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.

Here’s a question: How committed is Major League Baseball to the rule saying every division winner has to make the playoffs? Because I’m looking at the American League West, where every team has a negative run differential and seems to be fighting for its life just to stay above .500, and wondering: Do we really need that in October?

The answer, of course, is sure we do. Wouldn’t you be at least a little bit nervous if your team ran into the Seattle Mariners rotation in the first round? And the Houston Astros have one of the highest-scoring lineups in the AL. So, the real question is: Which AL West team is going to win the division and try to play spoiler in the playoffs?

Questions like that is the theme of this week’s Power Rankings. As the final month approaches, we’re asking one big question about each team.

Record: 81-50
Last Power Ranking: 1

One big question: Is Christian Yelich an everyday player?

Milwaukee enters the week with baseball’s best record and an offense that ranks fourth in runs per game. But its veteran leader hasn’t been a big part of that offense lately. Yelich has followed up 2025’s outstanding season with the worst offensive production of his career: He’s below a league-average OPS now, and he’s been in an extended slump since the All-Star break (though he did have a very nice week last week, providing some encouragement). The Brewers have other options to potentially DH. Both Andrew Vaughn and Gary Sánchez have hit well enough to take on larger roles. — Tim Britton

Record: 80-51
Last Power Ranking: 2

One big question: How’s everyone feeling?

Tyler Glasnow is close to rejoining the rotation. Shohei Ohtani is throwing again. Will Smith is close to a rehab assignment. The Dodgers still have a bullpen’s worth of arms on the IL, and they’ll be without Andy Pages for a while, but they’re still in the montage sequence of the season. Players training to energetic music, high-fiving each other at home plate, that sort of thing. The organizational plan is always to get to full strength by the start of October, rather than at the start of April or even July, and they’re still on track. — Grant Brisbee

How Dodgers’ Max Muncy will earn $15,000 for every plate appearance

Fabian Ardaya and Lauren Morales-Jones

Record: 76-56
Last Power Ranking: 4

One big question: Can the makeshift rotation put it all together?

No team has more moving pieces on its pitching staff than Chicago, which is incorporating trade deadline acquisitions while planning out injury returns and juggling multiple pitchers between the rotation and the bullpen. There are plenty of options here, but the Cubs are still trying to figure out the best of them before October. Doing so will be vital with the Cubs appearing headed for a first-round wild-card showdown with the runner-up in the National League East; it would sure help to have home-field advantage for that series. — Britton

Record: 76-55
Last Power Ranking: 3

One big question: Is this the most hit-or-miss World Series contender?

The Braves have been slipping lately. Nothing terribly alarming — they’re still going to make the playoffs — but they’ve lost a lot the past couple of weeks, and they went through a similar cold spell back in June. For the season, they’re one of the best teams in the game, but there’s a reason FanGraphs is giving the second-place Phillies better World Series odds. The Braves are top-heavy in their lineup and in their rotation. They’ve been pretty high in our Power Rankings most of the season, but they also feel like a team that could hobble their way through an early exit in October. — Jennings

Record: 74-56
Last Power Ranking: T-5

One big question: What about Aaron Judge?

Cody Bellinger is back. That’s great. Ryan Weathers might have avoided a serious elbow injury, and Max Fried is progressing from his own elbow issue. Also pretty good news. Giancarlo Stanton is unlikely to return, but Ryan McMahon might miss minimal games with a thumb injury. Fine. But what about the big guy? Bellinger is a big one, and Fried is a big one, but Aaron Judge is the big one. Judge has been on the injured list since early June with a rib stress fracture, but he’s hitting again, and the Yankees need him to hit. Ideally, he can play the field, too — so that Ben Rice can stay at DH — but perhaps the Yankees can ease him into that. The playoffs await, and the team needs its best player to be a 100 percent come October. — Jennings

Record: 78-53
Last Power Ranking: T-5

One big question: Will any of this mean anything?

The Rays have the best record in the American League and the third-most wins in baseball. Their pitching is good, Griffin Jax could return soon, and Liam Hicks has added some thump to a lineup previously built around three really good hitters (Junior Caminero, Yandy Díaz, Jonathan Aranda) and a bunch of do-your-job role players. They’re a good team. But we’ve seen that before, and it’s rarely meant anything in October. The Rays are about to make the playoffs for the ninth time in the past 17 years, but aside from their 2020 World Series run, they’ve never advanced past the division series in that stretch. Last year, the Brewers snapped a somewhat similar streak of playoff futility by reaching the NLCS. Is this the year the Rays make some noise in October? — Jennings

Record: 72-59
Last Power Ranking: 7

One big question: How much impact can Garrett Crochet have in the bullpen?

The Red Sox are good. They are perhaps not as unbeatable as they looked a few weeks ago, but they’re near-locks to make the playoffs with a rotation that’s surprisingly strong considering three of their season-opening starters (Crochet, Brayan Bello and Connelly Early) have been hurt, bumped to the bullpen and traded, respectively. But as Crochet ratchets up his throwing program, one big question is just how much impact he can have down the stretch and into October. He’s almost certainly going to pitch out of the bullpen, giving Chad Tracy a potential three-headed playoff difference maker of Crochet, Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman. — Jennings

Record: 73-59
Last Power Ranking: T-8

One big question: Of all the promising years, is this the one that actually works?

This is Bryce Harper’s eighth season with the Phillies, Zack Wheeler’s seventh, and Kyle Schwarber’s fifth. The team has been to the playoffs the past four years, generally with diminishing returns year after year. So, is it possible that this season — the one that started so poorly Philadelphia fired its manager — will be the one when the Phillies actually win a championship, or at least win another pennant? Because they’re starting to look like the team we expected coming into the season. Bryson Stott has turned things around, Andrew Painter’s second look has been better than his first, and the Phillies’ World Series odds have basically doubled since the trade deadline. — Jennings

Record: 68-63
Last Power Ranking: T-8

One big question: Can this rotation make it to the finish line?

Part of the reason the White Sox acquired Luis Castillo was to ease the burden on guys like Sean Burke, Davis Martin and Anthony Kay, all of whom were approaching career highs in innings. While Burke and Kay have remained sharp, Castillo has been shaky, and Martin has been slumping of late. Chicago’s 4.76 rotation ERA since the break sits in the bottom third of the league. A surging bullpen provides hope that the Sox won’t be asking all that much from their rotation in the playoffs — but the rotation has to get them there, and ideally with a first-round bye that would have been inconceivable before the season. — Britton

Record: 71-61
Last Power Ranking: 10

One big question: What took you so long, Fernando?

As of this writing, Fernando Tatis Jr’s OPS is .814. Last season, his OPS was .814. In the future, people will think this was just normal for him. As a current or future old person, you will have to remind them of how weird his season actually was. He was Juan Pierre’s age-32 season for a couple months, then he hit a home run, possibly breaking a wizard’s spell, and now he’s Dave Winfield in his prime. Even by baseball standards, that’s a little too weird. Gives me the ick, as the children say.

It’s easy to get greedy and wonder where the Padres would be if they’d had MVP-level Tatis all season. Probably not scratching and clawing for the final wild-card slot, but it’s only because of the minor miracle of Tatis’ renaissance that they’re as close as they are. — Brisbee

Record: 67-65
Last Power Ranking: T-11

One big question: What was all that about?

Presented on a graph, the Marlins’ playoff odds form a pretty impressive mountain range with an immense peak in the middle. As of July 8, they had more than a 50 percent chance of making the postseason, a remarkable climb from 6.6 percent a month earlier. But today, the Marlins are back down around 6 percent, their mid-season promise having largely disappeared. So, was that sudden rise a weird quirk of an otherwise meaningless season or a worthwhile sign of things to come? Otto Lopez is still really good, Griffin Conine has hit since his return from the IL, and the top of the Marlins rotation is legit. The playoffs are probably out of the question, but could the Marlins finish strong enough to feel like this was a season of meaningful progress and promise? — Jennings

Record: 69-63
Last Power Ranking: T-11

One big question: Can they get enough innings out of their rotation?

Go back to April and hand a Diamondbacks fan a slip of paper with Merrill Kelly’s 2026 statistics on one side and Zac Gallen’s on the other. Now ask the fan for a prediction for the upcoming season. If they said 90 losses, it would be hard to blame them. Kelly and Gallen were disappointing, but perhaps more upsetting was the fact that the Diamondbacks had no choice but to give them start after start.

Eduardo Rodríguez, Brandon Pfaadt and Michael Soroka all blew past expectations, though, keeping the Diamondbacks in contention all season. With Soroka going on the IL (shoulder inflammation) over the weekend, it’ll be another mad scramble for innings. It just might work. Everyone start boning up on your Mitch Bratt. There could be a test in October. — Brisbee

Record: 66-66
Last Power Ranking: 21

One big question: When will the real José Ramírez show up?

The Guardians have stayed in the hunt in the American League thanks to a resurgent rotation and a big-time return to form from Steven Kwan in the second half of the season. They’re waiting on the same from Ramírez, who after missing a month with a hamate fracture has looked nothing like his usual self. Ramírez’s OPS is under .600 since he came back, negating what Kwan and Chase DeLauter and Jo Adell have brought to the offense in recent weeks. There’s a lot of mediocrity in the race for the final spots in the American League playoff field: No other team in that group has a future Hall of Famer like Ramírez capable of carrying it to October. — Britton

Record: 66-66
Last Power Ranking: T-16

One big question: They can relax now, right?

The Cardinals were semi-sellers at the deadline, a mostly uncontroversial move, despite them being nominally in the wild-card chase. Then they won a series in Yankee Stadium, and they took two more series in the subsequent homestand. Then they went to Wrigley Field and won a series, before somehow winning a five-game series in Cincinnati. They were suddenly scorching hot.

A brutal weekend against the Phillies — two blown saves, two walk-offs, three losses — didn’t kill all of the Cardinals’ postseason hopes, but it left them at .500 and maybe feeling like they’ve been flying a little too close to the sun on wings made of Provel. Their wings haven’t melted yet, but they’re getting really gooey, really fast. If any doubts were creeping in, hold firm. Selling was still the right call. Probably. — Brisbee

Record: 64-69
Last Power Ranking: T-16

One big question: How worried should they be about Paul Skenes?

Three weeks ago, the Pirates were as good a bet as anyone to lock down the final wild-card berth in the National League. Now they’re barely part of the picture, and their ace has looked nothing like his usual self in the second half of the season. In his last 10 starts going back to the last week of June, Skenes has a 5.82 ERA, just two quality starts and dwindling fastball velocity. Our Eno Sarris looked under the hood and noted some mechanical issues that could use fixing but otherwise isn’t too concerned. Skenes’ recent inconsistency symbolizes a larger step back by the Pittsburgh rotation since the All-Star break, with Jared Jones and Mitch Keller also struggling, pushing the Bucs to the fringe of the playoff race. — Britton

Record: 61-70
Last Power Ranking: 13

One big question: How good can Max Clark be?

At some point, all that talk about your run differential and third-order winning percentage runs empty and your record matters more than anything else. Detroit’s front office arrived at that point at the trade deadline, and maybe we should, too. So let’s think about Clark and how quickly the Tigers can turn it around. Since coming up in late July, Clark has held his own at the plate and shown his potential defensive value in a center field that’s been too much of a carousel in recent years at Comerica. Teammate Kevin McGonigle kind of wrecked the curve for what a 21-year-old’s debut should look like, but this is more promising stuff for a team with a good shot at entering next season as a division favorite again.  — Britton

Record: 65-66
Last Power Ranking: 14

One big question: Who fires their GM in August in the middle of a pennant race?

The Astros have other questions. Like, oh, if they’re going to win the American League West or not. But those are minor questions compared to this one. Because, really, who fires their GM in August in the middle of a pennant race? You can say it with an Austin Powers cadence or with the stunned delivery of Lewis Black. Either works.

Although, it’s not like the Astros are in a race because things are going well. They just happen to be one of the bigger guppies in a rather disgusting koi pond. Maybe canning the GM is the least painful way to wake up a sleepy clubhouse. It’s not like the team would rather cut or demote a prominent player who might be struggling, after all. They’re probably going to need them. — Brisbee

Record: 66-66
Last Power Ranking: 23

One big question: What to make of Evan Carter?

It’s been a brutal August for Carter, one made all the more discouraging because he’d looked so good in July for Texas. Three years after being a postseason hero for a championship team, Carter is still searching for the consistency to be a reliable everyday player. The Rangers sure could use it. Yes, they’re circling around .500 but right in the mix in the division. The team they’re jostling with in Houston just let go of its GM, after all. — Britton

Record: 64-68
Last Power Ranking: 18

One big question: Can Dylan Cease win the Cy Young?

The Blue Jays are not out of the playoff race. They’re one of maybe six teams vying for the last wild-card spot, and it really is something close to a toss-up which team gets it. FanGraphs actually has the Jays as the favorites to win that spot. So, whether they can make the playoffs is the biggest looming question. But that’s obvious. Even if they don’t sneak into October, it’s worth wondering if the team will finish the season with the best starting pitcher in the American League. It’s basically a two-man race between Cease and Cam Schlittler, and a Cy Young in Cease’s first season in Toronto would be pretty encouraging for a team that surely hopes to be more of a sure thing next season.  — Jennings

Record: 63-68
Last Power Ranking: 15

One big question: Is there room for four AL East teams in the playoffs?

We could have posed this same question for the Blue Jays as well, because as it stands, the Rays, Yankees and Red Sox have better than 90 percent playoff odds, but the Blue Jays and Orioles are among eight AL teams with a legitimate chance to win the final wild-card spot. Two of those eight end up being division winners — in the West and the Central — but that could leave room for a fourth AL East team to make the playoffs, which means the Orioles — who have been almost exclusively in fourth or fifth place since mid-May — could actually play in October.  — Jennings

Record: 62-71
Last Power Ranking: 20

One big question: What will CJ Abrams look like at second base?

This is already the best season of Abrams’ career. He could stop playing immediately and have the highest-ever fWAR and bWAR, but his offensive breakout now includes a defensive wrinkle, as the Nationals prepare to transition him from shortstop to second base. Defense has long been his weakness, and a new position could limit his shortcomings without affecting his excellence at the plate. But Abrams was “not thrilled” with the decision, and it’s worth watching down the stretch to see whether his bat suffers amid the change. If this is Abrams’ new home, then the Nationals have some clarity about one of their cornerstone players. If not, then maybe they revisit his long-term fit in D.C.? — Jennings

Record: 63-69
Last Power Ranking: 19

One big question: Is there still hope?

The Mariners were outscored by 17 runs on Sunday. In the Mariners’ last 11 wins entering Monday, dating back to July 20, they’ve outscored their opponents by 16 runs. The Mariners are losing by a lot when they lose, in other words, while barely squeaking out their all-too infrequent wins. That’s the sign of an overmatched team, and one that should be far, far away from any delusions of postseason grandeur.

However, the Mariners play in the AL West, a fetid swamp of baseball disappointment. They still have a mathematical chance to win the division, which is almost as good as a real chance. They took a series against the Cubs with walk-offs on Friday and Saturday night before losing the 17-run squeaker on Sunday. They’ll need more of the former and far less of the latter, but it’s still possible, somehow. — Brisbee

Record: 64-68
Last Power Ranking: 22

One big question: Is Byron Buxton healthy enough to carry them?

What had been perhaps Buxton’s finest overall season has been waylaid by a hip impingement that’s twice landed him on the IL and wrecked his production even when on the field since the start of July. Buxton has played in 16 of Minnesota’s last 40 games and is just 8-for-56 with a single extra-base hit in that span. The Twins have done well to stay in the hunt in the AL, but they can’t climb to the top of the heap without Buxton being Buxton. — Britton

Record: 59-72
Last Power Ranking: 24

One big question: Is a disappointing lineup setting the stage for redemption?

There’s not enough time for this to matter in 2026, but the Mets’ lineup has actually been pretty good lately. The team’s offensive overhaul was one of the biggest stories of the offseason, and the lineup proved to be one of the sport’s biggest disappointments of the first half. It’s not all good news — Jorge Polanco is hurt again, Brett Baty has yet to sustain much offense, Marcus Semien is getting by on singles at best — but the Mets as a whole have been hitting (at least better than they were) and maybe that’s enough to change the evaluation as the front office tries to fix things in the offseason. — Jennings

Record: 62-70
Last Power Ranking: 25

One big question: Is this the step forward Matt McLain needed?

Sal Stewart has a solid Rookie of the Year case and Chase Burns will appear on a lot of Cy Young ballots. But for the future of the Reds, the most important thing down the stretch might be whether McLain can continue his improved production since his late July return from a calf strain. McLain’s OPS was barely above .600 through the first half of the season; it was .765 entering Monday night’s game in San Francisco since his return. That’s been lifted mainly by his power, as he’s compiled nine extra-base hits in less than 100 plate appearances in that stretch. Anything that even resembles McLain’s 2023 rookie season would be a massive lift for Cincinnati. — Britton

Record: 58-74
Last Power Ranking: 27

One big question: Where had this been all season?

The hottest team this side of Philadelphia is in Kansas City, where the Royals have won eight in a row, thanks to consecutive sweeps of the A’s and Tigers. Kansas City’s offense has clicked on all cylinders, finally putting together a stretch in which Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino are hot at the same time — as well as Sal Pérez, Nick Loftin, Kyle Isbel and Michael Massey. (Spread it out more next year, guys.) It’s been a reminder that a lot of people were high on this team entering the season, and that a healthier, better season from the pitching staff could have had K.C. right in the mix in the Central. — Britton

Record: 53-78
Last Power Ranking: 26

One big question: Who’s in the rotation for next season?

There are other questions to answer about their immediate future, but anything the organization does should be in service of the 2027 roster, and they’ll be gathering the most data on their young starting pitchers Carson Whisenhunt, Landen Roupp, Blade Tidwell and Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson. Can any of them stake a claim to a rotation spot and save the team some money and/or prospects this offseason?

So far, the answers haven’t been very encouraging, and there’s a chance the Giants have more rotation uncertainty heading into the offseason than they did going into the All-Star break. There’s more than a month of the season left, though, so if the baseball isn’t going to be entertaining, at least they’ll get some data mining done. — Brisbee

Record: 52-80
Last Power Ranking: T-28

One big question: Will Reid Detmers keep pitching like this?

The Angels likely listened to some fairly compelling offers for Detmers at the trade deadline, but they opted to keep the left-hander instead. He’s under contract through 2028, after all, and he’s still just 27. He has a chance to be around for the next contending Angels team, which has to come around at some point, right? Don’t answer that.

Except if Detmers keeps pitching as he has since the deadline — with a 1.50 ERA and 27 strikeouts over four starts — he might be the reason for the next contending Angels team. A player who unexpectedly levels up is the kind of thing that always seems to happen to other teams, but never the Angels. This would be a fine way to catch up. — Brisbee

Record: 50-81
Last Power Ranking: T-28

One big question: Can they avoid 100 losses?

The Rockies’ current front office took over a roster that lost 119 games last season. What reasonable goal could there possibly have been for the 2026 season? This is just a guess, but a fair one: Don’t lose 100 games.

It sounds easy enough, but a 19-game turnaround is the stuff of pennant winners, the difference between a .500 team and a 100-game winner. As of this writing, the Rockies are at a perfectly neat 62-100 pace. There won’t be a division title or a wild-card chase for fans to cheer on, but this isn’t a bad race to follow. It might be symbolic, but it’s important, dang it. — Brisbee

Record: 51-81
Last Power Ranking: 30

One big question: Will Gage Jump be near the top of next year’s rotation?

The A’s don’t look like a team with aspirations in 2027 — and they certainly aren’t playing like one — but they are. They have enough money invested and enough business reasons to field a relevant baseball team. With better (or any) injury luck, the A’s should contend in a weak division.

And if that’s the case, they would love to spend the offseason thinking that Gage Jump has arrived, and that he’s ready to offer 160 or 180 no-nonsense innings without any of the typical prospect uncertainty. Right now, he’s doing the typical prospect thing, where he walks a ton of batters while making a few others look silly. Jump is probably already here to stay, but an extra month of confirmation would go a long way. — Brisbee