2026 r/baseball Power Rankings -- Week 24: Dodgers / Brewers Continue Clash for #1 During Slow Week as Cleveland, Cardinals, and Canada Make Playoff Push; Old Man Re-Appears to Harpoon Marlins, Also Snags an Oriole; Faded-Flair Disease Begins Yearly Culling
Hey Sportsfans — it's time for Week 24 of r/baseball Power Rankings: Please enjoy these baseball numbers on this wonderful Labor Day. Or so I am told.
Each of the 30 voters has their own style / system and the only voting instructions are these:
"To an extent determined individually, you must take into account how strong a team is right now and likely to be in the coming week. You must, to some degree, give weight to the events and games of the previous week."
TRANSPARENCY: This link will show you who voted each team where and has added neat statistics! Edit: Correct link now
If something is a little messed up, feel free to pester me let me know.
Total Votes: 27 of 30.
| # | Logo | Team | Δ | Comment | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Milwaukee Brewers | Brewers | 0 | A 3-4 record on the week might not be what you want, but with the chaotic, messy way these games played out, I imagine they're happy to take it. Let's put those series against the Cubs and Reds in the mirror and look ahead to this week's series against the Cubs and Reds. | 88-56 |
| 2 | Los Angeles Dodgers | Dodgers | +1 | The Dodgers continue to baffle, but with a really easy schedule the rest of the way, should be able to lock down the division pretty soon. Hopefully they'll clinch a bye further down the line but it's more up to the Braves/Brewers if they can stay hot. I'm just excited for playoffs, that's the part of the season that the Dodgers have been prepping for all year. | 86-57 |
| 3 | Atlanta Braves | Braves | -1 | 85-58 | |
| 4 | Tampa Bay Rays | Rays | 0 | What a weird week. We lost the series to the Mets in the trop - a place where they at one point went over a decade without a win - and split the series in Arlington entering the game riding a 9 game losing streak in Globe Life. We had 3 pitchers go on the IL in McClanahan, Cleavinger, and Rodriguez. Griffin Jax and Cole Sulser were activated while Ty Johnson was called up to make his MLB debut. Bryan Baker, while not placed on the IL, had to leave the game on Friday due to illness. Ideally he's feeling better and can help close out these last few games. The September call ups were Victor Mesa Jr coming off the IL and Alex Cook coming up as a low leverage reliever so the transaction log has been just about as busy as the basepaths when Cleavinger is pitching. Before being placed on the IL, Cleavinger's last 14 outings resulted in an ERA over 10, and a WHIP over 2 while recording less than 9 complete innings. Luckily even with the sub .500 week we only lost half a game to the Yankees and with the Red Sox handling the Orioles our magic number to clinch the playoffs sits at just 6. This week we have 6 games against 2 division leaders. 3 in Atlanta, 3 against Houston back in the trop. | 85-58 |
| 5 | New York Yankees | Yankees | 0 | Well, that was fun, and not so fun. 3-3 on the road trip, not great, but not terrible either. Couldn't win all three against the Angels when they should of, and floundered two against the Padres, while rough, could have been worse, especially against a team that has been steady like the Padres. The forever revolving door of the Yankees injuries continue, but the biggest update we're looking for is Aaron Judge; who has been rumored to return to the lineup Tuesday, but we will see. Yanks are set to face Colorado and the Mets on their homestead this week, all as the crucial playoff push nears its crucial end. | 81-62 |
| 6 | Chicago Cubs | Cubs | +1 | Same old, same old for the Cubs in a 4-3 week against the Brewers and Marlins. Fantastic offense was undone by shaky at best pitching, particularly in the bullpen. Throw in an injury scare to Jacob Webb and this week was a perfect microcosm for the Cubs' pitching situation all season long. Ryan Zeferjahn showed finally showed signs of life, but that is very much grasping at any straw hinting at an optimistic sign. PCA hit his 40th home run in a loss to the Marlins on Sunday, and there are grumblings among the fanbase that he is hitting for too much power for him to hit 40 steals and become the seventh member of the 40/40 club. The Cubs this week have 3 game series against the Brewers and Pirates as they try to stay ahead of the Phillies for the top NL Wild Card spot. | 81-63 |
| 7 | Philadelphia Phillies | Phillies | -1 | The Phillies exercised some Chase Field demons to start the week, finishing off a 6 game win streak by taking the first two games against the Diamondbacks. In the all important 4 game set against the Braves, the Phillies split. While that may not seem that disappointing, it's a pretty big blow to their hopes of winning the division, and they certainly had a chance to win all four games. The division lead is down to 4 games for the Braves, with another huge 3 game set to end the week, this time in Atlanta. The race for the first wild card spot is neck and neck, so these games against tougher teams are hugely important. | 80-63 |
| 8 | Boston Red Sox | Red Sox | 0 | Submitted Votes, But No Blurb | 79-65 |
| 9 | Chicago White Sox | White Sox | 0 | The White Sox have been about a .500 team since July 1. They've gone 30-29, rank 14th in ERA,16th in wRC+, and 10th in runs scored. I could point to this being a young team playing their first full season. I could point to some major holes like Drew Romo getting the most time behind the plate and hitting just .146 at the plate. And the heart of the order all hitting average to below league average. But let's talk about the most surprising All Star of the year, Banana Boy Tristan Peters. It looked like his Cinderella first half was quickly regressing to the mean in the 2nd half of July. He had a negative wRC+ with the impressive slash line of .081/.173/.109. His flash in the pan was clearly over. Despite those couple weeks, he still leads the White Sox since 7/1, certainly helped by his 5 straight days of dongs at the end of August. | 75-68 |
| 10 | Arizona Diamondbacks | D-Backs | 0 | The Diamondbacks look like they're dead in the water every other day, and lately have had trouble scoring more than a run a game, and nevertheless are in playoff position as I write this. If they can get their hitters hitting, the top guys in the rotation and the apparent Death Star bullpen look good enough to win a playoff series or two. | 76-68 |
| 11 | San Diego Padres | Padres | 0 | The Padres have had a tough go of it the last two weeks, but they did manage to get a series win against the damn Yankees over the weekend. Luis Campusano was definitely the MVP of the series. On Friday he hit the walk-off homerun after catching three runners stealing, a feat that hadn’t been done since 1961. He was big in Sunday's win as well, with another homer, and caught another guy stealing in the pivotal top of the 8th as New York tried to tie it. Damn, Campy. | 75-68 |
| 12 | Cleveland Guardians | Guardians | 0 | Prediction: at least one NL team that misses the playoffs will have a better record than at least one AL team that makes the playoffs. This week, the Guardians lost a series to the Blue Jays and had a too close for comfort series against the Tigers. They play the Orioles and Twins next. Playoffs are still a possibility, but the six seed is the most likely possibility. | 73-71 |
| 13 | Houston Astros | Astros | +1 | Disappointing finish to the homestand but since our position hasn't materially changed, I'll give that a shrug. Need Yordan to get going again... we rely a ton on him and given how the roster is constructed as a whole, we're not going to make it very far without him returning to his superhuman state. | 73-71 |
| 14 | Toronto Blue Jays | Blue Jays | +2 | Short blurb as I'm in Green Bay for a football game. The magic somehow keeps magicking. Huge series wins over Cleveland and KC let us peek our heads over .500 for the first time since APRIL 3 while we briefly grabbed control of the final wild card spot. It's gonna be a barn burner of a finish, kids. | 72-72 |
| 15 | St. Louis Cardinals | Cardinals | +2 | Hmm ... I don't really know what I want to say. Much of the noteworthy stuff happening with and to the Redbirds over the last week are widely known and have been heretofore discussed. I guess I'll just start with this: fuck Doug Eddings. I'm not going to sit here and make any definite declarations about his character. I'll just say that I wouldn't mind him contracting some form of incurable ballsack rash that can't be helped but to be scratched even while it's always already scratched raw. Beyond that, the Birds played some pretty damn good baseball over the last seven days in their own sloppy way. Jordan Walker has joined Alec Burleson in having 100 RBI. I do believe that makes them the last homegrown pair of red-feathered fucks to have 100 RBI in a season since 1954 when Stan "The Man" and Ray Jablonski did the same. Cooper Hjerpe made a big-dicked debut at Coors field, throwing 4 innings of no-hit, no-walk ball while racking up 6 Ks as a follower for Kyle Leahy. I can only hope that Keith Law ends up eating a big plate of shit when it comes to the outlier funk that Hjerpe carries with him. One last thing: this upcoming weekend will be a big one. Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina go in the Cardinals Hall of Fame together on 9/12 in a ceremony just before that days game. | 72-72 |
| 16 | Miami Marlins | Marlins | -3 | Fish swim up, fish swim down, fish swim round and round .500. We are a perfectly middle of the pack team right now. We lose to better teams but can take games from them and we beat worser teams but can lose to them as well. While I'm upset about losing 3 to Nats that we've otherwise dominated, thats baseball though. It is awesome to see Leo Jiminez no longer apart of the team so we can actually have some right handed production at 3rd base. The problem is that we have dealt with a lot of injuries that have compounded and ruined our chances of a great rest of the season. Especially with out starting pitching since while I love Tyler Phillips and Gusto has been doing good. They would be much better as bullpen arms and they clearly are slowing down as they weren't prepped to be starters this year. Having Meyer, Snelling and White down for the rest of the year really hurts. Fairbanks is out as well and unfortunately it seems Xavier Edward's is out for a while as well who was one of our only consistent offensive producers. Still we're .500 and we keep on fighting so let's see what can happen. Hell if Meyer happens to comeback then our season could be redeemed but right now just have to be happy with a team that was projected to get as many wins as we have right now for the entire season. | 72-72 |
| 17 | Pittsburgh Pirates | Pirates | +1 | 71-73 | |
| 18 | Texas Rangers | Rangers | +1 | This week resulted in a successful home stand in which we took 2/3 from the A's and split a series with the AL leading Rays, though it could have been a series win. Looking at the AL West standings, we finished where we started the week - 2 games back of the Astros. Now Texas must go on another road trip, and I'm nervous considering how poorly Texas has been on the road this year, especially in other AL West ballparks such as T-Mobile Park. | 71-73 |
| 19 | Baltimore Orioles | Orioles | -4 | I put a link here without proper formatting because I forgot mthe blurb rules | 69-75 |
| 20 | Minnesota Twins | Twins | 0 | The Twins have two rookies that got all flashy and hyped in the minors, but they're stuck at the bottom of the order. Move 'em up! Let 'em play! Culpepper was slotted second on Saturday and had a good day. These kids are supposed to be the future of the team, so let's see what they can do. What's the worst that could happen? The team loses? I think the ship has sailed on that one. | 68-75 |
| 21 | Washington Nationals | Nationals | 0 | "No lead is safe." These 4 words now encapsulate the entire 2026 Washington Nationals season. The Nats bats are no longer the number 1 scoring offense and the bullpen just blew their MLB record-tying 37th save of the season with 17 games left to go. It's probably pretty safe to say that they'll be breaking that record, especially with the news that one of the better performing members of the pen reported a forearm injury right before the Nats got swept last night. It's also a pretty safe bet at this point that this Nats team will finish under .500 once again, I just hope they can limp to the finish line without suffering any more injuries. | 67-78 |
| 22 | Seattle Mariners | Mariners | +1 | The Mariners... won their toughest remaining series? On the road??? Oh, it's all good, they balanced it out by losing 3 of 4 to the A's. Balance is restored. You'd think it's a good thing that the team has only 2 games left against teams above .500, but it seems like they're not going to let that stop them from more of the same old song and dance all season. Fun fact: just kidding, I don't really have one about this season. Let's just get through it and fade me already. Up next: 3 vs. T, 3 @ A | 67-77 |
| 23 | Cincinnati Reds | Reds | +2 | Don’t let the fact that the Reds actually managed to win a series against the Brewers distract you from the fact that Western Michigan got absolutely robbed of a win on Saturday. | 69-74 |
| 24 | Detroit Tigers | Tigers | -2 | The fourth straight losing week included three games that went to extras. I'm not sure which was worse, the back to back blowouts to start the week in Minnesota or the three walkoffs in four games in Cleveland. Either way, the pain is real and it's time for the season to end. This week: 3 vs. MIN, 3 vs. COL. | 65-78 |
| 25 | New York Mets | Mets | +1 | Farewell, Jefry Yan. Welcome back, Jonah Tong! Last year I brought my girlfriend to her first Mets game and it happened to be Jonah Tong's debut. I splurged on a jersey and now she thinks he's really good and was confused when I said he was sent back to the Minors. When writing this, I completely memory holed that Tong briefly came back this year and pitched 3 games as a long reliever in late May/early June. | 65-78 |
| 26 | Kansas City Royals | Royals | -2 | Jac Caglianone started breaking out - AL Player of the Month in August - and promptly gets injured. That's a perfect metaphor for the 2026 season. | 64-80 |
| 27 | San Francisco Giants | Giants | 0 | I could probably just put the Giants at 27 for the rest of the season, doesn't feel like this level of suck is going to change much over the last few weeks. But hey, Rafael Devers is playing out of his mind, he's got 19 games left to crack the 40 home run mark, which would be the first by a Giants hitter since, you know, Barry Bonds in 2004. Who needs pitching when you got dong? Oh, turns out you do need pitching too, that sucks. | 59-85 |
| 28 | Oakland Athletics | Athletics | 0 | Five out of the top 9 offensive peformers for the Athletics are on the IL, according to Baseball Reference. Even so, the A's enjoyed a four game win streak this week, but fell short of a sweep against the Mariners. As a hardcore A's fan this is some of the best baseball for our poverty franchise. Spoiling any teams playoff chances in what are totally meaningless games for the A's. The A's finish the season with 5 of 6 series against playoff contendings teams in the Blue Jays, Mariners, Rays, Guardians, and Astros. | 57-87 |
| 29 | Colorado Rockies | Rockies | 0 | 55-88 | |
| 30 | Los Angeles Angels | Angels | 0 | Fuck you, Arte Moreno. Burn in Hell for all eternity, you fascist bootlicking fuckface. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. I hope when that blessed day comes when you've departed this world that you're laid to rest in a public cemetery so I can piss on your grave. | 54-89 |
Posted Sep 7, 2026, 8:30 PM UTC
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