MLB Power Rankings: Mets, Guardians end June with gloom; Current trends for each team

New York Times

01-07-2025

By Grant Brisbee, Chad Jennings and Levi Weaver
Every week,​ we​ ask a selected group of our baseball​ writers​ — local and national — to rank the teams from first to worst. Here are the collective results.
Remember when Blake Snell went on the injured list and the Los Angeles Dodgers' absurdly deep pitching staff began to show some weakness? What was that, four weeks ago? Five weeks ago? (Checks the transactions log…)
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Three months ago!
Yes, that sound you hear is the baseball calendar flipping to July. The All-Star break is two weeks away, the trade deadline is a month away and we're beyond the halfway point to Game 162. It's starting to feel like some of these games actually count!
April can be misleading, and May can be a month of transition, but June is when we really wrap our heads around what we're seeing. The sample sizes aren't small anymore, and the inevitable shifts toward contention — we're looking at you, Braves and Rangers — stop feeling so certain. For this week's Power Rankings, we look at where each team was trending in June, from the boring to the surging to downright confusing.
Record: 53-32
Last Power Ranking: 1
June trend: Boring (the good kind)
The Dodgers have a big lead in the NL West again. They're at the top of these rankings again. I'm not sure when The Athletic's first power rankings were, but my guess is that the Dodgers were at the top of those, too. The oldest ones I could find in my own archives were from 2021, and they started with this sentence:
Like you were expecting a different team up here.
Indeed. A month-by-month trend? The Dodgers don't mess with those. They're on the decade-by-decade plan, and they're still trending up, somehow, even though they can't really pitch. — Grant Brisbee
Record: 53-32
Last Power Ranking: 3
June trend: A deep October run
We've discussed repeatedly all the things that have gone right for the Tigers this year. Some of them — Spencer Torkelson's breakout, Riley Greene outpacing last year's All-Star campaign, Javier Báez and Gleyber Torres being significant contributors — come with questions of sustainability, sure.
But it's a long list, and it has rocketed the Tigers to the top of the AL. Surely not all of those coaches will turn into pumpkins, even if Wenceel Pérez isn't likely to keep his OPS north of 1.000 for the rest of the year.
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But one thing is not in question: Tarik Skubal is an ace's ace. If Detroit can get back into the playoffs — and right now, Baseball Reference says there's a 99.6 percent chance of it happening — the Tigers have the potential to steamroll the rest of the AL field en route to a World Series. — Levi Weaver
Record: 48-36
Last Power Ranking: 4
June trend: Catchable
As of June 3, the Yankees had a 6 1/2-game lead in the American League East. The best AL team was a pretty clear toss-up between the Yankees and Tigers, and the Yankees had separated themselves from a deep division. In the past month, though, the Yankees have hovered right around .500 while the Rays and Blue Jays have closed the gap to make the AL East a legitimate competition. The Yankees still have playoff odds well above 90 percent — and they still have Aaron Judge, though his June was more very good than historically elite — but they're no longer a singular force in the division or the American League. — Chad Jennings
Record: 50-35
Last Power Ranking: 2
June trend: Advantageous
The Phillies weren't great in June, but as the Mets fell apart and the Braves continued to spin their tires, the Phillies did enough to take control of the NL East. They moved into first place on the strength of their pitching, with Cristopher Sánchez and Ranger Suárez taking their turns leading this deep rotation that's also been able to lean heavily on Zack Wheeler and Jesús Luzardo. The Phillies moved atop the division mostly without Bryce Harper, whose return puts the lineup back at full strength alongside Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber. — Jennings
Record: 50-34
Last Power Ranking: 7
June trend: Dominance
Reports of the Astros' demise were greatly exaggerated, and now they're running away with the AL West behind an unexpected pitching-and-Jeremy-Peña strategy (which hit a roadbump on Monday). There are other contributors, obviously, but Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown and a mostly untouchable bullpen are behind much of the recent winning.
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The Astros aren't scoring as many runs as, oh, the Marlins or Nationals, so there is work to be done if they want to keep coasting to the postseason. That can all be addressed at the deadline, though. For now, they're rolling. — Brisbee
Record: 49-35
Last Power Ranking: 6
June trend: Repaving the way
We've all agreed by now that 2020 was a pseudo-season, right? 60 games? I mean, it's always better to win than to lose, but even the Dodgers were like 'Yeahhhhhh, cool, but we'd also like a real one.'
So the Cubs haven't been division champs for real since 2017, the year after they won the World Series. Clearly, this is a different team. Not only was Pete Crow-Armstrong 15 years old that year, but there's only one player on this year's team — Ian Happ — who played even one big-league game with the Cubs.
This is an all-new Cubs team, thriving on its own strength and not the rapidly decaying nostalgia of yesteryear.
The Cubs have hit a mini-slump of late, going 4-6 in their last 10 and an even .500 in June while the Brewers, Cardinals and Reds all surged. But the talent appears to be there. It's not time to worry yet. — Weaver
Record: 48-37
Last Power Ranking: 5
June trend: Roller coaster
As of June 12, the Mets had won six straight and 15 of 18. They were dominant, with a comfortable lead in an NL East expected to be a dogfight. But June 13 began a seven-game losing streak — which started a stretch in which they lost 10 of 11 — and over the weekend, the Mets were swept by the Pirates to finish 12-15 in June. Juan Soto was awesome (highest wRC+ in baseball for the month), but Griffin Canning, Tylor Megill and Kodai Senga went on the IL, straining a rotation that had been an unexpected strength, and the Phillies moved ahead of the Mets in the division. Early June showed how good the Mets can be, but late June showed something else entirely. — Jennings
Record: 47-38
Last Power Ranking: 9
June trend: Rays-ish
The Rays were not very good last year, and weren't very good in April, either. But they were a little better in May, and their June was about as good as any team in baseball. In other words, the Rays are back! Yandy Díaz is hitting again, Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero look like emerging lynchpins, and Ha-Seong Kim could make his organizational debut soon. The Rays pitching has been more good than elite — and they actually have a full rotation instead of a bunch of openers — but the result has been a typically good-if-anonymous Tampa Bay team that's not simply in the mix for a wild card, but also climbing within striking distance of the Yankees for first place in the American League East. — Jennings
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Record: 45-40
Last Power Ranking: 8
June trend: Super weird, man
The Giants made their biggest trade in decades, then turned around and used their new superstar to defeat the team he came from. There's momentum, and then there's momentum. They had pure, undistilled momentum – the premium stuff – and they were going to ride it all the way to the World Series, baby.
Except the Giants took all that momentum and used it to get their butts kicked by the Marlins and White Sox. In conclusion, June is a land of contrasts, and maybe momentum is only as good as the next day's starting pitcher. The Giants are still as hard to read as they were before the season even started. — Brisbee
Record: 45-39
Last Power Ranking: 11
June trend: Unremarkable
The Padres are beating the teams they should beat, winning recent home series against the Royals and Nationals, while struggling on the road against divisional opponents. They've outscored the Dodgers in seven games this season – 37 runs scored to just 35 allowed – but they've only won two of those games, which seems hard to do.
Their June was nothing but a placeholder for the month that will actually tell you if the Padres are good enough to make the Dodgers sweat. As of now, they're not nearly as close as they should be. — Brisbee
Record: 47-37
Last Power Ranking: 10
June trend: Moooommmmmm, they're doing it againnnnn!!
We do this every year now. The Brewers lose a star player, a manager, a front office executive, and we think: 'Well, that's going to be the load-bearing wall that brings the whole thing crashing down.'
And then every September, we look up, and this Frankenstein monster of castoffs and hole-pluggers is standing on the boat bound for October, waving back at those teams whose well-laid plans simply did not pan out.
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The Brewers went 16-9 in June. That's the best record in June for the entire NL, and trails only the Astros (19-7) for best in baseball.
At some point, it should cease to be surprising. Not yet, though. I'm still pleasantly mystified every time. — Weaver
Record: 47-39
Last Power Ranking: 14
June trend: Boring, finally
The Cardinals were lousy in April. Then they were one of the hottest teams in baseball for May. Now they're somewhere in the middle. So who are the real Cardinals?
All of the above. They're probably not as bad or as good as they were in the first two months, respectively, which means their June trend is that of an ordinary team having ordinary successes and failures. A couple more Mays, and they'll win the division easily, but that doesn't mean it's likely or even possible.
(Also, that last sentence applied to the Giants throughout the 1960s.) — Brisbee
Record: 46-38
Last Power Ranking: 12
June trend: Relevance
It's a two-month trend, really. This was supposed to be an era of greatness for the Blue Jays — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette in their primes, a rotation built over time, more investments this offseason — but they haven't won a playoff game since 2016, and they finished well below .500 last year and April was more of the same. But the Blue Jays have played their way back into the wild card race (and they're at least in the conversation for the division) since May. Alejandro Kirk and José Berríos have been excellent, and over the weekend, the Jays clinched their season series against the Red Sox. The Blue Jays are not exactly front-runners, but they're not afterthoughts either, and their June was good enough to take control of a wild-card spot. — Jennings
Record: 44-41
Last Power Ranking: 19
June trend: … also relevance?
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The Reds went 15-10 in June. Elly De La Cruz got hot. Chase Burns debuted and looked unbothered in his first start (though let's ignore his second start on Monday, because whew). Andrew Abbott appears to be a legit top-of-the-rotation starter. Jose Trevino is hitting nearly .300 and has an OPS in the .800s. Spencer Steer hit three home runs in a game that saw Nick Martinez take a no-hitter into the ninth inning. Emilio Pagán has been almost untouchable this month.
Now, imagine a healthy Hunter Greene and maybe even a healthy Rhett Lowder joining the rotation in the second half. If they can pick up a bat or two at the deadline, I kinda like the Reds to be a sneak-into-the-playoffs wild-card team. — Weaver
Record: 44-40
Last Power Ranking: 13
June trend: Depends on which June you're talking about here
The Mariners began June in first place, with a 31-26 record. Ten games into the month, they stood at 33-34 and four games out.
The skid has stopped, and they've cobbled together a winning record since then, but they're still losing ground to the absurdly hot Astros. So the Mariners don't have a June trend, per se, as much as they have an understanding that baseball, like life, can come at you quickly. The franchise has been aware of this particular quirk of the sport for about 50 years now, so no one can feign surprise. So far, it's all added up to a very Mariners season, yet again. — Brisbee
Record: 38-45
Last Power Ranking: 17
June trend: Reality
Last week was the Braves in a nutshell. It started with Chris Sale going on the injured list, after which the Braves actually won a couple before losing three straight — all in the division — culminating in a blowout loss to the Phillies. A lopsided win on Saturday gave them a chance to win a series against Philly, but they lost Sunday's game by a run.
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The end result: a losing record for the week against the two teams currently in control of the NL East. Flashes of the talent that made the Braves preseason favorites, but ultimately the reality of why they're below .500 with playoff odds that were in free fall for much of June. There's enough talent to believe in this team — especially now that Spencer Strider is pitching well again — but it's July 1, and the Braves just don't have the record to support such blind faith. — Jennings
Record: 42-42
Last Power Ranking: 15
June trend: Same ol', same ol'
The Diamondbacks can hit the snot out of the ball. They led the sport in runs scored last year, and they have the third-highest total in baseball this year. It's been good enough for fourth place so far.
They'll need to prevent runs if they're going to make the postseason, which was also the book on them entering this year. They spent a lot of money to address this problem, but they ended up right back where they started. The last team to lead its league in runs in consecutive seasons without making the playoffs was the 2015-2016 Rockies. There are better role models for an NL West team to follow. — Brisbee
Record: 41-44
Last Power Ranking: 20
June trend: A species of fear
I didn't expect to quote Rene Descartes in the Power Rankings, but this quote — from 'Passions of the Soul' — seems to fit this year's Texas Rangers:
'Indecision is also a species of fear that, holding the soul, as it were, in suspense between several actions it might carry out, causes it to perform none of them, and thus gives it the time to make a proper choice before opting for one of them. In which respect, it is genuinely of some use. But when it lasts longer than it should, and causes us to squander on deliberation the time we need in order to act, it is very bad.'
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The Rangers have spent three months in conflict with themselves, deliberating which aspect — the Octoberish pitching or the deadline-selloffish hitting — will be their defining trait.
They still look capable of winning or losing ~87 games. Figure it out, fellas. — Weaver
Record: 42-44
Last Power Ranking: 16
June trend: Mediocrity
April was pretty good, May was pretty bad and June was pretty meh. A hot streak, then a losing streak. Pull above .500, then fall back below. Top prospect Roman Anthony was promoted from Triple-A, and less than a week later, face-of-the-franchise Rafael Devers was traded to San Francisco. The Red Sox have settled in as the fourth-best team in a predictably deep division, and the past month suggested that's about where they belong. Not awful, but not great. Can the return of Alex Bregman and the season debut of Masataka Yoshida make a difference? Will they buy or sell at the deadline? Fair questions, but the team isn't exactly trending toward definitive answers. — Jennings
Record: 40-44
Last Power Ranking: 21
June trend: Disaster imminent! Or maybe another 13-game winning streak! Who knows!!!!
After a red-hot May (18-8), the Twins went 9-18 in June. Add in an 0-4 March and a 13-14 April, and you have a team that — much like last year — just can't seem to be normal. Did you know that the Twins have made the playoffs seven times in the past 20 years and have gone a combined 1-21 in the postseason?
With players like Byron Buxton and Harrison Bader (both 31 years old), Carlos Correa (30), and Chris Paddack, Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober and Pablo López (all 29), you could make the argument that the Twins could hope for another second-half hot streak. And if it doesn't work out? Ehhhh, no big deal, let's reload for 2026.
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But if this core is this predisposed to extreme streakiness (and never in October), is it time to consider tearing it down and rebuilding with more consistent building blocks? — Weaver
Record: 40-42
Last Power Ranking: 18
June trend: Irrelevance?
Over the last 10 years, the Guardians have made the playoffs six times. On the four occasions in which they missed it, they finished second in the division three times and third place once.
They're in second place right now, too — but that's only because the Twins and Royals have somehow been worse in June (and the White Sox had a head start on losing games). Check out these June records in the AL Central:
Detroit: 15-11 (.577)
White Sox: 10-16 (.385)
Guardians: 9-16 (.360)
Twins: 9-18 (.333)
Royals: 8-18 (.308)
How depressing.
Anyway, the Guardians haven't hit and their pitching hasn't been able to save them. They're still within shouting distance of a wild-card position, but they're going to have to get back to 'Guards Ball.'— Weaver
Record: 39-46
Last Power Ranking: 22
June trend: One step back
The stories of the Tigers and Royals were twin flames last year — two AL Central teams ascending from the mire to claim a surprise playoff spot. But while the Tigers have continued to improve this year, the Royals look more like the 2023 squad that finished 56-106.
OK, they're not quite that bad. But they're definitely not on pace to hit last year's 86-win mark, either.
Two encouraging signs: going into Monday night's game against the Mariners, Kansas City's starting pitchers still ranked in a tie for sixth-best ERA in the sport (with the Yankees, 3.41). Maikel Garcia is finally having a breakout season, and Bobby Witt Jr. is still very good (and only 25).
Alas, that hasn't translated into many wins, especially recently. — Weaver
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Record: 41-42
Last Power Ranking: 23
June trend: Hope? Honest to goodness hope?
The Angels are in the postseason picture. They're in the back of the picture, and you have to zoom in until everything is super pixelated, but they're back there. They're kind of making a funny face, but they're not doing it on purpose. They just didn't know they were going to be in the picture. Let me start over.
The Angels are in the postseason picture, and they got there with a strong June. They're hovering around .500, so let's not go nuts with the expectations, but they're happy to be there. After the dreadful April they had, and considering they've still been outscored by about 50 runs on the season, they still have plenty to prove. But the obvious preseason picks, such as the Braves, would love to be in their position. That's something, right? — Brisbee
Record: 37-47
Last Power Ranking: 24
June trend: Too little, too late
The fact is, the Orioles weren't bad in June. Winning record. Swept the Mariners and Angels. Scored 22 runs in a game against the Rays. Gunnar Henderson had his best month of the year, Jordan Westburg got healthy, and Adley Rutschman was really good (before he got hurt). Charlie Morton even pitched well! But what good does that do for a team that won only nine games in April and only nine more in May? At this point, the Orioles' playoff odds have been stuck in single digits for almost two months. So, what should we make of a decent June? It's kept them from being truly awful, but the trade deadline is a month away, and that's surely not enough time to avoid being sellers. — Jennings
Record: 36-50
Last Power Ranking: 26
June trend: A late mirage
With Monday's 7-0 win over the Cardinals, the Pirates did a couple of things.
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First, at 14-13, they had their first winning month since last year's mirage, which carried on into July.
Second, it was their fourth straight win by seven or more runs. Per the Pirates' broadcast crew, that's their longest such stretch since 1925. 1925! The Pirates haven't been good lately, but counting that 1925 season, they're 4-1 in World Series appearances since then!
Alas, when they break this record again someday, researchers won't have the satisfying conclusion of '1925? Oh yeah, they won the World Series that year, that tracks.' Instead, they'll look back and go, 'They did that in 2025? The year they couldn't even win all those Paul Skenes starts? Baseball is weird, man.' — Weaver
Record: 37-45
Last Power Ranking: 27
June trend: Meh
I mean, look, the Marlins had a winning record last month. Their run differential was pretty close to even, Otto Lopez was great, Kyle Stowers kept putting up good numbers, and Sandy Alcantara finally had a decent month (especially if you ignore his last start). The Marlins even moved out of last place. It was good. But still. Meh. The Marlins won a ton last week, so they're trending upward, but the season already is what it is. A decent month and a really good week count as a meaningful high point, but the bigger picture is still just … the Marlins. — Jennings
Record: 35-49
Last Power Ranking: 25
June trend: Bottom of the barrel
The worst record in June? You might assume the Rockies or the White Sox, or maybe you noticed a team like the Royals falling fast and would wonder if they were the worst. But, no, it was the Nationals. Coming off a winning record in May — when they actually moved up to third place in the division — the Nationals plummeted in May, falling behind even the Marlins to last place in the NL East. CJ Abrams, James Wood and MacKenzie Gore kept playing well, but the team as a whole fell apart. — Jennings
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Record: 35-52
Last Power Ranking: 27
June trend: Regular bad, not historically bad
Whew. It was getting really ugly there for a bit. The A's gave up 195 runs in May, which was one of the worst performances from any pitching staff in any month over the last quarter-century. Actually, three of the 10 worst pitching months since 2000 belong to the A's. I wonder if there's some sort of common thread, like ownership, that could partially explain that. Some things will just have to remain a mystery!
The A's pitching this month has been just regular bad, which is good, because Sacramento isn't about to get cooler over the next couple months. Say what you want about the status or direction of the franchise, but A's pitchers don't deserve to have the deck stacked against them even more than it already is. Just let them be a regular-bad pitching staff in peace. — Brisbee
Record: 28-56
Last Power Ranking: 29
June trend: I mean, the only way left is up, right?
The White Sox had the division's second-best record in June. Sure, it was 10-16, but considering they were 5-21 in April (and 9-19 last June), this is technically an improvement, right? And after spending almost every week in the No. 30 spot in the power rankings last year, they've consistently finished in 29th this year.
Hey, did you know that Adrian Houser has a 2.93 ERA in five starts in June, and Dan Altavilla, Steven Wilson and Tyler Gilbert have combined to allow one earned run in 18 innings out of the bullpen?
I don't know if this is relevant or helpful. I just got bored with telling you how bad the White Sox are. — Weaver
Record: 19-65
Last Power Ranking: 30
June trend: Bad, but not historically awful
Some teams would feel uncomfortable with a trend of 'bad, but not historically awful,' but not the Rockies. They're trending upward, and how. They were just 2-10 at Coors Field in June, but they finished with an 8-6 record on the road, which means they might have just had their best road month in years. Heck, that might be enough to be a top-10 road month in franchise history.
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You have to understand that such a thing will not be researched by me for the last capsule in a very long power ranking that nobody will actually read to the end. But I'd like to imagine it's the start of a new franchise-wide trend that will last for a decade. The Rockies? They're just better on the road. Everyone knows that. And it all started in June 2025. — Brisbee
(Top photo of Steven Kwan: Frank Jansky / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)