MLB Power Rankings: Tigers finally claim No. 1, plus why Twins, Cardinals represent the beauty of baseball

One of the many things that makes Major League Baseball great is the everydayness of it. Especially early in the season, teams can dig themselves quite a hole and then climb their way out of it in a matter of weeks, so long as they play scorching hot baseball. 

Is there another sport where a team starts 7-15 and the sentiment surrounding the team should be something like, “hey, just rip off 15 wins in the next 20 games and everything will be fine,” and to have that be an entirely reasonable argument? Maybe the NBA, but they aren’t playing 20 games in three weeks.  

It can happen so quickly. 

Between April 20 and May 18, the Twins went 19-5 to completely turn their season on its head. Less than a month is all it took for the Twins to go from being left for dead in a continuation from last season’s collapse to a team no one wants to play right now. They had a 13-game winning streak end on Sunday. A few weeks ago, if someone told you there would be a 13-game winning streak, how many teams would you have guessed before getting to the Twins? Twenty? At least 20. 

Over in the NL Central, another Midwest team flipped the narrative and navigated itself back into contention in just a few weeks. The Cardinals haven’t made the playoffs since 2022 and haven’t been one of the best teams in the league since 2015 — a veritable eternity for that franchise. They bragged about being in a transition season and when they were 9-14 and 12-17 and 14-19, yes, it certainly looked like that sentiment was coming to fruition. Again, though, baseball can come at you fast. 

The Cardinals won a doubleheader on May 4 against the Mets. Those are big wins but doubleheaders can be fluky. They then swept the Pirates. It’s the Pirates. Then they swept the Nationals, who are also not very good. It’s tough to win eight in a row, but there were ways to discount the run. No more. The Cardinals went into Philadelphia and Kansas City and won four out of six games. They are five games over .500 and look every bit a contender.

Those Nolan Arenado trade rumors can be safely put away indefinitely. 

The Twins still chase the Tigers in the AL Central while the Cardinals are still behind the Cubs by two games in the NL Central, but both teams are relevant again. That wasn’t the case until very recently. 

Speaking of the Tigers, they have taken over the top spot in the rankings. They didn’t dig themselves nearly as deep a hole as some other teams, but they did lose their first three. They’ve been amazing since, losing no more than two games in a row. They have the best record and best run differential. They have good starting pitching, a good bullpen, a good offense and a good defense in addition to having arguably the best manager in baseball. It isn’t smoke and mirrors. They are legitimately great and don’t have a glaring weakness. It could well be a special season in the Motor City.

For now, the Tigers sit at the top. 

Biggest Movers

8

Guardians

1	Tigers	Only five times in Tigers history have they won at least 31 games through their first 47 games: 1911, 1950, 1984, 2006 and 2025.	3	31-16
2	Dodgers	The Dodgers were 17-4 at home heading into the weekend series, where they were tasked with playing the Angels. The Angels were 8-15 on the road. And the Angels swept them. Baseball is the best when it makes no sense.	1	29-18
3	Yankees	Aaron Judge is hitting over .400 while Max Fried’s ERA is down in Bob Gibson range. Yeah, it’s still kinda early, but it isn’t the second week of April or anything.	3	27-19
4	Mets	There were people concerned about the rotation heading into the year. I was one of them. David Stearns has a system that works, though, and the Mets have the second-best rotation ERA in the majors.	2	29-18
5	Cubs	We’ve discussed the great offense a decent amount as well as the leaky bullpen, but how about that rotation? The Cubs lost Justin Steele for the season and Shota Imanaga to the injured list a few weeks ago. The Cubs still sit in the top 10 in starter ERA, though, with commendable work from the likes of Matthew Boyd and Colin Rea.	3	28-19
6	Phillies	The José Alvarado PED suspension is a huge blow. That bullpen was already thin and he has the stuff to dominate in the postseason. At least Jordan Romano seems fixed.	1	28-18
7	Mariners	A good sign from a first-place team is going through a rough stretch (losing five of six) and then bouncing back in a big way. A series sweep in which the pitching staff totally keeps the Padres’ bats quiet qualifies.	2	26-19
8	Padres	Have you ever heard someone yell something like, “save those runs for later!” when a team is blowing out another and keeps scoring? The Padres scored 34 runs on May 9-10 in Coors Field. They’ve only scored 21 runs in their seven games since.	5	27-18
9	Twins	The rotation during their run has been exceptional. Joe Ryan, Pablo López and Bailey Ober have looked like a trio of aces and even Chris Paddack is dealing right now.	5	26-21
10	Giants	Wilmer Flores is still the MLB leader with 42 RBI. That puts him on pace for 148 this season. The Giants haven’t had a 120-plus RBI season since, yep, Barry Bonds did so in 2001 with 137.	3	28-19
11	Cardinals	Miles Mikolas had a horrific start back on April 6 in which he gave up nine runs on 11 hits in 2 ⅔ innings. Since then, he’s made seven starts and has pitched to a 2.17 ERA. The Cardinals have now won his last four starts.	1	26-21
12	Diamondbacks	Zac Gallen now has a 6.03 ERA in his seven starts at home. He’s looked every bit that bad, too. It’s concerning.	1	25-22
13	Astros	Only the Giants have a better bullpen ERA this season than the Astros, whose four main relievers have an ERA in the 1s.	3	24-22
14	Braves	It was May 16 when the Braves finally broke through and topped .500 for the first time all season. Since April 16, the Braves have gone 7-2 in series.	5	24-23
15	Rangers	They’ve righted the ship, having won seven of nine. Jacob deGrom is fully back to ace mode, too.	6	25-23
16	Royals	Another rough patch. Before salvaging a win on Sunday, the Royals had dropped six of seven games. This was after a stretch during which they won 16 of 18 which followed a six-game losing streak. Is this our roller coaster team for 2025?	5	26-22
17	Reds	That’s four wins in a row for the Reds, though they started the week by dropping a series to the White Sox. They haven’t been more than three games over .500 nor more than four games under it. I would say they are destined for mediocrity all season, but as we discussed with the Twins and Cardinals, there’s always a glimmer of hope. The Reds have enough talent to get hot.	3	24-24
18	Guardians	The Guardians have now lost four straight and six of their last eight.	8	25-21
19	Red Sox	The Red Sox lost five of six last week and the one win took a late comeback and walk-off homer.	4	23-25
20	Rays	Former top-10 prospect Shane Baz is now 25 and has made 23 starts since returning from Tommy John surgery. In his nine starts this season, he has a 5.33 ERA, 1.41 WHIP and has coughed up nine homers in 49 innings.	2	21-25
21	Blue Jays	Daulton Varsho has six home runs to lead the Blue Jays, which means he’s on pace to hit 21 this year. In 2021, they had seven players hit at least 20 homers. This year they are on pace for one. For those curious, the only full season in which the Blue Jays had no players reach 20 homers was their first one (1977). The team leader was Ron Fairly with 19.	3	22-24
22	Brewers	The Brewers just finished a week during which they were shutout four times out of six games. They managed to win both of the games where they actually scored, but taking zeroes four out of five games prior to Sunday is a really bad sign.	1	22-25
23	Athletics	The A’s won in walk-off fashion on May 5 to move to 20-16 and only one game out of first place. They’ve gone 2-9 since. The offense has scored two or fewer runs in six of their last nine games.	6	22-25
24	Nationals	Unfortunately for the Nats, they don’t play the Orioles again this season. They finish 5-1 against the O’s. They had actually lost eight of nine before their trip to Baltimore.	—	21-27
25	Angels	That’s a 4-2 week against teams that were among the best in baseball when the trip started. Nice work, Halos.	1	20-25
26	Marlins	Much was made about the Orioles shipping Connor Norby to the Marlins last July for Trevor Rogers, but don’t ignore that Kyle Stowers was also sent to Miami. The former second rounder is hitting .305/.382/.563 with 10 homers and 30 RBI this season.	2	18-27
27	Orioles	They fired their manager and were then humiliated on the field the next two games. The Orioles have now lost 12 of their last 14 games.	2	15-30
28	Pirates	They are now on pace to lose 110 games. The franchise record is 112 (1952; though the Allegheny City team that would eventually become the Pirates went 23-113-2 in 1890). The Pirates haven’t lost more than 105 games since that 1952 season.	1	15-32
29	White Sox	Before being swept by the Cubs, the White Sox were actually .500 (7-7 at the time) in May. They are still terrible, but not to the extent they were last year. They certainly don’t have to worry about the 30th spot in the rankings.	—	14-33
30	Rockies	The Rockies are so bad I’d rather eat the moist towelettes from my plate of wings than watch them play.	—	8-38