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MLB power rankings: No. 1 Dodgers joined by Braves, Yankees, Brewers and Padres in top 5

· Yahoo Sports

With about 10 percent of the MLB season behind us, the standings are a comical mess, with the fitting exception of the Los Angeles Dodgers, owners of the best record in baseball and apparently impervious to small-sample chaos.

Nevertheless, our semi-regular exercise of regular-season power rankings must proceed, with our first attempt of the season to sort through the 30 big-league ballclubs and assess their relative quality, no matter how bunched up they are in the standings. These rankings shine the spotlight on the best individual performers for each club in the early going, ranging from expected superstars to rookie standouts to out-of-nowhere surprises and everything in between.

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Let’s get to it.

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In a lineup overflowing with veteran superstars in their 30s, 25-year-old Andy Pages has emerged as an unlikely driving force for the Dodgers’ offense, despite batting near the bottom of the order in the bulk of his starts. Pages was a steady source of slugging during his first two seasons before he sunk into an all-time slump last October, but now he’s back to mashing, with an all-time heater to open 2026: Pages not only leads Los Angeles in nearly every offensive category but also is tops in MLB in hits, RBI, batting average and fWAR through 16 games. Finally, something is going right for the Dodgers!

His NL Rookie of the Year award is already old news; it’s time to start considering where Drake Baldwin ranks among the best catchers in baseball. All he has done since arriving in the majors is hit, and now he’s catching the lion’s share of innings for a Braves team that, despite an avalanche of arm injuries, currently boasts the lowest ERA in MLB. Atlanta has a rich history of developing homegrown stars, and Baldwin looks like the next in line. 

In a relative blink, Ben Rice has evolved from “what a great story” to “he’s a pretty good hitter” to “wait a second, his OPS is what?!” The Yankees’ first baseman — if you’re wondering, Rice has caught zero innings this season, and that’s perfectly fine — has been unbelievable with the bat, blending his serious left-handed raw power with a disciplined approach that has unlocked a truly outlandish statline: .362/.508/.745, good for a 246 wRC+ that is tops in MLB. He’s still doing nearly all of his damage against right-handed pitching, but we won’t stress too much about his platoon splits as long as his triple slash resembles that of peak Barry Bonds.

A five-game skid suggests the Brewers do have some things to sort out, but Brice Turang is doing his part. There was real buzz during Turang’s time with Team USA that another leap could be in store for the 26-year-old second baseman after his breakout 2025, and so far this season, he has done nothing to dampen that hype, providing ample power (.617 SLG%) and speed (5 SB) as the temporary leadoff man while Jackson Chourio works his way back from injury. Turang is a star. 

What Mason Miller is doing right now is downright absurd. He has struck out 19 of the 24 batters he has faced this season, and he has allowed just two baserunners (a Luis Arraez single and a Spencer Torkelson walk). Most people in the industry would tell you that in the grand scheme of things, it probably wasn’t a good idea for the Padres to trade an elite infield prospect in Leo De Vries (and several other pieces) for a reliever, but that reliever was Miller, someone evidently capable of unthinkable levels of dominance.

Make no mistake: Chase DeLauter’s blistering start to his career is the story of the Guardians’ season so far, and he has single-handedly altered the complexion of Cleveland’s offense. But Cleveland’s other Cactus League standout hasn’t cooled off much, either, and that’s Angel Martinez. The switch-hitting outfielder has been Cleveland’s second-best bat behind DeLauter, with a stellar .895 OPS (158 wRC+), a huge uptick from last year’s healthy sample of poor production (74 wRC+ in 484 plate appearances).

The highest strikeout rate in the vaunted Seattle rotation? That belongs to Emerson Hancock, of course. The former sixth overall pick had one of the lowest strikeout rates in baseball the previous two seasons due to his sinker-forward approach and lack of a swing-and-miss weapon, but this season Hancock has reemphasized his four-seamer and added a nasty sweeper that has unlocked a new level of effectiveness. He’s making the most of his opportunity with incumbent No. 5 starter Bryce Miller on the injured list.

Both of Texas’ biggest offseason additions have made fantastic first impressions. Brandon Nimmo has been an ideal table-setter atop the lineup, leading MLB with nine multi-hit games. And MacKenzie Gore gives Texas a left-handed element atop a rotation that has two impact right-handers in Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi; his 39.7% strikeout rate ranks third among qualified starting pitchers.

Bryce Harper has gotten off to a nice start in his unofficial quest to prove to president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski that he’s still elite. Harper is one of just 15 qualified hitters who have walked more than they’ve struck out so far this season, and of that cohort, only Yordan Alvarez (.714) and Sal Stewart (.600) have higher slugging percentages than Harper’s .517. 

After a poor second half and a rough October at the plate, Detroit did little in the offseason to change its position-player group, trusting that its core — with the addition of top prospect Kevin McGonigle — is good enough to form a postseason-worthy offense. It has been a mixed bag for the holdovers so far, but at age 21, McGonigle already looks like the Tigers’ best bat. After batting sixth in the first four games of his career, McGonigle vaulted to the top of the Detroit lineup, where he has continued to rake as the leadoff man or No. 2 hitter while playing stellar defense at third base and shortstop.

Somewhat surprisingly, Andy Pages and Ben Rice have been the standout performers for the Dodgers and Yankees thus far. Less surprisingly, Yordan Alvarez, Drake Baldwin and Brice Turang have been leading the way in Houston, Atlanta and Milwaukee.Bruno Rouby/Yahoo Sports

A proven master of the pulled fly ball, Brandon Lowe just keeps doing his thing as a key contributor in Pittsburgh’s new-look lineup, smashing six homers (all pulled, of course) in 14 games while running a career-best 15.4% walk rate. Lowe is firmly on pace to become just the seventh second baseman ever with three 30-plus-homer seasons, a fascinating group that includes Hall of Famers Rogers Hornsby and Jeff Kent, soon-to-be-Cooperstown-bound Chase Utley, Alfonso Soriano, Rougned Odor (!) and, of course, Dan Uggla (who did it five times).

Here’s an early-season statistical quirk: Taylor Ward is leading MLB in doubles with 10 but has zero homers, and his 75 plate appearances are third-most among all MLB hitters without a home run this season. That first long ball is surely coming soon, but even without leaving the yard, Ward has been a nice addition to the top of Baltimore’s lineup after eight years with the Angels. His .427 OBP is Baltimore’s best on-base mark and is rooted in his top-notch plate discipline; Ward’s 13.8% chase rate is second-lowest in MLB among qualified hitters.

Sal Stewart was not shy during spring training about his goal of winning NL Rookie of the Year, and he has backed up those bold ambitions with a spectacular showing at the plate to begin his season. The 22-year-old slugger is hitting .309/.435/.600, leads all NL rookies in fWAR and recently put on a show for a horde of family and friends when the Reds were in his hometown. The Reds’ offense has been atrocious thus far outside of Elly De La Cruz and Stewart, who have hit third and fourth in all 16 of Cincinnati’s games, but that duo promises to be a headache for opposing pitchers for the foreseeable future.

It’s a subtle difference, but based on the discrepancy in his performance between his rookie and sophomore seasons — and how sharp he has looked so far in Year 3 — Shota Imanaga’s fastball sitting at 92 mph instead of 91 might be a pretty big deal. The lefty’s four-seamer has looked much crisper in 2026, as he’s already hit 93 mph more times through three starts this season (19) than he did all of last year (18). Fly balls will always be an issue for him, but even a tick more heat like he has shown thus far could be the key to returning Imanaga to something resembling his stellar rookie form. 

Remember when D-backs spring training began with the disappointing news that Corbin Carroll needed surgery to address a broken hamate bone in his right hand, rendering him unavailable for the World Baseball Classic? Well, we can’t undo his absence from Team USA, but Carroll has emphatically quashed any concerns that the preseason injury would cause him to start slow. The Snakes’ right fielder has been dynamite, slashing .321/.403/.623 with a team-leading 10 runs scored and 11 RBI. And even in an abbreviated sample, Carroll — the National League leader in triples the previous three seasons — is the only player with three triples so far in 2026.

The Twins’ return for Griffin Jax at last year’s trade deadline, 25-year-old right-hander Taj Bradley has been one of the most encouraging developments of Minnesota’s surprisingly strong start to the season. He has surrendered just three earned runs in 21 ⅔ innings of work, and only Max Fried (105) has faced more batters than Bradley (93) without allowing a home run. Bradley flashed terrific stuff early in his career with Tampa Bay but struggled with walks and hard contact. If he can dial in the command and identify the ideal mix of secondaries beyond his high-90s fastball — the splitter has looked excellent thus far — the Twins might have found a rotation fixture for years to come.

After swatting 25 homers as a 21-year-old in 2023, Francisco Alvarez looked on track to become the next great slugging catcher. But injuries completely derailed his past two seasons, dampening the hype he earned as a rookie and leaving his status as a core piece for the Mets somewhat in question. Now healthy and reestablished as New York’s starting backstop, Alvarez is raking to start 2026, with sterling underlying metrics to support his gaudy surface-level stats — a much-needed silver lining within a badly scuffling Mets lineup. 

The injured list is getting more crowded by the day, putting the Blue Jays in a precarious position in the standings while they navigate this slew of absences. To help steady the ship, they’ll lean on Kevin Gausman and Dylan Cease, the team’s top two starters who are, appropriately, two of the most durable pitchers of this era. Cease has made a strong first impression, with 26 strikeouts across his first 14 ⅔ innings as a Blue Jay, while Gausman (2.08 ERA, 17 ⅓ IP, 28 K, 2 BB) has shined to begin what could be his final season in Toronto, potentially priming himself for another sizable payday in free agency.

It’s a toss-up between Willson Contreras and Wilyer Abreu for most impactful hitter amid an otherwise woeful collective start for the Red Sox’s offense. Fresh off their WBC triumph with Team Venezuela, they have been consistent forces in the middle of Boston’s lineup. Contreras is providing exactly the kind of right-handed power and patience the Red Sox sought when they acquired him, and Abreu is validating Boston’s conviction that he could shed his longstanding platoon label and become a reliable every-day player.

Chandler Simpson’s first attempt to prove that his otherworldly speed could be more than just a gimmick in the big leagues was underwhelming, as he struggled to reach base consistently and struggled mightily on defense in the outfield. Sophomore Simpson has been far more promising. Even as a total nonthreat to slug, he has weaponized his tremendous bat-to-ball skills and freaky wheels to rack up a whopping 23 hits (21 singles, two triples) in 15 games while swiping seven bags. Early metrics also indicate improved competence in left field, making Simpson an ultra-fun, down-order role player in support of Tampa Bay’s more traditional sluggers such as Yandy Diaz and Junior Caminero.

While Bobby Witt Jr. is searching for his power stroke in the early going (.322 SLG%), Maikel Garcia has surged out of the gate with some impressive pop, racking up seven extra-base hits to go with his outstanding defense at the hot corner. Few players are as well-rounded as Garcia, who excels in nearly every aspect of the sport and could reach an even higher level of impact if he can turn more of his doubles into homers. Maybe the moved-in fences at Kauffman Stadium will help.

The other Max Muncy looked overwhelmed as a rookie last season, posting a .259 OBP across 220 plate appearances. But the A’s remained confident that their 2021 first-round pick could be Plan A at third base, and so far in 2026, he has rewarded them with a team-leading 19 hits and 12 runs scored, with a 68.4% hard-hit rate that ranks third among qualified hitters behind only Fernando Tatis Jr. and Ben Rice. Shaky defense and poor plate discipline (22 strikeouts to just two walks) remain red flags, but this is a promising start for Muncy nonetheless. 

In prior seasons, José Soriano had demonstrated an elite ability to coax ground balls, but his poor control and inability to find enough whiffs with his sinker-heavy repertoire limited his overall effectiveness. This year, an uptick in four-seam fastball usage looks to have unlocked a more unpredictable and overwhelming arsenal, and Soriano has been one of MLB’s best starters in the early going. He set the tone by throwing the first six innings of the Angels’ 3-0 win over the Astros on Opening Day — Houston’s high-powered offense has not been held scoreless in any game since — and flourished across his next three outings against the Cubs, Braves and Reds. For years, the Angels have been starved for impact starting pitching: The last rotation member not named Shohei Ohtani to clear 4.0 bWAR was Garrett Richards in 2014. Soriano — with 1.8 bWAR through four starts — could be the ace this team has been looking for.

Miami might have the most underrated middle infield in baseball. Neither shortstop Otto Lopez nor second baseman Xavier Edwards is going to be invited to any home run derbies anytime soon, but both are well-rounded in so many other facets of the game. They make a boatload of contact, play reliable defense at key positions and impact the game on the basepaths. The Marlins can find slug elsewhere on the diamond; having these two up the middle is a boon. 

If the season ended today, if not Pages, the NL MVP would be … Jordan Walker?! After flashing star potential as a 21-year-old rookie in 2023, Walker’s career seemed to be going sideways, as he ranked as quite literally the least valuable position player in MLB last season (min. 350 PAs) at a ghastly minus-1.2 fWAR. But the outlier physical tools, headlined by elite bat speed, have remained intact, and the patience is starting to pay off for both Walker and St. Louis, as the right fielder is pummeling the ball to an outrageous degree to start 2026. He leads MLB with eight home runs, already surpassing his 2025 total of six. He’s one of the best stories of the season so far.

The Astros are a complete mess on the mound, and that’s the driving factor behind their poor record and troubling spot in these rankings. But Houston’s offense has been outstanding, and the headliner has been no surprise: Yordan Alvarez is simply ridiculous. Durability questions and defensive limitations will always remove him from Best Player In Baseball conversations, but focus solely on the bat, and it’s difficult to name many superior hitters on the planet. And right now, there’s no one better: Alvarez leads MLB in fWAR, and his underlying metrics are unrivaled. Most promising of all is that he has been in the starting lineup for every game, with Houston’s plan to put him in the outfield only on occasion (four out of 16 starts) working so far.

The Nationals are a lower-stakes version of the Astros, an offensive juggernaut unfortunately outweighed by an undermanned pitching staff. With James Wood and CJ Abrams, the Nats are one of just three teams with multiple hitters who have already hit five home runs, along with the Dodgers (Pages, Ohtani) and Pirates (Oneil Cruz, Lowe). The two position-player gems acquired in the Juan Soto trade, Wood and Abrams are ideal pillars to build around, though Abrams — under team control through 2028, compared to Wood through 2030 — could reemerge as an ultra-valuable trade candidate, depending on how Washington’s new front office regime views its rebuild timeline.

There isn’t a ton to feel warm and fuzzy about when it comes to San Francisco’s offense, but Willy Adames is quietly off to a rock-solid start at the plate, a refreshing change of pace from the ice-cold opening to his Giants tenure a year ago, when his OPS sat at .592 at the end of April. This time around, Adames leads the National League with nine doubles and is running a career-low 21.9% chase rate and a career-high 83.2% contact rate.

The longest-tenured Rockie, Antonio Senzatela, who debuted one day before Kyle Freeland in April 2017,has reinvented himself as a high-octane reliever after years as a middling starter. Riding a fastball that now averages 97 mph (as opposed to the 94 mph heat he delivered in the rotation) and a newly introduced cutter, the new-look Senzatela has allowed just two hits across nine scoreless innings of relief, with 12 strikeouts. He’s one of several intriguing members of a suddenly stout Colorado bullpen.

Grant Taylor boasts the enviable combination of elite extension (how far down the mound a pitcher gets before releasing the ball) and elite velocity, meaning his heater is particularly daunting for hitters, and his breaking balls play up in turn. He isn’t the closer — in fact, he has served as the “opener” in four of his seven appearances — but Tayloralready has a strong case as Chicago’s best bullpen arm, no matter how much the White Sox are paying Seranthony Dominguez to pitch the ninth.

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