MLB Power Rankings: Why disappointing teams seem to be the story of the year

Over the weekend, I got into a conversation about which team was the most disappointing in baseball this season. The interesting thing is that there seem to be far too many candidates. We have seen an awful lot of disappointing teams that expected to be contenders this year, and it feels like a much larger number than usual. Perhaps it’s recency bias, but maybe not. There is a litany of losers at this point in the 2026 season. Let’s count ’em. 

Blue Jays

The 2025 American League champs started 3-0 but have been pretty bad since. They crawled to within a game of .500 with a win on May 2, but immediately fell apart … again. They’ve looked bad far more often than they’ve looked good and at one point fell as far back as 10 ½ games out of first place.

Red Sox

The Sawks were a playoff team last year and made a few moves this offseason, notably improving the rotation. Yet the only time they’ve been above .500 this season was when they were 1-0. They’ve fallen as many as eight games under .500 and have already fired manager Alex Cora. 

Orioles?

I have a question mark on this one because it would’ve been reasonable before the season to predict the Orioles would be bad again. They were 75-87 last season after two straight playoff appearances, and we’re seeing a continuation of their subpar play. There were some who thought they’d bounce back this year. That hasn’t come to fruition. 

Tigers

Through July 8 last season, the Tigers had the best record in baseball at 59-34. They went 28-41 the rest of the way. After keeping Tarik Skubal and signing Framber Valdez, it looked like Detroit was poised for another playoff run. It might well happen. So far, though, the Tigers are lackluster. They’ve now lost 10 of their past 12 and Skubal is on the shelf. 

Royals

Some people (I’ll raise my hand here) predicted the Royals to win the AL Central this season. It’s still possible, given how bad the division is. Thus far, though, the Royals have been awful. They started 8-17 before briefly getting hot and have cooled off again, now having lost six of seven.

Mariners

The brutal AL West (not to be confused with the brutal AL Central) means the Mariners’ disappointment so far isn’t really that huge of a deal. They are only two games out of first. This season can easily be salvaged. A hot week would put them in first. Still, following their closest chance at winning their first American League pennant ever, to be hovering below .500 basically all season has to be very disappointing for this tortured fan base. 

Astros

Even if you, like me, predicted the Astros would not be very good this season, they count for this list. They haven’t had a losing full season since 2014. Even in missing the playoffs last year, the Astros went 87-75. They aren’t far removed from playing in the ALCS every single year (seven straight through 2023). To look like one of the worst teams in baseball isn’t a feeling they’ve had in Houston for quite some time. Of course, we should note that in 2024, the Astros were 33-40 before they got hot. It could happen again. 

Mets

We don’t really need to rehash everything, do we? We’ll just simply say this: The Mets have one of the highest payrolls in baseball. 

Giants

They’ve been flirting with having the worst record in baseball for most of the season. This was a team with playoff aspirations. We’re now hearing whispers that they want out of some of their big contracts (Willy Adames, Matt Chapman, etc.). What’s worse, the normally reliable Logan Webb is hurt and has an ERA north of 5. It’s been a disaster of a season, basically. 

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I just listed nine teams, or 30% of the league. Who has been the most disappointing? Again, there is no shortage of candidates. I think I’ll go with the Blue Jays, but there are several strong contenders for the dubious distinction. 

Biggest Movers

Rk	Teams		Chg	Rcrd
1	Braves	I keep waiting on Bryce Elder to turn into a pumpkin, but he’s now pitching to a 2.01 ERA and 0.99 WHIP through 10 starts. He might just be good.	—	32-15
2	Dodgers	That’s five straight wins for the champs. Maybe they are back on track. It’s hard to tell, given that they played the Angels — outscoring them 31-3 in the three-game set.	2	29-18
3	Rays	This is now the third-best 45-game start in Rays history. They were 32-13 at this point in both 2010 and 2023. Both of those teams won at least 96 games.	—	30-15
4	Cubs	The Cubs were 7-9. They’ve won 22 of 31 since then, but 20 of those wins came in two different 10-game winning streaks. This is some of the weirdest sequencing we’ll ever see.	2	29-18
5	Brewers	They’ve won 13 of 18 and now get a shot at the Cubs. That’ll be a fun series.	—	26-18
6	Padres	In the absence of a certain someone, Gavin Sheets is compensating in the power department, now with five homers in his last 10 games.	1	28-18
7	Yankees	The blown game on Sunday means the Yankees just finished a 2-7 road trip.	1	28-19
8	Cardinals	Another winning week, as the Cardinals took both series. I’ve said multiple times I don’t think they can keep this up, but they just keep winning. Forty-six games isn’t a huge sample, but it isn’t tiny either.	—	27-19
9	Guardians	José Ramírez homered on Sunday to give him 292 in his career. He’s already over 300 steals. Can you name the eight current members of the 300-300 club? I’ll put the answer in the Angels’ comment.	3	26-22
10	Phillies	Don Mattingly, Manager of the Year? Obviously, there is so much season to go, but that would be a fun one. The Phillies are 15-4 since he took over. They’ve gone from 10 games under to above .500 in less than three weeks.	3	24-23
11	White Sox	Colson Montgomery has now homered in three straight games four different times in his young career. Only Matt Olson also did so in the first 115 games of his career. Quite a start.	8	24-22
12	Pirates	Hitting in MLB is one of the hardest things to do in sports. It isn’t surprising when a top prospect like Konnor Griffin struggles to start his career. The good ones learn on the fly and make adjustments. In Griffin’s last 22 games now, he’s hitting .325 with five doubles, a triple and three homers. He’s getting it.	3	24-23
13	Athletics	The A’s are 6-9 in May and have a -13 run differential. They now sit at exactly .500. They are also, of course, in first place.	3	23-23
14	Reds	Two more series losses and the Reds are 4-12 in May.	3	24-23
15	Rangers	It’s easy to overlook the group due to the star power in the rotation, but at 3.03, the Rangers have the best bullpen ERA in baseball.	1	22-24
16	Diamondbacks	Some of it is due to their home ballpark, but the D-backs lead the majors in triples and sit third in doubles.	1	22-23
17	Mariners	They’d be 9 ½ games out in the AL East, 10 ½ out in the NL East and 7 ½ out in both the NL Central and NL West. Sometimes geography can be helpful.	3	22-26
18	Blue Jays	They’ve won three of four. Maybe the hot streak is starting?	2	21-25
19	Nationals	On the opposite end from the teams mentioned as disappointing in the introduction, the Nationals have a new front office and are clearly in rebuilding mode, yet they were sitting at .500 after a win on Saturday. They are feisty.	4	23-24
20	Orioles	Is Gunnar Henderson heating up? He was 6 for 13 with two doubles and a home run in the weekend series.	1	21-26
21	Mets	The Mets had lost 92 straight games when trailing entering the ninth inning. Then they came back and won on Sunday. The streak is over. And hey, they’ve won five of six!	7	20-26
22	Giants	While the season as a whole is obviously disappointing and that’s why the Giants were listed in the introduction, they actually haven’t been overly bad for a bit. They’ve gone 14-15 since April 15. Right now, they are 2-0-1 in their last three series, all against teams with winning records (when they started the series).	4	20-27
23	Twins	Ryan Jeffers has been one of the best catchers in baseball. He’s hitting .294/.410/.538 with seven homers and 26 RBI in 36 games.	1	21-26
24	Marlins	The struggles continue for Eury Pérez, who now has a 5.33 ERA in 10 starts. He’s still only 23, but there’s too much talent for this to keep happening.	2	21-26
25	Royals	Salvador Perez’s home run Sunday was the 310th of his career. He’s one away from tying Ivan Rodriguez for seventh all-time among catchers.	10	20-27
26	Tigers	Remember when Spencer Torkelson homered in five straight games? Yeah, he has six home runs total. He’s hitting .196, too.	8	20-27
27	Red Sox	Here’s a summary of how flawed their roster is: Isiah Kiner-Falefa appeared at first base on Sunday. That is unacceptable.	2	19-27
28	Astros	They have a losing home record. They are 7-15 on the road. The run differential is -51. There aren’t really any underlying metrics suggesting anything other than that this is a bad team. And, yes, I’m aware of the injury issues.	1	19-29
29	Rockies	The Rox have now lost 12 of their last 16 games.	1	18-29
30	Angels	They were 11-10 at one point. They have just totally fallen apart. Anyway, trivia answer on the 300-300 club: Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Willie Mays, Andre Dawson, Carlos Beltran, Bobby Bonds, Reggie Sanders and Steve Finley.	1	16-31

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