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?
Contender
No. 1 – Milwaukee Brewers (78-45, +161)
Like an island of misfit toys. Everyone expected one team to run rampant and unchallenged through the National League in 2025, and that has certainly occurred; it just so happens it isn’t the team we all thought of. The Milwaukee Brewers are stating their claim as baseball’s premier ball club, continuing to contend despite the routine loss of key pieces year after year. Does anyone even remember this team lost Willy Adames in the offseason at this point? I don’t think so.
Milwaukee’s outstanding 14-game win streak came to an end on Sunday as they fell victim to yet another terrific outing from Andrew Abbott of the Reds, but not before this team put one hand on the NL Central crown. Surely now nothing short of a disastrous end to the season will keep the Brew Crew from not only taking home that NL Central title, but also securing one of the two first-round byes. Milwaukee is significantly ahead of every other team in the National League, including the East and West leaders.
Playing the Pirates and Reds isn’t necessarily a measuring stick for World Series odds, but you can only handle what’s in front of you, and for a team that has proven itself quite a few times, this is simply another step in that direction. Scoring 36 runs in the middle of a three-game stretch is impressive regardless of the opponent, and that’s what Milwaukee did during this week, showcasing its depth and quality at the top.
Nearing 500 plate appearances in an elusive healthy campaign, Christian Yelich was at the forefront of all that scoring, leading the Brewers with four long balls this past week and driving in 12 runners. Yelich may not be his prime self, but surrounded by a lineup roughly nine-deep, the former NL MVP doesn’t have to be that guy. Speaking of guys and what they once were, Andrew Vaughn is making a strong case for any and all promising hitters to leave the White Sox. The former number three overall pick looks like the NL’s answer to Nick Kurtz since moving over to Milwaukee. Vaughn went deep a couple of times this past week, boasting an OPS north of 1.000 in 31 games with the Brewers.
The Middle
No. 11 – New York Yankees (67-57, +99)
The inclusion of the Yankees in this second tier has massive shades of a backhanded compliment. That being said, if we look beyond that and just address the facts, this past week was absolutely pivotal for a team seeing its playoff odds decrease gradually, but still very much able to do something about it. New York won five of six in a couple of series against the Twins and Cardinals.
Once favorites to win the AL East, the Yankees are currently just fighting as best they can to maintain one of the three Wild Card spots in a fiercely contested race. And perhaps if it wasn’t for Joe Ryan doing Joe Ryan things, they would’ve had a perfect week with a collective strong effort from an offense that saw five different hitters going deep multiple times.
One of those hitters who went deep twice and continues to force Aaron Boone’s hand into giving him more playing time is Giancarlo Stanton. The former NL MVP stayed on the bench in the series against the Cards, apart from a pinch-hit appearance, but against the Twins at home, he was a beast with the bat, getting regular starts in right field. The DH spot has been clogged in New York by Aaron Judge, who, while healthy enough to hit, hasn’t yet been cleared to play defense. Part of why Stanton didn’t play the field against the Cardinals was because his body didn’t react in the best way possible to three straight games playing in right, which is to be expected.
Making good on your advantage against inferior competition is something the Yankees will need to continue to prove they can do when you look at a schedule involving quite a few series against non-contenders. Across their final four series of the year, the Yankees will face the Twins, White Sox, and Orioles twice, once on the road and once at home.
Wait ‘Til 2026
No. 23 – San Francisco Giants (61-64, -2)
Trade for Rafael Devers and become the worst team in baseball. However hyperbolic that statement may seem, it is simply the accurate description of a situation no one saw coming. Sure, this Giants team was still flawed even with the addition of Devers, but from that point to winning fewer games than all other 29 MLB teams, you have a fairly large gap.
The Giants did finally snap what had become a seven-game losing streak by avoiding a sweep at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays with a terrific outing from their ace, Logan Webb, but it hardly makes things any better in the big picture. Further worsening this recent outlook, you have the fact that this losing streak came entirely at home for the Giants, taking their record at Oracle Park to 30-33 on the year.
Focusing on the Giants’ big midseason acquisition, Devers has been a shell of himself since heading over to the Bay Area, still delivering decent numbers, but nothing near his career norm. Showcasing some of the struggles of this lineup, despite how poor Devers has been in San Francisco (.408 SLG), only Matt Chapman has a higher slugging percentage on the team in 2025 (.423).
To make matters worse, San Francisco will now go on the road with the daunting challenge of a seven-game week against the San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers, two of the strongest teams in the National League.
