MLB Power Rankings: Who's Already Surprising Us?
The 2020 MLB campaign is only two weeks old, and unfortunately that has already been ample time to become skeptical of the season’s viability. COVID-19 outbreaks have caused the league to quarantine entire teams and make drastic alterations to an already wonky schedule, while the commissioner lays blame on the players and deflects accountability.
With so much opportunity for dismay, we're using Week 3 of Power Rankings to highlight one pleasant surprise from each club. Because what are the early days of a baseball season for if not a little positivity?
30. Pittsburgh Pirates (Last Week: 29)
It wasn’t enough to prevent falling into the basement of our rankings, but the Pirates secured a walk-off win on Thursday against the Twins, who entered with MLB’s best record. Kevin Newman had the game-winning single after racking up four walk-off hits last year as a rookie.
29. Kansas City Royals (Last Week: 26)
At long last, Trevor Rosenthal appears to have rediscovered his form (and, more importantly, his health). He missed all of 2018 recovering from Tommy John surgery, then posted a 13.50 ERA with 26 walks in 15 1/3 innings for the Nationals and Tigers last season. So far in 2020, he has a 1.93 ERA with five strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings, and has yet to walk a batter. His fastball is as firm as ever, averaging 98 mph.
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28. Seattle Mariners (Last Week: 28)
The emergence of J.P. Crawford’s bat has to be music to the ears of Mariners fans. Crawford, a former top prospect whose defense has always been strong, hit .222/.320/.367 in 165 games before this season. He’s batting .280/.410/.380 through 14 games, and has cut down his strikeout rate from 21% in 2019 to just 11.5% in 2020.
27. Detroit Tigers (Last Week: 24)
Tyler Alexander’s record-setting 10-strikeout performance in relief on Sunday is among the most surprising feats of the young season. Alexander has never had overpowering stuff, with a fastball sitting around 90 mph. He’s faced 26 batters on the season and struck out half of them, providing support for a Tigers bullpen that ranks 18th in the Majors with a 4.30 ERA.
26. Baltimore Orioles (Last Week: 30)
Does moving out of the cellar of SI’s power rankings qualify as a pleasant surprise? Last weekend’s sweep of the Rays certainly counts, as does Hanser Alberto’s hot start. The 27-year-old still rarely walks (1.9% walk rate in 53 plate appearances), but he’s improved his plate discipline, swinging less often at pitches out of the zone and more often at strikes than he did a season ago.
25. Texas Rangers (Last Week: 23)
It’s been a tough start to the season collectively for Rangers hitters, who are batting a combined .208/.290/.362 through 11 games. One positive note has been 34-year-old Todd Frazier, who’s hitting .289/.372/.553 after signing with Texas on a one-year, $5 million deal this offseason.
24. Boston Red Sox (Last Week: 21)
The Red Sox have had the worst starting rotation in the American League, so finding a bright spot requires a bit of squinting. Left-hander Martín Pérez has been just that through his first three starts, going 2-1 with a 3.45 ERA and no home runs allowed while inducing weak contact—his average exit velocity is 82.5 mph, among the lowest in baseball.
23. Arizona Diamondbacks (Last Week: 22)
While Madison Bumgarner and Robbie Ray have both taken a nosedive this season and brought along Arizona’s playoff odds with them, rotation mates Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen have tried to pick up the slack by recording ERAs under 3.00 in five combined starts so far.
22. San Francisco Giants (Last Week: 27)
Mike Yastrzemski has been doing his best impression of Mike Trout at the plate, slashing .304/.458/.630 to lead the Majors in fWAR (1.1) entering Thursday. Like Trout, he’s also playing center field, but in spacious Oracle Park after manning the corners last season, increasing his value for the Giants even more.
21. Miami Marlins (Last Week: 25)
The Marlins are somehow leading the NL East despite playing with a skeleton crew after over half their team tested positive for COVID-19. Their ragtag group of green youngsters and journeymen swept a four-game set from the surprisingly frisky Orioles to help Don Mattingly, who admitted he didn’t know some of his newly signed players, become the franchise’s all-time winningest manager.
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20. Los Angeles Angels (Last Week: 20)
The Angels traded four minor leaguers for Dylan Bundy this offseason to help improve a starting rotation that ranked last in combined fWAR last season, and the early results have been spectacular. Bundy tossed his third career complete game on Thursday, and is 2-1 with a 2.08 ERA in three starts with 25 strikeouts and just two walks in 21 2/3 innings.
19. Toronto Blue Jays (Last Week: 18)
This young Toronto lineup has yet to find its rhythm, but 27-year-old Teoscar Hernández has been a steady force. Six of Hernández’s 11 hits have gone for extra bases (four homers and two doubles).
18. New York Mets (Last Week: 13)
Robbie Canó is slapping singles like it’s going out of style—which, it sort of is. He's batting .412 on the back of 11 singles in 39 plate appearances, the highest single rate (which sounds like an unfortunate romantic stat) among players with at least seven singles entering Thursday’s games.
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17. Milwaukee Brewers (Last Week: 16)
The Brewers are yet another team whose schedule has been interrupted by COVID-19. None of Milwaukee’s hitters have really found a groove yet, but Adrian Houser’s seven innings of shutout ball against the White Sox on Wednesday lowered his ERA to 0.75, vaulting him to third on the MLB leaderboard.
16. Philadelphia Phillies (Last Week: 17)
The Phillies have played just seven games in 14 days, or as many as they’ll play in a five-day span against Miami in September. The most pleasant surprise of their season so far is that no players were infected with the coronavirus when they played the COVID-stricken Marlins on opening weekend.
15. Cincinnati Reds (Last Week: 12)
Nick Castellanos had a tale of two seasons while split between the Tigers and Cubs last year. Reds fans are happy he’s carrying over what he showed in Chicago, ranking among the top five league-wide in home runs (six), RBIs (13) and OPS (1.212) and carrying a 12-game hitting streak to begin the season until it was snapped Thursday.
14. St. Louis Cardinals (Last Week: 14)
The Cardinals have just five games under their belt and haven’t taken the field since last Wednesday, so it’s hard to draw any conclusions here. Longtime heralded prospect Tyler O’Neill has two home runs in 15 at-bats, so that’s … something.
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13. San Diego Padres (Last Week: 11)
A renewed emphasis on plate discipline has translated to the best Padres offense since the steroid era, as San Diego leads the NL with 5.5 runs per game. Just as it seemed like Wil Myers had worn out his chances to start in San Diego, he’s finally hit his stride in his sixth season in SoCal and leads the Padres in OPS (1.109).
12. Chicago White Sox (Last Week: 19)
White Sox starting pitchers have scuffled so far with a collective 5.46 ERA. The bullpen, though, has been stellar. Alex Colomé, Evan Marshall, Ross Detwiler and Matt Foster have pitched a combined 23 1/3 innings of relief without allowing a run.
11. Tampa Bay Rays (Last Week: 4)
Dropping from fourth to 11th may seem harsh, but that’s where getting swept by the Orioles will get you. The Rays have dropped six of their last seven, but a silver lining has been the improvements made by second baseman Brandon Lowe. Lowe was an All-Star last year and finished third in Rookie of the Year voting, and now he’s improved his slash line to .302/.375/.605. He’s particularly doing damage on fastballs, hitting .389 against heaters in 2020 after batting .291 on fastballs last year.
10. Cleveland Indians (Last Week: 6)
One of the few consistent contributors in Cleveland's lineup has been César Hernández, who’s batting .319/.429/.383 after two years of below-average performance in Philadelphia. The bullpen must be mentioned here as well—Cleveland relievers have a combined 1.34 ERA with no home runs allowed in 33 2/3 innings.
9. Washington Nationals (Last Week: 7)
Washington’s bullpen has the third-best ERA (1.53) in the Majors among teams who haven’t had COVID-related postponements after the unit recorded an NL-worst 5.68 ERA in 2019.
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8. Colorado Rockies (Last Week: 15)
Colorado’s core four starters (Kyle Freeland, German Márquez, Jon Gray, Antonio Senzatela) have combined for a 2.49 ERA in 11 starts, providing a nice collective rebound after all except Gray struggled to repeat their 2018 form last season. All three of Colorado’s losses have been by one run. Rocktober will likely be upon us soon enough.
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7. Atlanta Braves (Last Week: 8)
Mike Soroka may be out for the season, but Max Fried looks ready to assume the ace role in Atlanta after allowing a total of four runs in three starts against the Mets, Rays and Blue Jays.
6. Houston Astros (Last Week: 5)
The Astros’ rotation would be in dire straits were it not for two youngsters: Cristian Javier and Framber Valdéz. The pair has combined for a 1.93 ERA in 23 1/3 innings pitched, with 21 strikeouts and just one home run allowed. With Justin Verlander injured and Lance McCullers still struggling, Javier and Valdéz will be relied upon to keep Houston in contention.
5. Oakland Athletics (Last Week: 10)
The A’s have risen to the top of the AL West thanks to their sensational pitching. Oakland pitchers ranked eighth in the Majors last year in total WAR, but rank second through 13 games so far. That jump is thanks to the team’s bullpen, which sports a 1.80 ERA in 55 innings.
4. Chicago Cubs (Last Week: 9)
Before the Cubbies were inexplicably whipped by the Royals on Thursday to snap a six-game winning streak, their rotation held a MLB-best 1.95 ERA. Every starter has carried his weight, from steady veterans Kyle Hendricks and Jon Lester to the resurgent pair of Yu Darvish and Tyler Chatwood (Thursday’s debacle aside) and even the soft-contact dependent Alec Mills.
3. Minnesota Twins (Last Week: 3)
Everyone expected the Twins’ lineup to rake this year, but few likely expected Minnesota’s rotation to pitch this well. Twins starters had a 4.19 ERA last season, ranking 11th in the majors. The group’s 2.71 ERA through 13 games ranks third-best in 2020—led by ground-ball machine Randy Dobnak, who’s posted a 0.60 ERA through three starts.
2. New York Yankees (Last Week: 2)
Yankees fans who watched him thrive last year might not consider this a surprise, but Gio Urshela has picked up where he left off last season and taken his game to an even higher level. Urshela is batting .324/.405/.649 through the team’s first 12 games, posting a ludicrous 57.7% hard-hit rate. Any doubts about the legitimacy of Urshela’s breakout 2019 campaign are quickly being put to bed.
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1. Los Angeles Dodgers (Last Week: 1)
Accidental Opening Day starter Dustin May has upped his velocity another notch this season and throws the fastest sinker in the league (97.8 mph), per Fangraphs. He also made Manny Machado look like a Little Leaguer with one of the nastiest pitches of the season on Tuesday, when he picked up his first win of the season while pitching a career-high six innings.
