We enter June -- a month with plenty on the line -- with a clear top five, the five teams with the five best records who keep playing musical chairs in the top five spots. None of these five teams will play each other until the Dodgers-Rays series in a fortnight, so don’t be surprised if they’re still the top five then as well.
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. Braves (previously: 1)
Yep, Ronald Acuña Jr. is fully back. He homered again on Sunday, his fourth consecutive game with a homer, and he had five homers and four stolen bases during that span. Everything has been going right for the Braves this year. Now the same can be said for their superstar.
2. Dodgers (previously: 3)
There has been considerable talk this year of Shohei Ohtani potentially having a chance to win his first Cy Young Award, but the work of Cristopher Sánchez and Jacob Misiorowski, among others, may be making that difficult. The good news for Shohei, of course, is that he’s getting hot with the bat again, slashing .393/.493/.732 with 15 RBIs during a 16-game on-base streak.
3. Brewers (previously: 4)
Even with all those good teams in the NL Central, the Brewers have 58 percent odds to win the NL Central. Here is your reminder -- and people do seem to legitimately forget this -- that if they win the division, they will do so for the fourth consecutive season … and for the fifth time in the past six seasons.
4. Yankees (previously: 5)
Aaron Judge may be glad to have May over. He hit half as many homers (five) in May as he did in April, and his OPS was a full 270 points lower as well.
5. Rays (previously: 2)
On Thursday and Saturday, Rays starters gave up five runs or more. They had done that only twice in the previous 52 games. (They are still in first place, do not worry.)
6. Guardians (previously: 7)
The hope that the Guardians would figure out a way to run away with the AL Central hit a speedbump this week, not just because of a rough stretch for the Guardians but also the emergence of the red-hot White Sox. They also have a tough slate coming up, including six games against their historical tormentors, the Yankees, in the next 10 days.
7. Mariners (previously: 15)
And … look who’s back in first place. The Mariners have returned to the spot atop the AL West, and they may stay there for a while: Sixteen of their first 19 games in June come against teams that are currently below .500.
8. Padres (previously: 6)
Anybody else think, now that the seal is broken, that Fernando Tatis Jr. is about to just go off? His first homer of the year on Saturday went 451 feet (his longest since 2021), and he's slashing .448/.484/.586 over his past 15 games.
9. Phillies (previously: 10)
For all the veteran hitters the Phillies have, it has been their pitching that has gotten their season back on track. They’ve been particularly outstanding on the road: Before their 9-1 loss on Sunday, they had won 11 of their past 13 road games, posting a 1.68 team ERA.
10. Diamondbacks (previously: 12)
There were some who wondered if the D-backs’ run over the last fortnight was mostly because of their schedule, namely being able to go 11-2 against the Giants and Rockies. The Mariners didn’t do much to dispel such worries this weekend, thus making the four-game set they have against the Dodgers this week that much more critical.
11. Cubs (previously: 8)
Pete Crow-Armstrong has struggled for most of this season, but he had his best game of the year on Saturday night at Busch Stadium, knocking four hits including a home run into the “Tarps Off” section of the park that had been jeering him all game.
“They got like hundreds of shirtless guys out in right field,” he said. “Interesting theme for the year, but they’re rowdy and they’re showing up.”
12. White Sox (previously: 14)
When is the last time the vibes have been this great on the South Side? Even with Munetaka Murakami’s injury, the White Sox are smashing baseballs out of the park, hitting more homers than any team in baseball during the month of May. And while the Cardinals may have started the Tarps Off trend in MLB this year, the White Sox are getting their own version of it going well these days.
13. Cardinals (previously: 9)
Remember Noot? Lars Nootbaar is set to make his season debut this week after starting the year on the 60-day IL after having surgery on both his heels. He will slot in immediately as the left fielder and, considering the Cardinals’ issues with the bottom of their lineup, may be exactly what the Cardinals need right now.
14. Pirates (previously: 11)
Paul Skenes has, remarkably, lost three straight starts for the first time in his career, but the last one went a lot better than the previous two, giving up just one earned run and striking out 10 in 5 1/3 innings against the Cubs. With the Astros on tap for him this week, one suspects that losing streak is not long for this world.
15. Blue Jays (previously: 18)
Jeff Hoffman has been a rather polarizing player for Blue Jays fans since joining the team before last season, and he certainly struggled on Saturday, giving up five runs and getting just one out in the walk-off loss against the Orioles. His ERA is now up to 6.31 on the year. One positive? He has the highest strikeout rate per nine innings of his career at 15.8, by a large margin.
16. Nationals (previously: 17)
The Nationals were one of the best stories of May, and James Wood was a major reason why: He’s absolutely a contender for Player of the Month honors with six homers, five steals and the third-highest OBP in the National League for the month. He’s always had power, but that’s the biggest improvement he has made: He’s getting on base at a 60 points higher rate than he did in 2025.
17. Rangers (previously: 19)
In the wooly American League — seriously, there are so many teams that have struggled so far this year but are still in the Wild Card chase — the Rangers have a good case to make for themselves as being in this moving forward: They are one of only six teams in the AL with a positive run differential.
18. A’s (previously: 13)
The A’s fell out of first place this week and lost two of their starting pitchers, with both Luis Severino (right shoulder strain) and Aaron Civale (right shoulder tendinitis) hitting the IL. Severino, in particular, is damaging: His 4.16 ERA this year hasn’t been that great, but he has been a rock in that rotation whose innings are going to be dearly missed.
19. Reds (previously: 18)
How long was the month of May? The Reds headed into it tied for the second-best record in baseball, behind only the Braves. They finished May in last place in the NL Central, with the fourth-worst record in baseball for the month.
20. Orioles (previously: 24)
Look who’s hot all of a sudden. The Orioles went from worrying they were going to get swept by the Blue Jays in a four-game set to a wild comeback win on Saturday and a more dominant victory on Sunday. They had three walk-off wins in the past week and suddenly find themselves one game out of the final Wild Card spot in the American League.
21. Mets (previously: 21)
Hey, are the Mets taking a cue from the Knicks? The hottest team in New York City — the one with the same color scheme no less — starts the NBA Finals this week, right as the Mets look like they might be getting something going, winning nine of 12 at home in May. This upcoming West Coast road trip, with games in Seattle and San Diego, will be telling: If they stay hot, there may be some hope yet left in this season.
22. Twins (previously: 20)
Remember when Simeon Woods Richardson was one of the Twins’ top prospects? It has not panned out for him, and the Twins DFA’d him on Saturday. His nightmare numbers this season might give you a clue as to why: He was 0-7 with a 7.74 ERA.
23. Astros (previously: 27)
For all the sturm und drang about the Astros’ struggles this year, if they end up turning their season around at some point, this last week will be credited for it. There was that no-hitter, of course, but they’ve been hot enough that they now find themselves back, remarkably, in the AL Wild Card race. Key to the run has been Jeremy Peña’s return to the lineup: He had three homers with a .340 OBP in his first 12 games back.
24. Red Sox (previously: 22)
The Red Sox have been playing a little better lately, but this whole season has felt like one step forward, two steps back. Witness: Garrett Crochet had a setback in his recovery from left shoulder inflammation and will be out longer than he, and his team, had hoped. “I still feel like I was a little ways off from a rehab start since it was very early in the build-up process,” Crochet said. “That’s a pretty vulnerable time for the arm in general, so if it was going to happen at some point, I would expect it to happen right around now, which sucks. Just strengthen the arm and move on.”
25. Marlins (previously: 23)
The Marlins are running out of starting pitchers. Janson Junk hit the IL with right shin bone inflammation on Sunday, joining Robby Snelling and Eury Pérez (whom the Marlins are hoping will be back sooner than had been thought). In a not unrelated story, they now find themselves in last place in the NL East after being swept by the Mets.
26. Royals (previously: 26)
The Royals are spiraling, having lost 16 of their past 19 games, and while some of their struggles can be attributed to their 4-11 record in one-run games (the worst mark in baseball), that’s hardly all of it: They do have the worst run differential in the American League, after all.
27. Tigers (previously: 25)
It is all falling apart for the Tigers, who have the worst record in the AL and are getting close to the “when, not if” portion of the Tarik Skubal Trade discussion. You do have to wonder what’s next for Detroit: This is not a young team after all. Not anymore.
28. Angels (previously: 30)
Now that the Angels have fallen in the standings a bit, perhaps it has been a while since you have checked in on how Mike Trout is doing. He’s … having a fantastic season. Check this out: He leads the Majors in walks (56) and in fact is on pace for 38 homers and 153 walks. The last player to even reach 35 homers and 150 walks in a season was Barry Bonds in 2004.
29. Giants (previously: 28)
It has been a nightmare season so far for the Giants — the team was expected to contend and is now on pace for 100 losses — and they made their first personnel move in response this week, re-assigning third-base coach Hector Borg, who had made some debatable moves this season, to a new role. Ron Wotus is taking over in the interim, but the Giants are looking for a longer-term replacement. It’s very wobbly in San Francisco right now.
30. Rockies (previously: 29)
It wasn’t long ago that Ezequiel Tovar was considered a future star for the Rockies, but he has been struggling mightily this year, to the point that he was under the Mendoza line just a couple of weeks ago. Which is why his walk-off homer on Friday night meant so much to him, as we all clearly saw from his raucous celebration. “I’m not a robot,” Tovar said through an interpreter. “It’s going to eat at me sometimes when I’m not executing the way I want. It’s going to hurt me a little. But I understand that no matter what happens, I’ve got to trust in God that things are going to come.”
Voters: Jason Catania, Theo DeRosa, Mark Feinsand, Jason Foster, Rick Gold Jr., Jared Greenspan, Thomas Harrigan, Will Leitch, Brent Maguire, Travis Miller, Arturo Pardavila, Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru, Andrew Simon, David Venn, Andy Werle.