Every week, we ask all of our baseball writers — both the local scribes and the national team, more than 30 writers in all — to rank the teams from first to worst. Here are the collective results, the TA30.
Welcome back to the best fantasy football fight club column in the world! I’m Levi Weaver, and I must tell you that I am very jealous this week that my partner Grant Brisbee gets to write about the National League teams, because I know right where you’re all going to scroll. In fact, you already did it, didn’t you? You went right to the bottom to read about Tommy Pham and the Reds, then you bounced around looking for the Braves before you remembered oh that’s right, Joc Pederson plays for the Giants now.
Welcome back, let’s get to the rest of the teams.
1. Los Angeles Dodgers
Record: 33-14
Last Power Ranking: 2
The intro from my last stab at the power rankings:
They could be better.
Since then: 18-7 and looking even better. This isn’t to crow about a correct prediction in a power ranking — for every smart thing in one of these, there are a dozen dumb ones — but to point out that it’s always a good idea to assume the ceiling for the Dodgers is higher. If they’re on pace to win 90 games, assume that they’re just a hot week away from being on pace to win 95. If they’re on pace to win 95 games, assume there might be a 100-win team in there somewhere.
The Dodgers are currently on pace to win 114 games. So by this logic … assume there’s a 120-win team in there, perhaps? Seems absurd, but so are the Dodgers. Even when they get bad news, like Max Muncy possibly going on the IL, there’s always a positive development, like Gavin Lux rounding into form.
If this reads like unfettered praise, well, yeah. It’s the top spot of the powers ranking™. They’re not just doing something right; they’re doing most things right.
2. New York Yankees
Record: 33-15
Last Power Ranking: 1
What a weird week for the Yankees. It started with quite a span for Josh Donaldson; his comments toward Tim Anderson landed him a one-game suspension, which was promptly followed by a stint on the COVID-19 IL, which then gave way to a subsequent IL trip with shoulder inflammation. But he’s not the only one. The injury bug has bitten the Yankees, both on the pitching side and amongst the position players — to the point that Matt Carpenter has sacrificed his beard and joined the cause.
And yet here they are: still the best team in the American League, sitting at second in the power rankings, and at least trying something to help push us toward a better place.
3. New York Mets
Record: 31-17
Last Power Ranking: 3
The best description of the Mets you’ll read this week was written by someone who just returned from paternity leave (congrats, Tim Britton and family!)
They’ve been beguilingly consistent. If, say, you were a reporter who took five weeks off from following them daily and returned Friday night, nothing would have looked out of place from what they’d foregrounded in the opening weeks of the season. The win Friday helped them avoid the indignity of their first three-game losing streak this season. They’ve won 15 of their past 16 after a single loss, and they came into the weekend 11-2-1 in series.
There haven’t been a lot of dips.
No painful stretches for the internet to laugh at? No confounding, confusing developments that make you wonder why you thought they had a chance this year?
Nope. They’ve been scoring a bunch of runs and their opponents haven’t. That’s a strong recipe for good vibes, and right now, the Mets are overflowing with them.
No arguing that, no sirree.
4. Houston Astros
Record: 30-18
Last Power Ranking: 4
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: they can keep losing players, but until they start losing games, they’re the favorite in the AL West. We’re not going to read too much into the Astros dropping two out of three over the weekend in Seattle, but we’re going to at least acknowledge it.
Here’s a fun one — not only do the Astros have the exact same record as the Milwaukee Brewers, they also have the same run differential (+37). I’m not sure I would have thought of the Astros and the Brewers as being the same team. But hey, maybe the Astros are ranked higher because of their recent track record? After all, they went 95-67 last year, and the Brewers only went … 95-67. Well, what about 2020? The Astros had a down year in the shortened season, going 29-31, I wonder what the Brewers d—
Oh, you gotta be freakin’ kidding me.
Anyway, guess who’s next on this list…
5. Milwaukee Brewers
Record: 30-18
Last Power Ranking: 5
Still pitching the snot out of the ball. Hitting better than most of the league, which is easy to forget. Still at the top of the NL Central. Still a team that’s capable of winning 70 percent of their games for a month or even longer.
But their depth is going to be tested with Freddy Peralta missing a “significant amount of time” with a shoulder injury, and even if the Brewers are scoring more runs than the average NL team, it would be a lot more encouraging if anyone other than Luis Urías could get on base more than 31 or 32 percent of the time, at best.
They pummeled the Cardinals on Sunday to salvage a game in their most recent series, and if they can squeeze runs from a stone, they’re probably still the favorites for the division title. There’s a lot that can happen that would make at least a little bit of sense — Christian Yelich rediscovering his Marlins-era success, much less his MVP production — and help them be more than a pitching-first-and-only team.
Until then, there will be a lot of 4-2 wins and 2-1 losses. As long as there are more than the former, they’ll probably be just fine.
6. San Diego Padres
Record: 30-17
Last Power Ranking: 6
There are things to like about the Padres in 2022. There are things not to like. Overall, it’s been a tremendously successful season compared to whatever in the heck happened last year. They’re 30-17 so far, which is a far cry from last season, when they opened with a … 30-17 record.
Hmm.
But if you’re looking for something that suggests that the Padres are back on track — for this season, next season, and the foreseeable future — it’s that MacKenzie Gore has come back from the abyss to be one of the best young pitchers in baseball. That’s a narrative arc that suggests patience, smarts, nimbleness and timing, which isn’t something the Padres were guaranteed to have coming into the 2022 season. Cursed teams typically let scuffling prospects like Gore slip through their fingers. The Padres brought this one back, which augurs well for their short- and long-term fortunes.
They even got an apology for someone making fun of them in the group chat.
Joc showed up with receipts of the fantasy football group chat with Tommy Pham, which included a GIF making fun of the Padres last season pic.twitter.com/rCYbFRdwA8
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) May 29, 2022
That kind of apology wouldn’t have happened last year, and it certainly wouldn’t have happened five years ago. Finally, the Padres are getting some respect!
7. Tampa Bay Rays
Record: 28-19
Last Power Ranking: 8
As with the Yankees, the Rays at least tried to do something bigger than baseball this week. As for the on-field product — as Peter Gammons points out, the Rays have a lot of guys on the IL, and yet they’re soldiering along, next-man-upping their way through the season, splitting a series with the first-place Yankees over the weekend.
It’s the offense that is the problem right now, though. Going into Sunday’s game, they had just one player (Manuel Margot) with an OPS of over .800, meaning that the hobbled pitching staff is carrying the team on its misshapen back. That doesn’t seem like a recipe for success, but maybe they’re just taking the Bou Bou route where everything looks like a confusing mess until you realize that there was a plan all along.
8. Los Angeles Angels
Record: 27-22
Last Power Ranking: 7
“The Angels will find a way to miss the playoffs” has been a fool’s bet every spring for years. So I’m not budging off my spot until it happens, no matter how much respect I have for writers much smarter than me. I didn’t change my mind when they started the season 21-12, and I certainly didn’t change it when they then proceeded to go 6-6 against the likes of the Rangers and Athletics, and I’m definitely not changing it after they got swept by the Blue Jays in a four-game series over the weekend, losing Anthony Rendon to the IL in the process, and further depleting their offense.
OK, look: they probably will make the postseason. But Angels fans should hope I keep saying they won’t — every time I do, they rattle off a few more wins.
9. Minnesota Twins
Record: 29-19
Last Power Ranking: 10
What are we to make of the Twins? It’s over a quarter of the way through the season and it’s still hard to say. Like, it would have been easy to guess that Carlos Correa would be just behind Byron Buxton on the team’s bWAR leaderboard by the end of May, but absolutely nobody could have guessed those two would be sixth and seventh on the team, behind Max Kepler, Trevor Larnach, Joe Ryan, Jorge Polanco and Luis Arráez.
OK, I maybe could have guessed Kepler.
The Twins are 10 games over .500 after a 7-3 win Sunday to split a four-game series against the Royals. But also … they only split a four-game series against the Royals, and sloppy play helped lead to an early exit for Chris Archer on Saturday. Some elements of their offense — with the help of hitting coach David Popkins — are bucking the league-wide trend of offensive scarcity; Gio Urshela seems to be settling in nicely, and Spencer Steer could be next up.
So I guess, for now, let’s enjoy the good results and keep the Marge Simpson Worried Groans to a minimum.
10. St. Louis Cardinals
Record: 26-21
Last Power Ranking: 12
Which body part is the biggest jerk in baseball? Elbows are huge jerks, and everyone is very clear about that. Backs aren’t just jerks, they’re inscrutable jerks, mysterious and unforgiving. Knees are unconscionable jerks, and hamstrings just cackle from across the room when nobody is asking for it, like the Salacious Crumb of the lower body.
The Cardinals, though, would like to nominate the shoulder as the biggest jerk among baseball-adjacent body parts, and I have to agree with them. Alex Reyes, Steven Matz, Jack Flaherty and Tyler O’Neill are all on the shelf with shoulder injuries, from bursitis to impingements, and that’s a big chunk of the players they were counting on to help the 2022 roster. Not all shoulder injuries are created equal, and Matz and O’Neill are expected to miss weeks, not months, but it’s been a rough injury slog. (Jordan Hicks is on the IL with a sore right flexor tendon, too, which is often referred to as “the shoulder of the elbow.”)
So far, though? They’re winning a lot more than they’re losing, and their Pythagorean win-loss percentage is even better, even after an 8-0 drubbing from the Brewers on Sunday. They have a little bit of overall helium still, even if their shoulders are indisputable jerks.
11. Toronto Blue Jays
Record: 27-20
Last Power Ranking: 11
The expectations for the Blue Jays were sky-high coming into the season, so it’s justifiable if as recently as last Monday, their 22-20 record was looking an awful lot like a cup of yesterday’s coffee waiting for you at your desk when you get to work. You don’t want to be ungrateful or high-maintenance, and you’re trying to be present and practice more gratitude about the mundane details in life, so [deep breath] yeah, this is still a winning record, and you can always pop it in the microwave. Remember those years of no coffee? And the coffee was real bad around here for a minute, you recalled. I can drink this coffee, you thought.
And look how the universe has rewarded you for your patience: your pal Vladdy has burst through the door with a smile on his face and a piping hot cup from your favorite little place a few blocks over. The Blue Jays swept the heck out of the Angels over the weekend.
And Bo brought donuts. What a great week.
12. San Francisco Giants
Record: 25-21
Last Power Ranking: 9
Baseball’s most confusing team. Not just because they’re 11-14 in May after a 14-7 start, but because they’re just so danged hard to analyze. They dropped a weekend series to the Reds because for the first 18 innings of that series, they had 25 runners in scoring position and exactly one of them scored. Is that evidence of a deeper problem, or is it just “one of those things”?
This isn’t a rhetorical question. I’m asking you. Honestly, earnestly asking. For my job.
Or take their pitching staff, which ranks near the top of baseball in all sorts of expected statistics, but is sinking quickly in the ERA rankings, which are what actually reflect what’s going on in the games. Is it a good sign that they’re doing so well in terms of quality of contact, or is there a reason why the actual stats aren’t aligning with the expected stats?
Again, not a rhetorical question. I’m desperate to know. They’re going to fire me if I can’t explain this. Please.
Until we figure it out, note that Joc Pederson talked to Barry Bonds for a few minutes and had one of the greatest games in franchise history, so maybe it’s as simple as keeping that Bonds guy on retainer. Check back next month to see if the Giants are five spots higher or 10 spots lower. They’re the most confusing team in baseball, after all, and it’s making their fans (and writers) itchy.
13. Atlanta Braves
Record: 23-25
Last Power Ranking: 13
Yes, the Braves started last season slowly before rebounding to win the World Series. No, that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen every year. It’s probably better for a team to win as many baseball games as they can.
You can forgive Braves fans for not panicking just yet. There are a couple extra wild-card slots to play with, and they aren’t even tethered to a sudden-death game. They’ll get there and figure it out. If it’s not the actual Tyler Matzek or Eddie Rosario fixing everything, they’ll just make new ones. Remember how the 2019 Nationals were under .500 for almost the entire first half? They rallied, won the World Series, and then came back the next year, started slowly again and … well, maybe that’s not the best example.
The Braves can hope for some divine intervention, whether in the form of a healthy Mike Soroka or the long-awaited a-hole of prophecy. But fewer wins at the beginning of the year means less of a chance that ownership will spend to improve the team at the deadline. It would probably be less stressful if they just ripped off a whole mess of wins.
14. Boston Red Sox
Record: 23-25
Last Power Ranking: 16
It was not very long ago (May 8, in fact) that the Red Sox dropped to 10-19 after being swept at home by their footwear brethren from Chicago. Since then, they’re 13-6, and a few things have started to click into place. Nathan Eovaldi pitched his first complete game. The infield defense has improved. The offense, top to bottom, seems to have woken up from a trance. They beat those same White Sox two out of three in Chicago this week, scoring 16 runs in both of their two wins. That probably explains why a team with a losing record is in the top half of the power rankings.
And they would have been one win better had the bullpen not given up 10 runs in the final three innings of a 12-8 loss to the Orioles on Friday night. The bullpen is still a legitimate concern, and Hansel Robles being added to the IL with back spasms isn’t going to help stabilize things. Just looking over the bullpen as I write … maybe they can get a few more innings out of the only guy who hasn’t given up a run yet this sea— oh wait, that’s catcher Kevin Plawecki. Get out of here, Kevin.
15. Philadelphia Phillies
Record: 21-27
Last Power Ranking: 15
Every single hitter in the lineup has an adjusted OPS better than the league average. Every single one of them. Even Kyle Schwarber, who is under the Mendoza Line. It’s hard to see because of the deadened baseball, but a league-average hitter should be hovering around a .700 OPS in 2022, and that’s just about where every last Phillie is, save for Bryce Harper, who has been immolating baseballs recently.
What the Phillies don’t have, though, is a preponderance of players who are hitting much better than a .700 OPS. Or even just one, apart from Harper. And considering their entire defense is a Faustian bargain to get more runs, just being slightly above average at every single position is a little disappointing. They need to be way above average with their bats to make this wacky plan successful. Just average across the board isn’t gonna work.
16. Chicago White Sox
Record: 23-23
Last Power Ranking: 14
First, the good: the White Sox were, in fact, able to find a spark against the Cubs over the weekend — at least the back half of it, walking it off in the 12th inning on Sunday. Lance Lynn and Luis Robert should be back soon.
Second, the bad: Tim Anderson left the game with a groin strain, Dallas Keuchel finally ran out of rope, the offense still isn’t producing, and Eloy Jiménez had a slight setback in his hamstring recovery. The White Sox, expected by many to be runaway favorites in the AL Central, are doing their best to just keep their collective heads above water until everyone gets back from the IL and/or wherever all the offense went.
17. Texas Rangers
Record: 22-24
Last Power Ranking: 21
Oh hey, I learned this joke format on TikTok. Let’s give it a shot:
Put a finger down if you have ever planted a garden too early and then there’s a freak winter storm and the freeze kills everything off so you just write off your little backyard garden as a loss and ignore it, but then you come back a month later and something — probably not the tomatoes, but maybe the mint or cilantro or … it’s probably the okra, actually — has been growing all along despite your negligence, and now you have to start paying attention to it again?
[puts a finger down]
The offseason was a time for planting optimism in Arlington, and then the Rangers jumped out to a 2-9 cold streak, and many Rangers fans who haven’t seen their team with a record over .500 since the 15th game of the 2020 season collectively rolled their eyes and went back inside to watch the Mavericks and Stars. When those playoff runs ended, they walked outside and — whoa, honey, come look at this! The Rangers are two games under .500 and Martín Pérez leads the league in ERA!
That doesn’t mean there’s not still work to do. They had a chance to crack that .500 mark on Sunday and instead committed five errors and lost 6-5. But there’s some okra at least.
18. Cleveland Guardians
Record: 19-24
Last Power Ranking: 17
The Guardians have the Royals, Orioles, Rangers, A’s and Rockies in their next five series, and none of those teams are in the top half of the power rankings. That should mean a strong surge in the standings from the Clevelanders, but let’s take a look back at the last two weeks: since the May 16 power rankings, the Guardians are 0-2 against the Reds, 2-3 against the Tigers, and a more-understandable 1-2 against the Astros.
That’s not encouraging.
Not everything is bad in Cleveland, and this story on Jason Kipnis is worth a read. Also, thanks to Jason Lloyd for finally answering a question I’ve asked dozens of times while sitting in the press box.
But it’s possible that the Guardians might just be bad this year. Sorry, Cleveland.
19. Miami Marlins
Record: 19-26
Last Power Ranking: T-18
Before we get to the on-field stuff, note that the Marlins are doing positive things off the field. You can read about their contributions here, and follow all of the hyperlinks. It was not an easy mental health week for millions of people, and raising awareness about the importance of mental health isn’t typically something a baseball franchise spends its time focusing on, so good for them.
Now to the on-field stuff, which is … complicated. The Marlins have two of the best pitchers in the National League — Sandy Alcántara and Pablo López — and they’ve outscored their opponents overall this season. Jazz Chisholm Jr. is assuming a new, MVP-adjacent form. There’s a lot going right for them.
But there’s a lot more going wrong, apparently, which explains the 19-26 record. They’re closer to the first-overall draft pick than they are to a postseason spot, which probably isn’t where they should be considering the talent on this team.
20. Arizona Diamondbacks
Record: 23-26
Last Power Ranking: T-18
If, before the season started, you were looking for a best-case scenario for the 2022 Diamondbacks, it probably would have looked something like this:
1. They don’t look like complete nincompoops out there.
2. They use the second-overall pick to draft a transformational talent.
So far so good on the first part, as the Diamondbacks have several hitters and pitchers performing like major-league baseball players. If that seems like the lowest imaginable bar to clear, you weren’t watching them over the last two seasons. At the risk of repeating myself until you just skip over the Diamondbacks capsule entirely, they shouldn’t have been that bad last year. This kind of bad — win five, lose six, in different permutations and sequences, indefinitely — is more reasonable.
As for the second part, Keith Law’s latest mock draft has the Diamondbacks getting Druw Jones, which is a perfect marriage of “seems talented” and “coolest possible pick for any baseball fan over 30 years old.”
Not sure if I’d go so far as to write that things are looking up for the Diamondbacks, but they’re sure not looking down, which is a heckuva improvement.
21. Seattle Mariners
Record: 20-28
Last Power Ranking: 22
Baseball is such a weird game, man. The Mariners started the season 11-6, and the future was so bright that the Seattle locals almost put on a second pair of shades over their normal ones. And then, just like that, they lost 10 of their next 11, eventually falling into last place in the AL West and prompting such headlines as “What’s gone wrong with the Mariners?” and “We’re going through painful times.”
The Mariners are now hoping that this weekend means the winds can turn the other way just as quickly. Shortly after Kyle Lewis’ return to the big leagues, they beat up on Justin Verlander on Friday, then came back and beat the first-place Astros again on Saturday, and then loaded the bases in the ninth inning of a one-run game before a double play killed that rally.
22. Colorado Rockies
Record: 21-26
Last Power Ranking: 20
The last time the Rockies won a series was May 5. Since then, they’ve lost seven straight series. They’ve lost at home, and they’ve lost on the road. They’ve lost games in which they couldn’t stop allowing hits, and they’ve lost games in which they couldn’t get hits. They’ve dropped series against the Diamondbacks, Royals, Pirates and Nationals.
The Rockies just might be bad.
So, instead, focus on what they’re doing right, which is producing beefy baseball boys with beautiful balletic backflips and making City Connect jerseys that are both repellent and enticing at the same time. Seriously, good luck trying to form an opinion on those jerseys. Right as I’m sure I hate them, they start to look good, and I turn into the Alonzo Mourning GIF:
The best City Connect jerseys shouldn’t make you love them instantly (like the Nationals). The best ones should confuse the heck out of you.
On the other hand, Kris Bryant is on the IL again.
The Rockies just might be bad, but at least they offer weird jerseys and a beautiful ballpark.
23. Chicago Cubs
Record: 19-27
Last Power Ranking: 24
Don’t call it a rebuild; it’ll be here for years. Or do call it a rebuild, whatever, Jed Hoyer isn’t the boss of you. But after a semi-intriguing start to the season, the Cubs have settled into the season that almost everyone expected, one that was always more about the future than the present. Fans are less concerned with David Ross’ lineup construction on any given day, and more concerned with Caleb Kilian’s eventual call-up and Nico Hoerner’s viability as a long-term shortstop.
If there’s an immediate concern, it’s that there’s a book on Seiya Suzuki now, and the rest of the league is emailing the PDF to each other.
April: .279/.405/.529, 84 PA, 14 BB, 23 SO
May: .211/.279/.338, 79 PA, 7 BB, 26 SO
If the Cubs were scrapping with the Brewers and Cardinals at the top of the division, this would be a concern. As is, take comfort in the first month and use it as proof that he’ll be around for the next good Cubs team.
The release date of this next good team: TBD. It will either be before or after the next installment of Metroid Prime, unless they debut the exact same day.
24. Baltimore Orioles
Record: 20-29
Last Power Ranking: 25
Oh great, the Orioles are getting up off the mat. Look, the AL East is stacked enough already, do we really need to add another good team to the mix? OK, sure — the Orioles aren’t “good” yet. They’re still the little brother of the division, still not invited to the parties, and still getting shoved into a trash can at least once a week.
Check out their top 5 in WAR, per Baseball-Reference, and see how many of them you can identify.
If you’re not an Orioles fan, I’m setting the over/under at 1.5 and taking the under — you should recognize Cedric Mullins by now — while I tell you to stop making the same face as the middle guy. (That’s Cionel Pérez, by the way, and he has an ERA of 0.60; here’s the rest of your cheat sheet.)
But here’s the thing: after years of being utterly miserable, they’re not that anymore. There’s real hope in Baltimore, and not just because of Adley Rutschman (though yes, that is part of it). Grayson Rodriguez is on his way soon. The bullpen looks … legit? If you’re intrigued, there’s still time to catch up before the Orioles hype train leaves the station.
25. Oakland Athletics
Record: 20-30
Last Power Ranking: 23
Hey, Ramón Laureano is back and two of their top three players look at least a little bit like they might have a fairytale solution to the team’s financial woes, if you know what I mean …
It is actually a rule that all guys with long red beards are required to play at least one season in Oakland. Jake Diekman, anyone? Sean Doolittle? Josh Reddick? Jonny Gomes? They all spent time with the A’s.
“Oh really,” I hear you say. “What about Justin Turner?”
Not YET.
Jokes aside, both Blackburn and Puk have been really good this year. So have a few different Oakland pitchers (including Frankie Montas, the man in the middle up there). They have eight pitchers with an ERA+ of over 100 (league average is 100). The problem is that ownership’s treatment of the fans has created more offense than the lineups they’ve been forced to run out there with their limited budget. Coming into play Sunday, only two players had an OPS over .700.
26. Pittsburgh Pirates
Record: 19-27
Last Power Ranking: 26
I’m not sure if this is the most Pirates headline possible, but it’s certainly one that describes the state of Pirates baseball at the moment:
Does Cal Mitchell’s call-up mean Pirates are ready to play the kids? Not so fast
My dudes, you are literally the Pirates. The only reason to not play the kids is that you’re convinced that you can turn a minor-league free agent into a Mike Yastrzemski-like story and trade him for even more kids. Or, for an extreme example, to turn back the clock with José Quintana and trade him for even more kids. So if they aren’t kids or players who can conceivably be exchanged for kids, they probably shouldn’t be players the Pirates need to be dealing with in 2022.
Because when you play the kids, encouraging things can happen.
27. Detroit Tigers
Record: 17-29
Last Power Ranking: 27
A week ago today, Cody Stavenhagen asked if the previous day’s homer might be what gets Javy Báez going. Since then, Báez is 3-for-23 with a double, one walk, and five strikeouts. So, ah … no.
While offense has been down for everyone around the league, it has been particularly troublesome for Detroit, who entered play on Sunday dead last in the league with a .604 OPS. There have, of course, been bright spots: Tarik Skubal’s start perhaps brightest among them, though Wily Peralta has been disgusting (in a good way), too. But it’s hard to win if you don’t score, and Detroit has scored zero or one runs in 14 of their 46 games. They’ll be right around here in the power rankings until that changes.
28. Cincinnati Reds
Record: 16-31
Last Power Ranking: 30
Playing better. Compared to where they were in April, playing a lot better. And now that we’re somewhat removed from the shock of the sell-off, we can honestly evaluate whether or not this team would be better off with Jesse Winker, Sonny Gray, Nick Castellanos, et al.
Probably a little better? But not much better. Other than Gray, it’s not like any of those guys are propelling their new teams into the stratosphere. Maybe there was a logic to the sell-off. A cold, harsh logic, but a logic all the same.
It’s only recently, though, that the Reds are playing watchable baseball. What the sell-off truly robs their fans of is what a mini-run of success usually comes with: a sense of optimism.
If the Reds still had players like Winker, Gray and Castellanos, would there be a feeling that the team was still capable of surprising? That if they could just get Winker, et al, going, they could squeak into the postseason? And just how much is that kind of feeling worth?
Dunno. But without those familiar faces, a strong-ish couple of weeks feels like a brief respite from the regularly scheduled lousy baseball, not a new direction.
It sure beats whatever in the heck that was back in April, though. Let us never speak of it again.
Also, I didn’t write anything about Tommy Pham because Levi isn’t the boss of me. I create my own content. Also, I forgot about it until I did a serious appraisal of Reds baseball, and now it’s too late. Sorry about that. (There’s a snippet of “Who Did This? Pham?” chatter in the Padres section, if you’re desperate.)
29. Kansas City Royals
Record: 16-30
Last Power Ranking: 28
Bobby Witt Jr. ended the month of April hitting .216/.247/.311 (.558 OPS). In May, however, things have begun to click. When the Royals finished their 7-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Sunday, Witt’s line for the season’s second month was up to .258/.298/.567 (865 OPS). He has also smashed six home runs this month, as compared to zero in April. That turnaround hasn’t necessarily meant more wins for the Royals — they were 7-12 in April and are currently 9-18 in May. The reasons for the losses are about as diverse as you could imagine, but that’s kind of par for the course with a young team.
The question now might be: will the Royals trade off some of their remaining veterans and lean fully into the youth movement? Or is there value in keeping a few of those guys around to help guide the ship as the young players blossom? It’s probably a case-by-case basis, and Alec Lewis has us covered.
Also, Amir Garrett content is always going to get a link from me.
30. Washington Nationals
Record: 18-31
Last Power Ranking: 29
The Nationals … see, the thing about the Nationals is …
Yeah, I got nothing.
Luckily, Eamonn Brennan will have some thoughts this summer, and Stephen Strasburg is making progress in his return from an injury that comes with no guarantees. There will be reasons to talk and write about the Nationals in the future.
In the present, let’s all be comfortable with the knowledge that there isn’t a single Nationals fan who clicks on a power rankings article to see where the Nationals rank, which means we’re all alone in here. We can simply point out that it’s very, very weird that the Nationals were good like a half-hour ago, and now they’re nothing more than a dull holding receptacle for Juan Soto at-bats.
It was a lot more fun the other way.
(Top photo of Joey Votto: Dylan Buell / Getty Images)
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May 30, 2022 at 11:13PM
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MLB Power Rankings: The Dodgers resume the throne and the Reds are out of the basement - The Athletic
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