Every Monday, we like to take stock of where things stand around the Majors with our weekly power rankings of all 30 teams, and boy oh boy is there plenty to get to after the past few days. The New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers are in free-fall after getting shellacked by their arch rivals, the ascending Boston Red Sox and San Francisco Giants. The Los Angeles Angels look like they might finally be able to get Shohei Ohtani to the postseason. The Miami Marlins continue to make a mockery of everyone’s preseason predictions, as do the New York Mets in the exact opposite direction.
But let’s first focus on the heartland. Pretty much all season long, both Central divisions have been practically begging for someone, anyone to come along and grab a hold of the top spot. And nearly three months in, they’re both still waiting: Just two of MLB’s 10 Central teams are above .500 entering the week of Monday, June 19, including a grand total of zero in the AL. The Boston Red Sox, still mired in last place in the AL East despite their sweep of the New York Yankees over the weekend, would lead the AL Central by a game. The Detroit Tigers are actively trying to tank and yet find themselves just five games out of first. The Chicago White Sox, 11 games under .500, are 5.5 games back. It is, as they say, not great, Bob.
But it’s not all bad news. The Cincinnati Reds — yes, those Cincinnati Reds — rallied again on Sunday to complete an impressive sweep of the Houston Astros and run their winning streak to eight games. This has quickly shifted from feel-good story to legitimate postseason contender: Cincy now sits at 37-35, just a half-game back of the Milwaukee Brewers for first place, and with Elly De La Cruz joining Matt McLain, Jonathan India, Spencer Steer, TJ Friedl and Nick Fraley (plus Andrew Abbott in the rotation and even more help coming soon from Triple-A), this Reds team can absolutely compete with anyone else in the NL Central.
Who else rising? Who’s falling? Where does your favorite team land? Read on to find out.
Tier 1
1. Tampa Bay Rays
2. Atlanta Braves
3. Texas Rangers
These three once again find themselves in a tier of their own, although cracks are beginning to show. Tampa Bay split a four-game set against the lowly A’s and dropped two of three to the suddenly streaking Padres this week, but the record gap between them and Atlanta is too great for me to swap them atop the rankings just yet (especially considering that the Braves have fattened up on Washington, Detroit and Colorado recently). The Rays has built up too much goodwill over their historic start, but Michael Harris II has finally joined the party in Atlanta, and it’s worth noting that this Tampa offense is trending in the wrong direction right now.
Speaking of trending in the wrong direction: Jon Gray and Nathan Eovaldi have spent the last month-plus on absolute heaters, but as they come back to Earth — in addition to Dane Dunning, struggling of late after a strong start replacing Jacob deGrom — it makes you wonder whether the Rangers will be able to outslug people enough to not only hang on atop the AL West but make noise come October.
Tier 2
4. Baltimore Orioles
5. Arizona Diamondbacks
6. Los Angeles Angels
7. San Francisco Giants
8. Los Angeles Dodgers
Here’s where the shakeup starts. The Angels didn’t win their 41st game until late July last year, but after an impressive week in which they took three of four from Texas (and predictably pounded the Royals), it now looks like L.A. stands a real shot at finally getting back to the playoffs. That starting pitching still makes me queasy, though, especially if Ohtani ever cools off at the plate.
Staying out west, there’s simply no way I could leave the Dodgers ahead of the Giants after the pounding San Fran put on their rivals this weekend. I was closer to dropping L.A. down to the next tier, but Julio Urias’ pending return — as well as Emmet Sheehan’s impressive debut — gives me just enough confidence that the Dodgers will find enough pitching stability to right the ship soon. The Giants, meanwhile, are giving off some real 2021 vibes right now, with manager Gabe Kapler pressing all the right buttons as this team finds contributions from old (J.D. Davis, Michael Conforto, Joc Pederson) and new (Patrick Bailey, Luis Matos) alike.
The O’s and Diamondbacks remain in solid position here, just stacking wins despite some real question marks around both starting rotations. In the end, I opted to put Baltimore in front because I have a bit more faith in their lineup and bullpen being legit (the latter has already started to stumble a bit for Arizona).
Tier 3
9. Miami Marlins
10. Philadelphia Phillies
11. Toronto Blue Jays
12. Houston Astros
13. Boston Red Sox
14. New York Yankees
I can hear the shouting all the way from South Florida, and the Marlins deserve all the credit in the world for hitting the 10 games above .500 mark for the first time in over a decade. But it’s also worth noting that Miami’s last five series have come against the A’s, Royals, White Sox, Mariners and Nationals; this team’s rotation can match up with anyone’s, but I want to see the lineup and bullpen stress-tested a bit more before fully buying in.
Elsewhere in the east, it’s another June surge for the Phillies, who got hot right about this time last year and rode it all the way to the World Series. Again, there are competition questions — the Nats, Tigers and A’s will make just about anyone look good — but they also took series against the D-backs and Dodgers, and if Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler can all get it going at the same time, look out. After Philly comes two teams in Toronto and Houston that remain dangerous but have yet to string it together with any consistency and have now lost six of nine and nine of 12, respectively.
And then there’s the Yankees. After a week of staying afloat without Aaron Judge, the bottom appears to have fallen out for New York, whose patched-together offense can’t afford an injury to Nestor Cortes and Luis Severino’s startling regression. The Red Sox, meanwhile, are trending in the opposite direction after pantsing their rivals at Fenway, as Brayan Bello, Garrett Whitlock and James Paxton are beginning to look the part of a fearsome top three.
Tier 4
15. San Diego Padres
16. Cincinnati Reds
17. Minnesota Twins
18. Milwaukee Brewers
19. Seattle Mariners
The Padres have yet to get really hot, but they’re now 4-0-2 over their last six series — including taking two of three from the Rays this weekend — and Manny Machado and Blake Snell have officially woken up. Their star power gives them the slight edge over the Reds for now, largely due to questions about Cincy’s rotation with Nick Lodolo and Graham Ashcraft hurt (and struggling mightily before they landed on the IL).
The bottom three teams in this tier all have a lot in common as preseason contenders who have pitched well enough to make the playoffs but can’t seem to string together more than a solid couple of days in a row at the plate. I’ll give the Twins the slight edge for now because of their rotation depth, but if Minnesota’s lineup keeps striking out at a historic pace, it’s not going to matter.
Tier 5
20. Chicago Cubs
21. Cleveland Guardians
22. Pittsburgh Pirates
23. St. Louis Cardinals
24. New York Mets
All but buried earlier this month, the Cubs have now won seven of nine, with Justin Steele returning to the rotation, Cody Bellinger set to come back from his knee injury and Chicago’s big bats starting to wake up after an extended slumber. They’re now just 1.5 games behind the Pirates for third in the Central as Pittsburgh has dropped eight of 10.
The Cardinals just took two of three over the Mets at Citi Field in a matchup of arguably the two most dyspeptic franchises in the game right now, but all our pre-existing concerns — particularly about the starting rotation — remain. New York has Pete Alonso back in the lineup, but he went 0-for-4 with three Ks in his return, and at this point it’s unclear whether Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer have it in them to carry a team to the playoffs.
Tier 6
25. Chicago White Sox
26. Detroit Tigers
27. Colorado Rockies
28. Washington Nationals
Chicago cannot seem to get out of its own way, but the Central is still there for the taking, and if Dylan Cease and Lance Lynn can bottle whatever they found in their last starts, the Sox have the talent to make a run. The same … cannot be said for these other three teams, although Detroit did just take three of four from the Twins.
Tier 7
29. Oakland Athletics
30. Kansas City Royals
It’s finally happened. After residing in the cellar for the entire season amid a historically dismal start, the A’s can now look down on someone else for a change. Yes, Oakland has dropped their last four games after that inspiring seven-game winning streak, but those were all highly competitive losses against good teams in the Rays and Phillies. K.C., meanwhile, has lost nine of 10, with the worst lineup in baseball now that Vinnie Pasquantino is lost for the year.
