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New York Times
02-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
How to watch the San Francisco Giants in 2025: Schedule, broadcast info and blackout rules
This year's San Francisco Giants look competitive and compelling. Heliot Ramos and Mike Yastrzemski have both splashed balls into McCovey Cove in the last year, while Matt Chapman, Jung Hoo Lee and Wilmer Flores tout respectable power. Pitchers Logan Webb and Robbie Ray are holding things down atop the starting rotation, and fan engagement is unsurprisingly strong: Nothing like it, indeed. But keeping up with nightly broadcasts in 2025 is needlessly difficult and overly complicated — from streaming restrictions and channel rotations to blackout rules within the local market. Here's our best effort to make sense of it all, specifically for Giants fans. Make sure you're following the team and the MLB for updates in your feed. Staff writer Grant Brisbee is our San Fran beat writer, offering consistent roundups and takeaways from each series. Advertisement Fubo is a cable-cutting streaming platform that offers local and national channels, along with add-on sports packages. Any game on NBC Sports Bay Area, KNTV, ESPN, Fox, or MLB Network can be streamed here (more information on these networks is available below). TBS games cannot. What you need to watch these games: The 'pro' plan starts at $84.99 per month, with an additional charge for 4K Ultra HD. For more baseball, there is the add-on, which streams every out-of-market game for $29.99 a month, and the 'sports lite' package (with MLB Network) for $9.99 a month. The core broadcasters, Mike Krukow, Duane Kuiper, Dave Flemming and Jon Miller, each signed a multi-year extension this spring. Miller is best known for his work on ESPN games until 2010, and he is a current member of the Radio Hall of Fame. When it comes to TV, though, it's about the two Ks: Krukow and Kuiper. Krukow is a three-time California Sportscaster of the Year and won 20 games for San Francisco in 1986. His visage is featured at Oracle Park as part of the Giants Wall of Fame. Kuiper is in his 32nd consecutive season with NBC Sports Bay Area. A left-handed second baseman, Kuiper played the final four seasons of his pro career with SF. Reliever Javier López, who won three World Series rings with the franchise, does select road games. He's joined by postseason hero Hunter Pence, who is a natural in color commentary and analysis. What you need to watch these games: Fubo, DirecTV Stream (starting $80-90 monthly), YouTube TV (starting at $82.99/month) What you need to watch these games: A carrier in your territory that has NBC Sports Bay Area, like any of the following — Additionally, select games are available over-the-air on KNTV, the NBC sister station, which can be found on channel 11. All Giants fans are encouraged — well, don't be like Robert De Niro in 'The Fan' (1996). Even with the team's deep local roots and massive media market, a significant number of viewers are tuning in from beyond San Francisco's designated territory. The package has these out-of-towners covered, with every regular-season inning from across the league (excluding national and in-market regional games). It costs $149.99 annually. Fubo offers the add-on for $29.99 a month. Advertisement Meanwhile, MLB Network airs almost 300 local broadcasts for national audiences, so you can catch some Giants games there. MLB Network also offers 26 unique, produced-in-house 'showcase' games that are not subject to local blackouts. What you need to watch these games: MLB Network for select games / for all of them The league has partnered with ESPN since 1990; that ends this fall. Yup, the purveyors of the iconic music are indeed opting out of their remaining baseball broadcasts. For this season, you'll still find select primetime matchups here. Jon Sciambi (play-by-play for the Cubs) and Karl Ravech are usually on the mic, alongside five-time World Series winner David Cone and well-traveled utility hitter Eduardo Pérez. Generational baseball narrator Joe Buck returned to the booth for a memorable Opening Day affair, but he's sticking with football now. For ESPN, think Sundays, especially 'Sunday Night Baseball.' Giants games on ESPN: Fox is where you'll hear Joe Davis (voice of the Dodgers, jeer as you wish), Jason Benetti (Tigers) or Adam Amin (the NBA's Chicago Bulls) on the call. Retired Silver Slugger catcher A.J. Pierzynski, playoff bellwether Adam Wainwright, 1992 Rookie of the Year Eric Karros and Dontrelle Willis (aka the D-Train!) rotate in the booth. Three Hall-of-Famers are on this network. The studio pregame features Derek Jeter and David Ortiz, while John Smoltz does color commentary. The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal can be seen reporting from the field, too. Fox usually has a Saturday spot. Giants games on Fox/FS1: TBS has the Tuesday action, with Brian Anderson (Brewers) and Ron Darling (Mets) as the mainstays. The pre- and post-game shows are stacked with 2007 NL MVP Jimmy Rollins, three-time All-Star Curtis Granderson and all-time great hurler Pedro Martínez. TBS games can also be streamed on Max. The playoff broadcasts add decorated and beloved former Giants manager Dusty Baker. Bob Costas was on the mic before his retirement last fall. Advertisement Giants games on TBS: none scheduled The purple metropolis now has 'MLB Sunday Leadoff' games free from blackout restrictions. Giants games on Roku: Like with Roku, you can stream more baseball games from your smart TV. Unlike Roku, the Apple TV+ games are regionally blacked out. Alex Faust (also of NHL and Jeopardy fame) is on these calls, as is Wayne Randazzo (Angels). Giants games on Apple TV+: none scheduled For national MLB games in general, think: Streaming and betting/odds links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication. (Photo by Smith Collection / Gado / Getty Images)
New York Times
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
MLB Power Rankings: Cardinals, Rangers rising; What you've might have missed this season
By Grant Brisbee, Chad Jennings and Levi Weaver Every week, we ask a selected group of our baseball writers — local and national — to rank the teams from first to worst. Here are the collective results. Do you know The Flaming Lips? Popular psychedelic rock band fronted by Wayne Coyne, who's the type of songwriter to craft a hit song about preparing toast with Vaseline, blowing a nose with magazines, and dyeing hair with tangerines? Advertisement If that's not your thing, maybe try the one about a girl using karate to defend a city from pink robots. It's pretty weird, but also, maybe brilliant? We here at Power Rankings feel some kinship with The Flaming Lips. A lot of people engage with our work, and many of those same people think we're out of our minds. Also, at least one of us (Levi) has rockstar hair. So, at least partially inspired by the most played Flaming Lips song on Spotify, we're spending this week's Power Rankings highlighting numbers and performances you might have missed if you aren't watching these teams night after night. To quote Coyne: Do you realize — that happiness makes you cry? Record: 29-19 Last Power Ranking: 1 Do you realize that Andy Pages has been the Dodgers' second-most valuable player according to WAR, and he's just a rounding error away from catching up to Shohei Ohtani? Gold Glove-worthy defense in center — combined with speed, plenty of power and just enough contact — is the WAR-fetishist's dream, and Pages is strong on all fronts. Pages' expected statistics aren't nearly as shiny, so some of these numbers might come down. Still, for all the handwringing about the Dodgers' bloated payroll, never forget that the most powerful force in baseball is a helpful player becoming an All-Star out of nowhere. — Grant Brisbee Record: 27-19 Last Power Ranking: T-5 Do you realize the Yankees and Dodgers have almost identical offensive numbers? Look at these slash lines coming out of the weekend: Each of these two teams entered the week with a 132 OPS+ — no other team had better than a 118 — and they ranked first and second in runs per game (again, nearly identical at 5.79 and 5.78). Aaron Judge leads the AL in OPS, while Freddie Freeman leads the NL. Each team also has an offensive surprise in the outfield (Andy Pages and Trent Grisham) and has so far gotten a bit of a boost by activating a hard-to-predict infielder (Hyeseong Kim and DJ LeMahieu). The lineups certainly are not identical, but the results have been remarkably similar. — Chad Jennings Advertisement Record: 31-17 Last Power Ranking: 4 This isn't a particularly well-hidden fact, but do you realize that the Tigers have the best record in the league? Not the Dodgers. Not the Yankees. Not the Mets or Padres or Phillies. The Detroit Fightin' Tigers. And if you want something a little more surprising: their most valuable player by bWAR this year is Javy Báez (1.7). Even if you've heard this already, it's still surprising. Like when you hear that the human circulatory system is roughly 60,000 miles long. 'No way,' you think. And then later — maybe years later — you hear it again. 'That has to be fake,' you think. You look it up, and … huh. Weird. Then you memory-hole it until next time, when it blows your mind all over again. Javy Báez. Best player on the best team in the AL. Wild. — Levi Weaver Record: 29-19 Last Power Ranking: 2 Do you realize this is the best pitching staff in baseball? Or, at least, it's the one with the lowest collective ERA by quite a bit. Sean Manaea is one of seven Mets pitchers on the 60-day IL, yet the Mets are the only team in baseball with a sub-3.00 ERA. Only one other team (the Royals) is within a quarter of a run. The Mets entered this week's series against the Red Sox with 12 pitchers who'd thrown at least 10 innings this season, and none had an ERA over 4.00. Kodai Senga has been tremendous in his return from injury, Clay Holmes has successfully transitioned from relieving to starting, and 35-year-old Huascar Brazoban has been an elite setup man. Griffin Canning, basically dumped by both the Angels and Braves, has a 2.47 ERA through nine starts. That staff's been a difference maker in keeping the Mets comfortably in our Top 5. — Jennings Record: 27-18 Last Power Ranking: 3 Do you realize that the Padres lead all of baseball in ground balls hit to the opposite field, and it isn't especially close? My knee-jerk reaction is that this is a bad stat to lead the league in, with heavy-hitting teams like the Yankees and Dodgers down toward the bottom. There are other strong lineups near the top, though, so it can't be terribly predictive. Like most outlier hitting statistics, it's probably safe to blame Luis Arraez for everything. He's a certified Baseball Weirdo™, which is a compliment, so just assume that he's hitting 50 percent of his balls between third and short. Advertisement Another data point to consider: The Rockies have the lowest percentage of opposite-field grounders. Maybe it's just better to hit 'em where they ain't, regardless of direction. — Brisbee Record: 28-20 Last Power Ranking: 8 Do you realize how good Pete Crow-Armstrong has been this year? The Chicago Cubs have existed since 1876, back when you could make the big leagues at roughly 12 years old, playing games after your shift at the dysentery factory and before your night job mopping up the local opium pub. I'm not making this up: The person in last place on the list I'm about to quote was named 'Jiggs Parrott,' and he died of Tuberculosis at age 26. Here's the list: every qualified (3.1 plate appearances per team game) Chicago Cubs position player aged 23 or younger, arranged by fWAR. It starts with Ron Santo in 1963 (6.4 WAR) and ends with Parrott (-2.4 in 1894). Pete Crow-Armstrong, who turned 23 in March, is currently 26th on that list, at 3.0 bWAR. It's May 20. He has played 47 games, meaning if he even plays 141 of the Cubs' 162 games this year, he is on pace for 9.0 fWAR. That would not only be tops on the list, it would be 29 percent higher than Santo's previous record. — Weaver Record: 28-18 Last Power Ranking: T-5 Do you realize Mick Abel's historic debut was par for the course in this rotation? When Abel went six scoreless on Sunday, it was the Phillies' eighth such start this season (tied with the Cardinals and Royals for the most six-inning scoreless starts in the majors). It was also the 21st time that a Phillies starter went at least six innings while allowing no more than two runs (the most such starts in the majors). Zack Wheeler's gone six innings with no more than two runs in eight of his 10 starts. (The Dodgers' entire pitching staff has eight such starts.) Jesús Luzardo has done it five times. (His former team, the Marlins, has done it only twice.) Aaron Nola has struggled, but Wheeler, Luzardo and Cristopher Sánchez are having All-Star-type seasons. Abel showed up and kept pace. — Jennings Advertisement Record: 28-20 Last Power Ranking: 7 Do you realize that Wilmer Flores leads the majors with 42 RBIs? That's partly because of a three-homer, eight-RBI game that put him in impressive company, but it's also because he's coming up with runners on base more often compared to the average player. Here are the last 10 players to drive in 100 runs or more for the Giants: 1. Buster Posey 2. Barry Bonds 3. Jeff Kent 4. J.T. Snow 5. Matt Williams 6. Will Clark 7. Kevin Mitchell 8. Jack Clark 9. Bobby Bonds 10. Dick Dietz It's not hyperbole to say the Giants get a 100-RBI hitter every generation or so. It's quite literal, considering both Bobby and Barry Bonds, and it hasn't happened since 2012. That's what Flores is chasing, and the Giants couldn't be more thrilled. — Brisbee Record: 27-19 Last Power Ranking: 9 Do you realize that closer Andrés Muñoz hasn't allowed an earned run yet this season? He's appeared in 20 games and leads the AL in saves, and while his Fielding Independent Percentage is a bloated 1.76, his ERA is a cool 0.00. A fun storyline to follow all year would be a closer who doesn't allow a single run. Emmanuel Clase allowed just five last season, so it's not entirely out of the question. I'm writing this on Monday afternoon, and the Mariners are playing tonight. So if Muñoz allows a run against the White Sox, realize that it's entirely because of me, and that you should Venmo me some money to prevent me from writing nice things about your team next week. Thank you. — Brisbee (Editor's note: He did not allow a run. Keep your money.) Record: 24-23 Last Power Ranking: 11 Do you realize that, from April 18 to May 18, the Braves went 19-10 while winning seven of nine series? Getting off to a 5-13 start has kept them from climbing more than a game above .500, but for the past month or so, the Braves have won more games than any other National League team, and they're about to get Spencer Strider back from the IL. That's why a team that seems to be languishing in the middle of the standings is back in the top 10 of our Power Rankings. They haven't had a massive winning streak like the Twins or Cardinals, but the end result is the same. The Braves looked like a good team heading into Opening Day, and they've played like a good team since the fourth week or so of the regular season. — Jennings Advertisement Record: 27-21 Last Power Ranking: 17 Do you realize that the Cardinals have the best fielding percentage in baseball? The average team has made 24 errors this season, but the Cardinals have made just 16. That's just one reason they're competing for the NL Central after being ignored most of the offseason. Of course, fielding percentage is an archaic metric that modern baseball fans don't bother with. What really counts are those newfangled stats like Outs Above Average, so if the Cards aren't grading out well there, the sure-handedness is somewhere between 'helpful' and 'eye wash.' Except the Cardinals aren't just leading the world in OAA; they're not far from doubling up the second-best team. They can catch the baseball, and they're contending because of it. — Brisbee Record: 26-22 Last Power Ranking: 10 Do you realize that the Diamondbacks lead baseball in OPS after taking the first pitch of an at-bat? They're also tops in the NL in OPS when their hitters are behind in the count, largely because of their .370 slugging percentage in those situations. More than half the teams in baseball have a SLG under .300 when behind in the count, and only the Yankees and Red Sox have been better. It's a tough team to pitch against, and it's worth remembering that they had the best offense in baseball last season by almost every metric. Considering the breakout of Brandon Pfaadt and the recent scoreless streak from Corbin Burnes, they're oh-so close to putting it all together. — Brisbee Record: 26-21 Last Power Ranking: 16 Do you realize that the Twins' 13-game winning streak — which was snapped on Sunday — was not only the second-longest in team history (15 games in 1991, when they won the World Series), but it's longest one in the sport since the 2022 Mariners, who won 14 straight. That team also made the postseason. Minnesota currently sits in a wild-card position, but the wildest part of this whole winning streak might be that Minnesota was seven games out of first place when it started, and when it ended, the loss dropped them to five games out. Advertisement Combine that with the collision that sent Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton to the 7-day concussion IL, and it seems like the good vibes from such a huge winning streak might be muted a little. — Weaver Record: 25-22 Last Power Ranking: 17 Do you realize that Hunter Brown might be the best pitcher in baseball? He allowed 15 combined runs in two April starts last season, finishing the month with a 9.78 ERA. Since then, he's made 33 starts and thrown 203 2/3 innings with a 2.21 ERA. Those are Cy Young Award numbers. Brown's best start of the season might have been last Thursday, when he pitched eight innings, allowing just one run on five hits and a walk. He was a tough-luck loser to Jacob deGrom in a 1-0 game, though, which leads us to a bonus DYR. Do you realize the Astros' offense has been below average this season? Oh, I see. You're absolutely aware of that. That's why they're down here, compared to their loftier rankings in previous seasons. Brown is doing what he can, though. He's having an award-winning type of season so far. — Brisbee Record: 24-25 Last Power Ranking: 12 Do you realize Alex Bregman is having a peak season at age 31? Most of the Red Sox storylines have revolved around some sort of drama, much of it with Rafael Devers in a starring role. He didn't want to DH. Then he had a horrible first week. Then he got red hot. Then he didn't want to play first base. All the while, Devers has been one of the few Red Sox actually living up to expectations. Bregman might be exceeding them. He's pulling the ball like never before and generating offensive numbers not seen since he nearly won the MVP award back in 2019. The Red Sox are an inconsistent mess, but their biggest offseason addition has been a steady source of production. — Jennings Record: 27-22 Last Power Ranking: 15 Do you realize — or more accurately, do you believe — we're finally seeing that Maikel Garcia breakout year? I've been a low-grade Garcia believer for a couple of years now, despite the fact he has never finished a season with an OPS higher than .711 (it was .614 last year). His Baseball Savant page is a source of bewilderment and wonder to me. Check this out: How can a hitter rank in the 29th percentile in Barrel percentage, but in the 93rd percentile in Squared-Up percentage? In what world does it make sense that he is in the 45th percentile for Bat Speed, but the 84th percentile for Average Exit Velocity? I imagine that Eno Sarris could explain this to me. But frankly, there are so few avenues for wonder in this world that I almost don't want to know. For now, it's good enough to check in and see that Garcia has been the Royals' fourth-most valuable player by bWAR (1.6), just below Michael Wacha and just ahead of last year's second-place AL Cy Young Award finisher Seth Lugo. His OPS entering Monday night? .853, which looks a lot like a breakout to me. — Weaver Advertisement Record: 25-23 Last Power Ranking: T-21 Do you realize how good the Rangers' rotation has been? Look at this: it's the league-wide ERA leaderboard, taken from Baseball Reference. These numbers are from before Monday night's games, but see if you can detect a trend… That's three of the 10 best ERAs in the sport, held by guys whose name is followed by 'TEX'. The other two: Patrick Corbin (3.35) and Jack Leiter, who took a no-hitter into the seventh inning against the Astros on Sunday. Or Jon Gray, who hasn't pitched this year due to a fractured arm during spring training. Kumar Rocker (also on the IL) hasn't been particularly great, but at this rate, he doesn't really have to be? Unless he does … even with this pitching, the Rangers are just 25-23, which should tell you all you need to know about how the offense has performed. — Weaver Record: 25-21 Last Power Ranking: 14 Do you realize that Zack Meisel picked a perfect week for this article? It's basically an entire story built out of 'did you realize' stats. But here's the one that surprised me the most: 1.06: Kolby Allard's ERA Allard was a first-round pick a decade ago and a consensus top 100 prospect for three years. He broke into the big leagues before he turned 21. But it's been a bumpy road to this point. Now 27, Allard signed a minor-league deal with the Guardians — his fourth team in eight years — and worked his way into their bullpen. He has pitched in long relief to rescue the staff and has even dabbled in high-leverage opportunities. He's putting to use the lessons learned from 10 years of trials. I must admit: I did not, in fact, realize. — Weaver Record: 25-24 Last Power Ranking: 18 Do you realize how much better the Reds offense can be if this is what Will Benson is going to be? Advertisement From C. Trent Rosecrans' recent article on Will Benson, who was called up from Triple-A Louisville on May 9: 'Benson's streak of four straight games with a home run is the most since Joey Votto hit homers in seven straight games (and nine home runs total) in July of 2021.' Benson now has five home runs in nine games, which is already good for the fourth-most on the Reds this season. Benson is 26 years old and has played over 100 games in each of the past two seasons, so he's not a prospect. In fact, his .863 OPS in 2023 was .001 behind Matt McLain for the team lead. But last year was sort of a disaster, and he found himself in the minor leagues to start this season. If he can keep this — or anything close to it — up, he won't be back there any time soon. — Weaver Record: 23-25 Last Power Ranking: 16 Do you realize how unusual it is for the Brewers to be below .500 at this point in the year? On May 20, 2017, the Brewers were 18-24. Since then, they've only been below .500 on May 20 once. That was 2021, and four days later, they had a winning record and were en route to yet another postseason appearance. Until now. And it's starting to seem a little unlikely that 2025 is going to be a repeat of 2021. If that doesn't do it for you, how about this: the Brewers' best hitter this year by OPS isn't William Contreras. It's not Christian Yelich or Jackson Chourio, either. Going into Monday's win against the Reds (min. 100 PAs) it was Rhys Hoskins (.838) Second is Brice Turang, whose (.728) mark is a career best. Do with that information what you will. — Weaver Record: 22-24 Last Power Ranking: 20 Do you realize that more than 40 percent of their wins have come against only two teams? It's hard to keep up because the Blue Jays are kind of all over the place. George Springer started hot, then cooled down. Vladimir Guerrero started cold, then got hot. Bo Bichette is good again, but a lot of the new guys have been underwhelming. So, they're perpetually stuck in the bottom half of our rankings. Not awful, but not good. Of the Blue Jays' 22 wins, nine have come against the Red Sox (five) and Mariners (four). Against everyone else, the Blue Jays are 13-20, a winning percentage on par with the Marlins. The Blue Jays have lost four of their past five series. The one exception: a three-game sweep of the Mariners. — Jennings Advertisement Record: 21-26 Last Power Ranking: 23 Do you realize Jonathan Aranda is one of the 10 best hitters in the majors? This is his fourth partial season in the big leagues — he debuted back in 2022 — and he's currently sixth in wRC+ behind only Aaron Judge, Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani, Cal Raleigh and Pete Alonso. Aranda has been the Rays' primary first baseman — after getting time at second, third and left field in the past — and he's doing a bit of everything at the plate, getting on base, hitting for average, and showing some pop. Of course, he's basically the only Rays regular hitting much better than league average, which explains their modest place in our Power Rankings. Aranda has been great. The Rays as a whole — with apologies to Drew Rasmussen, who's been awesome — have not. — Jennings Record: 22-26 Last Power Ranking: T-21 Do you realize that Mason Miller threw a pitch clocked at 103.9 mph over the weekend? I'm not saying we should throw him into a river and see if he floats (or build a bridge out of him), but there's clearly something unnatural going on here. Only warlocks can throw a pitch that fast, and the burden of proof is on you if you disagree. Of course, the pitch wasn't a strike, and it was one of the balls that led to a walk-off walk: Still, 103.9 mph! Even in a goofy, velocity-drunk era that is built around relievers, it's still possible to be impressed by a really, really fast fastball. — Brisbee Record: 21-27 Last Power Ranking: 25 Do you realize just how bad their offseason was? The Nationals have an interesting young core — James Wood, CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore — and they tried a bunch of short-term stopgaps to stay relevant this season. Almost every one has fallen flat. (Bringing back Kyle Finnegan as closer is an exception.) One new first baseman, Josh Bell, is having a career-worst season, and another, Nathaniel Lowe, has been barely replacement level. Two new relievers, Lucas Sims and Colin Poche, have been designated for assignment and let go, and another, Jorge López, has a 7.20 ERA. Free agent additions Paul DeJong and Michael Soroka have been hurt (Soroka just returned from more than a month on the IL), and returning free agent Trevor Williams has an ERA more than twice as high as last season. These were all short-term half measures that haven't made the Nationals competitive and probably won't even have value at the trade deadline. — Jennings Record: 15-31 Last Power Ranking: 24 Do you realize just how bad this rotation has been? Sure, everyone questioned whether the Orioles had done enough to replace Corbin Burnes, and we all knew Grayson Rodriguez's injury was trouble, but the worst rotation in baseball? The Rockies and Marlins have higher rotation ERAs, but the Orioles are the only team with a negative rotation WAR on FanGraphs. Tomoyuki Sugano has actually been pretty good, but the rest of the rotation has been a mess of injuries and underperformance. Kyle Gibson has been designated for assignment, Charlie Morton has been banished to the bullpen, and manager Brandon Hyde has been fired. The rotation isn't the only reason the Orioles are this low in our Power Rankings, but it's a big one. — Jennings Record: 21-25 Last Power Ranking: 27 Do you realize that the Angels are the clutchest (clutchiest? most clutch?) team in baseball, according to FanGraphs' Clutch metric? That's a stat that compares a team's offensive statistics in low-leverage situations to how they perform in high-leverage situations, and the Angels aren't just at the top: They're lapping the rest of the league. Advertisement This is the part of the capsule where I make fun of the Angels, except they just swept the Dodgers in the Freeway Series over the weekend. Maybe they have that special kind of gumption and/or derring-do, after all. — Brisbee Record: 15-33 Last Power Ranking: 26 Do you realize how uninspiring this season has been? I was looking for something else. I wanted to know the last Pittsburgh Pirates manager with a winning record. The answer wasn't that exciting — it was Clint Hurdle (735-720 from 2011-2019), and before that it was Chuck Tanner (711-685 from 1977-1985). Not that interesting. But looking that up is how I learned that Connie Mack managed the Pirates from 1894-1896 as a player-manager. That was Mack's first managerial job, kickstarting a career that ultimately led him to a league-record 3,731 wins. He also has a losing record (3,731-3,948) which feels, somehow, appropriate for a manager who started with the Pirates and made his biggest contributions at the helm with the A's. Also, just for timely relevance, Mack once, according to a biography of Al Simmons, '…traded away Shoeless Joe Jackson, despite his talent, because of his bad attitude and unintelligent play. Mack wanted men who were self-directed, self-disciplined, and self-motivated.' Anyway, none of that really has anything to do with this year's Pirates. But it's more interesting than the season they're having, so … you're welcome? — Weaver Record: 19-27 Last Power Ranking: 28 Do you realize even Sandy Alcantara has been awful this season? Obviously, no one was expecting a ton out of the Marlins this season, but there was at least a glimmer of intrigue on Opening Day when Alcantara matched up with Paul Skenes in a battle of legitimate aces. Alcantara was the NL Cy Young Award winner in 2022, led the league in complete games in 2023 and missed all of 2024 because of Tommy John surgery. But he was back, and not exactly ancient at 29 years old. The problem is, he has a 7.99 ERA and one of the worst strikeout-to-walk ratios in the majors. Rather than providing a lift, Alcantara's been one of the problems keeping the Marlins near the bottom of our rankings. — Jennings Advertisement Record: 14-34 Last Power Ranking: 29 Do you realize that the new Pope is a White Sox fan? Oh, you did? You've heard that a lot already? OK, hmmm … let's see what else we have in this bag called 'White Sox Surprises.' I'll be honest, this has not been a pleasant bag to put my hand in recently. One time, it came back empty, except for being covered in worms. Another time, I reached in there and pulled out a decaying hot dog, topped with slug slime and despair relish. Gross. Fine, let's see what we've got here … Do you realize that going into Monday night's game, the White Sox had not one, but three hitters with batting averages over .285? Sure, those three — Omar Narváez, Korey Lee and Mike Tauchman — had a combined 39 plate appearances. But I'm not putting my hand back in the bag. — Weaver Record: 8-38 Last Power Ranking: 30 Do you realize that the Rockies' .737 OPS at Coors Field is just the 14th-best home OPS in baseball? They're essentially tied in raw OPS with the Giants, a mostly average offensive team that plays at the pitcher-friendliest park in baseball. Even when the Rockies are bad, they can hit at home. Since Coors Field opened in 1995, the Rockies have never finished lower than seventh in home OPS, and they've finished in the top three in 24 of the 29 seasons since the ballpark opened. They should be able to hit at home! That's their whole deal. They cannot hit at home this season, so let's turn the question back around at them: Do the Rockies realize they play at Coors Field? — Brisbee (Top photo of St. Louis' Masyn Winn: Ed Zurga / Getty Images)
New York Times
22-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
MLB Power Rankings: Cincinnati, Cleveland on the climb; What a difference a year makes
By Grant Brisbee, Chad Jennings and Levi Weaver Every week, we ask a selected group of our baseball writers — local and national — to rank the teams from first to worst. Here are the collective results. The Padres are on pace to go 118-44. The Rockies are on pace to go 31-131. But anyone can look at the standings and see that one team has a better record than another. Power rankings are for adding a little context to the wins and losses, with professional baseball writers looking to see if a team's record is actually misleading. So, in theory, it's possible the Rockies could rank ahead of the Padres if our panel of voters thought it was more indicative of their true talent levels. Advertisement Is that what happened? You will simply have to keep reading, friends. In this edition of the power rankings, we're looking back at where each of these teams ranked at this time last year and what that might tell us about where they're going. Record: 16-7 Last Power Ranking: 1 Ranking a year ago: 4 I filled in the 'ranking a year ago' section without checking. They were atop the power rankings a year ago, I'm sure of it. They'll be atop the power rankings next year. So I'm not going to check. Not unless my editor forces me to in the interest of 'due diligence' and not being 'a lazy jerkwad,' which, after checking a few Slack messages, appears to be the case. Fine. But I'm telling you, they were first. They were … fourth? How silly. Let that be a lesson to the people who want these power rankings to more closely reflect the current standings. If you do that, sometimes you'll suggest the best team in baseball is the fourth-best team in baseball, which is ridiculous. Save everyone the hassle. Just put the Dodgers first until they lose their 75th game of the season. — Grant Brisbee Record: 16-7 Last Power Ranking: 2 Ranking a year ago: 16 At this time last season, everyone was experiencing some measure of Padres fatigue. They were constantly winning offseasons and losing regular seasons, so it took only a month for people to get tired of the 2024 Padres. They were just going to be confusingly mediocre again, so 16th place it was. Then they got hot, with an 80-56 record after that. That's a .588 winning percentage and 95-win pace over a full season. This year, they've been even better, and they have the best record in baseball as of this writing. They're not above the Dodgers in this ranking because of that lingering Padres-fatigue, but if they can hold onto that best record for another week or two, maybe it'll be their turn. They've been outstanding for a full calendar year now. — Brisbee Advertisement Record: 16-7 Last Power Ranking: 3 Ranking a year ago: T-18 Here's a strong reminder of how much things can change between now and October. At this time last year, the Mets had a winning record — thanks to a six-game winning streak — but we weren't buying it. Catcher Francisco Alvarez had just gone on the IL, and the Mets seemed due for a swoon. And that's exactly what happened! The Mets were well below .500 by the end of May, but a great June and a strong September pushed them into the playoffs, where they advanced all the way to the NLCS. This year, we're having less trouble believing the Mets can make a run as they've moved to the top of the NL East. But check with us again next week after they're finished their current series against the Phillies and have played four against the Nationals. — Chad Jennings Record: 14-9 Last Power Ranking: 7 Ranking a year ago: 2 The Yankees are weird, man. In the past year, they've gotten Gerrit Cole healthy, then lost him again. They've failed to re-sign Juan Soto but added Max Fried. They've traded for Jazz Chisholm Jr., Devin Williams and Cody Bellinger. They've had turnover at first base, second base, third base, left field, center field, and most of their rotation. They've used Luke Weaver as a closer, made Ben Rice their primary DH, and buried Trent Grisham on their bench only to start actually using him again this season to pretty decent results. After all that change … they're still pretty close to where they were a year ago as our top-ranked team in the American League. They're coming off a good stretch, too. — Jennings Record: 15-8 Last Power Ranking: 5 Ranking a year ago: 21 Last July, an intrepid and content-starved writer took a look at the provisional 2025 schedule and highlighted the future road trip the Giants just finished. It was an obvious bear trap — Yankees for three, Phillies for four and a cross-country trip to Anaheim for another three without an off day. And that was without knowing the Phillies would schedule their getaway-day game for 4:05 p.m. local time, which seems illegal. The Giants went 5-5, which doesn't sound very impressive, but last season's team would have finished 0-11. The extra loss would have just appeared on the schedule one day, and nobody would have bothered to correct it. The Giants are one of the biggest movers in this exercise, and their ability to look competent in the face of expected doom is yet another reason why. — Brisbee Advertisement Record: 13-10 Last Power Ranking: 4 Ranking a year ago: 5 The Phillies have been in this power rankings tier — easily top 10, often top 5, rarely No. 1 — for a few years now. They've built a familiar core and supplemented with semi-regular tweaks (new starter Jesús Luzardo has been awesome; new reliever Jordan Romano not so much), and the end result has been a kind of overall consistency despite an offense that can feel very boom-or-bust. The question isn't whether the Phillies are among the teams with a chance to win a championship. It's whether this will be the year they do enough at the end to actually make a deep run and maybe win the whole thing. Barring something extreme, we seem to have a fairly clear set of expectations through the end of September. — Jennings Record: 13-9 Last Power Ranking: 6 Ranking a year ago: 10 Last year at this time, the Diamondbacks were the reigning pennant winners, and they looked like an even stronger team. If you knew that they were going to lead baseball in runs scored by the end of last season, you might have even picked them to win the NL West. As is, their pitching was dreadful enough to keep them out of the postseason entirely. That felt like something of a fluke, though, which makes it extra impressive that they're up this high again with Zac Gallen and Corbin Burnes scuffling. If the Diamondbacks get both of them back to their normal levels of run prevention, they could win 100 games. That might be good enough for only a fourth-place finish in the wacky NL West, perhaps, but still. They're a better team again, and this time it should stick. — Brisbee Record: 14-10 Last Power Ranking: 8 Ranking a year ago: 9 What no difference a year makes, eh? The Cubs' bullpen has been bad. Like, bottom five in the league in a lot of categories bad. But their offense has been incredibly good. Like top five in the league in a lot of categories good. They lead the sport in scoring (145 runs) and run differential (+41) Advertisement They did make one small move on Monday to try to shore up the bullpen, acquiring Drew Pomeranz from the Mariners, but here's a very weird and extreme example of the team we're working with. This is from Sahadev Sharma's story about last Friday's game: 'What happened over the next inning and a half was nearly impossible to describe. In less than an hour of baseball, the two teams traded blows, combining for 21 runs on 20 hits, including six home runs. The Cubs got punched in the jaw, blowing a six-run lead, only to counter, forcing Arizona to blow a four-run lead of its own.' Yeah. They gave up 10 runs in the eighth inning and came back to win the game. Good luck power ranking that. — Levi Weaver Record: 13-9 Last Power Ranking: 11 Ranking a year ago: 11 Last year's entry: According to Wins Above Average, the Rangers have the 20th-best pitching staff in baseball. According to FIP, the Rangers have the fourth-worst pitching staff in the majors. So, how are they in first place in the AL West as of this writing? Would you like to venture a guess which rotation leads the AL this year in ERA (2.85), FIP (3.34), fewest hits allowed (86), fewest home runs allowed (11, tied with Seattle), earned runs allowed (37) and opponent's batting average (.201), while leading the entire sport in walks-per-nine (2.24) and WHIP (0.96)? Look, when even a spider-bitten Patrick Corbin is putting up strong starts, you know something is going really right. For now, that translates to exactly the same ranking they had last year. But maybe that makes sense — they're in the exact same position in the standings they were last year, too. — Weaver Record: 14-9 Last Power Ranking: 9 Ranking a year ago: 20 It's not the biggest jump from last year to this year, but jumping 10 spots is still pretty impressive. Like the Royals, the Tigers made a huge year-over-year improvement in 2024 to shock the baseball world and make the postseason. Advertisement Unlike the Royals, they seem to be building on it this year. While we're looking back a year, here's one reason Detroit is thriving: A year ago, first-round picks Spencer Torkelson and Casey Mize were partway through seasons that ultimately made a lot of folks wonder if one or both might not be quite as good as they'd been hyped up to be. This year: no, no — they're good. In relatively recent years, the AL Central has felt a little like a 'first team to not suck, even a little bit, wins the division' situation. Last year changed that, and it looks like the Tigers are trying to make it very clear who's in charge moving forward. — Weaver Record: 13-11 Last Power Ranking: 10 Ranking a year ago: 17 At this time last year, four AL East teams ranked among our top 11. The Red Sox were the lone exception, having fallen well out of favor with our voters. This year, they're back in the mix — even flirting with the top 10 — but they're part of the American League's murky second tier. We have the Yankees as the best team in the AL, followed by a choose-your-own adventure of next-best teams, none of which is really setting itself apart. The Red Sox had a chance to absolutely dominate the White Sox through seven games in the past 10 days and were just kind of meh. — Jennings Record: 12-10 Last Power Ranking: 13 Ranking a year ago: 13 The Mariners are back, baby. Not only did they win two series on the road last week, but also they've scored eight or more runs in three out of their past four games. Over the past couple of seasons, the Mariners' problem has been painfully obvious: Score more runs, you dullards. If they can manage that, they'll win the division going away. Last year at this time, they were also on the road and scoring more runs than expected. What's old is new again. This time, though … this time the offensive surge will definitely stick. Unless the Mariners are trapped in 12th- and 13th-ranked purgatory forever. That might be the Occam's Razor explanation, to be honest. Until we know either way, here's one spot closer to the top. Don't spend it all in one place. — Brisbee Advertisement Record: 13-9 Last Power Ranking: 19 Ranking a year ago: 8 Last year around this time, it looked like the Guardians (16-6 at the time) were en route to run away with the AL Central — surely the Tigers and Royals weren't going to hang around all season long. The 7-12 start by the Twins looked like an early elimination of their biggest competition for an AL Central title. That ended up being mostly true, though it was closer than we expected. The Guardians outlasted both Kansas City and Detroit, winning the division by 6 1/2 games and sticking around in the playoffs longer than both before losing the ALCS to the Yankees. This year, it's more of a dogfight and we all know it. Not only are the Guardians performing a little worse — Emmanuel Clase seems human, for one — but also the Tigers seem legit and the Royals … well, they did make the playoffs last year, even if they don't seem destined for a repeat performance. For more on the Twins and White Sox, you'll need to keep scrolling down. Further. Further. Almost there … — Weaver Record: 9-13 Last Power Ranking: 12 Ranking a year ago: 1 You don't have to go back a full year to see how far — and how quickly — the Braves have fallen in the eyes of our voters. When this season started, the Braves were No. 2 in our rankings. They were getting healthy again, and we were bullish on a bounce back. Instead, this season is so far even worse than last season. The Braves lost their first seven games, Jurickson Profar got suspended, Reynaldo López had surgery, they've played musical chairs in the bullpen, their outfielders have been awful, and — well — now our power rankings have them middle-of-the-pack, and that's being generous given their record. A weekend sweep of the Twins was at least a step in the right direction. — Jennings Record: 12-11 Last Power Ranking: 16 Ranking a year ago: T-11 The Blue Jays lately have been one of those teams that always seem capable of going either direction. Some middle-of-the-pack teams get ranked all over the place by our individual voters, but our votes are pretty well bunched together on the Blue Jays. Basically, just rank them somewhere in the middle, and adjust a bit up or down if they get hot or cold. At this time last year, they'd won seven of nine, and so they were up. Within a couple of weeks, they were losing again and back down to No. 18. This year, they have a winning record, but their run differential is uninspiring. For now, continue to assume they're somewhere in the middle of the pack, trending on and off the playoff bubble with each good and bad week. — Jennings Record: 12-11 Last Power Ranking: 18 Ranking a year ago: 6 It can't be a huge surprise that the Brewers have slipped since last year; they are essentially a racecar shedding parts as they speed around the track. It's truly admirable that they haven't crashed and (Corbin) burned (get it?) a long time ago, but you can't stay in motion forever on one alternator, three tires and an exhausted nutria being fed Monster energy drinks intravenously. Advertisement But also … they're still running!? No, literally: they lead the league in stolen bases (34), and on Sunday, they stole six bases in the first inning en route to a nine-steal game. They might have slipped into the bottom half of these power rankings, but that's still a very fun brand of baseball to watch. — Weaver Record: 11-11 Last Power Ranking: 15 Ranking a year ago: 18 A year ago, the Astros were absolutely cooked. They were 7-17, which made it tough on power rankers who err on the side of a team's true talent level instead of year-to-date performance. Their early record suggested the Astros were almost the worst team in baseball, but their roster suggested they were going to start winning a lot more games. Eventually, they started winning a lot more games because they were actually a good team. Sometimes it's just that simple. The 2025 Astros have a similar ranking to the one from 364 days ago, even though they have a much better record than they did back then. So consider this a vote of no-confidence from the same writers from last season. There isn't nearly enough they-should-be-better sentiment for the 2025 Astros to make up for what's been a supremely mediocre start so far. — Brisbee Record: 9-12 Last Power Ranking: 13 Ranking a year ago: 3 At this time last year, the Orioles were 15-7 coming off a 101-win season. Our top-three ranking wasn't so much benefit of the doubt as it was a logical interpretation of the evidence. The Orioles were good and young and flourishing, all signs pointing in the right direction. A year later, we're not so sure. We obviously don't hate this team, but the Orioles haven't been able to sustain much momentum since the middle of last season (they played .500 ball in the second half of last year). The team still has a lot of good young talent — Gunnar Henderson's numbers are going to turn around — but concerns about their pitching seem justified, especially after Baltimore allowed 24 runs on Sunday. Right now, our voters see the Orioles more middle-of-the-pack than anywhere near the top of the sport. — Jennings Record: 11-12 Last Power Ranking: 22 Ranking a year ago: 14 I can't get over that the Cincinnati Reds lost three consecutive 1-0 games this year, and also won Sunday's game by a score of 24-2. If I look through my Optimism Glasses, I can definitely see a playoff team with a better-than-you-think rotation beginning to coalesce under the steady leadership of Terry Francona. If I put on my Pessimism Shades, I can see a team that is so wildly inconsistent that its destiny is to play September spoilers by, I don't know, sweeping the Cubs to knock them out of the playoffs, while finishing with a 76-86 record. (I have somehow managed to upset two fan bases with one hypothetical; sound off here.) Advertisement We hereby award them 19th place and a complimentary one of these cute little guys: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ — Weaver Record: 9-13 Last Power Ranking: 17 Ranking a year ago: 7 When we ranked the Rays seventh a year ago, it was despite a .500 record, an offense that hadn't been very productive and a rotation that was missing three key arms. In short, we were giving the Rays some benefit of the doubt. But not so much today. Their run differential is positive, but we've clearly become skeptical after a down year that saw the Rays rebuild at the trade deadline. An early surprise for the Rays is outfielder Kameron Misner, who made the roster because of one injury, got into the regular lineup because of another, and has been one of their most productive hitters. The Rays seem always to have a surprise up their sleeves, but last week they dropped back-to-back series against the Red Sox and Yankees, which isn't going to help in a tough division. — Jennings Record: 9-14 Last Power Ranking: T-20 Ranking a year ago: 15 It felt weird seeing the Royals this high on the list last year. This year, now that they're a playoff team and all, it feels a little weird to see them this low. The rotation has been about as good as they could expect, ranking near the top in quite a few statistics. Cole Ragans leads the league in strikeouts and Kris Bubic has an ERA under 2.00. That's wild. But the offense has been … stinky. They rank in the bottom three in average, on-base percentage, slugging and quite a lot of other categories. Bobby Witt Jr. is still crushing it, but look at the team leaderboard in OPS (min. 60 PAs): Witt: .847 Maikel Garcia: .770 Vinnie Pasquantino: .593 Jonathan India: .568 Salvador Perez: .529 Yikes. — Weaver Record: 11-10 Last Power Ranking: T-20 Ranking a year ago: 26 A jump of four places doesn't sound like much, and maybe it's not, but it's pretty hard to ignore the vibe shift of the Angels right now. Nolan Schanuel is hitting the ball harder. Zach Neto is off the IL. Kyren Paris has cooled off dramatically (two hits, no walks and 12 strikeouts in his past 23 plate appearances), but he's already done enough to start thinking of him as a long-term contributor at second base. Advertisement It's not Garvey-Lopes-Russell-Cey yet, but having an entire infield in place for years to come seems like a great step toward the next competitive Angels team. It certainly feels a lot closer than it was a year ago. — Brisbee Record: 7-15 Last Power Ranking: 24 Ranking a year ago: 22 Last year, the Twins got off to a bad start, then got off to a bad ending, and now they're off to a bad start again. The in-between was occasionally fine, and even dipped into the realm of 'fun.' There was sausage involved, and Rocco Baldelli acknowledged it with the dutiful exhaustion of a teenage boy's dad when his friends ask about his kid's band. 'Ha ha, yeah … I guess, man. They have two drummers and no singer, but they're having fun and a bunch of kids are coming out to the shows, so what do I know?' Anyway, after the Twins more or less put an end to the Braves' own very bad start by getting swept, a lot fewer kids are coming out to the shows. Attendance is way down since there are apparently other cool things to do in the Twin Cities this time of year. On the upside, Luke Keaschall has been pretty good upon making his big-league debut. So that's … something, at least. — Weaver Record: 9-14 Last Power Ranking: 23 Ranking a year ago: 24 The last time the Cardinals had two consecutive full seasons under .500 was 1958 and 1959. That statement is carefully worded to exclude the strike-shortened season of 1994, but it's still bonkers. Bob Gibson was a rookie on the last Cardinals team to play a second straight full season of losing ball. However, the last time the Cardinals allowed more runs than they scored in a full season — a Pythagorean record under .500 — was in 2023 and 2024. While they've been a little Pythag-unlucky this year, that's still a sign that the days of reliable contending might be over for good this time. The Earth went around the Sun once, and the Cards are still 24th. There's no guarantee they'll rank higher in another year, either. — Brisbee Advertisement Record: 10-12 Last Power Ranking: T-26 Ranking a year ago: 25 The A's have four starting pitchers with an ERA better than the league average, and they have three oft-used relievers with ERAs starting with '0.' It's pretty hard to start with that sort of run prevention and end up with the third-worst adjusted ERA in baseball, but they've done it. If you're wondering 'how?', there are seven pitchers alluded to up there, but there are 13 pitchers on the A's staff. The other six pitchers are doing a lot of work, and it's not the kind of work that makes you whistle while you're doing it. It's a shame, because the A's are hitting the ball well as a team, too, and they could be leading a sleepy AL West. As is, they need their ineffective players to be more effective, which is roughly where they were last year. — Brisbee Record: 9-13 Last Power Ranking: T-26 Ranking a year ago: 25 Our year-over-year rankings suggest the Nationals have been pretty stagnant. And I'll speak for myself here in saying that I want to believe in the Nats. More than most other teams in the bottom third of our power rankings, the Nationals have shown signs of future life. They have three solid starters in their mid-20s, James Wood and CJ Abrams look good, and Keibert Ruiz is off to a nice start at the plate. Get Dylan Crews and Luis Garcia going, and the Nationals could have a solid foundation for the long term. But it's just not leading to many wins in the short term. — Jennings Record: 8-15 Last Power Ranking: 28 Ranking a year ago: 23 Since last year's entry, the Pirates have: • Called up Paul Skenes, who won the NL Rookie of the Year • Uh • I mean • They signed Tommy Pham • He's pretty good, right? • Y'all hear about this Andrew Heaney fella? It's not that there aren't some exciting young players on the team. Oneil Cruz hits the ball with a frankly shocking largesse of unfettered malice in his heart. Bryan Reynolds is an All-Star and the sort of player who could be on a playoff team. Their starting rotation is fun and exciting and hopeful. But the thing about baseball is that the teams who make the playoffs tend to be the ones who have invested in things like … free agents, for example. — Weaver Record: 10-12 Last Power Ranking: 25 Ranking a year ago: 28 Advertisement It didn't take us long to identify the three worst teams in baseball last season. By the end of April, the Marlins, Rockies and White Sox were the last three teams in our rankings, and indeed they finished — in that order — with the three worst records in the league. The Marlins seem to be not as bad this season. Obviously, we're still not sold on them as a playoff team, but they have some decent hitters (and still some awful ones) behind a rotation that now has both Sandy Alcantara and Max Meyer (who'd been recently optioned to Triple A at this time last year). Add in a couple of so-far, so-good relievers and we obviously think the Marlins are better, but maybe not that much better. — Jennings Record: 5-17 Last Power Ranking: 29 Ranking a year ago: 30 Last year, the White Sox had a historically bad year. This year, they are having a slightly less historically bad year. Going 5-17 should in no way feel like an improvement, but last year, they didn't win their fifth game until they were 4-22. This year, they did it when they were a mere 4-16. Baby steps, right? [receives a memo] Ah. I've been given an update here. It says that the baby has now tripped and fallen directly into a kitty litter box, and is rolling around in the litter. Someone taught him some swear words, and he's saying those over and over. He's laughing and crying at the same time. Aaaaand now he's putting some of the litter in his mouth. Great. Who thought it was a good idea to teach this baby how to walk? — Weaver Record: 4-17 Last Power Ranking: 30 Ranking a year ago: 29 Hey, the Rockies are making progress! It's the wrong kind of progress, but still, keep it up, fellas. The only reason they won't be in 31st place next week is because of 'rules' and 'mathematics,' but give them just a little more time. A team with this kind of roster has the potential to break all sorts of norms and expectations. Until then, here's a meme: — Brisbee (Top photo of Elly De La Cruz: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)
New York Times
08-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
MLB Power Rankings: Braves with a big drop; How about that NL West?
By Grant Brisbee, Chad Jennings and Levi Weaver Every week, we ask a selected group of our baseball writers — local and national — to rank the teams from first to worst. Here are the collective results. Two surprising weekends can make a big difference in football, but small samples mean less in baseball. Keep that in mind as you browse our Power Rankings a week and a half into the season. Advertisement Some of our opinions have changed, but perhaps not as much as each team's record would suggest. The one-win Atlanta Braves are still far ahead of the middle-of-the-pack Miami Marlins, and the red-hot San Francisco Giants have our attention, but we're not anointing them a top-five team just yet. (And before you blame our biases, note that the soulless algorithm at FanGraphs seems to agree.) We do want to have our opinions changed, though. We want to believe in Cinderella and predict Goliath's defeat, and so we offer this week's Power Rankings with a 'difference-maker' on each team: one player who's having an outsized impact on either present performance or our future expectations. Record: 9-3 Last Power Ranking: 1 Early difference-maker: Yoshinobu Yamamoto If the Dodgers can turn Michael Conforto into an All-Star again, it won't matter if Jon Garland comes out of retirement and makes every start for them for the rest of the season. They'll hit their way to 160 wins. But assuming they'll need some reliable starting pitching at some point, Yamamoto has been their best source of that so far. Now-injured Blake Snell's 8.0 BB/9 is the second-best in the rotation so far, at least among pitchers with two starts, so this is the shakiest top spot in the power rankings the Dodgers have had in months, if not an entire year. (They were still the unanimous choice, of course.) — Grant Brisbee GO DEEPER Dodgers place Blake Snell on IL due to shoulder inflammation Record: 7-2 Last Power Ranking: T-4 Early difference-maker: Jesús Luzardo There's a lot going right for the Phillies. Kyle Schwarber has been a monster, Zack Wheeler has been as good as ever, Edmundo Sosa has been awesome off the bench and the bullpen has picked up the slack for struggling closer Jordan Romano. But the defining moment in this strong start to the season has been taking two out of three from the Dodgers over the weekend, and that series started with Luzardo going seven scoreless innings in the opener. Two starts into his Phillies career, Luzardo is 2-0 with 19 strikeouts and a 1.50 ERA. The rest of the rotation (other than Aaron Nola) has also been excellent, but Luzardo was the team's biggest offseason addition, and he's had an immediate impact, including that early season statement against the defending world champs. — Chad Jennings Advertisement Record: 6-4 Last Power Ranking: 2 Early difference-maker: Aaron Judge The Yankees are this high in our rankings for many reasons, most of them to do with their offense. Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Anthony Volpe have been the best middle-infield duo in baseball, Paul Goldschmidt has been resurgent at first base, and both Trent Grisham and Ben Rice have taken advantage of more-than-expected playing time. But let's not overthink this. Judge was historically great last season, and it took eight games this season for FanGraphs to declare him already a 1 WAR player (he dipped to 0.9 WAR after a hitless Game 9). A three-homer game certainly helped pad the early-season stats, but Judge has another three-hit game, he's twice homered in back-to-back games, and he leads the league in both runs and RBIs. It's going to be hard to match last season, but Judge is making an early run at it. — Jennings GO DEEPER Trent Grisham hits 2 home runs in win over Pirates, talks overcoming difficult 2024 Record: 9-2 Last Power Ranking: 7 Early difference-maker: Jackson Merrill Merrill is the only Padre currently with a double-digit RBI total and now, he's one of those Padres who can pick up a restaurant tab, too. San Diego expects him to be a superstar and make up for the less-than-superstar production it might get from Xander Bogaerts and Manny Machado going forward. So far, so good, and it's making A.J. Preller's foresight to keep him while trading every minor leaguer and minor-league mascot in the system look even more impressive. — Brisbee Record: 8-3 Last Power Ranking: 3 Early difference-maker: Josh Smith The thing about the Rangers is that there are at least six guys I could nominate here. Nathan Eovaldi has pitched like an ace. Jack Leiter looks more like a blowtorch and less like a flameout. (This is absolutely a 'Leiter' pun, I'll own it.) Joc Pederson and Jake Burger have been helpful additions to the lineup. But I'm going with Smith here. His defense is good-to-great at any of the five positions he can play, and at the time of this writing, he led all Rangers position players in fWAR (0.5) and OPS (1.011). This is a team with Corey Seager, Marcus Semien and Adolis García in the lineup, in case you forgot. — Levi Weaver Advertisement Record: 5-6 Last Power Ranking: 6 Early difference-maker: Corbin Carroll Corbin Carroll's back? Corbin Carroll's back. The Diamondbacks scored more runs than any other team in baseball last year, even with their young, burgeoning superstar hitting below the Mendoza Line for the first two months. Any herpetological-related optimism for this season was based on the belief that his second half was much more representative of his talent level. It probably was, and now every starting pitcher not named Zac Gallen has to make the good kind of difference if they're going to keep up in a red-hot NL West. — Brisbee Record: 6-5 Last Power Ranking: 8 Early difference-maker: Rafael Devers Oftentimes, we're using the term 'difference-maker' as a shorthand for team MVP. And if we apply that logic to the Red Sox, Wilyer Abreu would be the choice. But if we're looking for a tangible difference, consider this: Devers went 0-for-19 in the first five games of the season, and the Red Sox were 1-4. Then he had two hits in Game No. 6, stayed blistering hot through a four-hit game on Sunday — the last game we saw before voting on the Power Rankings — and the Red Sox went 5-0 in those games. When Devers wasn't hitting, the Red Sox weren't winning. When he started hitting, the Red Sox couldn't lose. Seems like the definition of a difference-maker. — Jennings Record: 7-3 Last Power Ranking: 9 Early difference-maker: Tylor Megill Juan Soto is getting on base a ton, Pete Alonso is hitting for power and Francisco Lindor is struggling (but still delivering when it matters). The Mets are built around those things. For their team to work, those three pieces have to be clicking. So far, so good. (For the most part.) The surprising piece keeping the Mets afloat in the early going is starter Megill, who's become especially important following injuries to Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas and Paul Blackburn. Megill made two starts and won them, including the first game of a three-game weekend sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays. He has a 0.87 ERA. — Jennings Record: 8-2 Last Power Ranking: 15 Early difference-maker: Wilmer Flores Advertisement The Giants are off to their fastest start since 2003, when they went wire-to-wire and finished with the best record in baseball. That team had Barry Bonds in his prime, but this team has a healthy Wilmer Flores, which is roughly the same thing, at least for the first couple of weeks of the season. It was Flores' home run that helped them come back on Opening Day, and it was his ninth-inning single on Sunday that helped keep the Giants' winning streak going. The .900-something OPS will come down, but a return to his career numbers would be a big deal for a lineup that will need steady contributors. — Brisbee GO DEEPER 'We like fun!': Matt Chapman, Jung Hoo Lee help Giants extend win streak to 6 games Record: 1-8 Last Power Ranking: T-4 Early difference-maker: Spencer Strider? Almost all of the Braves' positive impact has come from three players: Marcell Ozuna (he can still hit), Matt Olson (ditto) and Spencer Schwellenbach (two starts, three hits, 14 strikeouts, no earned runs). But the Braves have only one win because of [gestures wildly in all directions] everything else. Austin Riley has a .468 OPS, Chris Sale has a 5.40 ERA, Jurickson Profar has an 80-game suspension, and Reynaldo López is having shoulder surgery. It's last season all over again. Except, very soon, the Braves could get Strider off the IL, and that's the kind of addition that could be a turning point. Give the rotation another ace, get some hitters back on track, and the Braves could gain some momentum and remind us why they were among the favorites heading into this season. — Jennings Record: 5-6 Last Power Ranking: 10 Early difference-maker: Charlie Morton The Orioles' lineup is performing more or less as expected. It has not been great with runners on base, but the lineup is loaded with well-above-average hitters (including Jackson Holliday, whose second season is off to a better start than his first). But if the lineup has been as expected, the rotation has been as feared. Failure to re-sign Corbin Burnes, plus injuries to Grayson Rodriguez and Kyle Bradish — among others — left the Orioles' rotation vulnerable. Through the weekend, three of their starters had an ERA higher than 6.00, including Morton (9.72 ERA in two starts, both losses). This helps explain why, despite Cedric Mullins being awesome, the Orioles still have a losing record. — Jennings GO DEEPER Happy New Year, Baseball! 17 Weird & Wild ways the season's first week surprised Record: 8-5 Last Power Ranking: 13 Early difference-maker: Kyle Tucker As much fun as it would be to give the nod to Carson Kelly, who hit for the cycle and has some very fun small-sample early-season numbers, the clear answer here is Tucker. Dude has been everything the Cubs hoped they were getting when they traded away a prospect (Cam Smith) who this spring looked very capable of giving them a bad case of Trade Regret™. Advertisement Not yet, though. Tucker is hitting .327 (1.165 OPS) with five home runs. Enjoy it now, Cubs fans — he's going to break a lot of brains when we hear how much he makes in free agency this winter. (Shout out to Shota Imanaga, who's also been very good.) — Weaver Record: 6-4 Last Power Ranking: 16 Early difference-maker: Spencer Torkelson I could easily go with Riley Greene here, but he was already pretty good last year. That doesn't mean he can't be a difference-maker, but if we truly want to highlight something new and current, Torkelson has been a different player this year, hitting .289 (.953 OPS) with a pair of homers. Last year, it wasn't clear whether or not there would be space on the roster for Torkelson in the future. A swing change and breakthrough later, he's been one of the Tigers' best hitters. — Weaver Record: 4-6 Last Power Ranking: 11 Early difference-maker: Brendan Rodgers Does the early difference-maker have to be making his team different in a better way? If so, then it's Rodgers, a third-overall pick who was a top-25 prospect for five years before being aggressively OK with the Rockies. There's also a chance that he arrived in Houston and said something like, 'Wait, these video rectangles — these 'eye pads' — can show me videos of opposing pitchers and help me break down my swing? And there are people whose entire job is to look at 'statistics' and 'data' now? Golly.' He's now Brendan Rodgers in the 21st century, and maybe this is the year he breaks out. If the early difference-maker can be someone making the team worse, then the answer is … well, just about everyone. The post-Tucker/Bregman era hasn't gotten off to a scintillating start. — Brisbee GO DEEPER How Brendan Rodgers' first Astros team flight helped him handle 'pressure' of being the new guy Record: 4-7 Last Power Ranking: 12 Early difference-maker: Julio Rodríguez Not because Rodríguez has been so good that he's propelled the Mariners to a winning record, but because he's had a strong-ish start to the season. If the team is going to leverage its strong rotation, it will need Rodríguez to be the perennial MVP candidate the franchise has been expecting for a couple years now. He's making a difference by helping Mariners fans believe a rainbow might follow the 10-game season-opening downpour, and that's about all they can ask for. Well, that and a pennant or two. — Brisbee Advertisement Record: 6-5 Last Power Ranking: 14 Early difference-maker: Andrés Giménez Of all the guys to hit cleanup on this team, Blue Jays manager John Schneider has gone with his slick-fielding second baseman since Opening Day. Giménez came into the season with a barely above-average 101 OPS+ for his career, but he's justified the lineup choice by coming out of the gate with the best offensive numbers on the team. Much slower starts by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Anthony Santander help explain why the Blue Jays were only a .500 team through the weekend. Another difference-maker worth noting: If we voted for Cy Young awards after two starts, Chris Bassitt would be among the front-runners in the American League. He's allowed one run and two walks through 12 2/3 innings. — Jennings GO DEEPER Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays agree on 14-year, $500 million extension Record: 4-5 Last Power Ranking: 17 Early difference-maker: Brandon Lowe Eight seasons in the big leagues, and Lowe has yet to finish a year with below-average offensive numbers. He came close in 2022 (103 wRC+) but has otherwise never had a season with less than a 112 OPS+ or 114 wRC+. When Lowe's healthy, he hits, and he's doing it again this year and that's been enough to keep the Rays afloat in the early going. Their rotation has been predictably solid from top to bottom, and Kameron Misner has given them a spark off the bench. The rest of their lineup has been too erratic to maintain much momentum, and the Rays were swept this weekend in Texas. They have yet to lose when they've scored more than four runs, but they've scored more than four runs only three times. — Jennings Record: 5-5 Last Power Ranking: T-21 Early difference-maker: Maikel García By the end of the season, I have full confidence that the answer to this question will be Bobby Witt Jr. He hasn't been bad, but there are two others I think deserve it a bit more. On the pitching side, Kris Bubic has been brilliant in his first two starts, going 2-0 with a 0.71 ERA, striking out 16 and walking just three in 12 2/3 innings, outpacing even Cy Young candidate Cole Ragans. As for the hitters, while Mark Canha's numbers are a little better, García is right there, and in about twice as many plate appearances, hitting .333 (.977 OPS) with two home runs. García has always been an anomaly to me. Compare his barrel percentage with his hard-hit percentage over his career (blue is bad, red is good). So far this season, we're seeing what happens when a blue number flips to red. — Weaver Record: 5-5 Last Power Ranking: 20 Early difference-maker: Freddy Peralta For one year, in 1969, the Seattle Pilots existed. Then they moved to Milwaukee and became the Brewers, completely wrecking what would have been — given their dogged dedication to stripping out parts and somehow staying afloat — a perfect 'Ship of Theseus' reference in this space. I'd love to be able to nominate the departed Corbin Burnes or Devin Williams or Willy Adames or Josh Hader or Brent Suter or manager Craig Counsell or GM David Stearns or … well, there's a word limit. William Contreras is still around, but he's had a slow start. Advertisement But look, it's Fastball Freddy! Peralta has a 2.08 ERA and a 0.538 WHIP. On a team that has not pitched well, he's been an oasis. — Weaver Record: 3-7 Last Power Ranking: 18 Early difference-maker: One of the center fielders The Twins have a single hitter with a batting average over .300 (Matt Wallner, .303). Their pitching fWAR leaders are Pablo López and two relievers (0.2). Do you see any 'difference-makers' in their pitching or hitting leaderboards? Because I do not. So I guess let's go with Harrison Bader, who has been distinctly not terrible. Or maybe we want to go with vibes and point out that Byron Buxton is a difference-maker in terms of creating excitement? You can take your pick; the vitriol and fire of my youth have long since waned, and I no longer have it in me to debate about a team such as this. — Weaver Record: 3-6 Last Power Ranking: 19 Early difference-maker: Austin Hedges From a pure statistical standpoint, the answer is José Ramírez. Maybe the league's most underrated superstar, Ramírez is off to another hot start for the Guardians, hitting .320/.438/.880 (1.318 OPS) through the first nine games. But I'm going to give some love to backup catcher Hedges here. He has been the worst hitter in baseball for a very long time, but his defense and clubhouse enthusiasm have been so outsized that he keeps getting big-league jobs. So far this year? He has an OPS of 1.229. Please do not inform me that it is on the strength of one hit (a home run) in five at-bats. I know. — Weaver Record: 4-6 Last Power Ranking: T-21 Early difference-maker: Lars Nootbaar Lots of candidates here, including Iván Herrera, who is currently leading the National League in slugging percentage. Let's turn the spotlight on Nootbaar, though, because he's always been a Baseball Savant darling for his ability to stay in the strike zone and hit the snot out of the ball, but hasn't had flashy statistics to show for it. There's a stat called expected weighted on-base average on contact (xwOBAcon) that says Nootbaar's offensive output should be closer to Bryce Harper's and Fernando Tatis Jr.'s than Brandon Nimmo's or Michael Conforto's. Maybe this is the year it shows up in the real world. — Brisbee Advertisement Record: 4-7 Last Power Ranking: 24 Early difference-maker: Tyler Soderstrom Soderstrom was once one of the better-hitting prospects in the game, and he was called up at a younger age than most of his peers. With a full season of above-average hitting in his age-22 season last year, he might have had a lot more buzz coming into this year. A wrist injury cost him a couple months, so that left us with about 200 plate appearances that suggested that he was on schedule and could still develop into an All-Star. A few weeks into the season, he looks like an All-Star, so don't be surprised if he signs an extension to make sure he joins Brent Rooker and Lawrence Butler as franchise cornerstones when Sacramento's beautiful new ballpark opens in 2029. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one, and I'll believe in Las Vegas when one (1) steel girder is in place. — Brisbee Record: 4-7 Last Power Ranking: 23 Early difference-maker: Brady Singer We're going for good difference-makers, right? Because I could make the argument that a few guys have made a bad difference, given that the Reds put together an impressive 35-inning scoreless streak last week. But if we're leaning positive here, I have two finalists. Hunter Greene has been very impressive thus far, boosting an already-nasty fastball into consistent triple digits. But I'm going with new addition Singer, who came over in the Jonathan India trade. Through two turns of the rotation, he went pitch-for-pitch with Greene. Throw in Nick Lodolo, and that's starting to look like a pretty nasty rotation in Cincinnati. — Weaver Record: 6-3 Last Power Ranking: 28 Early difference-maker: Kyren Paris The Angels have won twice as many games as they've lost, which puts them on pace for a 108-win season. Will it last? Probably not, but they'll always have Paris. The 2019 second-rounder was scorching hot all spring, and he somehow got even hotter for the start of the season, with a .444/.545/.889 slash line as of this writing. He's always shown strong plate discipline in the minors, but it came with an outsized strikeout rate. Now he's making more contact, and he's making better contact. If your first thought was 'swing change,' guess what, you're right. He has Angels fans believing, which might be the biggest miracle of the season so far. — Brisbee Advertisement Record: 5-5 Last Power Ranking: 27 Early difference-maker: Daniel Moskos It's impossible to accurately judge this from afar, but here's what the numbers show: Last season, the Marlins ranked next-to-last in staff ERA. Only the Rockies were worse. This season, the Marlins have an above-average ERA that's nearly a run better than last season. Getting Sandy Alcantara off the IL has certainly helped, but it's hard not to notice that the Marlins also hired Moskos this offseason to be their new pitching coach. Now, Max Meyer's numbers are better, Anthony Bender's numbers are better, and the Marlins have a winning record. It's an absurdly small sample, but if you're wondering what's made the difference for the Marlins out of the gate, it's their pitching. It's only fair that the new pitching coach gets at least some of the credit. — Jennings Record: 4-7 Last Power Ranking: T-25 Early difference-maker: Paul Skenes I like to think of myself as a creative person and an outside-the-box thinker. I love to eschew the predictable in favor of the underappreciated or unexpected. Routine? Never heard of it. My art? Abstract. My music? Eclectic. I put mayonnaise on my hot dogs because I like it and because it makes my friends from Chicago very angry. Look who I picked for the Guardians blurb. (I stand by it.) But no matter how much I look for a zag (Andrew McCutchen?), it's obviously Skenes, who has a 1.46 ERA after two starts. Nobody outside Pittsburgh can even give you a half-hearted suggestion that anyone else is even close, and nobody in Pittsburgh wants to. — Weaver GO DEEPER Every time Paul Skenes starts, an entire sport marvels — and also holds its breath Record: 4-6 Last Power Ranking: T-25 Early difference-maker: Mitchell Parker It was first-rounder MacKenzie Gore who stole the show on Opening Day, but ever since, the most reliable way for the Nationals to win a game has been to put Parker on the mound. Through their first nine games, the Nationals were 3-6, but two of those wins belonged to Parker, a 25-year-old with a 0.73 ERA in his second big-league season. Rookie of the Year candidate Dylan Crews has fallen flat out of the gate, but Parker and Gore have been good in the first two turns through the rotation. They're going to need some help, though, to ultimately lift the Nats out of mediocrity. — Jennings GO DEEPER Juan Soto spent 3 weeks with his minor-league host family. Memories endure 7 years later Record: 2-7 Last Power Ranking: 29 Early difference-maker: Kyle Freeland The frontrunner was Dinger, with his gleeful and only slightly demonic cavorting forever giving the franchise a chance to turn 6-year-olds into Rockies fans. Let's throw a bone to Freeland, though, as he's made two good starts so far. The Denver native has watched a lot of lousy baseball in his nine-year Rockies career, and very little of it was his fault. Here's hoping for 30 more solid-to-excellent starts and some downballot Cy Young votes this year. He's earned it. — Brisbee Advertisement Record: 2-7 Last Power Ranking: 30 Early difference-maker: Martín Pérez The biggest difference between the 2024 White Sox and 2025 White Sox? Last year, they waited until game No. 11 to win their second game. This year? They were at .500 as late as … four games into the season, at 2-2. The reason was that their starting pitchers came out of the gate on an absolute heater, going on a 28-inning scoreless streak that extended into their fifth game. (They lost that game, and every subsequent game they have played.) So yeah, it all imploded after that, but if we have to pick one of the guys who staved off the inevitable for almost a week, let's go with Pérez, who pitched six no-hit innings in his first start of the year. — Weaver (Top photo of Austin Riley: David J. Griffin / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
New York Times
17-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
MLB Preseason Power Rankings: Where is your favorite team starting the 2025 season?
By Grant Brisbee, Andy McCullough and Stephen J. Nesbitt Every week, we ask a selected group of our baseball writers — local and national — to rank the teams from first to worst. Here are the collective results. It's been 139 days since the New York Yankees fumbled Game 5 of the World Series and the Los Angeles Dodgers were crowned champions. Offseason transactions transformed the look of several contenders. The Dodgers loaded up for a title defense. The Yankees lost a superstar and an ace. The Mets spent big in free agency. The Red Sox ponied up, too. And the Diamondbacks gave a Cy Young Award winner 210,000,000 reasons to stay home in Arizona. Advertisement With the curtain rising on the 2025 MLB season Tuesday in Tokyo, and as offseason projections give way to real wins and losses, it's time for our first crack at The Athletic's MLB Power Rankings. We'll refresh the rankings each week during the regular season. Here's a primer on all 30 teams and their current playoff odds, courtesy of Austin Mock's MLB projection model. Playoff odds: 97.6 percent If I had bought The Athletic before the New York Times did, I would have started a running gag where the Dodgers finished second or third in every power ranking. It would have been a constant stream of 'Yes, they're good, but I need to see more,' while picking the tiniest of nits. Like, get this, they optioned Hyeseong Kim to the minors after signing him to a three-year, $12.5 million deal. The best team in baseball can't make scouting mistakes like that! Season over. As is, the Dodgers are obviously the best team in baseball, and they're the best team I've seen in the 30 years I've been following the sport closely. Of course they're in the top spot. — Grant Brisbee Playoff odds: 90.1 percent The projection systems love the Braves, in part because it's so difficult to project the number of injuries the team absorbed last season. As Atlanta awaits the return of star outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. and budding ace Spencer Strider, the club expects bounce-back seasons from former All-Stars such as first baseman Matt Olson and third baseman Austin Riley. The team will be fortunate if new addition Jurickson Profar can catalyze the lineup as he did for San Diego last season. Profar was the biggest expenditure for a team that still believes in the talent on its roster and the production of its farm system. — Andy McCullough Playoff odds: 43.9 percent If you're surprised by their showing here — they did miss the postseason last year, after all — ask yourself who deserves the spot more. The Phillies, maybe. The Mets and Red Sox after their nine-figure additions, perhaps. But the Diamondbacks had the best offense in baseball by several metrics last season, and they added a legitimate ace in Corbin Burnes. Advertisement A majority of voters in this exercise said they were the third-best team in baseball, and the math checks out from here. Just imagine if Jordan Montgomery is the pitcher he was in every season except the last one. — Brisbee Playoff odds: 78.4 percent Despite owner John Middleton advocating for changes after an early October exit, the Phillies didn't do much this winter. And that might not be a problem. Unable to trade away third baseman Alec Bohm, Philadelphia will hope he can replicate his first-half production from 2024. The team has the best starting rotation in the National League, with Grapefruit League observers chattering about Cristopher Sánchez potentially joining Zack Wheeler as a co-ace this season. If former Marlin Jesús Luzardo can stay healthy, the rotation will be even stronger. — McCullough Playoff odds: 69.7 percent The Juan Soto Era can now commence in Queens. The superlatively talented slugger aided the Yankees to the American League pennant last season. Can he do the same for the Mets this year? The club will not be able to replicate the exact magic of their 'OMG' summer, not with Jose Iglesias on the Brewers and Sean Manaea opening the season on the injured list. But most of the gang from last year's NLCS squad is back. The two biggest additions came from across town: Soto and former Yankees closer Clay Holmes, who has converted to starting. The three-team race in the National League East should be fierce. — McCullough GO DEEPER MLB Hope-O-Meter results: Ranking fans' optimism in 2025 for all 30 teams Playoff odds: 46.3 percent The Red Sox quietly put together an excellent winter. It was quiet because the club missed out on Juan Soto and didn't hand out a nine-figure contract to a starting pitcher. But the additions of Alex Bregman, Garrett Crochet and Walker Buehler should push Boston into the heart of the American League East race. The incoming prospect class featuring Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell and Marcelo Mayer could begin to pay dividends as early as this year, too. — McCullough Playoff odds: 70.4 percent The past few months have not gone well for the franchise. They were defeated and clowned by the Dodgers in the World Series. Juan Soto bolted for the Mets. And after an effective offseason pivot involving Max Fried, Cody Bellinger and Devin Williams, the spring went sour. Gerrit Cole underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery. Luis Gil, the reigning American League Rookie of the Year, hurt his lat. The Yankees should still contend. But the path looks rockier now. — McCullough Advertisement Playoff odds: 58 percent It speaks to the roster's overall strength that the Astros could trade away one of the most valuable players in the league and still rank this high. However, a follow-up question regarding this strategy might be something like, 'Say, did you consider keeping one of the most valuable players in the league?' or 'What if you kept one of the most valuable players in the league and then tried to add other ones?' Instead of running away with the AL West, though, they'll be in a scrum with the Mariners and Rangers. While I'll still take the Astros in my preseason predictions, some of the other voters in this exercise aren't as convinced. That kind of doubt is absolutely justified, and it didn't have to be this way. — Brisbee Playoff odds: 56.8 percent Did Baltimore do enough this offseason to augment its homegrown core? That question will be answered over the next few months, and Mike Elias will have another chance to enhance the roster at the summertime deadline. Baltimore shied away from high-priced pitchers in favor of one-year pacts with veteran Charlie Morton and NPB star Tomoyuki Sugano. The spring included injuries for Grayson Rodriguez, the starter expected to fill some of the void left by Corbin Burnes, and reliever Andrew Kittredge. The Orioles still have so much position-player talent, with room for growth for many, including former top prospect Jackson Holliday. — McCullough GO DEEPER With Gerrit Cole lost, the AL East is wide open and the American League is up for grabs Playoff odds: 40 percent One of the hardest teams in baseball to nail down, if not the hardest. To buy into them fully, you have to buy into Jacob deGrom being healthy, especially with Tyler Mahle and Cody Bradford ailing. You have to assume good things from their youngest players, especially the mercurial Evan Carter, and some of the aging hitters. The Rangers could win it all, or they could finish six games under .500. That's what they did in the past two seasons, with the caveat that it's a lot easier to do the latter than the former. — Brisbee Playoff odds: 92.4 percent Think of the Mariners as a high school junior with a 99th percentile SAT score and an A in AP Chemistry, History and Spanish. But they have a D in P.E. because they never brought their gym clothes. They're taking the easiest elective allowed — beginning triangle — but they missed the final while in the bathroom. Their parents were thinking Gudger College, but the kid might not even graduate high school. The Mariners did the hard part. They assembled an outstanding rotation that goes five deep, a nearly impossible achievement in the modern game. All they had to do this offseason was get some better hitters. Instead, they hung out in the bathroom and screwed around on their phone. Maybe they'll figure it out in community college, but they can forget about Gudger. — Brisbee Advertisement Playoff odds: 56.5 percent Finally, a Central division team. The Cubs clearly improved this offseason, counting Kyle Tucker, Ryan Pressly, Matthew Boyd and Justin Turner among their many additions to the major-league roster. They still project as just an 84-win team, according to FanGraphs, but when no other NL Central team projects to break .500, well, that .516 might get the job done. Given that Tucker is a free agent this fall, the Cubs may come to regret not pushing the chips in and betting big this winter. If you only get one shot with Tucker, it had better work. — Stephen J. Nesbitt Playoff odds: 46.1 percent It took a few years, but we're approaching power-ranking Padres exhaustion. Are they good? Are they overrated? Are they coasting on the strength of previous expectations? They were the team on the rise for so long, and then they looked like a cautionary tale, and then they were a win away from bouncing the Dodgers last season. They contain multitudes, all of them disappointing on some level. That's why it's easy to overlook the talent on the roster and focus on their austere offseason, in which they replaced Jurickson Profar's four-win season with a Jason Heyward/Connor Joe platoon and added Nick Pivetta to replace the innings that Joe Musgrove gave them last year. Look at the players they still have on the roster, though. It won't be enough to challenge the Dodgers in the regular season, but it could be enough to help them mess with the league in the postseason again. — Brisbee Playoff odds: 29.6 percent For the Rays, this season will be about location, location, location. A summer spent at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa figures to be eventful. The schedule has been altered to avoid the dampest months, but the weather will still intervene. The future of the franchise is up for grabs. The present is also more muddled than usual. The team is eager to get back top-flight pitchers like Shane McClanahan and Shane Baz. — McCullough GO DEEPER Rays pull out of ballpark project, leaving St. Petersburg future uncertain Playoff odds: 23.7 percent We have managed to doubt the Brewers again. Last spring, after losing Corbin Burnes and Craig Counsell, they ranked 22nd in our preseason power rankings. Naturally, Milwaukee won the division and made its sixth postseason appearance in the past seven years. In our defense, the Brewers did little to improve the roster this winter — their most notable move was trading closer Devin Williams for Nestor Cortes and a prospect. But if they stay healthy, the roster still has all the ingredients to prove us wrong again. — Nesbitt Playoff odds: 62 percent Here's what I wrote in this space before last season: The Twins are not 'better,' if that's what you're wondering. But they're still the team to beat in the AL Central. The first sentence still applies, but not the second. The Twins nosedived in the final stretch last season to finish fourth in the division. They enter 2025 with a familiar roster and two familiar concerns: Can Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton and Royce Lewis (who strained his hamstring on Sunday) stay healthy? And will ownership invest more anytime soon? The Twins have some star power, a solid pitching staff and several exciting youngsters on the rise, but the clock is ticking. — Nesbitt Advertisement Playoff odds: 29.9 percent Despite declining to make a splash this offseason, Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris managed to carry the good vibes from October into the spring. The kids are here and ready to play. The oldest hitters in the Tigers' projected lineup are 29-year-old Jake Rogers and 28-year-old Gleyber Torres; six regulars are 25 or younger. That's a lot of unproven bats and upside. Harris signed Jack Flaherty and Alex Cobb to slot in behind reigning Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal in the rotation and strengthened the bullpen. — Nesbitt GO DEEPER MLB Extension Week: What would it take to lock up Skubal, Henderson and more? Playoff odds: 31.9 percent No, the winter did not go the way Toronto hoped. The team could not land Juan Soto or Roki Sasaki. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. did not sign an extension. Shohei Ohtani, of course, never got on that plane. Their subsequent moves offered up only more questions. Will the addition of Anthony Santander jolt the lineup? What does Max Scherzer have left? Will the team make the most of what could be Guerrero's final season as a Blue Jay? — McCullough GO DEEPER Vladimir Guerrero Jr. seeks contract worth $500 million in present value: Sources Playoff odds: 46.8 percent It's safe to assume the Royals will not improve by another 30 wins this season, but when you have Bobby Witt Jr., don't rule anything out. After a flurry of free-agent additions last offseason and further adds at the trade deadline, the Royals were quiet this winter. They acquired Jonathan India and Carlos Estévez and brought back Michael Wacha and Michael Lorenzen. The rotation should still be strong, and the bullpen is vastly improved from this time last year, but the back half of the lineup sure drops off sharply. — Nesbitt Playoff odds: 34.5 percent Aggressively acceptable. Preternaturally OK. Diabolically decent-ish. These labels have a lot to do with the division they play in, as they're probably the fourth-best team in the NL West, but would have a real chance to win the AL Central. Part of it has to do with a lack of an extra middle-of-the-order threat or two. Robbie Ray and Justin Verlander have looked excellent in the Cactus League and if they keep it up, the Giants shouldn't have to score 900 runs to contend. They should try for 700, though, and it might be a struggle for them to get there without a couple of lineup surprises. — Brisbee Playoff odds: 29.7 percent The Guardians rode timely hitting and a suffocating bullpen to an ALCS appearance last fall, so putting them below every AL Central team except the White Sox is a low blow. But if the Cleveland front office really cared about our preseason power rankings, they'd have swung bigger this winter. Instead, it was out with Josh Naylor and Andrés Giménez, in with Carlos Santana and Luis Ortiz, and that was about it. It's not a bad roster, and David Fry and Shane Bieber will join when their elbows allow, but question marks abound. — Brisbee Playoff odds: 14.6 percent In the past 12 months, the baseball universe came to know that not only was Paul Skenes the right pick at No. 1 in the 2023 MLB Draft, but also he might take over as the top pitcher in the sport. And yet, the Pirates are in nearly the same position as last year's preseason rankings. The Buccos had a bafflingly boring offseason, choosing to address their anemic offseason by re-signing Andrew McCutchen and acquiring Spencer Horwitz (who then had wrist surgery), Tommy Pham and Adam Frazier. That's an underwhelming upgrade, if it is one at all. — Nesbitt GO DEEPER From Paul Skenes to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., extensions to get done now and ones that can wait Playoff odds: 14.6 percent After a season decimated by injury, the Reds hired Terry Francona to manage a roster that has top-end talent — Elly De La Cruz, Matt McLain, Hunter Greene — and took a step forward this offseason with the addition of Gavin Lux, Austin Hays and Brady Singer, among others. With better health outcomes, there are reasons to believe in this Cincinnati club. Still, there remain unproven hitters, injury-prone starting pitchers and a middling bullpen that must contend with spending half the season in a hitter's ballpark. — Nesbitt Advertisement Playoff odds: 25.4 percent After an offseason defined by what they didn't do, the Cardinals are stuck in between. Feels familiar. Last year, St. Louis had a minus-47 run differential but finished 83-79. Pretty bad. Not all the way there. They still have Nolan Arenado and Ryan Helsley — for now — and so you look at this roster and see a lot of bonafide big leaguers — former top prospects, former All-Stars. The odds that it all clicks in unison this time are vanishingly low. It's far more likely to be another so-so season as John Mozeliak prepares to hand the reins to Chaim Bloom. — Nesbitt Playoff odds: 15.5 percent I mean, maybe? It's not a bad team, and they spent the offseason giving contracts out to players who might be with the team if/when they move to Las Vegas, which is the kind of good-faith effort the clubhouse hasn't seen in years. In a division with mostly flawed teams, it could go further than you think. Maybe the hearty folks in the Almond Capital of the World will get behind the team and help push them into the postseason. There are a lot of legitimate major leaguers on the roster. Stranger teams have found their way in. Stranger situations are hard to come by, though. So here's hoping for an A's/Rays ALCS, which would be incredible on multiple levels. It's unlikely, but so are a lot of things in this silly sport. — Brisbee Playoff odds: 3.5 percent Washington did the same thing as last offseason, taking a bunch of fliers on buy-low free agents to fill out its roster. Nathaniel Lowe could be an intriguing trade candidate if he can rediscover his power stroke. The club appears bound for a fourth-place finish, at best, even with the ascension of James Wood and Dylan Crews to the middle of the lineup. On the plus side, the farm system is getting better and the TV situation has finally been resolved. — McCullough Playoff odds: 13.4 percent Hello. I'm assuming that if you're reading this, you're an Angels fan. You sighed when you clicked the link, but you were expressionless as you scrolled to the bottom out of habit. You aren't expecting optimism. You're expecting … anti-optimism. I'll bet the Germans have a word for that sort of feeling. And, you know what? You get the optimism. No, they won't be contenders, but Mike Trout is still just 33, and I'm choosing to believe he'll stay healthy this year. No logic or rationale, just vibes. If that happens? Angels fans will have more fun this season than a lot of fans. Team wins are cool, but individual greatness can make the sport just as fun. Almost as fun. Still pretty fun? One of those. — Brisbee Playoff odds: 1.1 percent Sandy Alcantara is healthy. Max Meyer is healthy. Ryan Weathers is somehow still just 25. As for the lineup … did we mention that Alcantara is healthy? It's not the first time in recent years that Miami entered a season with a collection of promising young pitchers. They probably won't be enough to spark contention, especially if Alcantara gets moved at the trade deadline, but there is at least some hope. — McCullough Advertisement Playoff odds: 0.3 percent There were rumors of the Rockies playing 162 baseball games last year, but there is no hard evidence to support them. They're scheduled to play 162 games this year, but that's still theoretical at this point. In June, someone will snap a picture of a blurry cryptid in a Rockies uniform and claim it as proof, but it will hardly be definitive. We'll never know if the Rockies played baseball last season, or if they'll play it (again?) this season. We do know where they'll rank among the various powers in baseball, though. Right about here. Forever. — Brisbee Playoff odds: 0.3 percent Last season began with rumors of relocation to Nashville and ended with the White Sox recording more losses than any team in the modern era. Could it get any worse? That's a dangerous question. With Garrett Crochet gone and Luis Robert Jr. liable to be traded anytime he hits a hot streak, this roster is worse than it was a year ago. That's quite a feat, really. It'll be a long year for the White Sox. And until top prospects like Colson Montgomery, Kyle Teel and Noah Schultz join the big-league club, fans will be watching for news of a different sort of call-up: Justin Ishbia's potential move from minority owner to controlling owner. — Nesbitt (Top photo of Corbin Carroll: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
