MLB Power Rankings: Dodgers and Yankees blah blah blah, let’s talk about the Brewers and Pirates(?!)

Often, whenever we write about baseball early in the season, we have to make sure everyone realizes that it is early and we’re well aware that things can change later… and quickly. I’m gonna start things off by acknowledging it right here and then not harp on it moving forward because it’s just so boring. I will be reacting in the Power Rankings to what has happened thus far and assume we’re all smart enough to realize things will change moving forward. Anyone who thinks that the first 10 games of the season determine the rest of the season isn’t worth our time anyway. Oh, and whenever I do the “on pace” thing, I’m well aware that isn’t really how it works. It’s just fun to frame things this way for context.

Got it? Good. 

One subject that I fear is going to linger over the rest of the 2026 season is the impending labor dispute this coming offseason and, more specifically, the discussion over a salary cap (for the record, I don’t think it’ll happen, as the fracture on the ownership side between revenue sharing and a salary floor will be the undoing). You see, at its basest level, the discussion centers around how much easier it is for the mega-market teams to win in baseball.

Sure enough, the titan Yankees and Dodgers have arguably been the two best teams in baseball so far this season and there are plenty of reasons to believe it can continue. 

We know plenty about the Dodgers and we know what makes them great. They did lose a series, but are 7-2 overall and cruising along, not even playing their best baseball.

The Yankees have gotten mostly stellar work from the rotation — one that is missing Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón — and have actually been pretty well-rounded in their work. Though Aaron Judge isn’t in fully functional Death Star mode (yet), Giancarlo Stanton and Ben Rice have taken care of that part. Strength of schedule is futile this early, but the 5-1 trip in San Francisco and Seattle to start the season felt pretty strong at the time (though there are plenty of concerns now with the Giants). 

But what about further down the payroll list?

Let’s not sleep on the Brewers. I’ve said many times over the last several years that they are actually what so many people profess the Rays to be. In the smallest market in baseball, the Brewers have made the playoffs seven of the last eight seasons and entered 2026 having won the NL Central three straight seasons. They had the best record and run differential in baseball last year. How do things look in 2026? More of the same, really. They won by a combined 20-3 in the first two games of the season before falling behind 7-2 in the third game, only to come back and win that one late (they scored six runs in the bottom of the eighth). It was a nice reminder that sometimes they can throttle you and other times they pull off a magical comeback. They finished their opening homestand with a 5-1 record and naysayers could argue they faced two likely last-place teams (I’ll take that bet on the White Sox, by the way; they won’t finish last). So the Brewers went into Kansas City and took two of three. That was an early statement, in my view, as I’m bullish on the Royals this season.

Through a week and a half, the Brewers are 7-2 with a +28 run differential. As I said, it’s basically business as usual for the smallest market. 

While we’re here, how about those Pirates? They were 1-3 through four games, but there was fight there. One of the losses came in extra innings and the offense wouldn’t go away on Opening Day after that awful, albeit fluky, Paul Skenes outing. I was in the clubhouse in Cincinnati after the ensuing series win over the Reds and Paul Skenes made sure to mention that he thought the team fought their butts off in all the losses, too. They haven’t lost since. They’ve won five straight and have outscored their opponents 32-14 in those five games. There’s more beef to the lineup with new acquisitions Ryan O’Hearn and Brandon Lowe doing their part, and the team as a whole just has a different feel. Those same strength-of-schedule caveats aside, consider the Pirates played right with the Mets, took two of three in Cincy and then swept the Orioles. 

Simply, the Pirates have the look of a group that believes they are contenders for the long haul and has thus far played the part. And this market is probably the one most screaming for a salary cap — or at least its attached floor.

The Dodgers and Yankees are, obviously, awesome, but that doesn’t mean you have to be a mega-market team to win games and be fun to watch in this league. The Brewers continue to show that, while the upstart Pirates are looking to join the party.

One final note: I’m not arguing here one way or another on the salary cap front. I just thought it was fun that the extreme examples on both sides were among the most impressive teams in baseball so far. In small samples, of course (dammit, I wasn’t supposed to mention that again). 

Biggest Movers

15

Diamondbacks

17

Orioles

Rk	Teams		Chg	Rcrd
1	Dodgers	As if they weren’t loaded enough, Andy Pages so far: .471/.500/.794.	—	7-2
2	Yankees	So much has been good, but the Jake Bird meltdown on Sunday dampens the mood a little bit. And still, they almost came back!	1	7-2
3	Brewers	Through two starts with the Brewers, Kyle Harrison has 14 strikeouts. That ties the franchise record for a lefty with Hall of Famer CC Sabathia. And now, let us pause and remember CC’s glorious run with the 2008 Brewers …	1	7-2
4	Braves	Remember when they started 0-7 last year and never fully recovered? So far, so good in the bounce-back year. The Braves won both home series and split a four-gamer on the road.	3	6-4
5	Mets	What was the outlier for Mark Vientos? His really good 2024 season or his really bad 2025 season? Thus far in 2026, he’s hitting .476/.522/.714. I’m intrigued.	3	6-4
6	Phillies	It feels like panic might’ve set in early for Phillies fans, but the veteran squad responded with a four-game winning streak before Sunday’s loss, meaning they won two series last week. Remain calm! All is well!	6	5-4
7	Pirates	Oneil Cruz through four games was 2 for 14 with eight strikeouts. Through nine games, he’s hitting .314/.368/.657 with four homers, 10 RBI and nine runs. Man, he can get so hot on a dime.	12	6-3
8	Reds	The Reds got their teeth kicked in to close out their first homestand, losing back-to-back 8-3 games to the Pirates. They responded by sweeping the Rangers in Texas. Gutsy. I like it.	5	6-3
9	Astros	Yordan Alvarez in the box right now looks like … well, what he always looks like when he’s healthy. An absolute machine of terror for opposing pitchers. It’s only 10 games, but it’s hilarious to see a .900 slugging percentage.	7	6-4
10	Guardians	I mentioned in the intro that I’ve long thought the Brewers are actually what people believe the Rays are. If there’s an American League team that fits the bill, I’d go with the Guardians. They’ve made the playoffs seven of the last 10 seasons. This year, they’ve split a series in Seattle, won a series in Dodger Stadium and taken two of three from the Cubs. Impressive start.	8	6-4
11	Marlins	Workhorse Sandy Alcantara, the man who told me in 2022 he believes part of his job is to complete games on his own, already has a shutout and has thrown 16 innings in two starts. He’s back!	4	6-3
12	Diamondbacks	Interesting stuff here. The D-backs were swept by the Dodgers in L.A. to start the season, but they had a lead in every game and it’s no great crime to lose there. And then they went 5-2 at home against the Tigers and Braves.	15	5-5
13	Tigers	Framber Valdez was awful in the second half last season (5.20 ERA compared to a first-half ERA of 2.75), but he so far seems to have kept that in the rearview with one very good start and then one start that probably qualifies as dominant. The Tigers are 2-0 when he pitches and 2-5 when he doesn’t.	8	4-5
14	Cubs	Edward Cabrera through two Cubs starts: 11 ⅔ IP, 2 H, 0 R. That’ll play.	4	4-5
15	Mariners	Mariners’ series results thus far: Split, loss, loss. That isn’t cool to do to your fans, Mariners. They’ve suffered plenty and were excited for this year. Pick it up!	9	4-6
16	Blue Jays	Since starting 3-0, the Blue Jays have lost five of six games in which they played the Rockies and White Sox. What a brutal stretch. The part of me that wants to make sure I’m being fair would say to let us recall that the Jays last season were 26-28 through May 27 and ended up in the World Series. But, man, that’s a horrific week of baseball.	14	4-5
17	Rangers	The good? Brandon Nimmo has been amazing atop the order. The bad? Wyatt Langford — the two-hole hitter — is hitting .125 with zero walks and 11 strikeouts.	6	4-5
18	Royals	Maikel Garcia is riding the wave from his World Baseball Classic MVP and hitting .333/.425/.485. He’s doing everything well — great defense, runs his ass off on the bases, has walked more than he’s struck out, etc. He played in 160 games last year and has played in all nine this year. He’s just a baseball player, man.	1	4-5
19	Angels	If you haven’t seen the footage from Jo Adell’s game on Saturday night … first of all, I’m talking about defense and not home runs! Secondly, go find it. Incredible stuff.	1	5-5
20	Padres	They haven’t done anything to change my mind that both the rotation and lineup are very top-heavy, but hey, they’ve now won a series. You gotta start somewhere.	2	4-5
21	Cardinals	I still have very little belief in this team the rest of the season, but they’ve been solid and have seen a lot of good signs thus far, such as JJ Wetherholt, Jordan Walker and, on a lesser scale, Matthew Liberatore and Michael McGreevy.	3	5-4
22	White Sox	I’m aware that you can only land at No. 22 with a 4-5 record when the expectations were low, but … they’re feisty and fun, right? There will be inconsistencies but Munetaka Murakami and Miguel Vargas provide major power in the middle of the order and there are some other useful bats.	7	4-5
23	Rays	Chandler Simpson profiles basically as a “run-only” offensive player, but so far he’s hitting .382/.432/.441. Good for him. I still feel like him hitting third on Sunday was a hilarious heat check.	2	4-5
24	Athletics	The A’s in three games in Sutter Health Park have scored 11, zero and 12 runs. I still have faith this is going to be a great offense this season, but there have been inconsistencies thus far.	3	3-6
25	Nationals	A 3-3 road trip to Philly and the north side of Chicago to start the season wasn’t half bad for this unit, given the extremely low expectations. That first home series against the Dodgers was, predictably, very rough.	2	3-6
26	Orioles	They’ve lost five of six and that bullpen is a serious concern already.	17	3-6
27	Twins	Taj Bradley was once a top-20 prospect. Entering this season, he’d made 73 career starts along with two relief appearances and had a 4.86 ERA (85 ERA+). So far this year in two starts, he has a 0.87 ERA with 12 strikeouts in 10 ⅓ innings. Has he turned a corner? You never know! He’s still only 25 years old.	1	3-6
28	Rockies	The Rockies won a series on the road against the defending American League champs. Everything I thought I knew has been shaken to the core. My expectation is the Rockies end up back on the bottom sooner rather than later, but there are two teams — who many expected to contend — right now that deserve to wear a dunce cap for their starts to the season.	2	3-6
29	Giants	There isn’t much at all that looks good right now. I strongly considered the 30th spot.	3	3-7
30	Red Sox	The first team to seven losses this season was the Red Sox. They’ve been bad in most facets of the game. The 2-7 start is their worst since 2019. They did end up with a winning record that season, but missed the playoffs.	16	2-7

require.config({“baseUrl”:”https://sportsfly.cbsistatic.com/fly-524/bundles/sportsmediajs/js-build”,”config”:{“version”:{“fly/components/accordion”:”1.0″,”fly/components/alert”:”1.0″,”fly/components/base”:”1.0″,”fly/components/carousel”:”1.0″,”fly/components/dropdown”:”1.0″,”fly/components/fixate”:”1.0″,”fly/components/form-validate”:”1.0″,”fly/components/image-gallery”:”1.0″,”fly/components/iframe-messenger”:”1.0″,”fly/components/load-more”:”1.0″,”fly/components/load-more-article”:”1.0″,”fly/components/load-more-scroll”:”1.0″,”fly/components/loading”:”1.0″,”fly/components/modal”:”1.0″,”fly/components/modal-iframe”:”1.0″,”fly/components/network-bar”:”1.0″,”fly/components/poll”:”1.0″,”fly/components/search-player”:”1.0″,”fly/components/social-button”:”1.0″,”fly/components/social-counts”:”1.0″,”fly/components/social-links”:”1.0″,”fly/components/tabs”:”1.0″,”fly/components/video”:”1.0″,”fly/libs/easy-xdm”:”2.4.17.1″,”fly/libs/jquery.cookie”:”1.2″,”fly/libs/jquery.throttle-debounce”:”1.1″,”fly/libs/jquery.widget”:”1.9.2″,”fly/libs/omniture.s-code”:”1.0″,”fly/utils/jquery-mobile-init”:”1.0″,”fly/libs/jquery.mobile”:”1.3.2″,”fly/libs/backbone”:”1.0.0″,”fly/libs/underscore”:”1.5.1″,”fly/libs/jquery.easing”:”1.3″,”fly/managers/ad”:”2.0″,”fly/managers/components”:”1.0″,”fly/managers/cookie”:”1.0″,”fly/managers/debug”:”1.0″,”fly/managers/geo”:”1.0″,”fly/managers/gpt”:”4.3″,”fly/managers/history”:”2.0″,”fly/managers/madison”:”1.0″,”fly/managers/social-authentication”:”1.0″,”fly/utils/data-prefix”:”1.0″,”fly/utils/data-selector”:”1.0″,”fly/utils/function-natives”:”1.0″,”fly/utils/guid”:”1.0″,”fly/utils/log”:”1.0″,”fly/utils/object-helper”:”1.0″,”fly/utils/string-helper”:”1.0″,”fly/utils/string-vars”:”1.0″,”fly/utils/url-helper”:”1.0″,”libs/jshashtable”:”2.1″,”libs/select2″:”3.5.1″,”libs/jsonp”:”2.4.0″,”libs/jquery/mobile”:”1.4.5″,”libs/modernizr.custom”:”2.6.2″,”libs/velocity”:”1.2.2″,”libs/dataTables”:”1.10.6″,”libs/dataTables.fixedColumns”:”3.0.4″,”libs/dataTables.fixedHeader”:”2.1.2″,”libs/dateformat”:”1.0.3″,”libs/waypoints/infinite”:”3.1.1″,”libs/waypoints/inview”:”3.1.1″,”libs/waypoints/jquery.waypoints”:”3.1.1″,”libs/waypoints/sticky”:”3.1.1″,”libs/jquery/dotdotdot”:”1.6.1″,”libs/jquery/flexslider”:”2.1″,”libs/jquery/lazyload”:”1.9.3″,”libs/jquery/maskedinput”:”1.3.1″,”libs/jquery/marquee”:”1.3.1″,”libs/jquery/numberformatter”:”1.2.3″,”libs/jquery/placeholder”:”0.2.4″,”libs/jquery/scrollbar”:”0.1.6″,”libs/jquery/tablesorter”:”2.0.5″,”libs/jquery/touchswipe”:”1.6.18″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.core”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.draggable”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.mouse”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.position”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.slider”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.sortable”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.touch-punch”:”0.2.3″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.autocomplete”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.accordion”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tabs”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.menu”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.dialog”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.resizable”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.button”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tooltip”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.effects”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.datepicker”:”1.11.4″}},”shim”:{“liveconnection/managers/connection”:{“deps”:[“liveconnection/libs/sockjs-0.3.4″]},”liveconnection/libs/sockjs-0.3.4”:{“exports”:”SockJS”},”libs/setValueFromArray”:{“exports”:”set”},”libs/getValueFromArray”:{“exports”:”get”},”fly/libs/jquery.mobile-1.3.2″:[“version!fly/utils/jquery-mobile-init”],”libs/backbone.marionette”:{“deps”:[“jquery”,”version!fly/libs/underscore”,”version!fly/libs/backbone”],”exports”:”Marionette”},”fly/libs/underscore-1.5.1″:{“exports”:”_”},”fly/libs/backbone-1.0.0″:{“deps”:[“version!fly/libs/underscore”,”jquery”],”exports”:”Backbone”},”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tabs-1.11.4″:[“jquery”,”version!libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.core”,”version!fly/libs/jquery.widget”],”libs/jquery/flexslider-2.1″:[“jquery”],”libs/dataTables.fixedColumns-3.0.4″:[“jquery”,”version!libs/dataTables”],”libs/dataTables.fixedHeader-2.1.2″:[“jquery”,”version!libs/dataTables”],”https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/app/VideoPlayer/AdobePass-min.js”:[“https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/util/Utils-min.js”]},”map”:{“*”:{“adobe-pass”:”https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/app/VideoPlayer/AdobePass-min.js”,”facebook”:”https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js”,”facebook-debug”:”https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all/debug.js”,”google”:”https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js”,”google-csa”:”https://www.google.com/adsense/search/async-ads.js”,”google-javascript-api”:”https://www.google.com/jsapi”,”google-client-api”:”https://accounts.google.com/gsi/client”,”gpt”:”https://securepubads.g.doubleclick.net/tag/js/gpt.js”,”hlsjs”:”https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/hls.js/1.0.7/hls.js”,”recaptcha”:”https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api.js?onload=loadRecaptcha&render=explicit”,”recaptcha_ajax”:”https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/js/recaptcha_ajax.js”,”supreme-golf”:”https://sgapps-staging.supremegolf.com/search/assets/js/bundle.js”,”taboola”:”https://cdn.taboola.com/libtrc/cbsinteractive-cbssports/loader.js”,”twitter”:”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”,”video-avia”:”https://sports.cbsimg.net/fly/js/avia-js/2.48.0/player/avia.min.js”,”video-avia-ui”:”https://sports.cbsimg.net/fly/js/avia-js/2.48.0/plugins/ui/avia.ui.min.js”,”video-avia-gam”:”https://sports.cbsimg.net/fly/js/avia-js/2.48.0/plugins/gam/avia.gam.min.js”,”video-avia-hls”:”https://sports.cbsimg.net/fly/js/avia-js/2.48.0/plugins/hls/avia.hls.min.js”,”video-avia-playlist”:”https://sports.cbsimg.net/fly/js/avia-js/2.48.0/plugins/playlist/avia.playlist.min.js”,”video-ima3″:”https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/sdkloader/ima3.js”,”video-ima3-dai”:”https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/sdkloader/ima3_dai.js”,”video-utils”:”https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/util/Utils-min.js”,”video-vast-tracking”:”https://sports.cbsimg.net/fly/js/sb55/vast-js/vtg-vast-client.js”}},”waitSeconds”:300});

Source link