It's Memorial Day and that means we are all now free to obsess over the Major League Baseball standings. Memorial Day is the traditional start of summer and, at this point, we kind of have to stop saying "it's early." The 2026 season is nearly two months complete, and the contenders are starting to separate themselves from the pretenders, and those hot and cold starts are sorting themselves out.
Now that summer has unofficially begun, let's take stock of the baseball landscape. Come with me, won't you?
Postseason bracket
This is already Year 5 of MLB's 12-team postseason bracket and, frankly, it might be the last year, too. MLB could again push for a 14-team postseason as part of the upcoming collective bargaining agreement. Anyway, nine of the 12 teams in postseason position on Memorial Day last year ultimately made the playoffs.
These would be the postseason brackets if the season ended today (based on winning percentage):
AMERICAN LEAGUE
BYE: No. 1 Rays (.680) and No. 2 Guardians (.582)
WC1: No. 6 Twins (.491) at No. 3 Athletics (.509)
WC2: No. 5 White Sox (.500) at No. 4 Yankees (.585)
NATIONAL LEAGUE
BYE: No. 1 Braves (.667) and No. 2 Dodgers (.623)
WC1: No. 6 Cubs (.547) at No. 3 Brewers (.600)
WC2: No. 5 Cardinals (.569) at No. 4 Padres (.596)
Yep, a sub-.500 team is in postseason position in the AL at the moment. I don't think that will be the case after 162 games, but who really knows. No team in either league is more than 9 ½ games out of a postseason berth right now. The season is not over for anyone yet, which is a good thing for baseball overall, but it is getting late early for some teams.
American League superlatives
Best team: Rays. Sunday's walk-off loss to the Yankees was only Tampa's fifth loss in their last 27 games. At 34-16, the Rays have the AL's best record by 4 ½ games (six games in the all-important loss column), though they are out over their skis a bit in terms of run differential (+40 projects to a 29-21 record) and BaseRuns (27-23). Regardless, the Rays are the only team whose rotation has a sub-3.00 ERA (2.88), and they're top 10 in overall pitching and overall offense. In April, the Yankees looked like the AL's best team. In May, the Rays stormed to the top of the league standings.
Worst team: Angels. They're bad and they seem oblivious to the fact they're bad, and to the reasons they're bad. José Soriano has been fantastic and is having a real breakout season. Mike Trout has not quite been vintage Mike Trout, but he's been terrific. Zach Neto is one of the game's best shortstops. And none of it matters. The Angels have the AL's worst record (20-34) and run differential (minus-62), and even after sweeping the Rangers this past weekend, they've dropped 24 of their last 33 games. "Sell the team" chants are a nightly occurrence in Anaheim. I'm not sure any team is in worse long-term shape than the Angels.
Biggest surprise: White Sox. At 26-26, the White Sox have a non-losing record this late in the season for the first time since 2021. On the position player side, there is a real foundation in place with Sam Antonacci, Chase Meidroth, Colson Montgomery, Munetaka Murakami, and Miguel Vargas. Davis Martin has been one of the best starters in the league according to both the surface stats (2.04 ERA) and the under-the-hood numbers (2.30 FIP and 3.56 xERA). I'm not sure the ChiSox have the pitching depth to hang around the postseason race all year, but in the watered-down AL, who knows? The arrow is definitely pointing up on the South Side.
Biggest disappointment: Tigers. I get it, Tarik Skubal and some others are injured, but the Tigers are 6-17 since Skubal's last start and they've lost 16 of their last 19 games. You can't attribute that all to Skubal's absence. Not when the offense has averaged 3.83 runs per game (2.95 in May) and they rank 24th in home runs. Dillon Dingler, Riley Greene, and rookie standout Kevin McGonigle are a three-man army on offense and the pitching depth has already been stretched to the limit. Going back to last season, the Tigers are 30-55 in their last 85 games, which is a 105-loss pace. Are we sure they're really a young team on the rise? Like sure sure? The Tigers have to start stacking wins immediately, otherwise the Skubal trade rumblings will only grow louder as we get closer to the trade deadline.
Team with the most to prove: Mariners. If not for the Tigers, the Mariners would have been the pick for most disappointing team in the AL (or maybe the Red Sox, or the Orioles, or the ...). Rather than build on last year's run to Game 7 of the ALCS, they have come out of the gate with a 25-29 record with a bottom-10 offense by runs per game (4.04). The Mariners are terrible with runners in scoring position (.220 batting average), so they're underperforming and they're a frustrating watch. Seattle has not won more than two consecutive games since April. There hasn't been any positive momentum for weeks. The good news is the AL West (and the AL in general) is weak, so a postseason berth is still well within reach. The Mariners should be better than this though.
MVP: Bobby Witt Jr., Royals. The Royals have disappointed at 22-31, but Witt has been the AL's best player, and not by a little either. His 3.3 WAR is almost a full win better than the next best player (Nick Kurtz at 2.4 WAR) and he's just sensational at everything. Witt is a great hitter, a great baserunner, and a great fielder. He is the closest thing to a perfect player in the game today. Kurtz, Shea Langeliers, Aaron Judge, and Ben Rice are Witt's primary competition for the Memorial Day check-in AL MVP award.
Cy Young: Cam Schlittler, Yankees. Schlittler leads all qualified pitchers in ERA (1.50) and FIP (1.79), and is fourth in xERA (2.61). He passes the eye test and the analytical test. Dylan Cease, Davis Martin, Parker Messick, and José Soriano are the crowd behind Schlittler, but even then he still leads AL pitchers in WAR by nearly half-a-win. AL Cy Young is probably the easiest Memorial Day check-in award. Schlittler's been a notch above everyone else to date.
Rookie of the Year: Kevin McGonigle, Tigers. Like most of his teammates, McGonigle has cooled down a bit of late (.592 OPS in May), though he still leads all qualified AL rookies in batting average (.282), on-base percentage (.386), and WAR (2.0). Munetaka Murakami is indeed Rookie of the Year eligible despite all his time in Japan. His 17 home runs are second most in baseball behind Kyle Schwarber's 20. If he continues at this home run pace, I suspect Murakami would win AL Rookie of the Year. On Memorial Day though, I'm going with McGonigle.
National League superlatives
Best team: Braves. Despite all those spring training pitching injuries, the Braves have allowed 3.33 runs per game, the second fewest in baseball. They're also averaging 5.22 runs scored per game, the second most in baseball. That's a pretty great recipe for success. The Braves have baseball's best record at 36-18 and they've actually underperformed their run differential (+102 projects to a 38-16 record). The Brewers and Dodgers have a solid case here, but Atlanta has the NL's best record by 2 ½ games (two in the loss column). They're the obvious pick for the NL's best team on Memorial Day.
Worst team: Rockies. It was a fun beginning to the season with the Rockies getting out to a 6-6 start (they were 6-33 at one point last year), but that didn't last. Colorado is 14-28 since the 6-6 start and 6-17 in its last 23 games. Adjusted for ballpark, the Rockies have baseball's worst offense (85 OPS+) and a bottom-10 pitching staff (95 OPS+). They're bad, and we knew they'd be bad. Sometimes you can predict baseball. I am fascinated to see what POBO Paul DePodesta and the new front office cook up in the coming years though. Some of their pitchers (Chase Dollander, Antonio Senzatela, etc.) have made changes to their arsenals and shown real improvement. The Rockies are on their way out of the Stone Age.
Biggest surprise: Cardinals. What was supposed to be rebuilding year (even if the Cardinals refuse to call it that) has instead produced a 29-22 record. Granted, the +1 run differential and probably not sustainable 7-2 record in extra-innings games suggests this great start may not last, but it has happened. The wins are in the bank. Jordan Walker is breaking out, JJ Wetherholt is a stud, and Alec Burleson and Iván Herrera are excellent "young veterans." There's a wave of pitching coming too. If nothing else, it looks like the rebuild won't go on especially long. Shoutout to the Nationals, too. They're playing .500 ball (27-27) and they lead baseball in runs scored per game (5.33) while also ranking dead last in runs allowed per game (5.59). Their games are entertaining. I'll give them that.
Biggest disappointment: Mets. Last Sunday's stunning walk-off win against the Yankees looked like a potential turning point that would get the Mets back on the rails. Rather than build on that win, they are 2-4 since, and they continue to roll around in the mud near the bottom of the standings with a 22-31 record and -21 run differential. In a season loaded with disappointments, the Mets are the biggest disappointment of all. Surely owner Steve Cohen did not expect this when he hired POBO David Stearns three years ago. (And to think, the Mets are 12-10 in May.)
Team with the most to prove: Cubs. It has been a season of extremes for the Cubs, who have two 10-game winning streaks and also an eight-game losing streak, which is currently active. They got swept by the Brewers at home last week, pushing them down into second place. They're missing several starters (Matthew Boyd, Cade Horton, Justin Steele, now Edward Cabrera) and the offense is wildly inconsistent. The Cubs stepped outside their comfort zone to sign Alex Bregman and so many core players are in their walk years (Ian Happ, Shota Imanaga, Carson Kelly, Seiya Suzuki, Jameson Taillon). It kind of feels like now or never for this group. The Cubs aren't bad (29-24 with a plus-20 run differential), but we're still waiting for them to be great.
MVP: Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers. This is shaping up to be an all-time great NL MVP race. Drake Baldwin and Matt Olson have been the two best players on baseball's best team. Corbin Carroll has been sensational. Brice Turang has been a top-10 hitter with standout defense. CJ Abrams is pacing to hit over 30 home runs. In the end though, it's Ohtani's world, and everyone else is living in it. Even with a few prolonged home run droughts, Ohtani is again one of the best hitters in baseball (149 OPS+) and he's thrown 49 innings with a 0.73 ERA. He is baseball's WAR leader at 3.3 (1.5 as a hitter and 1.8 as a pitcher). I will stop picking Ohtani to win MVP when he gives me a reason to stop picking him to win MVP, and he hasn't done it yet.
Cy Young: Cristopher Sánchez, Phillies. Ohtani's 0.73 ERA is obviously excellent, though Sánchez has thrown almost 50% more innings (73 ⅓ vs. 49) with a 1.62 ERA, lowest among NL qualifiers. The under-the-hood numbers are terrific too (1.95 FIP and 2.86 xERA). Sánchez leads all pitchers in innings, WAR (2.8), and ground ball rate (58.3%). On a per-inning basis, yeah, Ohtani has been better, but workload matters. Sánchez has given the Phillies quantity and quality, not one or the other. Chase Burns deserves more attention than he's been getting. He's been fantastic for the Reds.
Rookie of the Year: JJ Wetherholt, Cardinals. In a loaded NL rookie class, Wetherholt stands out from the pack with a .356 on-base percentage, tops among qualified NL rookies, and he's an elite defender at second base. He's top 10 among all players at all positions in defensive runs saved and outs above average. Wetherholt's 2.1 WAR is almost a full win clear of the next best NL rookie. Pirates shortstop Konnor Griffin has shown flashes of stardom and could very well surge to make NL Rookie of the Year a tight race between now and Game 162.
