Power Rankings: Resounding sweep shakes up top spot

Last week, the Braves were No. 1 in the MLB.com Power Rankings, and the Dodgers were No. 3. Quite conveniently, these top teams in the NL played each other over the weekend … and it’s fair to say the Dodgers left little doubt that their early-season struggles are behind them. They are looking like the juggernaut we all expected … and they are once again atop these Power Rankings because of it. Meanwhile, the Orioles watched the two teams rise and fall on either side of them and remain this close to their first appearance atop the rankings.

You can say it’s early. But most of these top teams are the ones we all expected heading into the season. Which is not to say there aren’t plenty of surprises. These rankings, as always, are compiled by MLB.com contributors whose names you can find at the bottom of this (and every) piece, but the words are mine. If you dislike the rankings, yell at all of us. But if you dislike the words, feel free to yell at me.

• MLB standings

1) Dodgers (previously: 3).
Season high: 1 | Season low: 6
Remember how Mookie Betts got off to that insane start, the start that ended up winning him the NL Player of the Month Award? Well, five days into May, Shohei Ohtani has already caught up with him, and passed him, in OPS at 1.111. That would, in fact, be Ohtani’s career high if he kept it up, and it’s the highest number in baseball. Don’t worry: Betts is still second.

2) Orioles (previously: 2).
Season high: 2 | Season low: 5
Remember when the big worry about the Orioles was their rotation? They went into Great American Ball Park this weekend and absolutely shut down the Reds, a team that has more than its fair share of good hitters. Cole Irvin threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings on Friday, John Means (in his season debut!) threw seven scoreless on Saturday and Dean Kremer threw six scoreless of his own on Sunday (giving up just one hit). The vaunted Orioles offense scored some runs this weekend too, but they didn’t really need to.

3) Phillies (previously: 7).
Season high: 3 | Season low: 8
After years of being the team in the NL East that was good but not the Braves, the Phillies finally took over first place from them this week. The three days they have been in first place are more than the one day they were in first place in 2022 and 2023 combined … years in which they made the World Series and the NLCS, respectively.

4) Braves (previously: 1).
Season high: 1 | Season low: 4
Max Fried, a SoCal native famous for doing well against the Dodgers, came into Sunday not having given up a run in his previous two starts. Unfortunately for him, the Dodgers are smoking right now. Fried wasn’t a disaster against them -- he gave up four runs in seven innings -- but it wasn’t enough. The Braves have been one of the best teams in baseball for several years now. But when you put them up against the Dodgers this weekend, Atlanta looked like the lesser team by a considerable amount.

5) Yankees (previously: 5).
Season high: 2 | Season low: 7
On their fourth try -- they were 0-3 coming into Sunday in games where they were nine games over .500 -- the Yankees finally did it: They’re 10 games over .500. Last year’s Yankees, despite their brutal finish, did in fact make it to 10 games over: They were 39-29 on June 13 before losing four in a row. The Yankees are now home against the Astros for three games this week, and you have to think they’d love nothing more than to bury their bitter rivals of the last half-decade or so.

6) Guardians (previously: 4).
Season high: 4 | Season low: 21
It was an excellent day for Cleveland sports on the other side of the home run porch out in left field with the Cavs beating the Magic in Game 7, and the Guardians did their part by continuing to hang on to first place in what has turned out to be, surprisingly, the most competitive division in baseball. The injury to Steven Kwan could be a thorn in the lion’s paw, though: He leads the AL in batting average and is second in hits only to Jose Altuve, for a team that needs every run it can get.

7) Brewers (previously: 6).
Season high: 5 | Season low: 19
Until this weekend’s battle with the Cubs, the Brewers hadn’t lost a single road series all season: They’re only .500 at home but, even with the series loss, 13-6 on the road. They have a great chance to get above water at home, and soon: After three in Kansas City, they’re home against the two worst teams in their division: The Cardinals and the Pirates.

8) Twins (previously: 15).
Season high: 8 | Season low: 23
Contrary to various media reports, the sausage is not in fact the only reason the Twins went on an all-time heater. You know who got hot just when the streak was starting? Max Kepler (slashing .400/.463/.629 since coming back from a knee contusion at the beginning of the run) and Willi Castro, who hit .431 during the 12-game win streak, which ended on Sunday. Though really, it’s probably just the sausage.

• Summer sausage behind Twins' win streak

9) Cubs (previously: 8).
Season high: 8 | Season low: 12
It felt like a heavyweight fight at Wrigley Field over the weekend, with the top two teams in the NL Central trading punches in a series of tough, taut games. There’s another four-game set between these teams coming up May 27-30; maybe they’ll still be tied. Enjoy them now, because they play their last game against each other on July 24.

10) Royals (previously: 9).
Season high: 6 | Season low: 24
There are so many things going well for the Royals so far -- they set a franchise record for wins in April (17), if you didn’t notice -- but, as I mentioned in my weekly Five Fascinations piece last week, one of the most impressive ones is the work of Seth Lugo, who has gone from relieving spin-rate specialist to one of the more reliable and durable starters in baseball. We’ll see how long he can keep it up: He may be at his second-highest innings total by the All-Star Break.

11) Mariners (previously: 10).
Season high: 10 | Season low: 21
When do we stop waiting around for Julio Rodríguez to start playing like the MVP candidate we all believed him to be heading into the season and instead remark on how well the Mariners are holding up while waiting? Hanging around in first place with Julio struggling, even with the issues in the AL West, is an excellent sign moving forward.

12) Rangers (previously: 11).
Season high: 4 | Season low: 12
Is the best rotation in baseball what the Rangers currently have on the injured list? Nathan Eovaldi joined Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom, Cody Bradford and Tyler Mahle there with a right groin strain, and while he won’t be out nearly as long as the others, the Rangers are rapidly running out of arms. My suggestion is to continue to score 15 runs every game like in their win over the Royals on Saturday; that should do the trick.

13) Tigers (previously: 13).
Season high: 7 | Season low: 20
Such is the competitiveness in the AL Central right now that if you have a brief skid where you lose three in a row like the Tigers did, even to a team as good as the Yankees, you’re going to plummet all the way to fourth place. The AL Central has never been anything close to this; time to change all your preconceived notions about this division.

14) Red Sox (previously: 14).
Season high: 14 | Season low: 22
The Red Sox rotation remains the best in baseball so far -- something literally zero people would have predicted heading into the season -- but their bullpen has been solid as well, particularly on Thursday and Saturday, when the Sox had to get 17 full innings from relievers in two losses. It’s tough to blame them too much after being ground up by the Twins’ buzzsaw before taking the finale on Sunday, but after Boston’s hot start, the Orioles and the Yankees are starting to put some space between them.

15) Padres (previously: 21).
Season high: 14 | Season low: 21
After a season of extreme frustration for the Padres in 2023, it’s no wonder management is trying to build on any momentum they can in 2024. Thus, the addition of Luis Arraez, who may be the perfect spark for an offense that is just starting to round into form. They now have four All-Stars in their lineup … even if Jurickson Profar is outhitting all of them right now.

• Analyzing the Arraez trade from all sides

16) Reds (previously: 11).
Season high: 11 | Season low: 15
The Reds came into the week eager to see how they measured up against the star-packed Padres and the first-place Orioles. The answer is probably not the one they wanted. They lost two of three in San Diego and got swept, and barely scored, against the Orioles. We’ll find out over the next three weeks how they’d look if they were in the NL West: They’ll play nothing but NL West teams until May 27.

17) Mets (previously: 16).
Season high: 10 | Season low: 25
Regardless of your thoughts on the potential competitiveness of the Mets this year, one of the primary objectives this season is establishing which young players are going to stay in the lineup for years to come. After spinning his wheels in 2023, Brett Baty may be making his move: His two-homer game on Friday marked his second and third homers of the year, adding some slugging to a high on-base number. He won’t turn 25 until November: The strides he has been taking are starting to pay off. (And Christian Scott, after one start, looks like a guy who’s going to stick around as well.)

18) Blue Jays (previously: 17).
Season high: 8 | Season low: 19
There are all sorts of bad vibes with this team right now, but one feels obliged again to focus on the superstar who hasn’t quite lived up to that billing. Maybe Sunday will help turn things around: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. extended a hitting streak to eight games, homered for the first time since April 10 and had four RBIs.

19) Rays (previously: 19).
Season high: 9 | Season low: 19
Kevin Cash won his 755th game as Rays manager on Saturday, passing Joe Maddon for the most wins as a manager in franchise history. Those two are the only Rays managers with winning records. Here’s a fun question: Can you name the other three Rays managers in their history? From most wins to least: Larry Rothschild (205), Lou Piniella (200) and Hal McRae (113).

20) A’s (previously: 27).
Season high: 20 | Season low: 30
Zoom zoom! One can be appropriately skeptical of the lasting power of this A’s team while still finding this run unquestionably enjoyable: To be .500, even for a brief moment, early in May is a huge achievement and one that, say, the Astros would totally love to be able to claim. With the wobbliness of the AL West in the early going, it would truly be something to see the A’s sneak into first place at some point: If they can claw their way up there, it would be the latest they’ve been in first in the division since June 20, 2021.

21) Diamondbacks (previously: 18).
Season high: 10 | Season low: 20
Throughout all their early-season struggles, the Diamondbacks have been able to point to hopeful underlying numbers: Even at well under .500, they’ve had a positive run differential. (Particularly ironic considering they made the World Series last year with a negative one.) They can’t hang onto that any longer, though: Their 13-1 loss to the Padres on Saturday erased that whole margin, putting them at +/- zero for the season. (Though that changed again on Sunday when they hung 11 runs on the Padres. More hope!)

22) Nationals (previously: 25).
Season high: 22 | Season low: 27
Nick Senzel was expected to be a star for the Reds back when he was a prospect, but for a variety of reasons -- injuries, constant position shifting, general growing pains -- it never worked out for him in Cincinnati. He may be at last approaching his potential in Washington: He’s nearly averaging a homer every 10 at-bats for the Nationals: He’s currently slugging almost 100 points higher than his career high.

23) Giants (previously: 22).
Season high: 17 | Season low: 23
Heading into the weekend, the happiest position for the Giants was catcher, where Patrick Bailey was putting together an All-Star level season, with veteran Tom Murphy ably backing him up. By Sunday, the position was in shambles. Bailey went on the concussion IL after a line drive off the mask on Friday, and Murphy tore up his knee trying to block a wild pitch on Saturday. The Giants only had Blake Sabol on the 40-man roster to replace him, and Sabol should probably keep his head on a swivel.

24) Cardinals (previously: 23).
Season high: 18 | Season low: 25
In the bottom of the 10th inning against the White Sox on Saturday, the Cardinals were down by one run but had the bases loaded with no one out and Lars Nootbaar, Masyn Winn and Nolan Gorman coming up … and a rainstorm coming in. Nootbaar and Winn both struck out, and then, after one strike on Gorman, the tarp came on the field for a three-hour rain delay. Iván Herrera came in to pitch-hit, saw five pitches and struck out on a pitch that appeared to be off the plate. Any Cardinals fan that stuck out that rain delay for that payoff deserves some sort of medal. And we hope they skipped another loss to the White Sox on Sunday. The Cardinals are in deep trouble right now.

25) Pirates (previously: 24).
Season high: 9 | Season low: 25
For all the excitement Pirates fans have for a potential Paul Skenes-Jared Jones rotation, it has gotten pretty dark for the current team on the field of late. Until Jones flirted with perfection against the Rockies on Saturday, the Pirates had lost five in a row, eight of nine and 14 of 17, plummeting back to the bottom of the NL Central. Those early-season playoff dreams seem awfully long ago.

26) Astros (previously: 24).
Season high: 6 | Season low: 26
Just when you thought it was safe to get back on board with the Astros, they lost their last two against the Mariners over the weekend and now have a terrifying six games in The Bronx and Detroit over the next week. Also, they’re running out of rotation guys and Kyle Tucker, until his homer on Sunday, had slowed down. This is starting to get really scary.

27) Angels (previously: 26).
Season high: 24 | Season low: 26
The Angels thought they had themselves a little bit of a coup before the 2023 season when they swiped Tyler Anderson (who had made the All-Star Game the previous season) away from the Dodgers with a three-year, $39 million deal. But Anderson struggled in 2023, going 6-6 with a 5.43 ERA. Fortunately, there are two more years to go on that contract, and the second one is off to a much better start: Anderson has a 2.23 ERA over his first six starts. There are warning signs, though: He’s walking nearly a batter every other inning, isn’t striking out that many hitters and has a FIP of 4.77, which is almost the same as last year’s 4.92.

28) Rockies (previously: 28).
Season high: 28 | Season low: 29
The six-year, $70 million extension the Rockies gave to Ryan McMahon before the start of the 2022 season hadn’t looked so hot the past two years, at least in terms of offensive production. While McMahon played strong defense at third base, he still had never posted a league-average OPS+ entering 2024. But that seems to be changing now. McMahon is hitting .304 with five homers, including one Saturday that ended up in the Allegheny River.

29) Marlins (previously: 29).
Season high: 23 | Season low: 29
Time will tell whether or not the prospects the Marlins got from the Padres for Luis Arraez will pan out, but one thing is certain: Without him in the lineup, the Marlins’ offense may be a rather dire watch for a while. It’d be a terrific time for Jazz Chisholm Jr. to make that leap everyone has been waiting for him to make.

30) White Sox (previously: 30).
Season high: 28 | Season low: 30
Tommy Pham has now played nine games with the White Sox -- his eighth team in six seasons -- and is already sixth on the team in runs scored. Perhaps not surprisingly, the White Sox offensive product has shot up since Pham arrived: They’ve averaged nearly five runs a game since he arrived. They also won their second and third road games this weekend!

Voters: Nathalie Alonso, Anthony Castrovince, Mark Feinsand, Alyson Footer, Doug Gausepohl, Sarah Langs, Will Leitch, Travis Miller, Sweeny Murti, Arturo Pardavila, Mike Petriello, Manny Randhawa, Andrew Simon, David Venn.