25) MLB Power Rankings: Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates are sometimes the toughest team to rank here. Their record is so much better than they actually are. It’s almost not fair to the clubs behind them. The way they’ve managed to have so many blowout losses proves they are far away from contender again.
Exactly what is the plan in Pittsburgh? It seems they’ll try to keep their good players under contract and hope everyone can meet together at some point. Years of playing badly has helped them in the MLB Draft. Now a few years into a rebuild, they still need a pair of binoculars to see the postseason.
24) MLB Power Rankings: Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers are another one of those teams like the Pirates that seem to restore faith one week and lose it all the next. They’re a team that is still painfully bad to watch. Fortunately, they’re getting some young players on the field which might accelerate their success.
Few teams may have whiffed as hard as the Tigers did in the offseason. The signings of Javier Baez and Eduardo Rodriguez continued to have little impact with the latter still out due to personal reasons. A fantastic bullpen has gone to waste mostly due to some inexperienced starting pitchers but more so due to a lack of offense. Things should get better in the Motor City eventually. The pieces are there for the future.
23) MLB Power Rankings: Los Angeles Angels
Okay, so maybe there is a team out there that whiffed more than the Tigers. If so, we could say it’s the Los Angeles Angels. They made some good moves on paper during the offseason. Sadly, they are once again a two-man team of Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani.
The Angels are practically a joke now. As the second most popular team in the area, it was already easy to make them the punchline. But now that they’re going to miss the playoffs yet again with two unicorns on the roster, we get a new chapter in the sad story.
22) MLB Power Rankings: Arizona Diamondbacks
Being the worst team in a very good division doesn’t have its rewards. This is the case for the Arizona Diamondbacks who aren’t far from fourth place but won’t get any higher than that. They do have a nice starting rotation, a few trade candidates in the bullpen, and an offense many parts short of respectability.
The Diamondbacks have remained a weak team at the plate with Christian Walker providing all of the home run power while paired with a bad batting average. Ketel Marte has been just average while David Peralta is a less-than-desirable trade candidate. We can’t really laugh at the Diamondbacks. We also can’t praise them. They’re just kind of there.
21) MLB Power Rankings: Colorado Rockies
It’s becoming a very Coors Field kind of year for the Colorado Rockies. The pitching staff is doing an impression of Mike Hampton when he joined the team in the early 2000s. The offense has been kind of good but not nearly as productive as it needs to be to make them a contender.
Colorado remains caught between needing a major rebuild and needing to go all in during the offseason. They’re far closer to the former. But with the ink on Kris Bryant’s contract still wet, how do they pivot?