Grading all 30 MLB teams at the All-Star break

Everybody exhale. The first half — well, technically a little bit beyond the first half, but who's counting — of the 2026 MLB season is in the books, as the best of the best descend on Philadelphia for the All-Star Game on Tuesday night while the rest of the league takes a quick and very well-deserved break.

Of course, that break is just the calm before the storm that is the stretch run. Once play resumes this weekend, the trade deadline will be bearing down, and what happens next will go a long way toward determining who will be holding the commissioner's trophy when all is said and done. So what better time to take stock of where every team is at? As we prepare for a frantic stretch run, we're handing out grades for all 30 Major League clubs, based on their performance relative to expectations so far.

Arizona Diamondbacks

Grade: C+

• Postseason odds: 24.3%

The D-backs remain in the holding pattern they've been in ever since that magical World Series run back in 2023. They're very much alive for a Wild Card spot at two games above .500, but a -13 run differential suggests this team will have a hard time making significant noise even if it does reach October. Mike Hazen is always looking to get aggressive at the deadline, but biding time until Corbin Burnes returns with full health in 2027 might be the move.

Athletics

Grade: D

• Postseason odds: 1.4%

Maybe this grade is harsh, but it's hard not to feel a little bit frustrated by the step back this team has taken after they showed real signs of promise last season. The pitching staff is as big a mess as it was in 2025, but the real disappointment is a lineup that has underperformed due to both injury and regression. There's still plenty to build on, but it's hard to take the A's seriously unless they start throwing real money around.

Atlanta Braves

Grade: B

• Postseason odds: 90.8%

This grade was much higher when we did this exercise just a few weeks ago. The Braves have gone 15-20 since the start of June, though, with serious questions emerging both in the rotation (predictable, given all the injuries) and the lineup (less so). Alex Anthopoulos will need to swing big at the deadline, likely searching for an arm and a bat as he tries to get a season that began with legitimate World Series aspirations back on track. It's not a bad start all things considered, but it's getting harder and harder to see this time beating the likes of the Brewers and Dodgers come October.

Baltimore Orioles

Grade: D+

• Postseason odds: 21.4%

Baltimore closed the first half on a four-game winning streak and remain very much alive in the wide-open AL Wild Card race. But if you'd told an Orioles fan back in March that their team would be five games below .500 at the break, they'd have been awfully disappointed. Mike Elias might not get too many more cracks at building a contender, and it'll be facing to see how he approaches a deadline in which his team is neither out of it nor inspiring a ton of confidence.

Boston Red Sox

Grade: B-

• Postseason odds: 40.5%

No team has boosted their grade since June more than the Red Sox, who were left for dead just a few weeks ago but have been the hottest team in the Majors of late. A nine-game winning streak has them entering the break at just two games below .500 and a half-game back of a playoff spot — scarcely believable when Alex Cora and half his coaching staff were sent packing, even if it's not what fans envisioned back in the spring. There's plenty of work left to be done to make this season a success, but with a white-hot pitching staff and a newly decent offense, at least they've given themselves a chance.

Chicago Cubs

Grade: B

• Postseason odds: 76.7%

It's been a roller-coaster ride on the North Side, from white-hot start to early-summer swoon to stabilizing ahead of the All-Star break. Chicago once again finds themselves a cut below Milwaukee and L.A., but this offense has been clicking lately, and some pitching reinforcements at the deadline could turn the narrative around in a hurry. A "B" is likely frustrating for Cubs fans after several years of good-not-great, though.

Chicago White Sox

Grade: A+

• Postseason odds: 40.8%

Pretty much no matter what happens in the second half, this season has been a success on the South Side. And who knows: Given how wide-open the AL Central is, why can't this team taste playoff baseball again? That would've been considered borderline miraculous when the season began, but this is a dangerous young offense that's in search of another starter or two to really solidify things. Either way, the future looks awfully bright.

Cincinnati Reds

Grade: D-

• Postseason odds: 1.0%

Sure would've been nice if Cincy had invested in its offense a bit over the winter, huh? Instead, the Reds chose the cheap route, and their reward is a lost season just months removed from a magical Wild Card run. Sure, injuries haven't helped, but this team still doesn't have nearly enough lineup depth behind Elly De La Cruz and Sal Stewart. This young core (Elly, Stewart, Chase Burns, Hunter Greene) remains promising, it's just hard to care much when this brain trust has proven unwilling to spend around it.

Cleveland Guardians

Grade: B-

• Postseason odds: 61.9%

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and yet here the Guardians are, looking ... an awful lot like every Guardians team we've seen in recent memory. The offense that looked promising in the early going has fallen back to Earth a bit, and while the pitching staff is what you'd expect, Cleveland once again finds themselves in need of a bat or two in order to seize the opportunity in the AL. Which is fine, but unexciting after a while.

Colorado Rockies

Grade: C+

• Postseason odds: 0.0%

The Rockies have been bad in a normal way for once! That counts as a win for this new front office, considering where Colorado was when they arrived. It's still unclear what the long-term vision here is under Paul DePodesta, but at least there are young hitters showing flashes. As for the pitching, well, Rome wasn't built in a day.

Detroit Tigers

Grade: C-

• Postseason odds: 27.5%

This was trending towards an F not too long ago, but Detroit has gotten hot enough entering the break to give themselves a shot at a playoff spot (only 3.5 games back!). That might give Scott Harris the excuse he needs not to part ways with Tarik Skubal at the trade deadline, even if it's a far cry from looking like an actual World Series contender. The vibes still aren't great overall, mind you — this would've been a disappointing outcome to any fan back in the spring — but they're not dead yet.

Houston Astros

Grade: B-

• Postseason odds: 24.9%

A team standing directly in Detroit's path: the Astros, rebounding from their awful start thanks to a dangerous offense led by MVP frontrunner Yordan Alvarez. The pitching staff? Well, it's better you didn't ask, but it's not like anyone's running away with the AL West right now. Make the right moves at the deadline, and this team could be genuinely threatening.

Kansas City Royals

Grade: F

• Postseason odds: 0.2%

The less said about the 2026 Royals, the better. Kansas City entered the year with hopes of returning to the postseason for the second time in three years; instead, this core keeps backsliding, despite some promising flashes from Carter Jensen and Jac Caglianone. The offense around them hasn't been good enough, though, and the pitching that carried them in seasons past is buckling under the pressure. It's time to start asking some hard questions.

Los Angeles Angels

Grade: D

• Postseason odds: 0.1%

You could give the Angels an "F", but what exactly would be the point? It's not like anything was expected of this team anyway, this year or any year as long as Arte Moreno is at the helm. They're the most dysfunctional organization in the sport, without any plan forward. At least Mike Trout will get his flowers on Tuesday, though.

Los Angeles Dodgers

Grade: Incomplete

• Postseason odds: 100%

Really, how do you grade the two-time defending World Series champs? We knew the Dodgers would be great, and sure enough they're running away with the NL West. The real challenge will be getting to October in one piece, and only time will tell on that front. For now, a title remains the only rubric by which this team will be judged.

Miami Marlins

Grade: A-

• Postseason odds: 33.4%

What started as a pluckily decent start has since become something else entirely, as Miami enters the break as one of the hottest teams in baseball. So much so that the Fish will decidedly not be sellers at the deadline, instead adding to a nucleus of Eury Perez, Sandy Alcantara, Max Meyer, Otto Lopez and Xavier Edwards. If they can add another bat or two, that pitching staff could make them a real pain for the big boys to deal with.

Milwaukee Brewers

Grade: A

• Postseason odds: 98.2%

Death, taxes and the Brewers winning regular-season games by the boatload. Milwaukee is once again the class of the NL Central, currently nipping at the Dodgers' heels. Now, the million-dollar question: Can they finally break through in October? After so much playoff heartbreak during this run, even this much consistency can start to grow old.

Minnesota Twins

Grade: B

• Postseason odds: 34.4%

Another team playing itself off the list of sellers: Minnesota, which is currently deadlocked with Seattle in the third and final Wild Card spot in the AL. A -14 differential (and their 48-49 overall record) suggests that this is not actually a very good team. But hey: Mediocrity is an achievement considering how much self-inflected turmoil this team has been through in the last 12 months or so, and there's more help coming down on the farm. A real step forward, even if 2026 isn't the year.

New York Mets

Grade: F

• Postseason odds: 0.8%

The most expensive team money can buy is now looking up at everyone but the Rockies in the NL standings. That just about says it all, and now the only question is what David Stearns can salvage at the trade deadline. Rentals like Freddy Peralta are almost certainly gone, but what about players with team control remaining like Luke Weaver and Devin Williams?

New York Yankees

Grade: B+

• Postseason odds: 97%

The June swoon was a little bit late but arrived all the same for the Yankees, who have lost their grip on the AL East. The good news is they enter the All-Star break fresh off a sweep of the Nationals, having weathered the storm and hoping to get Aaron Judge and Max Fried back at some point in the near-ish future. This is still arguably the most talented team in the American League; then again, we've said that about a lot of Yankees teams are this point.

Philadelphia Phillies

Grade: B+

• Postseason odds: 86.4%

Is Philly a perfect team? Certainly not. Is it hard to see them beating the Dodgers in a seven-game series? Sure. But they've pulled this make-or-break season out of the fire, and when you've got Zack Wheeler, Cristopher Sanchez and Jesus Luzardo taking the ball twice each, you've given yourself at least a chance. it's been a bumpy ride, but the Phillies are about where we expected them to be, and they might be the favorites to snatch the East away from the Braves.

Pittsburgh Pirates

Grade: B

• Postseason odds: 41.8%

Pittsburgh looked dead in the water not too long ago, but an offensive explosion leading into the break has them looking like a Wild Card team once again. Weirdly, it's the pitching that's let them down, but the good news is there's reason to believe in improvement there as Paul Skenes gets back on track and Ben Cherington presumably adds relief help at the deadline. A +44 run differential is a great indicator, and the fact that we're having this conversation at all about this specific franchise is refreshing.

San Diego Padres

Grade: D+

• Postseason odds: 11.5%

It feels like things have just about run their course here, as San Diego is mired at .500 with a run differential that suggests their record should be far worse. The offense simply isn't very good, and the rotation's lack of depth is finally starting to catch up with them. AJ Preller would rather die than sell at the deadline, but he might have no choice this time around — which might cost him his job and trigger some very uncomfortable questions about the future of this core.

San Francisco Giants

Grade: F

• Postseason odds: 0.6%

There's only one possible grade you can give a team that mortgaged its financial future in a bid for relevance only to fall flat on its face in spectacular fashion. Sure, Rafael Devers is mashing again, but it hasn't helped the product on the field, and his contract will still be an albatross moving forward given his age and lack of defensive/base-running value. It's tough to see a path forward in the short term, and it's tough to find evidence that Buster Posey is cut out for this job.

Seattle Mariners

Grade: C

• Postseason odds: 70.3%

The fact that the Mariners will probably back into a playoff spot anyway says much more about the AL than it does about them. Seattle looked on paper to be one of the most dangerous teams in baseball this season (non-Dodgers division), and yet they've rarely been able to get it out of second gear so far. The offense blows hot and cold, while the rotation hasn't been nearly as good as its individual parts suggest. It wouldn't surprise anyone if they put it all together and won the pennant, but time is running out.

St. Louis Cardinals

Grade: A

• Postseason odds: 31%

St. Louis has fallen out of the final NL Wild Card spot, but that doesn't make this season any more of a success considering how low preseason expectations were. The pitching staff needs work, but the offense has a great foundation upon which to build, and snagging both prep outfielder Trevor Condon and Tennessee righty Tegan Kuhns in the first round of the draft was a heck of a haul. The future is bright here.

Tampa Bay Rays

Grade: A+

• Postseason odds: 97.5%

If you told a Rays fan back in March that their team would have the AL's best record at the break, they would've been doing backflips. And while that record felt a little fluky early on, when Tampa was winning a slew of one-run games, the run differential is trending upward and this team is looking more and more legit. Somebody has to win the American League this year, and it seems like the Rays are hell-bent on capitalizing on this unique opportunity with a big deadline.

Texas Rangers

Grade: B-

• Postseason odds: 61.8%

It's hard to complain about a team that currently leads its division. Then again, Texas has a negative run differential on the season, and it's not like a 49-47 start has inspired dreams of a deep playoff run. Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and MacKenzie Gore can cover up a multitude of sins in a short series, but the offense has been injured and underwhelming all year. When you consider how cash-strapped the Rangers appear to be moving forward, it feels like a reshuffle is more likely than another World Series for this group.

Toronto Blue Jays

Grade: D

• Postseason odds: 20.1%

From two outs away from a championship to dead last in the AL East, all in just nine months or so. Awful injury luck has had a lot to do with that, but a failure to address an offense that lost Bo Bichette and struck out on Kyle Tucker does too. The Jays haven't been able to hit all year, and while you can still talk yourself into the upside here, it'll be hard to justify buying at the deadline if they're still in fourth or fifth place two weeks from now.

Washington Nationals

Grade: A

• Postseason odds: 3.5%

Even now, just four games out of a playoff spot and still leading the Majors in runs scored, it feels like no one respect the Nats. This clearly isn't a serious pitching staff, and obviously Paul Toboni isn't going to sacrifice the future in order to try and add talent in the present. Still, don't expect him to trade CJ Abrams or Foster Griffin either, as this team is well ahead of schedule and could viably contend as early as 2027 if first-round pick Chris Hacopian moves quickly and pitching prospects like Travis Sykora and Jarlin Susana can get healthy.

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