David Lennon's MLB power rankings one month into the season
The Yankees' Ben Rice celebrates in the dugout after his three-run home run in the second inning against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday at Yankee Stadium. Credit: Jim McIsaac
(Previous ranking in parenthesis; statistics through Thursday's games)
1. Yankees (1)
Pretty much right where we thought they’d be, and only getting better, with Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon on the horizon. Aaron Judge and Ben Rice are proving to be one of the most dynamic 1-2 punches in the sport, combining for 22 homers -- more than the Giants (19) and Red Sox (21) and tied with the Brewers.
2. Dodgers (2)
Is L.A.’s offensive juggernaut leaking oil? Since April 15, the Dodgers ranked 12th overall with a 112 wRC+, which measures a team’s ability to create runs, right below the Reds (113). Mookie Betts on the IL doesn’t help, and Kyle Tucker isn’t quite living up to his $53 million salary with a .702 OPS.
3. Atlanta (10)
Matt Olson’s streak of 814 consecutive games (entering Friday) is the 11th longest in MLB history. The only streaks of at least 700 games (in the divisional era since 1969) belong to Cal Ripken Jr. (2,632), Steve Garvey (1,207), Miguel Tejada (1,153), Pete Rose (745) and Dale Murphy (740). (hat tip to MLB stat guru Sarah Langs).
4. Padres (20)
Mason Miller’s team-record streak of 34 2/3 scoreless innings, the eighth-longest stretch for a reliever since 1961, ended this week but needed a controversial fair/foul call to finally stop the Padres’ dominant closer. He already has 10 saves and 28 strikeouts in 14 1/3 innings this season.
5. Cubs (6)
Nico Hoerner, whose sacrifice fly beat the Mets at Wrigley, has been a pain for plenty of other opponents as well after signing a six-year, $141 million extension. Hoerner headed into May an MVP candidate, tied for second in the NL with a 1.6 fWAR and the third-most RBIs (26).
6. Mariners (4)
Seattle isn’t off to the start many expected after last year’s heart-breaking ALCS loss to the Blue Jays, and much of that has to do with the lineup’s big guns misfiring early. Enter sophomore second baseman Cole Young, who led the team with 19 RBIs at the of April, and was second in batting average (.286) and OPS (.777).
7. Reds (17)
The Central is looking like anybody’s division, so why not the Reds? As of Thursday, their 19-11 record was the franchise’s best start since 2006, despite missing their two best starting pitchers -- Hunter Greene and Nick Lodolo -- since the start of the season.
8. Rays (18)
There are many ways to suffer a bruised jaw, but how Junior Caminero managed to it is one of the more bizarre. Caminero, the Rays’ leader in homers (8), fouled a pitch off the plate, only to have it bounce back up and ricochet off his jaw, later knocking him out of the game.
9. Brewers (5)
Jacob Misiorowski has been lighting up the radar gun at an unprecedented rate. His 102.7 MPH strikeout of Oneil Cruz on April 18 was the fastest strikeout pitch ever recorded in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008). He also registered triple-digits on eight strikeouts in that game, the second-most to the Reds’ Hunter Greene (9). (another hat tip to MLB stat guru Sarah Langs).
10. Tigers (9)
Detroit got a double-dose of significant injuries during April’s final week, with starter Casey Mize (2-2, 2.90 ERA) suffering an adductor strain and Javy Baez winding up with a severe ankle sprain after an awkward slide into first base. Mize is the second member of the Opening Day rotation on the IL, joining Justin Verlander (hip inflammation).
11. Blue Jays (3)
Not surprising that the banged-up Jays struggled to stay afloat in April, but the trickling return of some injured players should reverse the downward trends, with Trey Yesavage and George Springer getting back in the month’s final week. The big one is Alejandro Kirk, who is expected later in May after surgery for a thumb fracture).
12. Guardians (16)
Cleveland got some unwanted attention for bad behavior from one of their overzealous fans when a grown man wrestled with an 11-year-old girl for Daniel Schneemann’s home-run ball hit into the leftfield stands at Progressive Field. Eventually, the man relented and gave the ball to the girl, after refusing requests from her 9-year-old brother to do so.
13. Athletics (25)
Already loaded with young talent, the A’s have another boy wonder on the horizon in shortstop prospect Leo De Vries, the centerpiece of last year’s trade that sent Mason Miller to the Padres. De Vries, just 19, was hitting .318 with four homers, seven stolen bases and a .910 OPS in 22 games as one of the younger players at the Double-A level.
14. Rangers (13)
Josh Jung, the former All-Star who was stunningly demoted last July, has rebounded this season to be a major spark for Texas. As of Thursday, Jung was leading all qualified hitters in batting average (.381) while ranking third in OPS (1.103). He had 17 RBIs over 24 games in April.
15. Diamondbacks (19)
Could the Nolan Arenado trade work out for the D-Backs? The 35-year-old third baseman was seemingly on the block forever before the Cardinals sent him to Arizona, and now he’s shaken off a slow start to hit .324 (23-for-71) with five homers and a .935 OPS over his last 20 games.
16. Orioles (11)
Pete Alonso isn’t the only former Met who hasn’t been as advertised in Baltimore. The other is Chris Bassitt, who had a 6.75 ERA and averaged only 4 2/3 innings before Thursday’s solid effort in a 10-3 win over the Astros, when he allowed just one run over 6 2/3 innings, his longest outing this season.
17. Cardinals (24)
On a team saddled with low expectations, 2020 first-round pick Jordan Walker is finally making some headway on his own high-ceiling projections, hitting seven homers during a nine-game stretch in April as well as leading the Cards in batting average (.283) and OPS (.905) through the first 30 games.
18. Marlins (21)
Miami made a big investment -- by their standards -- in closer Pete Fairbanks by giving him a one-year, $13 million deal this winter, but they’re not getting much bang for the buck. Fairbanks had a 10.00 ERA despite going 5-for-6 in save chances and now is on the IL with nerve irritation.
19. Phillies (8)
The Phillies fired manager Rob Thomson after their 9-19 start and replaced him with Don Mattingly, who also happens to be the dad of GM Preston. That could get awkward, but the Phillies got a quick boost, winning three straight since booting Thomson entering Friday’s series opener against the Marlins.
20. Pirates (23)
Konnor Griffin’s call-up was the talk of baseball when the 19-year-old shortstop was promoted for the Pirates April 3 opener. Five days later, he signed a nine-year, $140 million extension, shocking the industry. He’s had typical growing pains since, hitting .226 (19-for-84) with two homers and a .628 OPS. Griffin just turned 20 on April 24.
21. Red Sox (14)
Firing a World Series manager in Alex Cora before the end of April was bad enough for Boston, but things got considerably worse a few days later when ace Garrett Crochet was placed on the IL with shoulder inflammation. Crochet clearly hadn’t been himself, with a 6.30 ERA through his first six starts.
22. Royals (15)
KC hasn’t done much right this season in sinking to the bottom of the weak AL Central, and that applies to their rare postgame celebrations, too. After Bobby Witt hit his second homer in as many games (after zero through his first 27) he dodged Salvador Perez’s water-cooler bath, which soaked a security guard instead.
23. Giants (22)
Rafael Devers was supposed to be the remedy for the Giants’ eternal search for more offense, but that hasn’t panned out by the Bay, with the three-time All-Star (and converted first baseman) batting .211 with a .548 OPS through 29 games. His minus-0.8 fWAR is tied with Cedric Mullins for second-worst in the MLB (Marcell Ozuna is at minus-0.9).
24. Mets (7)
Nobody was looking forward to May more than the Mets, who finished March/April all alone with MLB’s worst record (10-21). The culprit is the offense, which had the worst OPS (.631), the second fewest runs (106) and were tied for the third-worst batting average (.227).
25. Nationals (26)
Anyone asking themselves where Richard Lovelady is these days should know he resides in the Nats’ pen, and was very popular among his former Mets teammates during the team’s trip to Flushing this week. Lovelady has the distinction of being signed or released by the Mets a total of seven times since June of last season.
26. Angels (27)
Earlier this month, Jordan Romano had a rough visit to the Bronx in blowing games on consecutive nights, a lowlight reel that included teeing up a tying homer to Trent Grisham in the ninth and also a walk-off wild pitch to Ryan McMahon. This week, the Angels ate the $2 million on their struggling closer by DFA’ing Romano (10.12 ERA).
27. White Sox (29)
Munetaka Murakami is creating plenty of offseason regret for a multitude of GMs around the league as he continues to mash, tying Aaron Judge and Yordan Alvarez for the MLB lead with 12 homers and posting a .940 OPS that ranks 13th overall. He’s also the three true-outcome king, with the second-most strikeouts (45) and fifth-most walks (22).
28. Astros (12)
Tatsuya Imai was one of this winter’s most coveted free-agent pitchers. But after signing a three-year, $54 million contract with Houston, he’s mostly looking like a mistake. Imai had a 7.27 ERA with 11 walks in 8 2/3 innings before being demoted to Triple-A, where he flunked his first outing (2 innings, 5 runs).
29. Rockies (30)
Colorado’s three-game sweep last weekend at Citi Field was their first over the Mets since 2018 and first road doubleheader sweep since April 2011. It also gave the Rockies their 13th win of the season on April 26 -- a year ago, they didn’t get No. 13 until June 12, when their record was 13-55.
30. Twins (28)
Perhaps the least buzz-worthy team in the majors generated some moderate heat a week ago after handing the Mets their 12th straight defeat, leading to the X post: Things you can get in a dozen: Eggs, Roses, Mets losses. With the Twins heading toward another trade deadline sell-off, that’s about as good as it gets in Minny these days.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
