How to surge to No. 1 in Power Rankings? Rip off another 10-game win streak

Much has been made of how the American League has struggled in the beginning of this season, and for good reason: There are only three teams in the AL with winning records right now. But the voters in our Power Rankings still believe in the equality between the leagues: Of the top 16 teams in our rankings … nine of them are in the AL. We still have faith in you guys!

These rankings, as always, are compiled from MLB.com contributors whose names you can find at the bottom of this (and every) piece, but the words are mine. If you dislike the rankings, yell at all of us. But if you dislike the words, feel free to yell at me.

1. Cubs (previously: 4)
The Cubs have been freakishly hot, and it is pretty much unprecedented: They’re the first team since the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers to have multiple distinct 10-plus-game winning streaks within their first 40 decisions of a season. That’s actively difficult to do! Now that they’ve lost a couple … we fully expect them to rattle off another 10-game streak in the next few weeks.

2. Braves (previously: 1)
Bobby Cox, who died on Saturday at the age of 84, won a World Series and of course five NL pennants for the Atlanta Braves. He’ll always be known for his record number of ejections, but remember, he is in fact fourth on the all-time managerial win list with 2,504 wins. He also had the third-highest win percentage of any manager in the top 10, behind only Joe McCarthy and John McGraw.

3. Dodgers (previously: 3)
The Dodgers have gotten so powerful that you barely even notice when Mookie Betts is out of the lineup. We’ll surely all notice when he comes back this week, though, as he’s expected to do: It’ll be his first game in more than a month and may end up forcing the Dodgers to figure out their ongoing Alex Freeland-Hyeseong Kim debate.

4. Yankees (previously: 2)
Spencer Jones had the misfortune of having to face Jacob Misiorowski in his first MLB at-bat — he struck out, but it’s tough to blame him for that — and it took a couple of days for him to get his first big league hit and RBI on Sunday. The strikeouts are always going to be a problem, even when he’s facing guys other than Misiorowski, but when he gets that first homer — and he will — it won’t be difficult for Yankees fans to feel like the 6-foot-7 slugger’s strikeouts are worth it.

5. Rays (previously: 6)
The Rays finally lost their first game of the year against their own division on Saturday against the Red Sox, but you can probably count them among the many people who are skeptical of the American League: They’re an absurd 18-3 against the Junior Circuit.

6. Brewers (previously: 8)
One really can’t talk enough about what Jacob Misiorowski was able to do in his first start against the Yankees this weekend. He struck out 11, topped out at a sizzling 103.6 mph while throwing the seven fastest fastballs for a starter in the pitch tracking era, and was this close to an immaculate inning. “I kept looking up at the velo after every pitch as he got deep,” Brewers right fielder Sal Frelick said. “I couldn’t believe it.”

7. Padres (previously: 5)
The Padres have caught up with the Dodgers in the standings, but there are still some issues with this offense. Until their win Saturday, they had been held scoreless for 17 straight innings between two losses on Thursday and Friday, and at one point went 1-for-36 at the plate. Eventually Fernando Tatis Jr. is going to homer, though.

8. Cardinals (previously: 9)
Of all the positive things that happened with the Cardinals in the last week — and there were a lot of them — the most positive might have been the nine strikeouts Michael McGreevy put up in a one-hit scoreless outing against the Padres on Friday night. McGreevy has been excellent this year, but sports one of the lowest strikeout rates in baseball. If he’s starting to miss bats, the Cardinals might have something even more special than they thought.

9. Pirates (previously: 10)
Marcell Ozuna hit his 300th homer over the weekend, which is particularly of note because he was so poor in April that you wondered if the Pirates would even keep him around long enough to do so. That has switched in May: He’s 9-for-28 with two homers and six RBIs this month.

10. A’s (previously: 13)
He’s not quite hitting homers like he did last year, but if the A’s are able to stay in first place in the AL West for the whole season, Nick Kurtz is going to have himself an MVP case. His on-base streak is up to 34 games, and he has a Bonds-esque .437 OBP in that time.

11. Guardians (previously: 11)
The trade for Patrick Bailey did a lot of things for the Guardians, but you know what it felt like it did the most? It made them look like a team that is taking this year — and the opportunity they may have in front them — seriously, right now, this second. For a franchise that has not always felt that way, this is an unalloyed positive.

12. Mariners (previously: 15)
He’s not exactly looking like Big Dumper right now. Cal Raleigh is in a horrific slump, going a stunning 0-for-32 since April 28. That’s right: Raleigh does not have a single hit in May.

13. Blue Jays (previously: 14)
Seriously: Is Vlad Jr. just not a home run hitter anymore? He still has only two homers this year, and none since April 20. In the 18 games since then, he’s batting just .262 with two extra-base hits and five RBIs.

14. Royals (previously: 22)
The Royals are slowly overcoming their slow start, and of course Bobby Witt Jr. is right at the middle of it, hitting .337 with 12 extra-base hits and 15 runs in his last 21 games. An MVP Award is absolutely in his future, and maybe even soon.

15. Tigers (previously: 12)
It was a disastrous week in Detroit, with the loss of Tarik Skubal to surgery followed by two rough series with the Red Sox and Royals. The Tigers went from looking like the class of the division — a division they still haven’t won in over a decade — to trying to fight their way back to .500.

16. Rangers (previously: 16)
The Rangers stopped the Cubs’ win streak this weekend and even ended up winning the series, stopping a skid of four straight losing series. They need to get Corey Seager going soon, though: Over his last 13 games, he’s 6-for-50 with 20 strikeouts.

17. Reds (previously: 7)
The Reds had won so many close games early that you figured some sort of normalization was coming, but goodness, the bottom fell out this week with eight straight losses. The problem is that the games aren’t close anymore: They were outscored by a 60-23 margin during that losing streak.

18. Phillies (previously: 21)
In what was otherwise a rather miserable weekend at the sports complex out in Philadelphia -- both the 76ers and Flyers were eliminated from the playoffs just down the road from Citizens Bank Park -- the Phillies continued to get back on track with their fourth consecutive series victory. The Phillies have the third-best record in the Majors since Don Mattingly took over.

19. Diamondbacks (previously: 17)
No. 1 prospect (and No. 44 overall) Ryan Waldschmidt made his MLB debut this weekend and got a hit in his first at-bat. The struggling D-backs offense could use all the help it can get, but Waldschmidt isn’t expected to be the savior. “Obviously, walking up to the plate, you know, taking it all in,” Waldschmidt said of his first at-bat. “The fans were pretty loud and cheering for me. And once I saw the first pitch, it was just the game of baseball again.”

20. Marlins (previously: 19)
Five Marlins farmhands debuted this week, but none was more anticipated than No. 2 prospect (and No. 29 overall) Robby Snelling. His first start went just fine after a rough first inning: He gave up three runs, but settled in to give up no more runs in the next four innings. “In my book of starts, this wasn't a great start,” Snelling said. “If this is an example of a bad start, that's pretty good.” I hope he has an actual book of starts.

21. Nationals (previously: 23)
Awesome Mother’s Day story: Lefty Mitchell Parker actually changed his name in the offseason, adding his wife’s maiden name, Patterson, to his legal name. Why? Because she’s an awesome mom who has overcome so much. “She's a rock star,” Mitchell told our Jessica Camerato ahead of his family’s first Mother’s Day. “We just had our first daughter, and I get to watch her enjoy motherhood. Luckily, we have a little rock star of a daughter. It’s been fun to see her be a mom. It’s something that we’d talked about for a long time.”

22. White Sox (previously: 20)
General manager Chris Getz has noticed that the White Sox are playing better this year, but he wants to make it clear that he knows there’s still a long way to go. “We are not losing sight of what we are building toward here,” he said. “Guys are continuing to progress and develop. They have taken advantage of these opportunities. We just want to continue to play quality baseball, compete.”

23. Red Sox (previously: 24)
The Red Sox invited every living player with their number retired to come to Fenway this weekend, but it shouldn’t have been surprising that it was Pedro Martínez who made headlines. He made it clear he’s ready for his old team to pull it together: “Every team has years where you have ups and downs, confusion and you have a lot of stuff that goes on, but hey, we're Boston,” Martínez said. “If there is something we know how to do, it is to stand up and fight. The city of Boston is known to be strong and to come back with a vengeance. This team, this city, this organization is going to overcome everything that we're going through right now, and I am extremely positive about it.” You don’t want to upset Pedro.

24. Orioles (previously: 18)
So much is going wrong for the Orioles, and in ways that may have some serious ramifications if this doesn’t get turned around soon. The first order of business would seem like a simple one: Getting Gunnar Henderson going. May has been miserable for him, going just 8-for-40 with 12 strikeouts. His batting average actually briefly went under the Mendoza Line!

25. Mets (previously: 29)
As frustrating as the Mets have been, rookie Nolan McLean has absolutely been as advertised. He has a 2.78 ERA and a 0.90 WHIP in his eight starts so far, and was terrific against the D-backs on Friday, despite a no-decision. The path back for the Mets in many ways goes through him.

26. Astros (previously: 26)
Good thing the Astros didn’t trade Isaac Paredes like many thought they would this offseason; with Carlos Correa out for the season with an ankle injury, they desperately need Paredes. It should be noted just how long the Astros have the injury-prone Correa after trading for him last season; he’s signed through 2028 with vesting club options from 2029-2032. (He’ll be 37 when the contract ends.)

27. Twins (previously: 25)
It has been a very rough month for the Twins, who had impressed with a surprisingly strong start: They are now 7-16 since April 15, which is the second-worst record in baseball in that time. Though getting a road series win over the Guardians this weekend is a small step in the right direction.

28. Rockies (previously: 27)
Mickey Moniak has been one of the happiest surprises of the season, leading the NL in OPS heading into the weekend, but it really should be emphasized just how much the Rockies are protecting him against lefties. He has only 24 at-bats against lefties this year, and he has struck out in half of them; he has reached base only four times in those 24 at-bats, though, to be fair, two of those are homers.

29. Giants (previously: 28)
The Giants finally made the clarifying move at catcher that many Giants fans wondered might be coming, one way or the other, by trading Patrick Bailey to the Guardians. It clears a spot for Daniel Susac, who is almost back from injury, and has to at least help their lineup struggles a little: For all his defensive skills, Bailey was historically bad at the plate this season. He was slugging .183 for the Giants in 2026, which is honestly sort of hard to do.

30. Angels (previously: 30)
Remember Alek Manoah? The 2022 All-Star, who also finished third in Cy Young voting that year, has watched his career go entirely off track, with struggles, Tommy John surgery and a long, long road back. But on Saturday night, Manoah pitched his first MLB game in 709 days, this time for the Angels against his old team the Blue Jays. It was a clean inning, too. “It was good, man,” Manoah said with a big smile. “Felt like a debut again. It’s been a long time so it was good to be out there, pumping some strikes.” The Angels will give him every opportunity to be that guy again.