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?
For this season’s weekly Power Rankings column, we are taking a different approach, seeing that the league is shifting towards clear tiers in terms of contention cycles. Payroll and strong farm systems continue to drive serious contenders, while others are content to aim for 80+ wins and try to ride the wave in the playoffs. At the bottom, a few others start the season with little to no hope, at least for this season. Every week, one team from each tier will receive the highlight treatment, especially if they just went through an interesting stretch.
With a little over a week of play, the early good vibes of Opening Day have started to fade for a few and resonate even louder for others, creating a few storylines that would have seemed far-fetched only a few days ago. With this in mind, we are taking a look at three teams that have defied their preseason expectations so far, for better or for worse. While it is unlikely that these early results carry over through the spring and summer, these games count just as much in the standings, creating a very interesting approach for these front offices as they navigate the early season.
Contender
Atlanta
Record: 1-8
A few preseason favorites have struggled out of the gate, just like it happens every season. Teams like Arizona, Houston, and Baltimore have yet to find their rhythm, though their slow starts have not raised many alarms. On the other hand, Atlanta will have to find a way to overcome being literally the worst team in baseball, with an unthinkable 1-8 start that has put the team in a deep hole. When Sunday’s series finale against the Marlins was postponed due to rain, it seemed as if the baseball gods were giving Atlanta a chance to mentally regroup from this tough start.
Before the season began, the logic for this team appeared sound, as they looked capable of navigating the early part of the year as they awaited the return of their two best players. While having Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuña Jr. will certainly help, the past week has exposed more than a few issues that could plague the franchise throughout 2025. Starting with a west coast trip through San Diego and Los Angeles was probably a cruel trick by the schedule-makers, but that still does not explain how Atlanta could only score 14 runs over their opening 7-game losing streak, including back-to-back shutout losses that were immediately followed by consecutive games scoring only once.
In the middle of that offensive misery, their biggest offseason signing, Jurickson Profar, was shockingly suspended by MLB after failing a drug test. After being one of the most satisfying feel-good stories of 2024, Profar has now become a pariah in Atlanta, as his absence has accentuated this early misery for a franchise that was still seen as the favorite to win the NL East by many projection systems.
Statement from the Atlanta Braves: pic.twitter.com/KOplY13FuA
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) March 31, 2025
Of course, Profar’s incident cannot fully explain the many offensive struggles around the lineup. Outside of the steady production of Marcell Ozuna (.500 OBP) and Matt Olson (.828 OPS), all other regulars have posted below-average batting lines, making Atlanta the last-ranked team in terms of OPS and runs, with only six homers hit as a team (no batter has more than one). While it is hard to think that players like Austin Riley, Ozzie Albies, and Michael Harris II will sustain these tough starts, the feeling around the franchise has certainly shifted, even with the upcoming season debut of star catcher Sean Murphy.
To add injury to this insulting state, the rotation also took a major hit when Reynaldo López, arguably the team’s best pitcher in 2024, was placed on the 60-day IL due to a shoulder injury that will keep him out for most, if not all, of this season. While Atlanta’s staff as a whole has been middling, their day-to-day outlook will not have a clear stopper until Strider returns. Youngster Spencer Schwellenbach sports a 0.00 ERA and earned the team’s lone win so far, but his mates have left a lot to be desired.
Even as it seems hard that Atlanta will not eventually wake up from this slumber, the schedule will continue to present a big challenge through most of April, including a tough 9-game stretch facing the Philies, Rays, and Blue Jays. As the adage goes, you cannot win a division in the spring, but you can certainly lose it. It will be fascinating to see how the front office maneuvers on its way to right this ship, lest they want to fall quickly to the tier below.
The Middle
Record: 8-1
Welcome to bizarro Atlanta, as the San Francisco Giants, expected to be nothing more than a .500ish team, will start the week with the league’s best record, standing above the mighty Dodgers and Padres atop the NL West. Calling this a surprise would be a massive understatement, as the Giants have experienced almost the polar opposite of what Atlanta has gone through in terms of performance and pure vibes.
– 7 wins in a row
– Heliot Ramos nine-game hit streak
– Jung Hoo Lee batting title campaign loading
– 2020 Yaz back from the dead
– Demon Wilmer Flores backladies and gentlemen, YOUR first-place 8-1 San Francisco Giants 🫵 pic.twitter.com/n4ftje8fbo
— J r u e (@thatl0calguy) April 6, 2025
On Opening Day, San Francisco overcame a ninth-inning deficit with two outs, sealing the win with a three-run Wilmer Flores homer. After following it up with a loss in game two against the Reds, the Giants have only won since, with a 7-game winning streak that has already surpassed their best stretch from last season. The early-season success has come against quality opponents, though, with consecutive sweeps of the Astros and Mariners. The wins have come in a myriad ways, including dominant pitching performances, late comebacks, walk-offs, and the healthy version of key players like Flores and Jung-Hoo Lee. Even Alex the therapy bunny had to be there to see it.
The question now is if this can become sustainable in any way, especially for a franchise that appears desperate to forge a new identity and start winning. The early returns are more than promising, with young players and veterans alike contributing so far. Outside of Justin Verlander’s uneven start (6.14 ERA in two games), the staff has been consistent and sometimes explosive, with Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, and Jordan Hicks providing one of the best rotation trios so far. The bullpen has also been a revelation, albeit with the regular amount of #torture that has come to define the franchise.
Big-ticket free agent Willy Adames has been one of the offense’s worst performers, but even he delivered a walk-off win on Friday’s home opener to create his first defining moment as a Giant. His slow start has been almost negligible with Matt Chapman, Flores, and Heliot Ramos shooting extra-base hits all over the field. While the offense as a whole is barely in the league’s top 10 in terms of OPS and runs scored, San Francisco has excelled in situational and clutch hitting, leading MLB in hitting with runners in scoring position and two outs. That brand of exciting baseball is hard to predict and sustain, but the 2021 Giants already showed us how a strong start can be carried through an improbable playoff run.
Taking everything into consideration, there is a big part of this start that screams fluke with a capital F, but there are also glimpses of how this could be sustainable with a bit of injury luck and career years. The pitching appears legit and should be the team’s guiding force, while having foundational players like Chapman and Adames goes a long way towards building trust and having an exciting fanbase. A quick rematch against the Reds promises to be tough, but nothing compared to the upcoming 10-game road trip against the Yankees, Phillies, and Angels, which will surely tell us a lot about where the Giants stand in terms of being contenders or pretenders.
In any case, the early returns of the Buster Posey regime are promising, to say the least, and that could create a truly memorable four-team race in the West.
Record: 6-3
When the Angels used a position player to pitch an inning in a blowout loss on Opening Day, against the dreadful White Sox of all teams, it all looked as a very appropriate start of yet another miserable season for this franchise. However, they won the next game on an improbable 1-0 score, kicking off a run of three straight series wins, as the Angels closed the week by taking sets from the Cardinals and Guardians. This unlikely 6-3 start comes at the heels of a negative run differential and many of the pitching woes that have come to define this team over the last decade, but six wins is tied for the second-most in the AL, and that should be encouraging.
Trying to understand how the Angels have done it so far, there are a few positive signs for an offense that is relying on some name-brand veterans and promising young players to give Mike Trout a decent supporting cast. If not for Aaron Judge’s exploits, catcher Logan O’Hoppe would be a natural candidate to earn AL Player of the Week honors, as he closed the week with a homer in four straight games, upping his slash line to a spectacular .345/.367/.862 with five homers and 9 RBI. The unheralded Kyren Paris, who entered this season with one homer in 91 career at-bats, somehow is sporting a 1.434 OPS with two dingers. Even as erstwhile stars like Yoán Moncada and Jorge Soler have failed to launch, Trout has provided a solid if not star-worthy bat with his recent move to right field, with his three homers showing the power is still there.
Still don’t think there is a better sight in baseball than a Mike Trout homerun swing pic.twitter.com/JN8aUqmJBJ
— LA Angels UK (@LAAngelsUK) April 6, 2025
Unlike the surprising Giants, though, it would take a lot to think this could be the start of a new era of Angels baseball, at least for 2025. The Angels still rank as a bottom-third team in terms of pitching, with the slew of thirty-something arms in their rotation being unlikely to carry the team for a playoff run. Yusei Kikuchi, Tyler Anderson, and Kyle Hendricks have been serviceable so far, even as they have posted zero wins over six combined starts, while the back-end of the bullpen has been better than advertised with Kenley Jansen earning three saves, but there are still too many subpar arms in the staff to consider the Angels a real threat to contend.
A quirk in April’s schedule will get the Angels back on the road for a 9-game trip against the Rays, Astros, and Rangers, meaning that 12 of their first 15 games are happening away from home. If LA can survive this brutal stretch around .500, maybe it will be time to start thinking that this season will be different.
If you want to be optimistic, it is clear that O’Hoppe is establishing himself as a young star and that Trout looks rejuvenated, which sounds enticing for a franchise desperate for good news. At the same time, the rotation is held together by duct tape and hope, with no clear reinforcements for if and when things start to go wrong. The Angels have been so bad for so long that it is hard to trust their process, but this first week has at least provided a glimmer of hope that 2025 can be different.
Full Week 2 Power Rankings
