MLB power rankings one month in......article from......
The Ringer
1. Los Angeles Dodgers (21-10)
Preseason rank: 1
It’ll take something drastic for me to move the Dodgers out of the top spot in these rankings, but their starting pitching is trying its best to tempt me. Shohei Ohtani still hasn’t thrown a pitch this season and may not for a few more months. Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell are on the injured list, and the Bobby Miller reclamation project hit a snag in mid-April, when he allowed six runs in three innings to the lowly Rockies. The Dodgers have an almost endless supply of pitching depth—Tony Gonsolin just returned, and Clayton Kershaw could be back this month—but they’re using almost all of it early on. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is off to a Cy Young–caliber start (1.06 ERA, 2.27 FIP), but Dave Roberts might have to start picking names out of a hat to fill in the rest of their rotation.
The constants are the Dodgers’ relentless offense and stellar bullpen, and thanks to those strengths, the defending champions keep the top spot.
4. New York Yankees (18-13)
Preseason rank: 10
There aren’t enough superlatives to properly contextualize Aaron Judge’s offensive output. His Baseball Savant page has more red than Kramer’s apartment after Kenny Rogers Roasters opened across the street. Judge has reached base in more than half of his plate appearances, and his .761 slugging percentage is 112 points higher than any other qualified hitter’s.
Nothing Judge does at the plate should really surprise us anymore, but the Yankees have gotten unexpected boosts from two other batters: Both Ben Rice and Trent Grisham are slugging over .580. Soto’s departure left a gaping hole, but the Yankees have more than replaced his production in the aggregate. They’ve boasted baseball’s best offense thus far, and that’s helped them weather Devin Williams’s failures (9.00 ERA) as closer and some real depth issues in the starting rotation. Carlos Rodón and Max Fried have been the only reliable starters for the Yankees this year.
16. Cleveland Guardians (18-13)
Preseason rank: 17
Cleveland finished last season with the best bullpen ERA (2.57) in MLB by more than a half run. Its relievers also led the majors in WAR and posted the highest win probability added on record. The question entering 2025 was whether it could sustain its elite late-inning work despite the heavy usage of its top arms deep into last October. So far, the answer has been no. The Guardians are 15th in bullpen ERA, and Emmanuel Clase has looked human.
One reason to be optimistic: After a sluggish start to the season, Tanner Bibee has shown considerably better stuff in his past two starts. The Guardians need him to be a frontline starter to re-create the elite run-suppression machine of last year and successfully defend their AL Central title.
21 Minnesota Twins (13-19)
Preseason rank: 15
It’s one thing when injury-prone guys like Royce Lewis or Byron Buxton miss time. It’s another when a top prospect like Luke Keaschall comes up, rakes right away, and then gets hit by a pitch and fractures his forearm. Matt Wallner and Willi Castro are also on the shelf. The bigger problem, perhaps, is that the Twins haven’t built in any roster redundancy: After spending less than every other team two offseasons ago, they essentially sat out last year’s trade deadline and then ranked 24th in spending this past winter. To make matters worse, the last player they did splurge on, Carlos Correa, has a .588 OPS. No number of nasty Joe Ryan sweepers can save the Twins unless they get healthy and aggressive.
https://www.theringer.com/2025/05/02/ml ... s-may-2025
