Every week, the Pitcher List team will publish an update to our power rankings, highlighting three teams among the different tiers of contention. As always, the full rankings can be found at the bottom of this article, but where’s the fun in that?
Over the past week, the Rockies have more wins than the Phillies. That shocking fact would have been unthinkable just seven days ago, but such is the nature of this game, where small samples can be weaponized in many ways. However, sometimes a short-term trend exposes a bigger reality, which is why we now see Atlanta near the bottom of these rankings and the surging Brewers as a surprise top-10 addition.
On the other hand, we now have 13 teams with a win total between 30 and 35, which portends a critical rest of June to determine who is a contender and who is better off unloading some pieces en route to rosier days ahead. Even as teams like the Tigers, Dodgers, Mets, and Cubs have a clear upper hand in the standings, this season is shaping up as full of surprises, which is where the most entertaining brand of baseball tends to reside.
Contender
No. 9 – Milwaukee Brewers (35-31, +23)
From a strict standpoint, the Brewers have no business being a top-10 team in these rankings. They have a bottom-ten offense and a middling pitching staff. Their WAR leader, Brice Turang, has a 101 OPS+, while their leader in homers, Christian Yelich, is a walking injury risk that can be placed on the IL at any given moment. The Brewers stand at third place in their own division, five games back of first place and 2.5 games back of a wild card spot. And yet, if you have paid attention to how this franchise operates, it becomes almost foolish to count them out.
The mere fact that the Brewers are in this position after their horrific start speaks volumes about their organizational stability and philosophy. In case you forgot, Milwaukee began the season with a dreadful 0-4 mark that featured a historic 43 runs allowed over a three-game span. With a -32 run differential before April even started, it is almost miraculous to see them now with a better mark than the likes of Philadelphia and San Diego, to name a couple of contenders. While the Brewers had been almost methodical in their slow return to relevancy, their recent eight-game winning streak highlighted how they can return to October baseball.
The Brewers' rotation looked like a hot mess to start the season. Now it looks like a strength. #brewers #milwaukee #thisismycrew
It all starts with a rotation that gives credence to the fact that Milwaukee’s pitching lab is real and spectacular. Freddy Peralta’s place as the team’s ace is unquestioned, and he has lived up to expectations with a 2.92 ERA. But how can we explain 36-year-old Jose Quintana’s success? The crafty veteran boasts a 4-1 record and 2.66 ERA despite having only 31 strikeouts in 44 innings, which is simply mind-boggling. And even with the latest setback in Brandon Woodruff’s rehab and twelve different pitchers taking at least one start for Milwaukee so far, the team has held the fort, with the league’s fifth-best rotation ERA.
The bullpen continues to be a work in progress after the departure of Devin Williams, but Abner Uribe and his impressive 12.2 K/9 may become the team’s closer soon enough, while the offense remains elite in terms of base running and making contact, which have produced enough production to make up for the fact that the Brewers are a bottom-ten unit in terms of extra-base hits. This strange mix has given Milwaukee a top-half result when it comes to runs scored, which is the only thing that matters in the end.
The top-heavy nature of the NL suggests that the Brewers are still a bit of a long shot to make the playoffs, with their odds hovering around 40%. With the Cardinals playing better than expected and the Cubs acting like an occasional juggernaut, there is no clear path for Milwaukee, but an upcoming seven-game stretch against both division rivals should provide a clearer frame of where things stand. If recent history serves as any indication, it is hard to write off this pesky Brew Crew.
The Middle
No. 17 – Kansas City Royals (34-32, -9)
Even as the White Sox have not been as abysmal as they were in 2024, it is still a bit shocking to see them win any kind of series. When it comes against a division rival fighting for a playoff spot, it stings a bit more, which is why evaluating the Kansas City Royals has become extremely hard at this point. The same Royals had destroyed Chicago over a four-game sweep a month ago, which coincided with a season-best eight games over .500, but things have gone mostly downhill from there.
In many ways, the Royals have become the definition of middling despite being one of the league’s feel-good stories of 2024. While the team has made it a habit of defeating bad teams, their lack of consistency has doomed them since early May, with only one winning streak of two games that has led to a lousy 10-16 mark. In a division where the Tigers have established a commanding lead and the Twins and Guardians pose a more serious threat to at least battle for a wild card, the Royals have morphed into an afterthought.
The plan for this team was clearly to follow a similar formula from last year, when a surprising staff carried them, and Bobby Witt Jr. provided enough star power to spark the offense. While the former element has remained steady – the Royals’ staff boasts the fifth-best ERA in the league – the offense has all but vanished at this point. Witt’s numbers are still impressive, as he leads the AL in steals and doubles while playing stellar defense, but the rest of the lineup can be best described as feckless.
Kansas City Royals hitters by wRC+ #Royals #MLB
— sohraub (@sohraub.bsky.social) 2025-06-07T22:17:33.883798+00:00
The recent call-up of mega prospect Jac Caglianone is a welcome development as the team tries to improve, but it might also reek of desperation and hinder his development. The early returns suggest that the 22-year-old may have benefited from a more extended stay in AAA, though it can also be said that the Royals are at least trying, which is not something common for the franchise. With the usual dire financial situation, the team is always unlikely to add outside talent, while no other clear reinforcements are coming through their minor league system.
With a negative run differential and a June slate that includes series against the Yankees, Dodgers, Padres, and Rays, the Royals are at high risk of falling away from any postseason race, which would be a shame considering their potential playoff rotation. Kris Bubic leads the AL in WAR and boasts a microscopic 1.43 ERA, while Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha have also been fantastic. A down year from site favorite Cole Ragans has almost been forgotten due to rookie Noah Cameron’s 0.85 ERA in five starts, not to mention closer Carlos Estévez becoming a force with 19 saves and a sub-2 ERA. And yet, with an offense that ranks dead last in homers and is bottom five in OPS, it is almost impossible to think that Kansas City will have a chance to repeat what they did last season.
Wait ’til 2026
No. 22 – Atlanta (27-37, +3)
After Atlanta had been pegged as a consensus top-10 team in baseball, their shocking 0-7 start had been seen mostly as an aberration, with most pundits assuming they would figure it out and turn things around. On May 18, the team finally climbed over .500, and it was easy to think that it would mark a launching pad back towards playoff contention. Instead, Atlanta’s playoff odds have plummeted to well below 10%, with a recent run of play that can generously be described as traumatic.
Atlanta Braves update: 7 straight losses5 straight losses in gut-punch fashion14 losses in the last 17 games10 consecutive losses in 1-run games13 consecutive losses in games decided by 2 runs or fewer
— Brad Rowland (@btrowland.bsky.social) 2025-06-08T22:22:40.813Z
Whenever a team endures a seven-game losing streak, things can be a bit tough around the fan base. When it happens to a team with championship aspirations, it feels a bit worse. When five of those losses are of the one-run variety, you start to question if some kind of evil karma has fallen upon your franchise, though. After taking a series loss against the Red Sox to close last week, Atlanta returned home to face Arizona. The Diamondbacks took a commanding 2-0 series lead on the back of impressive pitching from Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly. While there is no shame in that, things took a dark turn on getaway day.
Trying to avoid the sweep, Atlanta first took a nice 6-0 lead over the Dbacks, which ultimately evolved into a 10-4 score heading into the ninth inning. Despite a win probability over 99% and having to use their closer when things became dicey, the bullpen was unable to hold the lead, giving Arizona a miraculous 7-run frame. The inexplicable loss was probably the proverbial nail in Atlanta’s coffin, as they followed it up with a deflating series sweep in San Francisco, with all three losses coming by one run, and featuring a walk-off wild pitch in extras and another blown lead in the ninth, as a two-run homer from Matt Chapman erased Atlanta’s 2-1 lead.
Unlike other bottom-feeding teams around the league, it is hard to pinpoint where it has all gone wrong for this squad, as Atlanta has been mostly adequate in terms of overall offense and pitching. The return of Spencer Strider (0-5 with an inflated ERA) has not gone as expected, and while Ronald Acuña Jr. has been strong (.985 OPS in 15 games), most of his teammates have failed to produce to their standards. The likes of Matt Olson, Austin Riley, Chris Sale, and Spencer Schwellenbach are far from All-Star form, and the team’s overall lack of situational awareness (18th in average with runners in scoring position) and 12 blown saves from the bullpen have led to a dismal record in one-run games (9-19).
On paper, Atlanta should be much better than its record indicates, as they have managed to sport a positive run differential and employ some of the best players in the game. Alas, its recent run of futility may turn 2025 into a forgettable fluke in the middle of a successful period for this roster, or it could finally force the front office to make some tough choices around the trade deadline, as the roster could benefit from a soft retooling. Now 14.5 games out of first place and 9.5 behind the closest wild card spot, Atlanta at least has the tools to make a miracle run, but they first need to shake off the mental toll from this past week.
