At the time this article was written, we are about 40-50 games into the Major League Baseball season, or about 25% of the season. So far, it has been full of exciting moments from a new cast of characters. A collection of MLB’s top prospects have graduated from their farm systems and begun to make their mark on the bigs. There’s also been plenty of teams succeeding that we didn’t expect.
Standings
One side of MLB has fared a lot better than the other this year. At this point, the National League features nine teams with winning records, compared to the American League’s four. Two teams have reached 30 wins, but four still lie mired under 20. Looking more closely at the American League, the Tampa Bay Rays (30-15) and New York Yankees (28-19) sit far ahead of everyone else. Also in the AL East, the pennant-holding Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles, and Boston Red Sox are all hovering around 20 wins. Toronto and Baltimore have been hindered by inconsistent form, while Boston became the first team to fire their manager when they let go of Alex Cora on April 26, and since then, their form hasn’t improved.
The consistent Cleveland Guardians (26-22) seek to top the ever-changing AL Central, and have already made a trade splash to improve their roster. Behind them are the chasing pack, including the Chicago White Sox, empowered by Japanese signing Munetaka Murakami, the rebuilding Minnesota Twins, and the drastically underperforming Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals. However, this division is still an open race, with Kansas City in last at only 5.5 games back, meaning if one team gets hot, they can easily jump into first place.
Finally, the AL West hasn’t exactly been picture perfect. The nomadic not-Oakland-anymore-not-Vegas-yet-staying-overnight-in-Sacramento Athletics lead the division at 23-23, but hold a run differential much worse than their closest rivals, the Texas Rangers (22-24) and Seattle Mariners (22-26). The Houston Astros, in fourth, have suffered a collapse no one saw coming, as their pitching staff has plummeted to last in the league. To round it out, the Los Angeles Angels are back in the cellar, having won only one of their last nine series.
Moving over to the National League, the Atlanta Braves (32-15) have been completely dominant. Their offense has been on fire all year and is complemented by above-average pitching. Second in the NL East are the Philadelphia Phillies (24-23). They were the second team to fire their manager, sacking Rob Thomson on April 29 after a miserable 9-19 start. In contrast to the Red Sox, they have recovered and look on course to make the playoffs as previously projected. The Washington Nationals and Miami Marlins are right behind Philadelphia, and apart from minor scandals, are chugging along as expected in the mix. Bottom of the division, 11.5 games adrift, sit the New York Mets. A team historically known as the laughingstock of the National League, this season has not done much to improve its reputation. An offseason that spent hundreds of millions on a new infusion of players, which was supposed to serve as a revitalization of the franchise, has instead resulted in a team unable to gel.
The NL Central has been a more pleasant surprise for fans. Every team has a winning record and has been in first and last place at some point during the season. The division-leading Chicago Cubs (29-18) have overcome injuries to their pitching through a red-hot offense that’s produced two 10+ game winning streaks. No more than a game back sit the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals. Milwaukee always seems to overachieve with great coaching and young talent, and while St. Louis was supposed to be in a reset year, a lineup full of rising young stars has negated pitching struggles. The Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds have gone cold in recent weeks, but they had good starts and plenty of good players, so if they can recapture that form, it should be an excellent playoff race.
The NL West started interestingly, but is falling back towards expectations. The superteam known as the Los Angeles Dodgers sits in first at 29-18, and they’re facing a tough challenge from the San Diego Padres (28-18), who have relied on their league-leading bullpen to close out games. With both teams finally trending upwards, the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Francisco Giants are coming out of a slow start this season. Finally, the Colorado Rockies are still comfy in the basement, even with the league’s best hitter through April. What’s good news for the Rockies is that they’re finally working on bringing their analytics department into the 2020s.
Stars of the Season
Our familiar superstars are still the best in the league, but a new host of supporting actors are coming up behind them, ready to make their impact on the majors. A collection of prized infielders are becoming franchise favorites, including Kevin McGonigle in Detroit, Konnor Griffin in Pittsburgh, Cole Young in Seattle, Colson Montgomery for the White Sox, Travis Bazzana in Cleveland, Sal Stewart in Cincinnati, and JJ Wetherholt in St. Louis.
There’s also young pitchers finding success across the league, such as Cam Schlittler for the Yankees, Peyton Tolle in Boston, Parker Messick in Cleveland, Emerson Hancock in Seattle, Jacob Misiorowski and Kyle Harrison in Milwaukee, Justin Wrobleski for the Dodgers, Landen Roupp in San Francisco, and even Chase Dollander in the hitters’ paradise of Colorado. The point is we’re ushering in a new group of baseball household names, which is really cool to see, especially with so many great new players in one season. It helps make up for the surprising number of stars struggling.
What’s also awesome is how other already established players are continuing on breakout seasons from last year, or starting new ones. Guys like Jonathan Aranda for the Rays and Ben Rice for the Yankees, or the A’s newest set of Bash Brothers: Nick Kurtz, Shea Langeliers, and Brent Rooker. Atlanta’s first base duo of Matt Olsen and Dom Smith has been the best at their position, and Nico Hoerner has been great for the Cubs. The Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber is on pace for eighty homers.
I could go on and on, but two of the coolest stories have come out of the NL West. Utilityman Ildemaro Vargas went undrafted in 2008, but was able to earn a spot playing rookie ball on the DBacks farm. Nine years later, he broke into the bigs and was somewhat successful. However, he struggled during the short 2020 season and bounced around six MLB and four MiLB teams between then and 2024, which included a brief second stint in the desert. Teams were consistently able to find a way to use him due to his positional versatility, but he never stuck anywhere. Arizona decided third time’s the charm and picked him up last summer for this reason. He made the roster for 2026 in Spring Training and has shone, with a career high seven homers and a .340 batting average.
The other cool story is Rockies outfielder Mickey Moniak. Drafted by the Phillies in 2016, he hit consistently below the Mendoza Line after debuting in 2020 and was sent to the Angels, a system notorious for poor player development. He got opportunities in Anaheim, but was washed out during the post-Ohtani teardown. Last year, he finally found a, well, footing in Colorado, and he’s sprinted out of the gate this year, currently leading NL hitters in on-base-plus-slugging (OPS) with a batting average nearly fifty points higher than his career average. It feels like the first time in a while that a Rockies hitter has been able to take advantage of the Colorado altitude’s benefits.
Vargas and Moniak are two of the awesome stories happening, and there will be more to come in what has been a very competitive season so far. We haven’t yet had a wild out-of-the-blue moment like Domingo German’s perfect game three years ago, but one of the benefits of the long baseball season is how there is so much time for awesome moments to develop. The tightness between teams this season will be another benefit as well. Since so many teams have very similar records, there will be a close race for the wild card spots in the playoffs. This means there will be a lot more important games than if there were just a few teams dominating. This makes for a great season with most of the league playing their best baseball, which translates to a special season down the stretch.
