Players' Weekend, and all the wild bat, cleat and sock designs that came with it, provided a fun little sideshow to what otherwise is a doldrums-y stretch in the Major League Baseball schedule. However, with just six weeks remaining until the end of the regular season, it's all business from this point forward. No one has clinched a playoff spot yet, and no one is even remotely close to doing so.
We did have our first team officially eliminated from postseason contention this weekend, though, and it's looking like there are only 15 teams left realistically vying for the 12 spots in the October bracket. And even counting the Seattle Mariners among that 15 after the disastrous week they just endured might be a bit generous. Ahead is an updated look at where all 30 teams stand heading into the home stretch.
30. Chicago White Sox (30-95) 29. Colorado Rockies (46-79) 28.
Miami Marlins (46-78) 27. Los Angeles Angels (53-71) 26. Oakland Athletics (53-71) 25.
Toronto Blue Jays (58-66) 24. Washington Nationals (56-69) 23. Texas Rangers (57-68) For all eight of these teams, it's all over except for the shouting.
Well, the shouting and the waiving. If you can believe it, it wasn't until Saturday's loss to Houston (coupled with Kansas City's win over Cincinnati) that the Chicago White Sox were, finally, mathematically eliminated from the playoff hunt, falling to 38.5 games back in the AL wild-card race with 38 games to play.
This whole tier is toast, though. Each team is at least 10 games out, and there isn't enough time left to realistically close that gap. However, they could still have quite a say in who gets in and who gets left out, both through games remaining against teams with a pulse and outright waivers.
The Los Angeles Angels went a little overboard on the latter front last year, throwing six veterans—including Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López and Hunter Renfroe—to the wolves in a (successful) attempt to get their payroll below the luxury-tax threshold. Will others follow suit to save some money? And while last year's players claimed off waivers all ended up with teams that fell short of the postseason, could it be a season-changer this time around? The Colorado Rockies already released Elias Díaz last week, but that might be it for them. They may put Charlie Blackmon on waivers, but with a prorated salary of a little over $2 million for replacement-level production, it's hard to imagine anyone would claim him.
The Miami Marlins , Oakland A's, Washington Nationals , Angels and White Sox don't have much of anything to offer, either. The most intriguing options of the bunch would be Scott Alexander from the A's and Kevin Pillar from L.A.
However, the combined amount of savings those teams would get for those inexpensive players is around $550,000, so why even bother? The Toronto Blue Jays , however, are right around that luxury-tax cutline and could save themselves more than $1 million if they waive Joey Votto and someone claims him—plausibly a return to Cincinnati. And the Texas Rangers is where it could get wild . The reigning champs have fallen out of contention with a 6-16 record in their last 22 games, and they are presently projected at about $13 million above the luxury-tax threshold, per Spotrac .
But if they were to waive all of their impending free agents—including Max Scherzer, Nathan Eovaldi, Andrew Heaney and Kirby Yates—they could get there if they all get claimed. Votto's return to the Reds would be fun, but could we also see Scherzer returning to the Mets and/or Eovaldi returning to the Red Sox? That would make the waiver "deadline" even more entertaining than the July 30 trade deadline. 22.
Pittsburgh Pirates (58-65) 21. Detroit Tigers (61-64) 20. Chicago Cubs (61-64) 19.
Cincinnati Reds (60-64) 18. St. Louis Cardinals (61-63) 17.
San Francisco Giants (63-63) 16. Tampa Bay Rays (62-61) After taking 12 out of 16 from the Rockies, A's, Reds, Nationals and Tigers, the San Francisco Giants ended last week just 1.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves for the last NL wild-card spot and with a massive opportunity to erase that deficit in a four-game series at home against Atlanta.
However, they lost the first two series games in 10 innings before getting pummeled 13-2 in game No. 3, which felt like the straw that broke the Giants' back. Like that, they were 4.
5 games back with a demanding remaining schedule. They're still in better shape than most of this pseudo-alive tier, though. The St.
Louis Cardinals have had a brutal August, going 5-11 to drop completely out of the NL Central race and all but completely out of the wild-card conversation. The Chicago Cubs are in a similar spot. However, while the Cardinals have one of the toughest remaining schedules, the Cubs could turn the tide in a big way over the next two-plus weeks against basement-dwellers.
They got a series win over the Blue Jays this weekend and will go through Detroit, Miami, Pittsburgh, Washington and Pittsburgh again. Stay tuned, but also don't hold your breath. The Cincinnati Reds and Tampa Bay Rays continue to hover around .
500, but they both have brutal remaining slates and figure to eventually fade into the draft lottery mix. The Detroit Tigers probably aren't going to sniff the postseason, but they might also be the reason the Seattle Mariners miss the cut. Detroit took five out of six from the M's in the past two weeks, including a three-game sweep in the past seven days to maintain a faint pulse.
They also took two out of three from the Yankees to remain almost, sort of, kind of in the mix for a wild-card spot. As far as the Pittsburgh Pirates go, they're toeing the line between this tier and the previous one at 7.5 games behind Atlanta for the last wild-card spot in the NL.
If and when they do admit defeat before the end of August, Aroldis Chapman would be an intriguing name on the waiver wire. 15. Seattle Mariners (64-61) Previous Rank: 12 Last Week: 0-3 @ DET, 1-2 @ PIT After ending last week with a three-game sweep of the Mets in which the cumulative score was 22-1, the M's turned around and got body-slammed by the Tigers in a 15-1 loss.
They proceeded to get swept by the striped cats and then lost their first two games to the Pirates—who entered that series on a 10-game losing streak. Two months removed from holding a 10-game lead in the AL West, the Mariners are now four games behind Houston in that race, as well as 5.5 games behind Kansas City for the last wild-card spot.
The three-game series on the road against the Dodgers coming up next could just about bury the M's for good. 14. New York Mets (64-60) Previous Rank: 14 Last Week: 1-2 vs.
OAK, 2-1 vs. MIA After the aforementioned sweep at the hands of Seattle, the Mets dropped two of three at home against the A's, including blowing an early 5-0 lead in the rubber match. At least they bounced back a bit to take two of three from Miami.
If they miss the cut by a slim margin, though, they can look back on this week with all of the regret. Going 3-3 at home against two of the five worst teams in baseball is a major missed opportunity. 13.
Boston Red Sox (65-58) Previous Rank: 13 Last Week: 2-1 vs. TEX, 2-2 @ BAL Boston really should have swept the Rangers, but in the third and final game of the series, it blew a two-run lead in the eighth and a three-run lead in the ninth before falling in extra innings. Dropping eight runs on Corbin Burnes in a win over the O's was a nice rebalancing of the scales, though, helping to keep the Red Sox within shouting distance of the Royals in what is quickly becoming a two-team race for that final spot.
12. Atlanta Braves (66-58) Previous Rank: 15 Last Week: 3-1 @ SFG, 2-1 @ LAA Winning those first three games in San Francisco was the first time in a while that Atlanta showed some legitimate World Series potential. And, incredibly, it did so without getting much of anything out of NL Triple Crown hopeful Marcell Ozuna, who went 3-for-13 with nine strikeouts and nary an RBI.
(Ozuna did, however, turn it around vs. the Angels, with eight hits in that three-game series.) FWIW, one series is left between the Braves and Mets: a three-game set in Atlanta in late September.
We'll see if it matters, but it's looking like a huge one at the moment. 11. Kansas City Royals (69-55) Previous Rank: 9 Last Week: 1-2 @ MIN, 3-0 @ CIN Both Brady Singer and Seth Lugo got smoked in losses to the Twins, but the Royals rallied nicely to avoid a sweep before delivering pretty much a season-ending sweep to the Reds.
Up next is a home series against the Angels, but after that comes the gauntlet: 20 games in 20 days against the Phillies (three), Guardians (seven), Astros (four), Twins (three) and Yankees (three). Worse yet, during that same time, Boston will get four home games against Toronto, three home games against the White Sox and three on the road against Detroit. Maintaining this 3.
5-game lead won't be easy. 10. Minnesota Twins (70-54) Previous Rank: 10 Last Week: 2-1 vs.
KCR, 2-1 @ TEX A sweep would have been massive, but taking two out of three from Kansas City was still pretty huge. It not only increased the Twins' cushion above the cut line, but it also kept them in the mix for both the AL No. 4 seed and the AL Central crown.
The bad news from that series is that Byron Buxton tweaked his hip in the first game and subsequently landed on the IL—this coming less than a week after Joe Ryan hit the shelf with a teres major strain and with Carlos Correa having now missed more than a month with his latest bout with plantar fasciitis. We'll see if they can avoid limping to the finish line. 9.
Houston Astros (67-56) Previous Rank: 11 Last Week: 3-0 @ TBR, 2-1 vs. CHW One week ago, it was anyone's guess whether Houston or Seattle would win the AL West. However, after a six-week stretch in which neither party was able to open up a lead of more than two games, Houston's sweep of Tampa Bay, overlapping with Seattle entering a five-game losing streak, has changed the situation in a big way.
Before a rather stunning loss in the series opener against the White Sox, Houston had strung together an eight-game winning streak, fueled chiefly by great pitching. Framber Valdez's near no-no got the party started, but they had a 2.34 ERA and 0.
86 WHIP in those eight victories, including two wins by trade-deadline acquisition Yusei Kikuchi. (They held the White Sox to one total run in winning the subsequent two games.) Kyle Tucker finally took BP for the first time in more than two months, too.
Couple that with Justin Verlander's likely return from the IL sometime this coming week and the AL West race isn't feeling like much of a race anymore. 8. Arizona Diamondbacks (69-56) Previous Rank: 6 Last Week: 3-0 vs.
COL, 0-3 @ TBR Suggesting they might, in fact, be mortal, the Diamondbacks suffered back-to-back losses (and even a sweep) this past weekend for their first series loss since June 25-27 against the Minnesota Twins. Before those losses in Tampa Bay, though, they had won six in a row, 10 of their last 11, 18 out of 21, and 30 out of 40. And the majority of that 40-game stretch was played without both Eduardo Rodriguez and Merrill Kelly, who made their long-awaited returns to this rotation within the past two weeks.
So, we're not exactly selling any stock in Arizona by dropping them slightly in this week's rankings. There's just little separation among the NL's projected Nos. 3-5 seeds right now, and taking a couple of losses to a team that traded away basically its entire roster last month was enough for them to inch their way back to the bottom of that trio.
This team still has legitimate, undeniable World Series potential, though. One injury to watch is Ketel Marte's ankle, which was reaggravated on Sunday. 7.
San Diego Padres (70-55) Previous Rank: 7 Last Week: 3-0 vs. PIT, 1-2 @ COL For some baffling reason, Colorado has had San Diego's number, winning that season series by an 8-5 margin. Before those two losses to the Rockies, though, San Diego had been every bit as hot as Arizona, winning 10 of its previous 11 and 19 of its last 22.
That includes a 2-0 record against the Dodgers, a 2-0 record against the Guardians, a 2-1 record against the Orioles and a six-game season sweep of the Pirates, extinguishing that team's hopes and dreams of making the playoffs. The two biggest news stories of the week are that Joe Musgrove is back and Fernando Tatis Jr. is taking steps toward his eventual return.
They're already red hot, and reinforcements are coming. 6. Cleveland Guardians (72-52) Previous Rank: 4 Last Week: 3-0 vs.
CHC, 0-3 @ MIL The legend of Jhonkensy Noel continued to grow significantly this week. Cleveland's then-22-year-old rookie homered in the first plate appearance of his MLB career back on June 26, but that was the lone time he has homered in a losing effort. He had two round-trippers in the 9-8 series-opening victory over the Cubs this week and delivered what proved to be the game-winning solo shot the following day.
At that point, he had hit nine home runs in his first 83 MLB ABs. (Kindly ignore his sky-high strikeout rate, though.) Unfortunately, the Guardians followed up that sweep of the Cubs with a sweep at the hands of the Brewers, keeping things close in the AL Central race and slipping a bit in the power rankings.
5. Los Angeles Dodgers (73-52) Previous Rank: 5 Last Week: 2-2 @ MIL, 2-1 @ STL Shohei Ohtani just keeps doing his thing, racking up another four home runs and five stolen bases in the past week on his quest for not just a 40/40 season but maybe an outlandish 50/50 campaign. (He's at 39 dingers and 37 swipes with 37 games to go, putting him on pace for roughly 50 and 48, respectively.
) But the question remains: How healthy will this team be in October? Mookie Betts returned from a nearly two-month hiatus on Monday and immediately hit a two-run homer. They also got Walker Buehler back on Aug. 14.
Max Muncy and Tommy Edman could return as soon as this Monday. However, the Dodgers paid the price for gaining that health by losing Tyler Glasnow to the IL for the second time this season. This left them to spot-start Justin Wrobleski and call up Bobby Miller for back-to-back games against the Cardinals.
They're still the World Series favorite, but they've just been treading water and playing .500 baseball for nearly a month at this point, keeping the door open for San Diego or Arizona to steal the NL West. 4.
Milwaukee Brewers (72-52) Previous Rank: 8 Last Week: 2-2 vs. LAD, 3-0 vs. CLE These past two weeks could have been the stretch where things got mighty interesting in a hurry in the NL Central.
The Brewers had to endure consecutive series against the Braves, Reds, Dodgers and Guardians, entering that two-week gauntlet with merely a 5.5-game lead in the division. Lo and behold, they went 10-3 and have opened up the biggest cushion of any division leader.
Milwaukee did receive some unfortunate news this week with Christian Yelich undergoing season-ending back surgery on Friday. But they have managed to more than tread water without him over the past few weeks. It still feels like voodoo magic that they're doing this with a rotation of Freddy Peralta, Colin Rea, Tobias Myers, Frankie Montas and Aaron Civale, but they presently have the best run differential in the National League.
3. New York Yankees (73-52) Previous Rank: 2 Last Week: 2-1 @ CHW, 1-2 @ DET On principle alone, the Yankees could not land at No. 1 after a week in which they became the only team in this entire season to lose by double digits to the Chicago White Sox.
(Heck, that was only the second time Chicago scored at least 10 runs in a game, the other coming in an 11-3 victory over the slightly less awful Colorado Rockies.) But then they also dropped a series against Detroit for a .500 week against two AL Central teams going nowhere fast.
At least the Bronx Bombers rallied from the loss to Chicago to win their next three games by a combined score of 17-3, fueled by Juan Soto (four) and Aaron Judge (two) combining for six home runs. However, the lack of offense beyond that dynamic duo remains a major concern when it comes to choosing favorites to win it all. 2.
Baltimore Orioles (73-52) Previous Rank: 1 Last Week: 1-1 vs. WAS, 2-2 vs. BOS The O's avoided what could have been a disastrous turn of events when Adley Rutschman was scratched just before Friday's game against Boston with lower back tightness.
They already have Heston Kjerstad, Jordan Westburg and Jorge Mateo on the IL—not to mention quite the long list of injured pitchers—and losing a star like Rutschman could have been (no pun intended) a back-breaker. He was able to pinch hit on Saturday, though, and was back in the starting lineup Sunday, even homering in that win. So, crisis averted.
That said, they lost the game he missed and the game in which he pinch-hit, as they continue to practically beg the Yankees to win the AL East. Baltimore is now 16-19 in its last 35 games, and settling for Trevor Rogers (12 ER in 14.1 IP) instead of going all-in for a Tarik Skubal, Blake Snell or Garrett Crochet still looks like a major miscalculation on its part.
(Zach Eflin has been nothing short of awesome, though, giving the O's four consecutive quality starts and wins.) 1. Philadelphia Phillies (73-51) Previous Rank: 3 Last Week: 1-1 vs.
MIA, 3-1 vs. WAS Nothing like a four-game set against the Washington Nationals to cure what ails you. With trade-deadline acquisition Austin Hays out (hamstring) and Brandon Marsh consistently sitting against left-handed starters, 29-year-old rookie Weston Wilson hit for the cycle in the first game of that series.
At the same time, former National Trea Turner went off for 10 hits as the Phillies won the first three games of the series to reclaim the best record in baseball. Should we be impressed in the slightest by a 4-2 week against the Marlins and Nationals, though? Maybe not. But these next two weeks before Labor Day will give us quite the clue as to whether the Phils are the team to beat—and whether the NL East race will get even a little bit interesting again down the stretch.
After a travel day on Monday, they'll play on 13 consecutive days at Atlanta (three), at Kansas City (three), vs. Houston (three), and vs. Atlanta (four).
Complete Rankings 1. Philadelphia Phillies (+2 spots) 2. Baltimore Orioles (-1 spot) 3.
New York Yankees (-1 spot) 4. Milwaukee Brewers (+4 spots) 5. Los Angeles Dodgers 6.
Cleveland Guardians (-2 spots) 7. San Diego Padres 8. Arizona Diamondbacks (-2 spots) 9.
Houston Astros (+2 spots) 10. Minnesota Twins 11. Kansas City Royals (-2 spots) 12.
Atlanta Braves (+3 spots) 13. Boston Red Sox 14. New York Mets 15.
Seattle Mariners (-3 spots) 16. Tampa Bay Rays (+2 spots) 17. San Francisco Giants (-1 spot) 18.
St. Louis Cardinals (-1 spot) 19. Cincinnati Reds (+1 spot) 20.
Chicago Cubs (-1 spot) 21. Detroit Tigers (+1 spot) 22. Pittsburgh Pirates (-1 spot) 23.
Texas Rangers (+1 spot) 24. Washington Nationals (-1 spot) 25. Toronto Blue Jays (+2 spots) 26.
Oakland Athletics 27. Los Angeles Angels (-2 spots) 28. Miami Marlins (+1 spot) 29.
Colorado Rockies (-1 spot) 30. Chicago White Sox MVP of the Week : Bobby Witt Jr., Kansas City Royals Tough call between Witt and Juan Soto, but let's give the nod to the 24-year-old who recorded the 500th hit of his MLB career on Sunday.
Witt went 9-for-22 (.409) with four walks and a trio of solo home runs as the Royals won four games to remain semi-comfortably in possession of the No. 6 seed in the AL picture.
He's now batting .350 for the year and remains a very real threat to Aaron Judge in the race for AL MVP. Cy Young of the Week : Chris Sale, Atlanta Braves Sale went toe-to-toe with Blake Snell in what was probably the best pitching duel of the season, whiffing 12 over seven scoreless innings while Snell carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning.
Sale didn't get the win, but his heroics allowed Atlanta to hang around long enough to win 1-0 in 10 innings in a critical series opener. He struck out 10 Angels Saturday night to secure the win in that game. Sale's FIP for the week was 0.
25, as he took one more big stride toward his first Cy Young award. Reliever of the Week : Devin Williams, Milwaukee Brewers Three appearances. Three saves.
Zero baserunners. And we're talking about some mega-serious competition here. Tasked with protecting a one-run lead against Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, Williams made it look easy.
The following day, he got Andy Pages on a pop-up before striking out Betts and Ohtani. And in one of Milwaukee's wins over Cleveland, Williams tallied three straight groundouts against Will Brennan, José Ramírez and Josh Naylor. Suffice it to say, the two-time NL Reliever of the Year is looking pretty good after missing the first four months of the season.
Rookie of the Week : Will Wagner, Toronto Blue Jays It was quite the week for minimally-experienced hitters. Washington's James Wood had a four-hit game against the Orioles and reached base safely 11 times in six games. Cleveland's Jhonkensy Noel hit three home runs.
And Philadelphia's Weston Wilson went 6-for-11, including hitting for the cycle. But how about Wagner—who went from Houston to Toronto in the Yusei Kikuchi trade—making his MLB debut this week and promptly going 8-for-15 at the dish? If that's the start of things to come, maybe the Blue Jays can do something next year with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette after all.
Team of the Week : Milwaukee Brewers Houston (5-1) had a better record than Milwaukee (5-2), but the Astros merely beat up on the Rays and White Sox. Milwaukee split its four-game series with the Dodgers and swept the Guardians, making a major statement against two of the five teams who entered this week with a legitimate case for No. 1 in the rankings.
And here's a fun fact: Milwaukee's next game against a team that presently has a winning record won't come until September 13, by which time the Brewers may have already clinched the NL Central..
