MLB Power Rankings: Angels, Yankees are legit and Mariners, Red Sox showing quit
By Tim Boyle
This week’s MLB Power Rankings tips a cap to the legitimate Los Angeles Angels and New York Yankees while also acknowledging recent struggles from the Seattle Mariners and Boston Red Sox.
The MLB season has made it through April. With the arrival of May comes the first month of the season when the standings truly begin to show who is for real and who can make vacation plans for October. Last week’s MLB Power Rankings featured some huge climbs and dips for clubs from the original one based heavily on the offseason moves teams made and their expectations for the coming year.
This week, there aren’t nearly as great of swings but some early luck has worn out for several teams. Others have gotten breaks with easier schedules.
Welcome to the first week of May and the MLB Power Rankings of where all 30 teams stand.
30. MLB Power Rankings: Cincinnati Reds
There aren’t enough miracles to go around for the Cincinnati Reds to assemble anything close to a halfway decent year. They aren’t getting much of anything from any of their players. The real question now is: how bad can things get?
Joey Votto is beginning to look his age. The same thing could be said for some of the younger players who have appeared ill-prepared for the big leagues. Their young pitching staff looks several seasons away from being in the upper echelon of the league. Things are bleak in Cincinnati.
29. MLB Power Rankings: Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Orioles have done exactly what they were expected to do. They’ve been able to win a few games against good teams. For the most part, this is looking like yet another lost season for the club.
A somewhat directionless team with only a handful of young players on the major league roster, this season isn’t so much about giving the kids a shot to play as much as it is to just get through it with as little pain as possible.
28. MLB Power Rankings: Texas Rangers
Partly because they play in a tough division but more importantly because they have a bunch of holes on the roster, the Texas Rangers have found themselves entrenched in the bottom of the MLB Power Rankings early on this season. So much for spending their way out of a 100-loss season.
Marcus Semien is looking like an early bust of a free agent signing. Shortstop Corey Seager has been nothing more than average. All Rangers fans can hope for is that they can learn a lot of lessons for next season. Get the growing pains for the young players out of the way in 2022. And for Pete’s sake, add some proven and reliable pitchers to the rotation.
27. MLB Power Rankings: Washington Nationals
The rebuild of the Washington Nationals began last summer. It continues into 2022 with them looking to secure a last-place spot in the National League East.
Josh Bell has managed to turn things around yet Nelson Cruz looks like a trade-deadline chip they can move and get very little in return for. He hasn’t been the slugger he has been over the last decade. Their starting pitching has been beaten up by just about every club they faced. Fans of the Nationals wish every day was the end of Daylight Savings so they can set their clocks ahead an hour just to get a little closer to the end.
26. MLB Power Rankings: Kansas City Royals
If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. There is very little to talk about with the Kansas City Royals. Their offense, outside of future hot trade deadline candidate Andrew Benintendi, has not been good.
The team is seeing a promising early performance from Brad Keller and the reunion with Zack Greinke has been positive. For what, though? The Royals remain stuck in baseball purgatory. Getting a chance to regularly play against some bad teams in their own division might be the only thing to keep them from finishing with 100 losses.