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. 8 – New York Yankees (76-61, +134)
Remember a week ago when this Yankees team was on the verge of getting swept at home by the Boston Red Sox in a four-game set? That team rallied to salvage the series finale against Boston and has gone on to win six of its last seven games, thus taking control of the top spot in the AL Wild Card race. The Yankees are also still holding out very real hopes of a run at defending the AL East crown, currently three games back of the division-leading Blue Jays.
Before you ask, the answer is no. No, it doesn’t matter that the Yankees have beaten up on teams they’re supposed to beat to get to this spot, having played the Washington Nationals and Chicago White Sox in the last week of August. Beyond the usual speech of playing who’s in front of you, the whole reason why New York is in this mess in the first place is a failure to match its talent level with its win total. Struggling in one-run games, the Yankees have a record far worse than what their Pythagorean win-loss record would indicate. While there are flaws in simply pointing that out without context, no one doubts the talent of this team.
Further enhancing the need to have put up such a strong performance against the weak teams, the Yankees will be tested unlike any other ball club at the start of September. New York will face the three current American League division leaders in sequence, firstly with a three-game set in Houston, then hosting the Blue Jays and Tigers. The meeting with Toronto is a chance to chase down that division lead without having to root for a bad run of form from the Blue Jays.
Having his worst month of the year with a .923 OPS in August, a mark that speaks to the outrageous standards of Aaron Judge, the reigning AL MVP, took full advantage of some questionable pitching from these last-place teams. Judge went deep three times this week and added a couple of doubles, helping New York reach 10 or more runs on four occasions in the span of five days.
The Middle
No. 18 – Cincinnati Reds (69-68, +33)
Yes, the Reds were a focal point of last week’s power ranking, but they return here under a very different light. A team that hasn’t made the playoffs in a while, and one that wasn’t necessarily projected to do so this year, the Reds have also been on the outside looking in for much of the season. The end of August wasn’t kind to this team’s postseason chances, and it wasn’t just about losing five of six, but primarily the way in which they’ve lost these games.
Cincinnati visited the Dodgers with two of its more exciting young arms set to take the mound. The series didn’t include Andrew Abbott’s turn in the rotation. Still, both Hunter Greene and Nic Lodolo were set to pitch in Los Angeles against a Dodger team that, although still firmly a contender, hasn’t been near the dominant, unbeatable juggernaut most of us projected them to be before the season.
Cincy looked outmatched at Dodger Stadium, returning home with their first sweep of the season. Despite a pretty pedestrian record in the grand scheme of things of what a contending team might have, Cincinnati had yet to be swept in the 2025 season. The Reds got beaten without putting up much of a fight against the Dodgers, losing the four games by a combined 14 runs while scoring just three.
The Reds didn’t start off the following series against the Cardinals on the right foot and lost the first two games. A win on Sunday saved Cincinnati from back-to-back brooms. More importantly, though, Terry Francona’s team now sits four games behind the New York Mets for that final Wild Card spot.
Wait ‘Til 2026
No. 26 – Baltimore Orioles (61-77, -88)
What year is it? I could swear it was 2019 after seeing Justin Verlander deliver the masterpiece of his 2025 campaign against this deflated Baltimore lineup, punching out 10 Orioles to secure a series win. The three-game set between these two orange-based clubs had all the unseriousness that one might expect of a couple of teams that have disappointed their fans more than anything else this season. All three games were lopsided, with the losing side combining to make seven errors against zero from the winning team.
To add salt to the wound, this series came right after the Baltimore offense laid an egg against the Red Sox. Baltimore averaged 1,5 runs per game in a four-game sweep at the hands of the Boston Red Sox, the Orioles’ fifth time getting swept this season.
A slightly deeper look shows that the Orioles have won only two of their last 11 games, and the common factor in those two wins goes by the name of Trevor Rogers. Also known in some circles as the only good thing to happen to the 2025 Baltimore Orioles, Rogers has been electric in each of his last two starts, tossing seven innings of one-run ball in both of them.
Despite having only pitched 90.1 innings this season, Rogers is third in the American League in bWAR at 5.0, behind only Tarik Skubal (6.2) and Hunter Brown (5.1).
