star in 2021, pitched just 20 innings last season and has missed all of 2023 with elbow issues. Colby White was one of the best relievers in the minors in 2021 but has yet to reach the majors after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Brendan McKay had shoulder issues and then underwent Tommy John surgery, which has him sidelined for all of 2023.
With Rasmussen injured and Glasnow out since the start of the season with an oblique strain, the Rays would now have to get through this difficult stretch of May without three-fifths of their projected starting rotation. Throw in a season-ending knee injury to key reliever Garrett Cleavinger and the assumption that the Rays have an endless supply of pitchers that they pluck out of Durham or off the waiver wire — or from some secret underwater lair in the Gulf of Mexico — will be severely tested.
Meanwhile, the Yankees won 5-4 the next night when Anthony Rizzo hit a two-run homer off Jason Adam in the eighth inning and then won the third game 9-8 as New York knocked out McClanahan after four innings and Aaron Judge homered twice. Rays exposed? Hardly. They bounced back with an 8-7 win as Taylor Walls belted a grand slam — yet another player hitting much better than projected. After hitting .172 with eight home runs in 466 plate appearances in 2022, the switch-hitter made some minor mechanical tweaks after visiting a hitting instructor outside the organization. The changes have produced more hard contact and a higher launch angle that has already produced seven home runs and a .488 slugging percentage.
Maybe it’s a surprise that some of these guys are hitting at this level, but it shouldn’t be a surprise that they’ve improved. “They have shown the ability coming up through the minor leagues that they can hit,” Cash said after Walls’ grand slam. “I think we thought it was more a matter of time. It doesn’t always come out of the gate.”
Anyway, the Rays hold on to split the four-game series when Judge flew out to Siri on the warning track to end it. Adam left a first-pitch sweeper over the middle of the plate and hung his head as Judge connected — sure he had just allowed the game-tying home run. “I thought it was 30 rows deep,” Adam said. “But thankfully, [Judge] missed it more than I thought.”
Overall, the Rays played the Yankees seven times in 10 days with six of the games decided by one run — two of the best series we’ll see all season. The Rays went 4-3 — and then came perhaps the most exciting game of the season so far.
Lesson learned: The Rays’ pitching depth will be tested — but if the offense keeps rolling, it might be dominant enough to cover the injuries to the rotation.
On May 16, the Rays beat Justin Verlander, knocking him around for eight hits, two home runs (both by Paredes) and six runs. Then came the game of the year. The Rays led 2-0, the Mets tied it in the bottom of the seventh, the Rays took a 6-3 lead, Francisco Alvarez hit a game-tying three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth off Adam, the Rays scored twice in the 10th and then Pete Alonso won it with a three-run walk-off blast off Pete Fairbanks. Wow.
Therein lies the biggest concern I have about this Rays team: Is this a championship-caliber bullpen? Adam, let go five times in his career, came out of nowhere last season to post a 1.56 ERA and hold batters to a .147 average. He’s got kind of a funky short-arm delivery and isn’t overpowering for a modern closer, relying on a changeup and sweeper. He has been a little more hittable this season with a .200 average and four home runs allowed. Meanwhile, Fairbanks has a 1.26 ERA over the past two seasons — but has pitched just 35 2/3 innings and is once again back on the IL with hip inflammation.
Factor in that the Rays have had to return to using an occasional bullpen arm to open due to all the injuries in the rotation and the bullpen depth is hitting a crisis point: The Rays have already churned through 26 pitchers (not counting two position players who have pitched). Rays relievers lead the majors in innings — yes, even more than the Oakland Athletics — and rank last in strikeout rate (yes, lower than the A’s). We know the Rays’ history of conjuring up good major league relievers out of thin air — Adam and Fairbanks being two examples — but that supposition is being stretched to the limits.
The Mets took the third game to take the series and drop the Rays to 32-13 — still on pace for 115 wins. But the Orioles at this point were still just 3.5 games behind.
Lesson learned: Strong bullpens have been a hallmark of the Rays in recent seasons, but this might be the team’s soft spot in 2023, especially if Fairbanks can’t stay healthy and Adam continues to be homer-prone.
After those intense games against the two New York teams, a more subdued series followed against the Brewers, with the Rays taking two out of three, including a 1-0 victory behind McClanahan. In the Saturday night game, Diaz returned after missing four games and hit his 11th home run. Let’s talk about Diaz, who is second in MLB in wRC+ through Monday, sandwiched between two much more famous hitters in Judge and Yordan Alvarez.
I don’t know if Diaz is the strongest player in the majors, but he’s certainly the most likely to win a Mr. Universe contest. Despite his stature, he has never hit for much power — though he possesses excellent plate discipline and doesn’t strike out much. He hit nine home runs last season in 473 at-bats and his career high is 14 back in the rabbit-ball year of 2019. His issue has been getting the ball in the air enough to take advantage of his strength. His average launch angle so far this season is a career-best 9.3 degrees — still below the MLB average but high enough that his fly ball rate has improved from 19.6% last season to 27% this year. He’s also simply barreling up more balls than he has in the past with a hard-hit rate that ranks in the top 10 in MLB. Add it up and he’s hitting .320/.420/.598 with 12 home runs and nearly as many walks (26) as strikeouts (29).
It’s certainly unusual for a 31-year-old to break out with a career season like this, but Diaz has always had a good approach to build off — and he did hit .296 with a .401 OBP last season. Even though he’s not the fastest guy around, Diaz has been hitting leadoff to take advantage of his on-base ability, a lineup Cash started deploying last season. It’s another example of the Rays thinking outside the box, using a non-conventional slow runner in the leadoff position.
“To see Yandy Díaz come up as the first hitter an opponent team faces is incredible,” Eflin said after the game on May 20. “He’s everything you want in a leadoff hitter.”
Lesson learned: Diaz has been hitting like an MVP candidate — although he might not even be the best MVP candidate on the team. Franco is tied with Freddie Freeman for second in MLB (behind Judge) in FanGraphs WAR among position players and leads in Baseball-Reference WAR. Diaz is eighth. And Randy Arozarena is 10th. The Rays have many weapons.
May 22-25: vs. Toronto Blue Jays
The Rays took three of four from the Jays — although a 20-1 loss cut into the team’s run differential (a category that the Rangers now lead). While Diaz doesn’t run, the Rays have other players who can do that — as witnessed by the seven stolen bases they recorded in a 6-3 win on May 25. The Rays have always loved fast, athletic players, and they’re certainly loving the new rules that benefit teams that steal bases. They lead the majors with 75 steals, 17 more than the No. 2 team, and when they face an especially weak pitcher-catcher combo, they can go wild: two games with seven steals and four others with at least four. Franco leads the team with 20 steals, Walls is a perfect 14-of-14 and Josh Lowe has 13.
So, to sum up: The Rays lead the majors in home runs and stolen bases. And they’re tied with the Reds for the highest percentage of extra bases taken (advancing more than one base on a single or more than two on a double). Oh, and they’re also tied with the Nationals and Royals for the youngest group of position players, averaging 26.9 years of age (weighted for playing time). That gets back to Cash’s comment about the improvement in some of the younger players: It shouldn’t be unexpected. Even Franco is still just 22 years old — and while his bat has been impressive, his defense has also taken a huge step forward, to the point where he looks like a Gold Glove candidate.
Lesson learned: No team can blow off a 20-1 loss like the Rays. And fast players are fun. And 22-year-old shortstops who can hit, run and field are really fun.
May 26-28 vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
The Rays took two out of three. Sunday’s game was an 11-10 affair with Adam getting a two-inning save with four strikeouts, perhaps a sign he’s getting back into his 2022 groove.
Lesson learned: Yeah, the Rays are for real. We’ll throw out the Pirates series and the Rays still ran through a 23-game gauntlet against the Yankees, Orioles, Mets, Blue Jays, Brewers and Dodgers and went 13-10. The pitching depth is a concern, although Glasnow made his first start in this series and struck out eight in 4 1/3 innings. A top three of McClanahan, Glasnow and Eflin is a quality trio, and rookie Taj Bradley has a 42-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio in six starts. We’ll see if Rasmussen can make it back after the All-Star break.
The Rays did lose two in a row to the Chicago Cubs, 1-0 on Monday and 2-1 on Tuesday, to drop their overall May record to 16-12. The Orioles are still breathing down their necks, and the Yankees — and Judge — are finally heating up. The Texas Rangers have looked impressive in the AL West, and the Astros are playing well after scuffling in April. But these Rays are absolutely loaded on offense, McClanahan is 8-0 with a 1.97 ERA and Cash certainly seems to usually get the best out of his bullpens.
The Rays are 39-18, on pace for 113 wins, and they proved in May that they’re the best team in baseball as we start the summer.
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Joel Quenneville returned to hockey Thursday with contrition. He acknowledged mistakes and said he accepted full responsibility for his role in the Chicago Blackhawks sexual assault scandal.
The second-winningest coach in NHL history said he is a changed man after nearly four years away from the game. As he took over behind the bench of the Anaheim Ducks, he vowed to continue to educate himself about abuse, to expand his work with victims, and to create an unimpeachably safe workplace with his new team.
Quenneville also realizes that’s not nearly enough to satisfy a significant segment of hockey fans that believes his acknowledged inaction during the Blackhawks scandal should have ended his career forever.
“I fully understand and accept those who question my return to the league,” Quenneville said. “I know words aren’t enough. I will demonstrate (by) my actions that I am a man of character.”
Ducks owner Henry Samueli and general manager Pat Verbeek strongly backed the 66-year-old Quenneville when they introduced him as the coach of a franchise stuck in a seven-year playoff drought and thirsting for the success Quenneville has usually orchestrated.
He won three Stanley Cups with the Blackhawks and took 20 teams to the playoffs during a quarter-century with four NHL clubs, becoming the most consistent winner of his era.
While Quenneville’s on-ice record was remarkable, his off-ice behavior in 2010 eventually led to his resignation from the Florida Panthers in October 2021 and a lengthy banishment from the league — a ban that many feel should be permanent.
“I own my mistakes,” Quenneville said, occasionally pausing in his delivery of a written statement. “While I believed wholeheartedly the issue was handled by management, I take full responsibility for not following up and asking more questions. That’s entirely on me. Over nearly four years, I’ve taken time to reflect, to listen to experts and advocates, and educate myself on the realities of abuse, trauma and how to be a better leader. I hope others can learn from my inaction.”
Quenneville and Blackhawks executives Stan Bowman and Al MacIsaac were banned from the NHL for nearly three years after an independent investigation concluded the team mishandled allegations raised by former player Kyle Beach against video coach Brad Aldrich during the team’s first Stanley Cup run. The trio was reinstated last July, and Bowman became the Edmonton Oilers‘ general manager three weeks later.
After an investigation and vetting process that lasted several days and included communication with Beach and other sexual assault victims and advocacy groups, the Ducks’ owners ultimately supported the decision made by Verbeek, Quenneville’s teammate in New Jersey and Hartford more than three decades ago.
Samueli and his wife, Susan, and their daughter, Jillian, all spoke at length with Quenneville. Henry Samueli said he is “absolutely convinced Joel is a really good person.”
“I think the four years that Joel spent out of hockey has really given him an opportunity to learn a lot,” Samueli said. “In my mind, he will be a model coach for dealing with situations like this. I think he will be a mentor to other coaches in the league who can come to him and talk to him. ‘How do you handle situations like that? What do you do?’ And they’ll trust him, because he’s old-school who’s changed. The fact that he comes from an old-school hockey culture, but now has transitioned and learned what it means to operate in 2025, not 1980 or whatever, I think that will make a big difference in how he operates.”
Quenneville said he understands just how badly his reputation and career were damaged by his role in the Blackhawks’ handling of the accusations against Aldrich. He remained out of hockey for another season after his ban ended, but became increasingly eager to continue his career last winter while watching games every night and staying closely informed on the league.
“I thought I had some work to do in growing as a person,” Quenneville said. “As far as doing work along the way, I felt I had progressed to an area where the education I had put me in a position where I know I can share some of these lessons and these experiences as well.”
Many people with a firsthand knowledge of Quenneville’s attempts to change himself supported his desire to return. Quenneville said he has spoken to Beach several times recently, including Thursday morning.
He has formed learning friendships with advocates including Chris Jensen, the former University of Wisconsin player and Maple Leafs draft pick who was abused by a coach as a teenager.
“I think most of the athletes that have played for him would argue that this guy has helped me be better,” Jensen said. “He brings all that expertise, and now he’s got additional perspective about how to be available to help people deal with emotional injury. I think he’s in a much better position to be successful.”
The Ducks’ charitable foundation is already involved in charitable and philanthropic work supporting survivors of sexual abuse, and Samueli expects Quenneville to support those efforts.
“I’m very confident that Joel will be a star when it comes to working with those organizations,” Samueli said.
Before his ban, Quenneville spent parts of 25 NHL seasons behind the benches of St. Louis, Colorado, Chicago and Florida, most notably leading the Blackhawks to championships in 2010, 2013 and 2015. His 969 career victories are the second-most in NHL history, trailing only Scotty Bowman’s 1,244.
Quenneville takes over a team with the NHL’s third-longest active playoff drought. Anaheim finished sixth in the Pacific Division this season at 35-37-10 after being in the bottom two for the previous four consecutive years.
He replaces Greg Cronin, who was surprisingly fired by Verbeek after leading the Ducks to a 21-point improvement in his second season.
Quenneville inherits an Anaheim team with an ample stock of young talent, and he was immediately impressed by their roster when he saw it in person during Anaheim’s road trip to Tampa Bay last January. He also coached Ducks captain Radko Gudas and forward Frank Vatrano in Florida.
“One of the best coaches I’ve ever had, and I always tell people that,” said Vatrano, who attended Quenneville’s introductory news conference. “As a person, he’s a great person, too. That’s what always draws me to Q. I’m a huge advocate for him, and I’m glad he’s here.”
For Mike Sullivan, the latest coach of the New York Rangers, there will be many priorities in taking over a team that missed the playoffs a season after winning the Presidents’ Trophy.
Foremost will be communication.
“I have spoken to every player on the roster over the last three days,” Sullivan said Thursday at his introductory news conference. “I think there is a fair amount of leadership in that room. There’s a lot of character in that room.”
Sullivan, the 38th coach in franchise history and fifth since 2018, agreed to lead the Rangers on May 2 after parting ways with Pittsburgh, with whom he won the Stanley Cup twice.
He replaces Peter Laviolette, who was fired April 19 after the Rangers slid 29 points to miss the postseason despite their raft of talent. It will be up to Sullivan to resuscitate a power play that fell from the league’s top echelon to 28th overall in 2024-25 and help the defense improve in front of elite goaltender Igor Shesterkin, who is coming off his worst NHL season.
Sullivan spent four seasons as a Rangers assistant under then-coach John Tortorella from 2009 to 2013. He also coached current Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury during that time. They also worked together through USA Hockey at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February and will be part of the U.S. contingent for the 2026 Milan Olympics.
Sullivan will have top scorers Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad and Adam Fox on his side after years guiding Penguins stars Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang in Pittsburgh, where he won the Cup in 2016 and 2017.
“I’ve grown so much respect over the years for the talent that the Rangers have,” said Sullivan, who lost a seven-game first-round playoff series to the Rangers in 2022. “I look forward to the opportunity to get to know these guys on a more personal level. I look forward to the opportunity to work with them, both on the ice and off the ice, to try to become the most competitive team that we can become.”
Also pressing for the 57-year-old Sullivan — who was drafted by the Rangers in 1987 and later played 709 NHL games for four other franchises — is how he will handle younger Rangers such as 22-year-old Brennan Othmann and 20-year-old Gabe Perreault, a first-round pick in 2023 who joined the team briefly at the end of last season.
“Part of coaching or the art of coaching, I guess, is trying to figure out what that daily recipe is that’s best for the player,” Sullivan said. “Sometimes it’s time in the American League as a young player, sometimes it’s time in the National League depending on the types of minutes that that player can play. What I will tell you is that I think it’s important that every player earns their opportunities, that no one’s entitled to an opportunity.”
Sullivan was joined Thursday by Drury, who was awarded a contract extension last month.
Drury’s previous two coaching hires — Laviolette and Gerard Gallant — each lasted two seasons. The 48-year-old executive expressed enthusiasm for the addition of Sullivan, the only U.S.-born coach with multiple Stanley Cup wins.
“The second Mike was available, we quickly and aggressively pursued him,” Drury said. “We are certainly thrilled that pursuit led us to this moment today. There’s a lot of work to be done.”
The battle between National League powerhouses for the No. 1 spot continues in Week 6.
The Dodgers, Mets and Padres are still duking it out for the title of best team in baseball, with Los Angeles retaking the top spot from New York on our list. The top five is rounded out by a new team, as well, with the Tigers breaking in at the No. 5 spot.
Detroit is the top American League team this week, with the Yankees coming in at No. 7, the Mariners cracking the top 10 and the Royals, the week’s biggest risers, at No. 11.
What else has changed in the span of one week?
Our expert panel has combined to rank every team based on a combination of what we’ve seen so far and what we already knew going into the 162-game marathon that is a full baseball season. We also asked ESPN MLB experts David Schoenfield, Jorge Castillo and Bradford Doolittle to weigh in with an observation for all 30 teams.
Record: 25-12
Previous ranking: 2
The Dodgers are suddenly scrambling in the outfield. Teoscar Hernandez was tied for the MLB lead in RBIs when he landed on the injured list because of a groin strain that manager Dave Roberts said would keep Hernandez out for “weeks.” James Outman replaced Hernandez on the roster and started in center field Tuesday with Andy Pages sliding over to right. Meanwhile, Michael Conforto continues to struggle. With Tommy Edman also out, Roberts says he sees a lot of platooning in the short term. At least Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman are both red-hot to carry the offense. — Schoenfield
Record: 24-14
Previous ranking: 1
When the Mets signed ex-Yankee Clay Holmes this past winter, it was a mild surprise. The bigger surprise was that he was inked to join the rotation. Holmes entered the 2025 season with four career starts, all during his debut season for Pittsburgh in 2018 — whereas he has played a relief role in 307 games over eight MLB seasons. Seven starts into his Mets career, Holmes looks like a bona fide rotation fixture. He’s 4-1 with a 2.95 ERA and 2.18 FIP. His strikeout and walk ratios are matches for what he posted last season as a reliever, and he has yet to give up a homer to 156 batters faced. — Doolittle
Record: 23-13
Previous ranking: 4
Michael King and Nick Pivetta continue to team for one of the best duos in the majors, going a combined 9-2 with a 2.12 ERA. King returned to the Bronx — where he played for the Yankees for four seasons — and pitched another gem Tuesday, giving up three hits and two runs in six innings (although the Padres’ bullpen had a rare meltdown and proceeded to give up 10 runs in the seventh inning). After a poor outing on Opening Day, King has a 1.71 ERA over his past seven starts. — Schoenfield
Record: 22-16
Previous ranking: 5
The Cubs’ offense has been a force, but the team is facing adversity among its starting pitchers. First, Justin Steele needed Tommy John surgery and was lost for the season. Then Javier Assad, out because of an oblique strain to begin the season, sustained another oblique strain during a rehab start and was shut down. Finally, on Monday, Shota Imanaga was put on the IL because of a strained hamstring. The Cubs haven’t provided a timetable for Imanaga’s return. It’ll be on Matthew Boyd (2.75 ERA), Colin Rea (2.43 ERA) and Jameson Taillon (3.86 ERA) to hold down the rotation for now. — Castillo
Record: 23-13
Previous ranking: 7
The Tigers have flourished in a number of ways during the season’s opening weeks but one thing that really stands out is the degree to which they have dominated at Comerica Park. They’ve started 13-3 at home with a net per-game differential of plus-2.81 runs, the best in baseball. To put it another way, that differential translates to an .819 expected winning percentage, or 133 wins over 162 games. Not unrelated: Detroit has also moved into the early lead in the chase for the AL’s top postseason seed, which of course carries with it home-field advantage in October. — Doolittle
Record: 24-14
Previous ranking: 6
Logan Webb just keeps rolling along as one of the most underrated starters in MLB. He led the majors in innings pitched in 2023, ranked second in 2024 and again ranks among the league leaders this season. He has given up only one home run in 48⅓ innings and is producing a career-high strikeout rate (up eight percentage points from last season). He has used his sweeper more this year, but his changeup has been much more effective than it was in 2024, perhaps because he’s throwing it less often. — Schoenfield
Record: 21-16
Previous ranking: 3
Max Fried has been exceptional as a Yankee, posting a 1.05 ERA through eight starts. Carlos Rodón has rebounded from a choppy early stretch and sports a 2.96 ERA in eight outings. Outside of those two, the Yankees’ rotation is iffy at best without Gerrit Cole and Luis Gil. Clarke Schmidt recorded his best start of the season Tuesday against the Padres after dealing with injuries. Will Warren has a 5.65 ERA. Carlos Carrasco was designated for assignment. Marcus Stroman is out indefinitely. While Gil is progressing in his recovery from a lat strain, the Yankees need Fried and Rodón to continue registering quality starts. — Castillo
Record: 21-15
Previous ranking: 8
Bryce Harper‘s homer during the Phillies’ wild 11-9 loss to Arizona on Tuesday ended a 13-game long-ball drought. That’s far from Harper’s longest homerless streak — he went 38 games without one in 2023 — but it still highlighted an uneven start for Philly’s marquee player. Harper has started every game thus far for manager Rob Thomson. Does he need a rest? Should the Phils be worried? Probably not. Harper’s BABIP has cratered but that’s one indicator that tends to regress to career norms. His power numbers are down but, per Statcast, his bat speed is actually up from 2024. He’ll be fine. — Doolittle
Record: 22-14
Previous ranking: 11
And finally Cal Raleigh rested … almost. Raleigh had started the first 34 games of the season, either at catcher or DH. His two-homer, five-RBI game Saturday against the Rangers helped power the Mariners to their eighth consecutive series victory. Against the Athletics on Tuesday, Raleigh was on the bench … until the ninth inning. Trailing 3-2 with the bases loaded and one out, Raleigh pinch hit for Mitch Garver and delivered a go-ahead two-run single in a 5-3 victory. His 12 home runs are tied with Aaron Judge and Kyle Schwarber for the MLB lead. — Schoenfield
Record: 19-18
Previous ranking: 9
Geraldo Perdomo continues to rake, including a 4-for-5 game with two doubles and three RBIs in Sunday’s wild 11-9 win over the Phillies. Perdomo has more walks than strikeouts, is 9-for-9 stealing bases, has a 99th percentile ranking in outs above average at shortstop and has already produced 2.2 fWAR compared to 2.0 all of 2024. That figure puts him in a five-way tie for the third-highest fWAR — behind only Aaron Judge and Pete Alonso. — Schoenfield
Record: 22-16
Previous ranking: 19
The Royals’ offense has been moving in the right direction, aiding a recent torrid stretch that was driven by elite run prevention. Bobby Witt Jr. has produced all along but, as good as he is, he can’t do it alone. Help has arrived in the form of Maikel Garcia, whose surge has brought his season numbers into lockstep with Witt. Garcia’s swing decisions have improved by leaps and bounds, lowering his already-solid strikeout rate and lifting his walk rate well over league average. Garcia, who has started at four different positions, will merit All-Star consideration if he maintains this pace. — Doolittle
Record: 19-19
Previous ranking: 10
Boston received a huge blow over the weekend, losing Triston Casas for the season because of a ruptured patellar tendon. Now the Red Sox have to figure out who will play first base. The current answer is a combination of Romy Gonzalez and Abraham Toro, but that probably isn’t permanent — and Gonzalez exited Wednesday night’s win after a collision on the base path and is day-to-day. Boston could move Rafael Devers to first base and have Masataka Yoshida, who hasn’t played this season because a shoulder injury is inhibiting his ability to throw, as its DH. The Red Sox could shift rookie Kristian Campbell from second base. They could seek external help. They could even call up one of their top two prospects, Roman Anthony or Marcelo Mayer, to play first. They have options. — Castillo
Record: 22-15
Previous ranking: 16
The Guardians have stayed afloat in the standings thanks to a spate of comeback wins and one-run victories. Eventually they’ll need some of their underperforming positions to produce. Steven Kwan has arguably been the best at his position in left field but his outfield partners have collectively been among the worst. Right fielder Jhonkensy Noel has sputtered along with a sub-.500 OPS while, in center, Opening Day starter Lane Thomas had an OPS under .400 before hitting the IL because of a bruised wrist. Cleveland needs numbers from both before the close-game luck begins to run out. — Doolittle
Record: 17-19
Previous ranking: 13
As a group, the Braves’ outfield ranks in the bottom five by wins above average. The fixes: get Ronald Acuña Jr. back, get Michael Harris II going and navigate the weeks until Jurickson Profar returns from suspension. On the latter front, a promising left-field platoon might be taking shape in Alex Verdugo and Eli White. For now, both are needed to man the outfield corners, but that will change when Acuña returns. At the plate, Verdugo has a career .783 OPS against righties; meanwhile, after struggling early in his career against southpaws, White has crushed them in limited time the past two seasons. — Doolittle
Record: 19-19
Previous ranking: 14
The Reds’ season continues to be strange. Their plus-30 run differential ranks eighth in the majors and suggests a 22-16 record. Instead, they remain tethered to .500 territory. The offense’s inconsistency is the main culprit. After scoring 22 runs in a three-game sweep of the Rockies in Denver, Cincinnati tallied three or fewer runs in six of their next nine games. Jose Trevino and Gavin Lux have been crucial contributors in their first seasons in Cincinnati, but the Reds need more from Elly De La Cruz, one of the sport’s most dynamic talents who has been about a league-average hitter so far. — Castillo
Record: 18-18
Previous ranking: 12
As the Astros struggle to score runs, it won’t help that Yordan Alvarez landed on the IL because of hand inflammation. The All-Star slugger was already off to the worst start of his career, hitting .210/.306/.340 with only three home runs and seven extra-base hits in 29 games, when he was scratched from Saturday’s lineup and then didn’t play Sunday before the Astros finally put him on the IL. Alvarez isn’t the only Astros hitter struggling as Yainer Diaz and Christian Walker have sub-.300 OBPs, and Jose Altuve is scuffling with sub-100 OPS+, his lowest since 2013. — Schoenfield
Record: 19-19
Previous ranking: 18
Joey Ortiz, acquired before last season in the trade for Corbin Burnes, put together a 3.1 fWAR rookie campaign in 2024, hitting 11 home runs with a 104 wRC+ and good defense at third base. That’s what makes his production in 2025 so shocking. Now playing shortstop as Willy Adames’ replacement, Ortiz has compiled -0.6 fWAR in 37 games this season. He’s batting .175 without a home run and a .206 slugging percentage. His 27 wRC+ ranks 160th out of 161 qualified players and has hampered the offense, which as a whole has a 90 wRC+, the seventh-lowest mark in the majors. — Castillo
Record: 20-18
Previous ranking: 20
The A’s got to within one game of first place and had a chance to tie Seattle on Tuesday but blew a ninth-inning lead. It was the second blown save in four games for the A’s. On Saturday, Mason Miller had a rare bad outing, serving up a walk-off grand slam to Miami’s Kyle Stowers. With Miller unavailable Tuesday after throwing 55 pitches over three days, Tyler Ferguson came on for the save — his fourth appearance in four days — and gave up a 3-2 lead. It was the first time an A’s pitcher threw four days in a row since 2015. — Schoenfield
Record: 18-19
Previous ranking: 15
Looking to turn around a moribund offense, the Rangers hired former All-Star Bret Boone as the team’s hitting coach, while firing offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker. At the time of the move, the Rangers ranked 25th in the majors in batting average, 25th in slugging and 29th in both runs and walk rate. Previous hitting coach Justin Viele and assistant hitting coach Seth Conner remain on staff. Texas then erupted for 16 hits Tuesday in Boone’s first game, winning consecutive games for the first time since April 17. Evan Carter returned to the majors and went 2-for-5. — Schoenfield
Record: 16-20
Previous ranking: 17
Steinbrenner Field has not been very kind to the Rays so far. They’re 9-15 in their temporary digs and 7-5 elsewhere. The stadium has played as expected, as a hitters’ haven. Opponents have taken better advantage of that with 35 home runs and a .256/.313/.418 slash line. Meanwhile, the Rays have hit 22 home runs at home. They’re built to win games with pitching and defense. That combination so far hasn’t been suited for Steinbrenner Field. — Castillo
Record: 16-20
Previous ranking: 22
The Blue Jays made four major offseason acquisitions. Three — Anthony Santander, Andres Gimenez and Max Scherzer — have been colossal disappointments. Santander has a 75 wRC+ as the team’s primary DH. Gimenez is a defense-first second baseman, but he began the year as the team’s cleanup hitter and has a 68 wRC+. Scherzer has thrown three innings. But Jeff Hoffman has established himself as one of the top closers in baseball after two teams nixed agreements with him during the winter due to concerns about his shoulder health. The right-hander gave up two runs over his first 14 appearances, recording a 1.10 ERA, until his three-run hiccup Tuesday against the Angels. — Castillo
Record: 17-20
Previous ranking: 21
A Twins offense that has floundered for much of the season received a much-needed boost when oft-injured Royce Lewis finally made his season debut. Lewis went down because of a hamstring strain in mid-March and sat out the first five-plus weeks. That was nothing new for a talented player whose career high in games is 82. When he has played, he has produced, posting a 124 career OPS+ with 35 homers and 110 RBIs per 162 games played. Now that Lewis is back, the spotlight falls on shortstop Carlos Correa, who continues to limp along with career-worst percentages. — Doolittle
Record: 19-19
Previous ranking: 24
By most metrics, the Cardinals have by far deployed the best defense in baseball. In the middle of it is center fielder Victor Scott II. Coming off a disastrous rookie season in 2024, in which he posted a 40 OPS+ in 53 games, Scott is thriving as a contact-first speedster with elite defense at a premium position. He’s tied for fourth in the majors in defensive runs saved and outs above average while batting .289 with 11 steals in 12 attempts. At 24, Scott is solidifying himself as a centerpiece of the Cardinals’ rebuild. — Castillo
Record: 17-21
Previous ranking: 25
In the middle of April, the Nationals’ bullpen performance was so off-the-charts bad that manager Dave Martinez called a meeting in his office just to address the relievers. Did it work? At the time, their relief ERA was an astounding 7.21. Three weeks later, that number is … 7.22. The irony is that closer Kyle Finnegan, who was non-tendered by Washington last fall before signing back late in the offseason, has been pretty good (3.07 ERA over 15 appearances with 12 saves in 14 chances). That tells you a little about how badly the rest of the bullpen has struggled. — Doolittle
Record: 13-22
Previous ranking: 23
General manager Mike Elias took blame for the team’s ghastly start and voiced his support for manager Brandon Hyde last Friday. Elias’ offseason decision-making and the subsequent injuries have tanked the starting rotation, but the vaunted offense isn’t doing its part. Cedric Mullins, Jackson Holliday and Ryan O’Hearn have been bright spots, but Adley Rutschman, Ryan Mountcastle, Heston Kjerstad and Jordan Westburg all have an OPS+ under 100. Gunnar Henderson, slowed by an intercostal strain to begin the season, isn’t playing like the MVP candidate he was in 2024. Tyler O’Neill is on the IL again. Baltimore ranks 23rd in runs scored and that isn’t good enough to overcome the rotation’s warts. — Castillo
Record: 12-26
Previous ranking: 28
It has been a disastrous season for the Pirates, on and off the field. There was the controversy surrounding the franchise’s decision to replace a Roberto Clemente logo with a hard iced tea ad at PNC Park. Last week, a fan broke his neck, clavicle and back when he fell from the 21-foot-high Clemente Wall onto the field. This week, a video of a PNC Park usher fighting a fan went viral. On the field, the Pirates are in last place in the NL Central again with one of the worst offenses in the majors. — Castillo
Record: 14-22
Previous ranking: 27
The Marlins have been competitive in some facets this season, but the area that decidedly does not fit that bill has been a glaringly awful starting rotation. Miami’s 6.35 rotation ERA ranks ahead of only the 6-29 Rockies. The Marlins have always been built on strong rotations when they’ve been good — but in 2025, they’ve produced only five quality starts in 36 games. Surely their starter ERA will move in the right direction from here (right?), but if it doesn’t, the franchise nadir (a 5.58 rotation ERA in 2007) could be in jeopardy. — Doolittle
Record: 15-20
Previous ranking: 26
Part of the problem with the slumping Angels: a defense that ranks second worst in the majors in defensive runs saved (ahead of only the A’s). Catcher Logan O’Hoppe, first baseman Nolan Schanuel and third baseman Luis Rengifo all rank as the worst at their positions via defensive runs saved. Schanuel and Rengifo also rank near the bottom in Statcast’s outs above average, as does center fielder Jo Adell. (Kyren Paris has been getting more time there of late.) The Angels back up that bad defense with the worst team OBP in the majors. — Schoenfield
Record: 10-27
Previous ranking: 29
The White Sox aren’t what analysts would label as “good,” but their record would be less terrible if not for an amazing 2-10 start in one-run games. Five of the losses were last-inning road defeats, including Tuesday’s debacle that featured rookie Chase Meidroth getting bonked on the head by a routine pop-up. Chicago’s saves leader is Brandon Eisert — with one. That’s right: After six weeks of the season, the White Sox have recorded exactly one save. The late-game failings undermine a club that, by and large, has cleared the low bar of playing better than it did in 2024. — Doolittle
Record: 6-29
Previous ranking: 30
The Rockies actually won two games in a row last week, beating the Braves 2-1 behind a solid outing from Chase Dollander and then beating the Giants 4-3 with two runs in the eighth inning. Alas, the losing picked right back up and the Rockies’ wRC+ fell to 64 (100 is average). The MLB low since 1901 is 68 (by the 1920 Philadelphia A’s) and even last year’s woeful White Sox came in at 75. So, yes, we’re looking at one of the worst offenses of all time. — Schoenfield
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway