MLB Power Rankings: The top 5 teams stay the same
By Sean Sears
18. Chicago White Sox, 35-36, 3rd in the AL Central (ranked 17th last week)
Rookie Eloy Jimenez has found his power stroke as of late, with five home runs and a 1.075 OPS in June. The former Cubs prospect got revenge against his old club with a two-run home run Tuesday night that put his White Sox up for good in a 3-1 win over the Northsiders. Winners of six of their last 10 games, the Sox are a much-improved team and are starting to see the blueprint of their rebuild come to life.
Tim Anderson and Yoan Moncada have put together a formable left side of the infield, while veteran Jose Abreu and catcher James McCann have added plenty of pop from the plate to allow the Sox to slug out some wins. But the best surprise has been the emergence of SP Lucas Giolito, who’s 2.22 ERA and 10.6 K/9 has people mentioning his name in the AL Cy-Young conversation. The rest of the rotation has been garbage, but it’s allowed Giolito to shine a little bit more. Things aren’t so bad these days on the South Side of Chicago, and top (non-injured) pitcher Dylan Cease is getting closer to making his debut.
17. New York Mets, 34-38, 3rd in the NL East (ranked 19th last week)
The Mets have played .500 ball over their last 10 games, but are 20-14 at home compared to 15-24 when they’re not playing in Queens. New York also got some bad news with starter Noah Syndergaard, who has a hamstring strain with no timetable being set for his return. Luckily, Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz have pitched well this season and the bullpen has some legitimate lock-down relievers like Edwin Diaz to close out games.
But the offense is too centered around Pete Alonso, who’s upped his homer total to 23 on the season and who leads the team with a .944 OPS. OF Michael Conforto has added 13 home runs and a team-high 40 walks on the season, but those two haven’t been enough to produce runs on a consistent basis. Someone else needs to step up for the Mets, such as Robison Cano or Todd Frazier getting on a hot streak, to help push them back into the division conversation. But the Mets lack quality bats to help protect their hitters at the moment.