By Tim Britton, Johnny Flores Jr. and Andy McCullough
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.
Every so often, when you’re watching or listening or reading some piece of culture, you come across a phrase and understand that you will never say it the same way again — that the line has become inextricably linked in your mind to this show or movie or song. Maybe it’s “Not that there’s anything wrong with that” or “That’s what she said.” Or maybe you read this retrospective on “Saturday Night Live” recently and found it explained almost every odd pronunciation your father used when you were growing up.
And so it is that, for the nearly 20 years since I saw “A Mighty Wind,” I’ve been incapable of asking “What happened?” in a normal voice. It will always be Fred Willard in blond highlights and a bright orange shirt, saying it as obnoxiously as possible.
For this week, let’s start right out: Wha’ happened? We’re nearing the final month of regular baseball, and the season has provided its usual supply of surprises. As much as players talk about the way your numbers even out, there are plenty of years where that doesn’t happen. One of the joys of baseball is that really good players sometimes have really bad seasons, in a way you don’t often see in other sports.
So, five months into the season, who are those players? Let’s get into it.
Record: 82-50
Last Power Ranking: 1
What happened to: Jacob Misiorowski
For the league-leading Brewers, a lot has gone right. Freddy Peralta is shoving, Christian Yelich is hitting, and they’re the annual beneficiaries of “guy goes to new team and begins to rake” in Andrew Vaughn and Isaac Collins.
We’ll instead turn our attention to someone with [checks notes] about a month’s worth of service time. In Misiorowski’s first three starts, he pitched to a 1.16 ERA, then scuffled in his fourth start and bounced back. But in his last two starts, he’s combined for eight runs in 5 1/3 innings. Yikes!
Between Triple A and the majors, the All-Star is up to 102 innings pitched, more than he’s ever totaled in any season since being drafted in 2022. That’s what happened. Fatigue is a real thing, and Misiorowski is in the thick of it. — Johnny Flores Jr.
Record: 76-55
Last Power Ranking: 3
What happened to: Aaron Nola
A model of both durability and consistency for so long, Nola’s 2025 is uncharted territory. He spent months on the IL with ankle and rib injuries, and his performance when on the mound has been poor. Philadelphia’s rotation has still been its strength, but with Zack Wheeler now out for the season, the opening is there for Nola to step into his long-time co-ace’s shoes down the stretch. Few players have as large an opportunity to shape the postseason landscape as Nola does. Few players will have a sharper spotlight in baseball over the next month, at least. — Tim Britton
Record: 75-57
Last Power Ranking: 2
What happened to: Teoscar Hernández
Hernández thrived on a one-year deal with the Dodgers last season, so a subsequent three-year, $66 million reunion made plenty of sense for a team with apparently unlimited resources. The sequel, though, has not been as joyous. Hernández entered Monday’s games with a career-low .277 on-base percentage, striking out in more than a quarter of his at-bats. More troublesome has been his performance in right field, where only Phillies outfielder Nick Castellanos and Mets outfielder Juan Soto have been less valuable, according to FanGraphs. With Shohei Ohtani installed as the designated hitter, in October Hernández may move to left field, where he played last season, with Mookie Betts shifting back to right. — Andy McCullough
Record: 78-55
Last Power Ranking: T-4
What happened to: Tommy Kahnle
It’s been a Jekyll and Hyde kind of season for the 11-year veteran, largely exacerbated by an awful July. Signed to a one-year deal in the offseason, Kahnle was lights out in April before posting a 19.64 ERA in 11 July games, and it wasn’t looking much better in August until an extended break led to back-to-back scoreless outings.
Having missed 2021 with injury, Kahnle didn’t pitch much in 2022 before posting consecutive 40-plus inning seasons in 2023 and 2024. He’s already up to 48 2/3 innings, more than he’s pitched in any of the previous five seasons, and with his 36th birthday having come and gone, both age and fatigue are likely settling in for the changeup artist. — Flores
Record: 76-55
Last Power Ranking: 6
What happened to: Ian Happ
Widely considered one of baseball’s best-kept secrets, Happ went from averaging 121 wRC+ over the past three seasons to 103 in 2025. He still walks at a good clip (13.1 percent) and doesn’t chase much, but he’s also been particularly streaky at the wrong times. His sprint speed, which had been roughly a touch above league-average throughout his career, is now hovering around league average or below, which isn’t particularly helpful for someone who isn’t going to outslug anyone. Consistency has long been the hallmark of Happ’s career, and 2025 has been anything but that. — Flores
Record: 77-55
Last Power Ranking: T-4
What happened to: Anthony Santander
Imagine you are the sport’s scriptwriter and in March you are passed a note from on high: The Blue Jays are going to have a magical summer and lead the AL East into the final week of August, at least. How would you make this happen? Yeah, you’d make Vlad Guerrero Jr. a top-five MVP candidate, and you’d bring Bo Bichette and maybe George Springer back to their prior career norms. But you would also probably bake in, somewhere along the line, a significant contribution from Toronto’s major offseason acquisition, Santander. Instead, the switch-hitting slugger has been a non-entity. He hit six home runs in 50 games, batting below .200 and slugging just above .300. He’s been out for three months with a shoulder injury, and his return this season is uncertain. It’s all worked out anyway. — Britton
Record: 74-58
Last Power Ranking: 7
What happened to: Dylan Cease
Cease, his teammate Michael King and Diamondbacks starter Zac Gallen are all competing to see who can sound the most alarm bells heading into free agency. For Cease, the problem is a familiar one – an inconsistent relationship with the strike zone. He entered Monday’s games walking 3.79 batters per nine innings, the fourth-worst rate among qualified starters. But he’s been able to overcome the walks in the past. In 2025, his slider remains elite, but his 97-mph fastball has produced more pedestrian results. There is reason to believe he’s gotten somewhat unlucky, as suggested by the gap between his 4.71 ERA and 3.51 FIP. For San Diego’s sake, perhaps that discrepancy will balance out in October. — McCullough
Record: 72-60
Last Power Ranking: 8
What happened to: Walker Buehler
The one-year deal looked like a good bet at the time. A former ace, Buehler had labored through a difficult 2024 regular season with the Dodgers before providing glimpses of his former self in the playoffs. His last 13 innings in October were scoreless, and he recorded the final out of the World Series. Boston should have stuck with the larger sample. Buehler’s ERA, WHIP, FIP — all are right in line with who he was from April to September last year. And as a result, he’s now a reliever down the stretch for a Red Sox team trying to track down Toronto in the East. — Britton
Record: 72-59
Last Power Ranking: 9
What happened to: Cam Smith
The Astros should be thrilled both with Smith’s long-term prospects and his ability to hold his own as a 22-year-old playing in the majors in his first full pro season. He might win an MVP award someday. But that won’t happen in 2025, as opposing pitchers have begun to capitalize on his swing decisions in the second half. Smith has been chasing and chasing and chasing since the All-Star break. He ended the first half with a .765 OPS but has followed up with a .389 OPS ever since. It’s far from surprising, and unlikely to change his overall trajectory. But his role in the 2025 Astros’ chase of a title may be limited. — McCullough
Record: 71-60
Last Power Ranking: T-10
What happened to: Anthony Volpe
Defense is notoriously difficult to evaluate. Even with all the advanced metrics we have within our reach, it remains hard to reach a consensus on a player’s defensive value. Do you trust defensive runs saved or outs above average? Is ultimate zone rating still useful? The eye test is especially untrustworthy and misleading, with smaller samples extrapolated into hard-line opinions. But in 2025, no defensive evaluation has been easier than this: Anthony Volpe has taken a large step back with the glove, from a Gold Glover at the infield’s most important position to a questionable everyday player. Volpe’s offense is largely the same as it was last year, which is its own kind of disappointing. But matching it with the unexpected issues in the field, symbolic as they are of ones coursing through the entire Yankees organization, is what has him now on the bench. — Britton
Record: 71-61
Last Power Ranking: T-10
What happened to: Bryce Miller
The emergence of Bryan Woo has aided the Mariners’ rotation during rocky seasons from Logan Gilbert and George Kirby. But what about Miller, who posted a 2.94 ERA last year? His elbow has been bothering him for much of the season. The discomfort, combined with a lack of command and a bevy of hard contact, has led to a 5.87 ERA in 2025. After missing two months on the injured list, he gave up four runs in five innings to the Phillies in his first start back. — McCullough
Record: 70-61
Last Power Ranking: 12
What happened to: Sean Manaea
Francisco Lindor may have been the beating heart of the 2024 Mets, but perhaps no player represented the club’s ethos better than Manaea — a guy interested in and capable of reinventing himself in the five days between starts last summer to level up. Manaea’s mimicry of Chris Sale proved remarkably effective and durable over the final three months of the 2024 season; it has not carried into 2025, with the pitcher missing the first half of the season and laboring in the middle innings of each start since. In his last 12 regular-season starts last year, Manaea pitched into the seventh 10 times; the Mets won 10 times. In his eight appearances this year (seven starts, one bulk appearance), he’s pitched into the sixth once and the Mets are 1-7. —Britton
Record: 68-64
Last Power Ranking: 13
What happened to: Spencer Steer
After posting 2.0 fWAR and a 118 wRC+ en route to a sixth-place NL Rookie of the Year finish in 2023, things have gone downhill for the 27-year-old. In 2024, that figure was down to 98, and this season, it’s at 87 through 120 games played.
He can be clutch, as evidenced by this game-changing homer on Sunday, but for a Reds team with playoff aspirations, consistency is more desirable, especially at first base. A true pull hitter, Steer doesn’t walk a ton and doesn’t make a lot of hard contact, making his fit at the MLB level that much more difficult to envision moving forward. — Flores
Record: 67-65
Last Power Ranking: 16
What happened to: Jonathan India
Added in the offseason in exchange for Brady Singer, India was brought in to help lengthen the Kansas City lineup, particularly at the top of the order. Yeah, about that…
Over 119 games, the 2021 Rookie of the Year has an 89 wRC+, and is currently worth -0.2 fWAR. India has never been a particularly strong fielder, but things have certainly spiraled out in 2025, where, among qualified fielders, he’s been worth -14 Outs Above Average. Neither noted terrible fielders Nick Castellanos or Juan Soto have been that bad, and yet India finds himself as a net negative in every facet of the game: hitting, baserunning and fielding. He’ll turn 29 in the offseason, and entering his final arbitration year, he profiles as an easy non-tender candidate or a reclamation project for another team. — Flores
Record: 66-67
Last Power Ranking: 15
What happened to: Josh Jung
The developmental path of prospects is rarely linear. Jung, the No. 8 pick in the 2019 draft, started in the 2023 All-Star Game as a rookie and helped Texas win its first World Series that autumn. But he appeared in only 46 games last season after fracturing his wrist while getting hit by a pitch early in the year. This season, he has been infected by the general malaise plaguing the Rangers’ offense. He has been unable to control the strike zone or do much damage. He has not slugged enough to justify a sub-.300 on-base percentage. Given his aptitude at third base, the Rangers can afford to keep playing him, even if he is a slightly below-average hitter. But the team had higher hopes a couple years ago. — McCullough
Record: 64-66
Last Power Ranking: 14
What happened to: Carlos Santana
By this point, we’re all painfully aware that the Guardians made the curious decision to trade away Josh Naylor to the Diamondbacks only to turn around and sign a 39-year-old Carlos Santana. The decision hasn’t backfired, per se, but it also hasn’t paid off in any meaningful way, either.
Santana’s 82 OPS+ is well below league average, and nowhere near the 109 he put up in 150 games last season for the Twins. He can still draw a walk and pick it at first with the best of them, so he hasn’t been a net negative, but also not the kind of bat the Guardians need backing up José Ramírez. Maybe next year… — Flores
Record: 64-68
Last Power Ranking: 20
What happened to: Eduardo Rodríguez
We’ve bagged on Zac Gallen in this space before, but he is not the only Diamondbacks pitcher to falter in 2025. The five-year, $80 million deal Rodríguez inked after the 2023 season has gone terribly for Arizona. A shoulder ailment limited Rodríguez to 10 ineffective starts last year. He’s made 22 starts this year – but his 5.40 ERA ranked 88th among the 96 pitchers to log 110 innings. He relies primarily on a 92-mph fastball that has not exactly befuddled hitters, and his lack of a breaking ball makes him relatively predictable. We’ll see what happens next year. — McCullough
Record: 64-67
Last Power Ranking: 17
What happened to: Shane Baz
This was supposed to be the get-healthy year for the Rays rotation, when all their young pitchers were back from the injured list and contributors at the big-league level. To Baz’s credit, he has been healthy, unlike Shane McClanahan. But he hasn’t been productive in the way Drew Rasmussen has been, and Tampa Bay’s postseason chances have withered over the last six weeks. The good news is Baz’s five-plus ERA isn’t a true reflection of how he’s pitched; the bad news is neither was his low-three ERA in 2024. The right-hander should emerge somewhere in the middle of those figures going forward. — Britton
Record: 65-67
Last Power Ranking: T-18
What happened to: Nolan Arenado
Whether we like it or not, age catches up with all our favorite players. Except, in the case of Arenado, it certainly feels like age came quicker than expected. After all, it was just three seasons ago that Arenado finished third in the NL MVP ballot, won his 10th Gold Glove and fifth Silver Slugger, posting 7.9 bWAR, the highest output of his career.
Flash forward to 2025, and Arenado has an 85 OPS+. Sure, he’s striking out less than ever before (7.7 percent), but he’s also hitting without any semblance of power, and his range as a third baseman has diminished. With two years remaining on his contract, things might get extra ugly. — Flores
Record: 63-68
Last Power Ranking: T-18
What happened to: Tyler Fitzgerald
Was Fitzgerald’s wonderful rookie campaign, complete with a 136 OPS+, a mirage? Maybe to some extent. He has been unable to build off that performance in 2025, carting around a 75 OPS+ while still providing value for the Giants with his defensive utility. He has not been the same since fracturing a rib on April 30. He missed two weeks but fell into a slump. He has been optioned to the minors twice since then. In his first nine games back in the majors this month, he went 2-for-19. It’s not an easy game. — McCullough
Record: 59-72
Last Power Ranking: 22
What happened to: Austin Riley
One sign it’s been an especially poor season is when this is a very competitive category. Let’s go with Riley ahead of Ozzie Albies, Spencer Strider, and Raisel Iglesias because of the length of Atlanta’s long-term commitment to the third baseman. From 2021 to 2023, Riley played in all but eight games, finished in the top seven in MVP balloting each year, hit 35 percent better than the league average, and was worth more than 16 wins above replacement. Over the past two years, at 27 and 28 when he should be in his prime, Riley has missed 112 games, has hit about 10 percent better than the league average and has been worth barely four WAR. Getting him healthy and productive again is paramount. He’s making $22 million a year through 2032. — Britton
Record: 62-69
Last Power Ranking: 21
What happened to: Logan O’Hoppe
Adley Rutschman isn’t the only young catcher whose star is no longer burning bright these days. O’Hoppe looked like a franchise cornerstone in an abbreviated rookie campaign in 2023 and put together a solid full season the next year. But he has taken a step back this season. There were long-standing concerns about his receiving skills. This season, those problems have been paired with a lengthy offensive slump that coincides with O’Hoppe getting hit in the head on a backswing in late May. He has posted a .529 OPS since then, as his OPS+ has sagged from 112 in 2023 to 100 in 2024 to 83 this year. Catching can be brutal. — McCullough
Record: 60-71
Last Power Ranking: 25
What happened to: Adley Rutschman
Entering this season, it was a pretty tight argument over who was the best catcher in the American League. From 2022 to 2024, Rutschman and Cal Raleigh had played almost the exact same number of games. Their offensive output was achieved differently but valued similarly by something like weighted runs created. Overall, Raleigh had been worth 14 WAR and Rutschman 13 WAR. One year later, Raleigh is an MVP candidate and Rutschman has the 10th most WAR among catchers in the AL, behind two different Blue Jays, a Yankee that’s been benched and a rookie who was called up in June. Yes, most anyone looks bad when compared to 2025 Cal Raleigh, but Rutschman’s offensive downfall since the start of July 2024 has been stunning — as big a root cause of Baltimore’s fall in the standings as any. — Britton
Record: 62-69
Last Power Ranking: 23
What happened to: Sandy Alcantara
I mean, of course. While the Marlins have overachieved in a lot of different parts of the roster, Alcantara’s return from Tommy John surgery has not gone nearly the way anyone expected. Frankly, it’s why he’s still with Miami. Alcantara entered Tuesday tied with Washington’s Mitchell Parker for having allowed the most earned runs in baseball. And although his peripheral stats suggest something better than a six ERA, they don’t suggest anything close to Alcantara’s Cy Young peak from 2022. — Britton
Record: 59-72
Last Power Ranking: 24
What happened to: Royce Lewis
Once considered a potential franchise-altering star that could be paired with Byron Buxton, the shine on Lewis has worn off in some of the worst ways possible.
As The Athletic’s Dan Hayes wrote, entering last Friday, Lewis was hitting 217/.278/.350 clip in 472 plate appearances since Aug. 1, 2024, for a .628 OPS that ranked 218th out of the 233 players with 400 or more plate appearances. Those fastballs he used to crush? Since 2024, he had a .201 batting average against any sort of fastball prior to his heroics on Friday.
It’s become the sort of untenable situation the Twins, who are rife with prospects after the deadline, will have to deal with come the offseason. — Flores
Record: 61-72
Last Power Ranking: 26
What happened to: Luis Severino
A year removed from his time with the 2024 Mets, the only thing making Severino say “OMG” is the conditions at Sutter Health Park. The Athletics handed Severino a $67 million bundle this winter, hoping he could stabilize their rotation (and that they could avoid a grievance from the MLBPA about their spending). On the road, Severino has put together 11 starts with a 3.17 ERA. But in his 11 starts at home? He’s got a 6.34 ERA and an expansive amount of crankiness about the lack of air conditioning and other missing amenities. — McCullough
Record: 57-75
Last Power Ranking: 27
What happened to: Oneil Cruz
Ahead of this year’s Home Run Derby, I nicknamed Cruz a “Statcast Savant” because few, if any, players possess the tools to hit balls 123 mph and throw them at 105. That said, five years into his career, we’re still waiting on Cruz to put it all together at the same time, particularly on offense.
No matter which way you look at it, striking out at a near-32 percent clip isn’t going to cut it. Pair that with a rather meager hit output that relies heavily on extra base hits (half of Cruz’s hits are of the extra base variety) and you get a 92 wRC+, eight points below league average. — Flores
Record: 53-78
Last Power Ranking: 29
What happened to: Jake Irvin
Part of the suspense of a rebuild is figuring out what other players, beyond the top draft picks and well-regarded prospects brought back in the teardown trades, become legitimate big-leaguers. And it looked, for two seasons, like the Nationals had one in Irvin, a fourth-round pick in 2018 who had not been a top prospect in the system. While he wasn’t going to start Game 1 of a postseason series, Irvin was a cost-controlled back-end starter who often did enough to keep a bad team in games. Not so in 2025, where everything has backed up: his strikeout rate is down, his walk and home-run rates are up. Since late June, his ERA is close to eight. — Britton
Record: 48-83
Last Power Ranking: 28
What happened to: Andrew Benintendi
Barring a serious turnaround, Benintendi, owner of the largest contract ever handed out in franchise history (five years, $75 million), is on pace to post his third consecutive negative fWAR season for the White Sox. It’s enough to make you forget that Benintendi was once a member of a Red Sox core that won three straight AL East titles and one World Series. With another sub-100 wRC+ season and bad defense to boot, it’s the kind of contract that Chicago likely wishes it could wash away. — Flores
Record: 37-94
Last Power Ranking: 30
What happened to: Come on, man, we don’t need to kick them while they’re down
It feels unnecessary to pick on one specific member of the Rockies. Suffice to say, it’s been a bad year. — McCullough
(Top photo: Duane Burleson / Getty Images)