The 2026 season is in full gear as all of baseball has completed the first furlong of the mile-long race that is the MLB schedule (that’s 1/8th for those that don’t enjoy watching the ponies run). Some of the struggling pre-season favorites have doubled down and gotten worse, while a number of pleasant surprises have stayed hot.
The N.L. Central division has been the most enjoyable to watch thus far, with all five teams playing over .500 ball, with 1st place and last separated by just a mere couple of games. While it won’t likely continue like this for the entire Summer, we can enjoy it while it lasts. Let’s jump in and see how all 30 teams rank after almost a month of baseball.
These guys were ranked in my top 5 just two weeks ago. Coincidentally, that’s about when they won their last game. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong for the Metropolitans lately, and it feels like they are coming up with new ways to lose baseball games. Carlos Mendoza has to be on the hot seat and may not last much longer if the team doesn’t turn things around. If you’re a Met fan looking for a silver lining, Juan Soto should be back in the lineup any day, while Francisco Lindor has strung together a few multi-hit games as he continues to build strength in his surgically repaired hand.
Noah Schultz and Sam Antonacci are up from the minors and will make things fun to watch for ChiSox fans this Summer, but the team is still a work in progress. Better days are ahead on the South Side of Chicago as Kyle Teel is near a rehab assignment and could be back within a couple of weeks.
The Astros dropped in my rankings for the second week in a row as they continue to struggle with injuries to their pitching staff. Yordan Alvarez leads the league in homers, while leading this lineup in every major offensive category, so if they can get some semblance of steady pitching, things will get better. Spencer Arrighetti has joined the starting 5 and has looked pretty good, so that’s a start.
Chase Dollander has been a bright spot in what has been an otherwise uninspiring pitching staff. Poor pitching is what we’ve become accustomed to from the Rockies, so the bar isn’t exactly high when we look for positive signs. After he struggled mightily at Coors in his rookie campaign, the team may have unlocked something by using him as a bulk reliever this year. Overall, the team is still losing more games than they win and doesn’t figure to threaten the teams at the top of this division in the near future.
The offense is still scuffling as they return home after a recent road trip where they went 4-5. When you consider their home record, that was a breath of fresh air. Bryce Eldridge has been hot in AAA and could be up sooner rather than later to give the team some desperately needed thump in their lineup. At this point, it’s likely a service time issue that is keeping him in Sacramento.
The season didn’t start well, and that was before Garrett Crochet started pitching like he has a case of Steve Blass disease. It’s a little early to panic, but it may be the right time to feel a little queasy. The lineup and the pitching have been equally mediocre, as they rank in the bottom half of the league in runs scored as well as runs allowed.
It’s not exactly a recipe for success. This weekend, they travel to Baltimore after they host the Yankees, so perhaps seeing their hated rivals in pinstripes will be the kickstart they need to get things going.
Since sweeping the Brewers over a week ago, things have stagnated in the Nation’s Capital as the team has basically lost two games for each game they’ve won recently. CJ Abrams and James Wood are leading the way for an offense ranked 4th in the league in runs scored, while pitchers like Miles Mikolas (9.15) and Zach Littell (7.11) anchor a pitching staff ranked 29th in both ERA and Batting Average Against.
Dropping 8 games in a row this early in the season tends to make a record look ugly, and the Royals are in dire need of a makeover right now. The offense is suffering due to slow starts from everybody, while Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha are doing their best to keep the pitching staff together despite Cole Ragans’ shaky performances in the early going. Manager Matt Quatraro just got the dreaded “vote of confidence” from GM, JJ Picollo, so he’ll probably be fired within a week or two if things don’t improve.
The Jays recently won two straight road games to improve their road record from abysmal to merely terrible. They will return North of the border this weekend after they finish on the West coast, and hopefully, they will start getting some of their walking wounded back soon. On the hitting side, George Springer should be first, followed by Addison Barger, while Alejandro Kirk will be a few more weeks.
The pitching staff will most likely be without Cody Ponce for the entire season, but Tre Yesavage and Jose Berrios have both begun rehab assignments and should join the team in fairly short order.
The NL East was supposed to be a three-team race between the Mets, Phils, and Braves. Somebody must have forgotten to tell everybody but the Braves. The Phils have been terrible in all facets of the game, ranking in the bottom-5 in most offensive and pitching categories as well as overall defense. To make matters worse, they just lost closer, Jhoan Duran, for at least 2 weeks with an oblique strain. Zach Wheeler is about to return, so all hope is not lost, but it feels like Joe Girardi was fired a few years ago for less than this.
Jose Soriano is still shoving every single time he takes the mound, but that hasn’t been quite enough as the Halos pitching staff ranks in the middle of the pack in ERA and WHIP. Mike Trout has done his part to keep the offense going, teasing us to think this might be the year he finally stays healthy, but the team just can’t get out of second gear. They basically alternate wins and losses, which has kept them in the middle of an AL West division that is up for grabs, thanks to the slow starts by Seattle and Houston.
Who will we get to see this week? Will it be the Dr. Jeckyl or Mr. Hyde version of the Mariners (being honest, I’m never sure which one is better when using this as a sports analogy). This team was swept by the Rangers but bounced back to sweep the Astros.
They promptly followed that up by being swept in San Diego by the Padres. The offense has shown some signs of life with Julio Rodriguez, Josh Naylor, and Cal Raleigh all starting to come alive, so it’s possible they have a big win streak coming.
The Orioles have had a rough stretch recently, losing 5 games over a 6-game span that sank them back behind the Yankees and Rays in the AL East. Jeremiah Jackson did all he could to keep the offense going, leading the team in total bases over the past week, but overall, the Baltimore lineup has struggled, scoring just 22 runs over the aforementioned 6-game stretch (3.67 runs per game).
The Fish cooled off a bit after a nice run last week as they suffered a 4-game losing streak, dropping a pair to both the Brewers and Braves while allowing 6 runs per game. Kyle Stowers recently returned to a lineup that managed nicely in his absence, ranking in the top 10 in the league in Slug%, Batting Average, and On Base%. Hopefully, his addition can get them into the top 10 in runs scored as well.
The pitching staff has picked things up as Framber Valdez and Keider Montero have joined Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize in the run prevention party. The Tigers pitching staff had a recent stretch where they allowed 2 runs or less in 7 of 9 games, which has fueled their recent surge in the standings. This is a team on the rise, and they very well could find themselves in the top 10 next week if they keep this up.