MLB Power Rankings for week of May 25, 2025
Just one month ago, the Phillies, after losing five in a row, had dropped all the way down to No. 13 in these Power Rankings. But I think we all knew they wouldn’t stay down there long. And now they haven’t just risen: They’re all the way up to No. 1. A nine-game win streak — and zooming past the rival, hated Mets in the process atop the NL East — will do that.
These rankings, as always, are compiled from 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.
1. Phillies (previously: 6)
Nobody is having more fun than the Phillies right now. They’re pulling off wild, thrilling comebacks, like their win over the A’s on Saturday night. They’ve got Kyle Schwarber tied for the MLB lead in homers. Even with their loss to the A’s on Sunday, they had won nine in a row for the first time since 2022 (when, you might remember, Rob Thomson had just begun his tenure as manager). And their starting pitching is absolutely dominant, with an ERA under 2.00 during the streak. Sure, these wins have come against a weak stretch of their schedule, but it’s one thing to face lesser teams: It’s another to beat every one of them.
2. Dodgers (previously: 1)
For the first time since 2023, Shohei Ohtani faced live hitters off a mound on Sunday. It went well, or at least well enough that he remains generally on schedule to make his pitching debut sometime after the All-Star break, according to what manager Dave Roberts said on the FOX broadcast Saturday. Remember: Ohtani has yet to throw an MLB pitch as a Dodger. It’s going to still be a while … but not too much longer now.
3. Tigers (previously: 2)
Is it possible that Tarik Skubal’s Sunday outing was one of the best-pitched games of all time? His first career complete game turned out to be a shutout, but not just that: He gave up just two hits, threw just 94 pitches and struck out 13 Guardians batters. That gave him a Maddux — a shutout in under 100 pitches — but even better: The 13 strikeouts are the most ever on record in a Maddux.
4. Yankees (previously: 5)
Max Fried may be the very definition of a stopper. The Yankees have lost six times the day before a Fried start this year. How has he done in those games? He’s 5-0 with a 0.66 ERA. (They’ve won all six.)
5. Cubs (previously: 7)
It is becoming extremely difficult not to turn this space into a Pete Crow-Armstrong appreciation column every week. Perhaps it’s most fun to play the On Pace For game with PCA. Here’s what he’s currently on pace for: 44 homers, 143 RBIs, 44 stolen bases and 10.0 WAR. Like, what?
6. Mets (previously: 3)
Perhaps we lived in New York City too long, but we have a hard time taking the “well-paid baseball player currently in a minor slump is some sort of scourge on a fair and right society” tabloid headlines all that seriously. It was nevertheless a relief to see Juan Soto have a huge hit against the Dodgers on Saturday to, at least temporarily, get everybody off his back. His manager, as always, hasn’t been sweating a thing: “I know how he handles adversity. Look, there is a big-time track record there. For us to worry about him? Not really. He is too good,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We know sooner rather than later, the results are going to be there because he keeps hitting the ball hard. Yeah, it’s Juan Soto.”
7. Giants (previously: 8)
Kyle Harrison filled in admirably in his first start taking the rotation spot of Justin Verlander, who was placed on the 15-day injured list with a pectoral nerve issue, and he will likely get another chance to do so. The real question: When Verlander comes back after missing what is expected to be only two starts, will he be even the moderately helpful Verlander he was in his first 10 starts? He has been average so far, still better than he was last year in Houston, but remember: Much of his Houston struggles happened after he came back from another, different injury.
8. Mariners (previously: 10)
Is Cal Raleigh going to make himself an MVP contender? He has never finished higher than 12th in the voting (last year), but he’s fourth in the Majors in homers, putting up career-high numbers in batting average and on-base percentage and playing Gold Glove-caliber defense behind the plate. And he’s doing it for a team still in first place, though that gap is closing with the Astros now right behind them.
9. Padres (previously: 4)
Matters have been sort of rough for a while for the Padres — since their 15-4 start, they’re 14-18 — but there’s nothing more potentially worrisome than a Michael King injury. The San Diego ace was scratched from Saturday’s start after waking up with “right shoulder stiffness.” That’s obviously an issue: That is, after all, the shoulder he uses to throw baseballs with. “He just felt like he slept on it wrong. He had strength; it was just sore. He got treatment but still felt it,” manager Mike Shildt said. “We’ll see as time unfolds. We’ve been down the road where we say, ‘Yeah, it’s going to be day-to-day,’ and it happens longer. We do believe it’s not anything overly serious.” Not long after Shildt said that, King went on the IL. Uh-oh.
10. Twins (previously: 9)
The Twins turned their season around with their 13-game winning streak, but you did wonder, when Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton collided with each other on a pop-up on May 15, sending both of them to the IL, if that would blunt their momentum. After all, this team’s success has long been tied to their health. But the Twins had a winning record with Correa (who returned on Friday) out, and they’re continuing to win as Buxton recovers. If they’ve figured out a way to win without those two, look out.
11. Guardians (previously: 11)
The Guardians may not have caught up to Detroit over the weekend, but there’s no question they’ve reminded the Tigers just how much they’ve been tormenting them lately. After the series win this weekend, and of course the ALDS victory last year, the Guardians have basically been the only thing standing between the Tigers and the ascendance that franchise believes it is ready to make. José Ramírez is on one of his heaters again: He’s hitting .385 during his 18-game hit streak. He even extended the streak against Tarik Skubal on Sunday, somehow.
12. Cardinals (previously: 12)
There is no Cardinal player the team is more deeply invested in, short-term and long-term, than Jordan Walker, which is why his deep struggles so far this season have been so frustrating. But the Cardinals have stuck with him, partly because his right field defense has come along and mostly because his physical tools are so overwhelming (and that he only turned 23 on Thursday). They may finally be getting their reward. Walker had two huge late hits in a win over the D-backs on Saturday, and he’s now hitting .333 over the past week. The Cardinals consider him a perennial All-Star someday, but for now, they just need him to contribute. At last, he is starting to.
13. Astros (previously: 16)
If the Astros do keep their heads above water with Yordan Alvarez out of the lineup during this current stretch, and end up battling for the AL West title, you might want to remember to thank Framber Valdez. He has kept the Astros afloat with four critically important, and excellent, starts in a row, including a pivotal one Saturday night against the Mariners that resulted in a 2-1 win. He’s not blowing guys away like he once did, but he’s saving the bullpen … and winning games.
14. Red Sox (previously: 18)
Ah, to be so young, irresponsible and free. When Red sox shortstop prospect Marcelo Mayer received his callup on Saturday — the Sox brought him up to replace Alex Bregman, who is, worryingly, now on the IL — he only had one issue: He couldn’t find his car keys. Not just that: His keys had been missing for weeks. “I lost them about three weeks ago and never cared to look for them until I needed to,” Mayer said. Kids, right?
15. Diamondbacks (previously: 13)
The D-Backs’ crusher of a loss on Saturday — they had rallied from a 4-1 deficit to take a 5-4 lead in the top of the eighth, only to give that lead right back up in the bottom half — dropped them back to .500 for the first time since they were 7-7 in April. The major issue has been the offense, which has scored just 15 runs during its five-game losing streak.
16. Royals (previously: 15)
The Royals can weather a lot of things, but one thing they probably can’t? A semi-slump from Bobby Witt Jr. He’s slashing a pedestrian .269/.320/.516 in May with three homers and 10 runs scored. Not coincidentally, the stretch led to the Royals falling back, and down, in the standings.
17. Braves (previously: 17)
Much has already been made of the fact that Ronald Acuña Jr., in his first MLB at-bat in nearly a year, launched a 467-foot homer on Friday night. But in case you missed it, he homered again on Saturday. He also struck out in six of his 13 plate appearances, it should be said. Wait until he gets that back in sync.
18. Reds (previously: 20)
The Reds have had all sorts of talent for a few years now, but they’ve never quite been able to find any consistency; that’s why they brought in Terry Francona to manage, after all. But consistency continues to elude them: They have bounced up and down around .500 all season, with win streaks followed immediately by losing streaks. It’s all evening out around .500, which, the way the NL playoff race looks this year … might not be enough.
20. Blue Jays (previously: 22)
The only good thing to come out of the Blue Jays’ 13-0 loss to the Rays on Sunday? Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had a base hit. That extended his on-base streak to 25 games, the longest active streak in baseball right now. It also ties Vlad Jr.’s career high.
21. Rays (previously: 23)
If you are a person — like me — who had tickets to the Rays-Cardinals series in August, you might want to adjust your plans a little. The Rays moved that Saturday’s game to Thursday, Aug. 21 to avoid a direct conflict with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers exhibition game happening right across the street. (They also changed a game time in September against the Red Sox for the same reason.)
22. Brewers (previously: 21)
After a start to the season that had fans wondering if he might be playing his way out of any utility to an MLB team, Rhys Hoskins has woken up over the last month. He has slashed .345/.436/.602 with seven homers and 24 RBIs with a 1.038 OPS since April 15.
23. Angels (previously: 25)
Hardly anyone in baseball saw this sudden Angels surge coming. Did people in Anaheim? Angels general manager Perry Minasian says he did.
“Guys that wake up thinking about baseball, guys that go to bed thinking about it. They’re baseball players, and they want to win,” Minasian said. “So seeing them step up in those moments, those winning moments, and doing things to help us win, is something that, for me, is not surprising.”
24. A’s (previously: 19)
Goodness gracious has it all gone sideways for the A’s. On May 6, they blew a ninth-inning lead in a loss to the Mariners that, had they won, would have put them in a tie for first place. They are 3-14 since then, including the 11-game losing streak they finally snapped on Sunday. It sure was fun at Sutter Health Park heading into that ninth inning on May 6, though.
25. Nationals (previously: 24)
The Nationals, and their fans, have been waiting breathlessly for Robert Hassell III’s MLB debut since they traded Juan Soto for him (and others, of course) in 2022. But no one, including Hassell, could have dreamed of how much fun everybody would have in his MLB debut. He went 2-for-5 with two runs scored and a stolen base, becoming the first National to do that in his debut, and he scored the winning walk-off run.
“It felt great,” Hassell said. “Truly, the most important thing is that we got the dub. It feels amazing to win.”
26. Marlins (previously: 27)
Is it time to start worrying about that presumed massive return for Sandy Alcantara? The former Cy Young winner, expected to be the big-ticket item at the Trade Deadline this year, continues to get hit, and hit hard. On Friday night, he gave up six runs (five earned) in 5 1/3 innings to the Angels and now has a rather stunning 8.04 ERA on the season over 10 starts. He’s not quite sure what’s going on.
“I don’t know, man,” Alcantara said. “I think I’m just getting stuck in the same inning. Just got to keep positive, keep working the way that I’ve been.
27. Orioles (previously: 26)
When Adley Rutschman homered in the 11th inning against the Brewers last week, ending the Orioles’ eight-game losing streak and giving interim manager Tony Mansolino his first win, you wondered if maybe that’s what would get the Orioles going. In their next game, they lost 19-5 to the Red Sox.
28. Pirates (previously: 28)
The Pirates have had plenty of bad news so far this year, so hey, what’s one more hit at this point? The fact that Jared Jones, who suffered a right UCL sprain in Spring Training, finally had surgery this week — a surgery that will keep him out 10-12 months — was painful but, all told, not a surprise.
MLB.com’s Alex Stumpf wrote that it could have been worse: “With a 10- to 12-month window to return to full competition, this could mean that Jones will be ready for the early stages of next season.”
29. White Sox (previously: 29)
It was quite a shock to see Andrew Vaughn — who has been in the starting lineup since Tony La Russa was the White Sox manager — sent down to Charlotte this week. But the White Sox were in a roster crunch, and Vaughn has been struggling, slashing .189/.218/.314 with five homers, 19 RBIs and eight doubles in 48 games. The White Sox still have his back.
“At this point, we felt like it was necessary to go down there,” general manager Chris Getz said. “We still believe in Andrew Vaughn. He knows he can be a productive Major League player. I imagine he’s going to take advantage of this.”
30. Rockies (previously: 30)
Heading into Friday night, Rockies pitcher Tanner Gordon had a career 0-7 record with an 8.19 ERA. That’s not what you want, particularly heading into a game against the mighty Yankees. But Gordon, after being called up from Triple-A Reno the night before, ended up having a magnificent evening, pitching six innings, giving up two runs on just five hits and earning the first win of his career in a 3-2 Rockies win.
Voters: Nathalie Alonso, Jason Catania, Mark Feinsand, Doug Gausepohl, Will Leitch, Travis Miller, Brian Murphy, Arturo Pardavila, Andrew Simon, David Venn
