Where do Braves, Cubs rank in MLB power rankings? (3:01)Jeff Passan and Bradford Doolittle discuss the top 5 teams in the MLB at this point in the season. (3:01)
The Mets are making headlines for a 12-game losing streak that finally ended Wednesday night, but has dropped them to the bottom of standings and all the way to No. 27 on our Week 4 list. But they aren’t alone in that downfall — the Phillies have the worst run differential in the majors, and the Astros and Red Sox are at the bottom of their divisions.
Meanwhile, the Athletics are atop the American League West, the Reds are tied for the fourth-best record in baseball and the Twins are one game behind the AL Central-leading Guardians. Who could’ve predicted this four weeks ago?!
What will the month of May bring for these clubs? Will they be able to carry — or change — their momentum?
Our expert panel has ranked every team based on a combination of what we’ve seen so far and what we already knew going into the 162-game marathon that is a full baseball season. We also asked ESPN MLB experts Jesse Rogers, Jorge Castillo and Bradford Doolittle to weigh in with an observation for each team.
The Braves are who we thought they were last season. They rank second in runs allowed and lead MLB in runs scored despite several key injuries and Ronald Acuna Jr. getting off to a relatively slow start. That’s a real recipe for success. With Spencer Strider, Sean Murphy and Ha-Seong Kim slated to come off the injured list soon, Atlanta appears to be the class of the National League East once again. — Castillo
Chase DeLauter has cooled after his blistering start, but the sky remains the limit for the kid from West Virginia. The 24-year-old has overcome an avalanche of injuries during his developmental years, and his presence on the Guardians, who are better than we thought (as always), has added some character to the makeup of a roster that can seem a bit faceless beyond no-brainer Hall of Famer Jose Ramirez.
The Rays have overcome their payroll disadvantage to compete over the years by constructing top-tier pitching staffs. So far this year, though, the offense has lugged the pitching staff to .500 territory. Tampa Bay ranks as a bottom-five team in the majors in ERA and FIP. The offense, meanwhile, has five regulars with an OPS+ of 105 or higher, as Yandy Diaz leads the way and Chandler Simpson wreaks havoc from the leadoff spot. — Castillo
The Padres have Mason Miller, and other teams don’t. At the moment, this is by far their biggest competitive advantage. Miller has gone to another dimension, or at least his pitches seem to appear magically from one. You should not cite 162-game paces this early for any player, especially not a short reliever. But we’re going to do it anyway, because looking at Miller’s paces is like catching a glimpse of the sublime. He hasn’t been scored on (0.00 ERA, obviously) and, per Fangraphs, his paces are for 56 saves, 190 strikeouts — as a one-inning reliever! — and 14 hits allowed. His fWAR pace is 6.4, and he’s striking out 21.4 batters per nine innings. It is not unreasonable to consider whether Miller will get some serious Cy Young chatter. — Doolittle
Cincinnati’s bullpen has been nothing short of amazing, leading to one of the best stats of the first month: The Reds are 6-0 in one run games, including 3-0 in extra innings. They’re also 8-3 against plus .500 teams and 9-3 on the road. There’s likely to be some regression, but they’ve earned those wins thanks to the best clutch pitching in the game despite an OPS at the plate that ranks just above the Mets for worst in MLB. Pitching is the name of the game for Cincinnati, and players such as Connor Phillips, Brock Burke, Graham Ashcraft and Pierce Johnson are getting it done. — Rogers
So, are the Pirates for real? They think so — even claiming that past good starts have been “fluky” compared to this season. You can look at the glass as half full: Paul Skenes hasn’t been dominant and yet the team is over .500. Or, you can see regression coming at the plate: Are players such as Oneil Cruz, Brandon Lowe and Ryan O’Hearn going to keep their OPS around .900 all season long? Probably not. Cruz might be the key, even if Lowe and O’Hearn show that regression. Cruz has the skill set to dominate at the plate and on the bases. As he goes, so could the Pirates. Where this team goes this year will be fun to watch. — Rogers
The Diamondbacks have avoided getting buried in the NL West despite an offense that has suffered too many injuries and underperformances. On the latter front, you can zero in on Arizona’s veteran-laden infield where Ketel Marte, Geraldo Perdomo and Nolan Arenado all have OPS+ figures well below 100, which is the average. The Diamondbacks have subsisted by winning their fair share of an unusual number of close games. And not all the news has been bad for the offense. Corbin Carroll is in MVP form, and Ildemaro Vargas has been a revelation. But they need more from the players they were counting on or the dominators of the West will put some real distance between themselves and the Snakes. — Doolittle
Around this time a year ago, the Blue Jays were .500 and remained there until the end of May before going on an unexpected run that ended in Game 7 of the World Series. So it’s too early to count them out. But even the best teams can stomach only so many injuries, and Toronto is being tested. Here’s an incomplete list of players currently sidelined: George Springer, Alejandro Kirk, Addison Barger, Anthony Santander, Trey Yesavage, José Berríos, Cody Ponce and Bowden Francis. Ponce and Francis are out for the season. Santander won’t return until September at the earliest, if at all. The others will trickle back over the next weeks and months. For now, Toronto must stay afloat while shorthanded. — Castillo
One of the Phillies’ supposed strengths this season, even without Zack Wheeler to begin the year, was their starting rotation. Instead, Philadelphia ranks near the bottom of the majors in starter ERA. Cristopher Sanchez, the reigning NL Cy Young runner-up, is the only starter performing to expectations. Wheeler is scheduled to return Saturday against the Braves, but the Phillies need Jesus Luzardo (6.91 ERA), Aaron Nola (5.06 ERA) and Andrew Painter (4.42 ERA) to improve to reverse course. — Castillo
The Twins are … hard to read. They’ve played solid, just-better-than-average baseball and certainly exceeded preseason expectations in the early going. But when you look at the source of the surprise, it gets a little murky. One thing we can say for sure is that the rotation has been very good, with Taj Bradley emerging as one of the breakout pitchers in baseball so far. Can the Twins keep it up? Maybe not, but in a league that has a low bar for contention, the real question might be whether Minnesota can hang close enough long enough that it discourages thoughts of subtracting at the trade deadline, especially when pondering a possible Joe Ryan trade. It’ll be on the Twins from here to validate their solid beginning. — Doolittle
Boston’s lack of power is not a complete surprise — it was a concern going into the season. Garrett Crochet carrying a 7.88 ERA through five starts, however, is a different matter. The reigning AL Cy Young Award runner-up has allowed 21 earned runs in four outings since beginning his season with six scoreless frames on Opening Day. He allowed five runs over five innings against the Tigers on Sunday after surrendering 11 runs (10 earned) in 1⅔ innings against the Twins last week. With Sonny Gray on the IL, Brayan Bello also scuffling and an offense without much punch, the Red Sox need Crochet to find his footing. — Castillo
Miami’s rebuild is seemingly taking the next step. The Marlins were one of baseball’s surprises last season, going 78-83 and playing spoiler. This season, playing themselves into the postseason is plausible. Xavier Edwards, Otto Lopez and Liam Hicks have been three of the best hitters in baseball thus far. Kyle Stowers made his season debut Sunday. Sandy Alcantara has shown flashes of his Cy Young form. Eury Perez has the stuff to dominate. The players to compete for a wild-card spot are there. — Castillo
Remember when the Astros could pitch better than most? Those days are slipping away as they have the highest ERA in baseball. Mike Burrows has an ERA that starts with 6. So does Lance McCullers. And so does Ryan Weiss. Starting to get the picture? There are more 6.00 ERAs than 3s or 4s. That’s a problem for a staff playing without Hunter Brown. At least Spencer Arrighetti is off to a nice start, but we haven’t even addressed the bullpen yet. It’s also bad. At least Houston is perfect in save opportunities, but that’s little consolation when the team is getting so beat up before the ninth inning. — Rogers
The Mets’ losing streak comes down to their offense becoming a disaster without Juan Soto. They ranked last in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS during their 12-game losing streak before Soto was activated Wednesday. Their 48 wRC+ over that span was a distant 30th behind the Royals’ 72. The production was worse with runners on base. Losing Soto would’ve wounded any offense, but the Mets went comatose. They’ll hope they can turn that around with Soto back in the lineup. — Castillo
Suffice to say, the 2025 Rockies, losers of 119 games, were a club without any strengths. The 2026 Rockies still aren’t great, but they’ve been competitive and have one clear strength: the bullpen. The Rockies own a top-10 bullpen ERA, and that’s unadjusted, meaning there’s no adjustment for Coors Field in that ranking. The new regime’s experimental initiatives seem to have paid off with this unit in particular, with Chase Dollander and Antonio Senzatela excelling in multi-inning roles. It’ll take a long time to untangle the mess inherited by president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta and general manager Josh Byrnes, but at least there’s some growth emerging. — Doolittle