With about a half of a month left in the MLB season, the elusive playoff spots are already starting to be taken. In the National League, only two of five spots remain up for grabs, while nobody has clinched a playoff birth in the American League. The San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers are all in, but who’s going to join them? With such little time left, how teams are playing right now means more than ever before this season. As the MLB starts to get hectic, here are your updated MLB Power Rankings.
Week 25 MLB Power Rankings
1) San Francisco Giants (97-53) (Previous: 1)
While certainly nothing is set in stone, it looks like the Giants are in line to take the NL West crown and have the best overall record going into the postseason. They lead the Dodgers in the division and play the Padres, Rockies and Diamondbacks for the rest of the season. All San Francisco has to do is play just as they have the entire year to lock up the coveted division title. The last place the Giants want to be is in a winner-take-all situation in the Wild Card, after letting the division lead slip at the very end.
2) Los Angeles Dodgers (96-54) (3)
It seems almost destined for the Dodgers to be a Wild Card team. Like the Giants, they do have a weak schedule to end the season. Their three-game series against the Brewers to end the season could keep them at arms-length from the Giants. Call it recency bias, but this is easily the best wild card team of all time. With how hot the Cardinals have been as of late, is it crazy to think the NLDS is anything but guaranteed? Weird things happen in the NL Wild Card game; just ask the Brewers who were a few outs away from beating the Nationals. A few small mistakes turned a spot in the NLDS into a path for Washington to win the whole thing in 2019.
3) Milwaukee Brewers (91-58) (2)
The Brewers had a hiccup in Detroit that continues a weird trend with Milwaukee struggling against bad teams. The Brewers are just 3-11 in 14 games against the Twins, Royals and Tigers. They have absolutely steamrolled everyone else, however, and are officially in the playoffs. While there is still some work to be done to clinch the division, it wouldn’t take a lot. The biggest question for the Brewers now is who will they play in the first round of the playoffs?
4) Tampa Bay Rays (92-58) (4)
With plenty of space between Tampa and the rest, it feels a little like the scene from The Dark Knight where The Joker calmly walks away while the hospital crumbles down behind him. As the Yankees, Red Sox,and Blue Jays consistently make their own lives miserable with underachieving and tanking at the wrong time, the Rays are steadily moving closer to the top record in the American League. With the two Wild Card spots likely going to AL East teams, they will be in a very similar situation to whoever wins the NL West between the Dodgers and Giants.
5) Toronto Blue Jays (84-65) (5)
Thanks to a recent hot streak and help from the Yankees, the Blue Jays are in the driver’s seat for a Wild Card spot. Toronto is flying and are winners of seven of 10. They took two of three from both Tampa Bay and Minnesota. With almost the same exact week on deck, with three against Tampa and four against Minnesota, Toronto can buy themselves more breathing room before a massive three-game series against the Yankees to close out September.
6) Houston Astros (88-61) (6)
The Astros had a good week but that was more of a statement on their competition. Although winning five of seven any given week is good, it means less when you do it against Texas and Arizona. The number for the Astros to clinch the AL West is eight and they have a good chance to wrap it up this week. They should be able to take care of business over four games against the Angels before getting three with second-place Oakland to end the week. With each win or Oakland loss taking a game off of their magic number, a series win against Oakland alone would take it down to four.
7) St. Louis Cardinals (79-69) (15)
This Cardinals team is scary, so do not count them out. Their pitching is subpar and their offense is average. We’ve seen this movie before. In 2011, the Cardinals went on an absolute tear and stole the wild card from Atlanta before going on to win the World Series. This year, they’re going on a tear and thanks to San Diego, have a strong grasp on the Wild Card. Although an upcoming series against Milwaukee will be tough, this team is red hot, don’t put it past them to take at least two of three.
8) Boston Red Sox (86-65) (8)
At this stage of the season, the goal for Boston is to get home-field advantage for the Wild Crd. They are in the playoffs by 2.5 games over New York and have a game lead over Toronto for home-field. There’s nothing better than a well-timed series against bad teams, as their recent three-game sweep of Baltimore took their current win streak to five. With eight of their last 11 games coming against teams under .500, they’d need to really be bad to lose their current in the MLB Power Rankings. Much like Toronto, however, they also have a huge three-game series against the Yankees coming up. That series alone could determine the AL Wild Card picture.
9) Chicago White Sox (85-64) (7)
The magic number for Chicago is four, and they should be clinching before this weekend. The White Sox are now three games behind Houston for home-field in their likely ALDS matchup, and there’s little chance they are able to make that up. Although their schedule is weak, so is Houston’s. If it gets to four or five, we might see Chicago rest some starters for the postseason.
10) New York Yankees (83-67) (11)
The good news for the New York Yankees is they control their own destiny. The bad news is they’d have to go on quite an impressive run to do it. The Yankees are 1.5 games out of the Wild Card and have nine of their next 12 games against the Red Sox, Blue Jays and Rays, with only the Rays series coming at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees are still far from out of this, but with Toronto and Boston playing very good baseball lately, they have their backs against the wall.
