MLB Power Rankings: The Yankees are for real

Where will the red-hot New York Yankees rank in this week’s MLB Power Rankings?

The MLB Power Rankings have taken an unexpected turn in the second month of the season. The top-five of the list now includes the Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees, and Colorado Rockies. No one would have expected these three to supplant the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians at the start of the year, but here we are.

The Cubs and Indians continue to scuffle as they deal with their World Series hangovers. Inconsistent starting pitching has been the culprit for both. How far have they fallen and where do the rest of the 30 MLB teams slot in? Read on for the weekly Power Rankings.

The Giants were able to salvage a winless week with a furious rally in the ninth inning on Wednesday afternoon. Even so, they nearly blew a 6-3 lead. Closer Mark Melancon is on the DL with a pronator strain, but should be back soon enough. It won’t matter much when he does make it back. The Giants are not going anywhere in the standings.

San Francisco has the worst record in the league, and they come by it honestly. The moves the front office made to focus solely on the starting rotation and back end of the bullpen left major needs in the outfield unaddressed. Madison Bumgarner may want to take the whole year off instead of rushing his rehab to come back for a team buried in last place.

As a smaller market team, the Royals have to be absolutely perfect when it comes to personnel decisions. Several signings proved to play big parts in their run to the World Series in 2014 and 2015. Players like Kendrys Morales, Ben Zobrist and Ryan Madson were instrumental in making this team a contender. Recently, things haven’t played out so well for the Royals on the contract front.

Alex Gordon is in the second year of a $72-million deal and has batted .210/.306/.346 on the deal so far. He has an OPS of .493 this season and is no longer a plus-defender in left field. The Royals cannot afford to spend that much money on a player with no value at the plate or in the field, and the decision to re-sign an aging Gordon could haunt them for years.

Perhaps unexpectedly, the new SunTrust Park has turned into a launching pad for the Braves and their opponents. That seems less than ideal for a team that has built their entire farm system and future around starting pitching. If the trend continues, the Braves may have to do a 180 and focus on loading up on sluggers.

Freddie Freeman has certainly enjoyed hitting at home. He is batting .372/.526/.837 at SunTrust with five home runs and 10 RBI. The All-Star first baseman is in the midst of a career year.

We are officially entering the time of year when A.J. Preller has to shine. It is up to him to make sure the medical records are fully in order so that the Padres can make the necessary trades to bolster their farm system and begin playing for next year. It’s now up to Trevor Cahill to stay healthy (wink, wink).

You can’t help but feel bad for Wil Myers hitting in this lineup, but he’s the one who committed to staying here long term. Myers could be a superstar on a better team, but he is stuck in a lineup of .200 hitters. There really is no reason for opposing pitchers to challenge him, but he has made the most of it in San Diego as the losses pile up.

The Phillies briefly cracked the top-20 of the MLB Power Rankings last week, but promptly came crashing back down to Earth. They have slid further below .500, and should be there to stay the rest of the year. Jeremy Hellickson has now allowed nine runs and five home runs in his past 8.2 innings. This comes as a complete shock as he has struck out only 17 in 38.2 innings this year and is a fly-ball pitcher.

Aaron Altherr has continued his scorching performance at the plate and is now up to seven home runs and 21 RBI in only 74 at-bats. He is hitting the ball hard seemingly every time he steps to the plate and has also shown good plate discipline.

Tensions have begun boiling over in Miami as the Marlins have fallen to 3-11 over the past two weeks entering play on Wednesday night. Mild-mannered manager Don Mattingly has been at a loss when it comes to trying to light a fire under his team. He was run two games in a row, but it has hardly mattered.

The Marlins may be destined to be perennial underachievers. For some reason the sum of their parts has not been able to add up to a contender the past five years. Starting pitching has typically been the problem, and that is also the case this season.

The Pirates aren’t necessarily out of it in the compact NL Central standings, but it feels that way. They were dealt another body blow when it was announced that starting pitcher Jameson Taillon had to undergo surgery for suspected testicular cancer. The Pirates just cannot catch a break this year. Taillon had been off to a strong start on the year, and we wish him a speedy recovery.

Andrew McCutchen may need to restart his career somewhere else, but the Pirates will be hesitant to move him when his value has reached such a low point. The former NL MVP is batting .222/.303/.410 on the year. He should be healthy, but the results have not improved from the 2016 season.

The Rangers had no problem handling the rest of the AL West last season, but have been put in their place so far this season. Without a consistent starting rotation behind Yu Darvish, the Rangers have been in too many high-scoring games.

Texas can homer with the best teams in the league, but their offense bogs down at times with too many strikeouts and not enough contact. Case in point, Joey Gallo, who has hit 11 home runs, but is batting .205 with 51 strikeouts in 112 at-bats. Mike Napoli and Carlos Gomez have also been massive disappointments. Things do not look good for the Rangers.

Russell Martin is the latest member of the Blue Jays starting lineup to hit the disabled list with a nerve condition in his shoulder. He joins J.A. Happ, Aaron Sanchez, Troy Tulowitzki, and Josh Donaldson on the disabled list. Thanks to their strong starting pitching, the Blue Jays have managed to remain competitive despite having one of the worst offenses in the league.

The Blue Jays will probably play well enough at some point in May or June to convince themselves that they have an outside shot at the Wild Card. They don’t have much to sell, but it would be silly to attempt to add to this team. The Blue Jays have definitely missed their World Series window.

It was a very exciting week for the Athletics. They won three straight games in walk-off fashion at the beginning of the week. Adam Rosales, Ryon Healy, and Jed Lowrie were the heroes for the streaking A’s. Oakland has quietly been one of the scrappiest teams in the league this season.

Yonder Alonso and Andrew Triggs are two of the best finds Billy Beane has had in recent years. Alonso’s power stroke has come through, while Triggs continues baffling the league with his curveball and sinker.

Coming off a good week, the White Sox went into Baltimore and were swept by one of the hottest teams in baseball. Scoring has proven difficult over the past seven days. Avisail Garcia has come back down to earth, but Jose Abreu has stayed hot in May and was the team’s best player last week.

The White Sox have a few trade chips to play with going into the rest of the first half. Miguel Gonzalez, David Robertson, and Abreu are the most attractive pieces that teams could be willing to pay a hefty price to acquire. The notion that teams would be willing to surrender multiple top-five prospects to trade for Jose Quintana is now a distant memory. Chicago may have to part with Abreu if they want a package of elite prospects.

With the exception of Corey Dickerson, the Rays have been a miserable offensive team on the year. There’s power up and down the lineup, for sure, but not enough consistent contact. Steven Souza has batted .080 in May with 11 strikeouts. Sadly for the Rays, it does not appear his hot month of April is going to stick.

Tampa Bay is wasting another fine year from their starting rotation. Matt Andriese, Chris Archer, Alex Cobb, and Blake Snell have deserved much better this season, but have not been given enough run support. It’s difficult to be perfect every time out, but that has to be how this rotation feels with an inconsistent offense backing them.

The Mariners have climbed back to .500 with a strong week. Their offense has been red-hot, but that does not erase concerns over their pitching staff. Seattle swept a mini two-game series with the Philadelphia Phillies, but also allowed 15 runs in the process. They have begun unleashing their pent-up frustrations from a cool offensive April.

Up the middle, Jean Segura and Robinson Cano have formed one of the best offensive tandems in the league. Segura is now batting .364 on the year, while Cano has an OPS of .895. In eight games in the month of May, Cano has slashed .438/.500/.875 with four home runs and 10 RBI.

If the Mariners could just avoid making any more trades with Baltimore, they might be in first place. Over the past two years, they have shipped Wade Miley, Seth Smith and Mark Trumbo to the Orioles, and have gotten very little back in return.

Mike Trout has not played since May 5 due to a hamstring injury. Surprisingly, the Angels have not lost every game he has been out of the lineup. Trout is still day-to-day as his hamstring loosens up.

The Angels have a bottom-five offense and a bottom-five pitching staff in the American League. It’s Trout that keeps them afloat. If they are going to have any shot at keeping their record respectable for the remainder of the year, this has to be Trout’s only extended absence.

The Twins found out the hard way that playing against teams from the AL East is, in fact, difficult. Their pitching staff surrendered 28 runs over the final two games while losing a series to the Red Sox, including a 10-run inning. The Twins are hovering above .500 thanks to their ability to beat the Royals and Detroit Tigers.

Byron Buxton is beginning to shed his ‘bust’ label, and is now batting .188/.274/.282 on the year, up from his low point of .082/.135/.122 on April 20. His numbers are still ugly, but this progress is a good sign for Buxton and the Twins.

Go ahead, try and figure out the messy New York Mets. Your guess is as good as mine. While the injuries and off-field controversies has piled up, the Mets are now 7-3 over their past 10 games and have climbed back into second place in the NL East.

The Mets are forcing Matt Harvey to take a long, hard look in the mirror after he stayed out clubbing and did not show up at the ballpark on Saturday. If he were still pitching like the 2015 version of himself, the Mets would overlook his attitude, antics, love of the spotlight, and partying. Unfortunately, none of that flies when a pitcher has a 5.14 ERA, a strikeout rate of 5.1 per nine, and has allowed seven home runs in 35.0 innings.

The Brewers are continuing to prove themselves as one of the more fun stories in baseball. With the standings still wildly bunched up in the NL Central, their clubhouse has every reason to believe they can contend with the big boys.

Travis Shaw has been one of the biggest producers for the Brew Crew, and is making it difficult to pitch around Eric Thames. He is now batting .265/.310/.538 on the year with seven home runs and 25 RBI. Meanwhile, Tyler Thornburg, the pitcher the Brewers traded to Boston for Shaw, is out until the middle of June.

The Tigers have another ninth-inning disaster on their hands as Francisco Rodriguez continues to struggle as closer. Just one time, wouldn’t it be nice to give Brad Ausmus a competent bullpen to work with? He’s one of the sharpest managers in the game, but his closer inspires no confidence.

If Ausmus does finally decide to make a change at closer (really, what is he waiting for at this point as Rodriguez’s ERA is now 8.49 as he has allowed four home runs in 11.2 innings), he does actually have some useful options. Justin Wilson should get the first shot.

It keeps getting harder and harder to write off the Reds when they keep pulling together strong weeks. We downplayed Scott Feldman in this column last week, but he responded by throwing a complete game shutout to lower his ERA back under 4.00. Joey Votto has been out of his mind at the plate, and is batting close to .500 for the past week with nine RBI and 10 walks.

The Reds are an exciting team to watch thanks to the speed of Billy Hamilton and Jose Peraza. Hamilton now has 19 steals on the year and is showing improved on-base skills. The Reds have already scored 26 runs in the first inning this year thanks largely to Hamilton’s ability to run wild on the bases.

It was a tough week for the Diamondbacks, and they have lost five of six entering play on Wednesday night. Drawing the Washington Nationals and Colorado Rockies in back-to-back-to-back series is not ideal, and Arizona lost all three series. They have a chance to catch their breath in the coming week, with series against the reeling Mets, Pirates, and Padres to look forward to.

The Snakes may be beginning to enter the regression phase of their season for the starting rotation. Robbie Ray and Patrick Corbin have looked human in their last few outings. If they cannot reverse their climbing ERAs, the Diamondbacks will not have a chance to stay in the NL playoff picture much longer.

The Cubs are in the middle of an ugly stretch of baseball, and cannot seem to get out of their own way. The bloom may be off the rose for Jake Arrieta. His ERA is up to 5.35 and he is giving up 10.2 hits per nine. He had led MLB in H/9 in each of the past two seasons, but opponents are batting .290 this year. It’s a command issue more than anything else for the free-agent-to-be, because he is still striking out 10.2 per nine.

Arrieta will continue taking the ball every five days for the Cubs, but the same may not be said much longer about Brett Anderson. He is on the DL now, but his 8.18 ERA in six starts is flat-out ugly. If Anderson is given a little break from the starting rotation, the Cubs should also think about giving Kyle Schwarber a little break from leading off.

The Red Sox actually had a fairly tame week by their standards, and did not intentionally throw at anyone for seven straight days. Quite a feat. The Red Sox took out their frustrations on the Twins on Sunday afternoon, hanging a ten-spot on them in the ninth inning. Chris Sale had his worst start since coming to Boston, but still struck out 10.

Mookie Betts has remained red hot at the plate, and has finally begun hitting for power. He has batted .385 over the past week with two home runs and five RBI. Unfortunately, his 4-for-4 night on Tuesday could not make up for another erratic, homer-prone start from Drew Pomeranz.

The Red Sox will remain stuck in neutral until their rotation settles down. David Price is inching closer to making his season debut. Subbing him in for Kyle Kendrick and Brian Johnson should do the trick for the Red Sox.

Since starting the season 3-9, the Cardinals have been one of the hottest teams in baseball and are now 16-6 over their past 22 games. The Cubs will eventually regret not burying them when they had the chance.

As shocking as it may be to hear, the Cardinals have one of the best starting rotations in baseball. It’s not like their winning formula the past 15 years has been built on the backs of the most consistent rotation in baseball or anything. Mike Leake has the best ERA on the staff, but Lance Lynn is the big story here. In his first year back from Tommy John, Lynn has a 2.04 ERA.

The Cardinals lineup has also been very steady while still waiting for Dexter Fowler to heat up. Kolten Wong is playing himself back into an everyday role, while Matt Carpenter has the best power numbers of his career and a .972 OPS.

Through 32 games, Edwin Encarnacion hasn’t exactly built an impressive case to rub in the faces of all the owners who passed on him in free agency last winter. The first baseman/DH is hitting just .223/.362/.375 on the year with five home runs and 11 RBI. What’s more alarming than the ugly batting average and OPS is his very high strikeout rate. Encarnacion has already struck out 42 times in 112 at-bats. He went seven consecutive seasons without striking out more than 100 times from 2009 to 2015.

Encarnacion has been ugly so far in his age-34 season, but the Indians have to feel great about Carlos Carrasco who now has a 1.86 ERA in seven starts and 48.1 innings. He has shown an ability to get deep into games while also showing exceptional command. That Andrew Miller guy we got so excited about in the playoffs last year? Yup — still hasn’t allowed an earned run this year and has 22 strikeouts against four walks.

The Dodgers are going to have to make some difficult decisions when Adrian Gonzalez returns from the DL. In his absence, Cody Bellinger has emerged as a superstar, and his bat cannot be taken out of the lineup. In 50 at-bats, he is hitting .320 with an OPS of 1.073 and five home runs and 15 RBI. His hot start is reminiscent of Corey Seager’s when he was called up down the stretch in 2015.

The most likely outcome when Gonzalez comes off the DL is that Bellinger will slide into the outfield and steal at-bats and playing time from Andrew Toles and Yasiel Puig. The Dodgers roster still looks like a M*A*S*H unit, but at least they’ve discovered another rookie phenom in their farm system to help stay afloat.

With the second-best record in the National League, the Rockies are here to stay as contenders. Jon Gray was supposed to be this team’s ace, but he is down with an stress fracture in his foot. In his absence, Antonio Senzatela has stepped up and gone 5-1 with a 2.86 ERA. The 22-year-old right-hander pitches to contact and is able to get a high number of ground balls without throwing a sinker. That is a fairly rare skill for a starting pitcher, but it has worked so far for the rookie who had not pitched above Double-A entering this year.

Mark Reynolds was supposed to be a nice power bat off the bench for the Rockies. Instead, he’s been their best hitter. That’s really saying something in a lineup that includes Charlie Blackmon and Nolan Arenado. The only wart on the Rockies otherwise spectacular start is the .561 OPS of All-Star Carlos Gonzalez who has almost as many strikeouts as total bases this year.

The Yankees went into Chicago and swept the Cubs rather convincingly. If that doesn’t have you believing they are for real this year, then I don’t know what will. The Yankees are beginning to rival the Washington Nationals for most dangerous offense in baseball, and you get the sense that they are never really out of a game.

As he has now been in the league for eight seasons, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that Starlin Castro is still only 27 years old. This is an age when many hitters are just hitting their prime, but Castro is a seasoned veteran with three All-Star selections and a 207-hit season at the age of 21. He pouted and acted immaturely after losing playing time with the Cubs, but there’s no denying that Castro is one of the most talented hitters in the game.

I’m still not completely sold on the Yankees starting pitching, but odds are that Masahiro Tanaka, Luis Severino, and Michael Pineda will be good enough most times out to give the offense a chance to win. If the front office decides to dip into the deep farm system to make a trade for an ace at the deadline, watch out.

Seeing Kevin Gausman foolishly ejected last week in Boston seems to have lit a fire underneath the Orioles. They have reeled off six straight entering play on Wednesday night, continuing to get solid starting pitching while the lineup heats up. The Orioles are now hitting .252/.311/.409 as a team. Mark Trumbo has finally begun to heat up, and had three multi-hit games last week.

Jonathan Schoop deserves considerable love here. Though his consecutive games streak came to an end after being hit by a pitch, the second baseman has reached base in 24 straight games and is batting .305/.350/.533 on the year with nine doubles, five home runs, and 18 RBI. With his plate discipline improving — chase rate down nearly ten percentage points according to PITCHf/x — Schoop may be making the leap to All-Star this year.

The Orioles have continued to get excellent starting pitching. Kevin Gausman turned in a stellar outing on Monday night on the heels of five shutout innings in Chris Tillman’s return from the DL. If that continues, the Orioles will be hard to beat. Manager Buck Showalter will have to be careful in managing his bullpen while Zach Britton misses the next two months. His relievers have been called on often, but Showalter has a reputation as one of the best when it comes to managing his bullpen’s workload.

The Astros have continued exerting their will over the rest of the AL West, and are now 17-6 against their division rivals. Beating up on their own division has given Houston more opportunity to pad their lead, and they are already six games clear of second place. The Astros outscored their biggest rivals, the Rangers, by eight runs in their first series of the year.

Houston’s offense has yet to deliver fireworks on a nightly basis, but they have done enough most nights. The Astros have had only two losing streaks all year. A great rotation and a great bullpen has made it easy to stay out of losing streaks.

When the offense does explode, watch out.

The Astros are the class of the American League, and that heated battle over the AL West title does not appear set to materialize.

The swamp that is the Nationals bullpen still needs a good draining — and no, putting pitchers on the DL does not count. Shawn Kelley and Koda Glover should be back soon, which is great news for the Nationals as Joe Blanton and Blake Treinen continue to struggle every time they take the mound.

Max Scherzer continues to impress, and took another no-hit bid into the sixth inning of his outing against the Orioles on Tuesday night. He would finish with 11 strikeouts in eight innings. This was now the tenth time Scherzer had taken a no-hitter into the sixth since singing with the Nationals — nearly 15 percent of his starts. When he’s on, Scherzer is the most dominant pitcher in baseball.

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Regardless of the weekly bullpen meltdown, the Nationals are still the best team in baseball. Their offense continues to lap all the league in most meaningful statistical categories. The bullpen will be an issue later in the season and in the playoffs when they’re not matched up against the Phillies and Braves. While we wait for Ryan Zimmerman to cool, it might not be a bad time to place your bets on Bryce Harper to win the 2017 Triple Crown and NL MVP. He has ended the debate over the second-best player in baseball behind Mike Trout for the time being.