Last week, the Braves were No. 1 in the MLB.com Power Rankings, and the Dodgers were No. 3. Quite conveniently, these top teams in the NL played each other over the weekend … and it’s fair to say the Dodgers left little doubt that their early-season struggles are behind them. They are looking like the juggernaut we all expected … and they are once again atop these Power Rankings because of it. Meanwhile, the Orioles watched the two teams rise and fall on either side of them and remain this close to their first appearance atop the rankings.
You can say it’s early. But most of these top teams are the ones we all expected heading into the season. Which is not to say there aren’t plenty of surprises. These rankings, as always, are compiled by MLB.com contributors whose names you can find at the bottom of this (and every) piece, but the words are mine. If you dislike the rankings, yell at all of us. But if you dislike the words, feel free to yell at me.
1) Dodgers (previously: 3).
Season high: 1 | Season low: 6
Remember how Mookie Betts got off to that insane start, the start that ended up winning him the NL Player of the Month Award? Well, five days into May, Shohei Ohtani has already caught up with him, and passed him, in OPS at 1.111. That would, in fact, be Ohtani’s career high if he kept it up, and it’s the highest number in baseball. Don’t worry: Betts is still second.
2) Orioles (previously: 2).
Season high: 2 | Season low: 5
Remember when the big worry about the Orioles was their rotation? They went into Great American Ball Park this weekend and absolutely shut down the Reds, a team that has more than its fair share of good hitters. Cole Irvin threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings on Friday, John Means (in his season debut!) threw seven scoreless on Saturday and Dean Kremer threw six scoreless of his own on Sunday (giving up just one hit). The vaunted Orioles offense scored some runs this weekend too, but they didn’t really need to.
3) Phillies (previously: 7).
Season high: 3 | Season low: 8
After years of being the team in the NL East that was good but not the Braves, the Phillies finally took over first place from them this week. The three days they have been in first place are more than the one day they were in first place in 2022 and 2023 combined … years in which they made the World Series and the NLCS, respectively.
4) Braves (previously: 1).
Season high: 1 | Season low: 4
Max Fried, a SoCal native famous for doing well against the Dodgers, came into Sunday not having given up a run in his previous two starts. Unfortunately for him, the Dodgers are smoking right now. Fried wasn’t a disaster against them — he gave up four runs in seven innings — but it wasn’t enough. The Braves have been one of the best teams in baseball for several years now. But when you put them up against the Dodgers this weekend, Atlanta looked like the lesser team by a considerable amount.
5) Yankees (previously: 5).
Season high: 2 | Season low: 7
On their fourth try — they were 0-3 coming into Sunday in games where they were nine games over .500 — the Yankees finally did it: They’re 10 games over .500. Last year’s Yankees, despite their brutal finish, did in fact make it to 10 games over: They were 39-29 on June 13 before losing four in a row. The Yankees are now home against the Astros for three games this week, and you have to think they’d love nothing more than to bury their bitter rivals of the last half-decade or so.
6) Guardians (previously: 4).
Season high: 4 | Season low: 21
It was an excellent day for Cleveland sports on the other side of the home run porch out in left field with the Cavs beating the Magic in Game 7, and the Guardians did their part by continuing to hang on to first place in what has turned out to be, surprisingly, the most competitive division in baseball. The injury to Steven Kwan could be a thorn in the lion’s paw, though: He leads the AL in batting average and is second in hits only to…
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