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. 3 – Los Angeles Dodgers (84-65, +120)
Fresh off a series win against the San Francisco Giants, the Los Angeles Dodgers made a statement offensively over the weekend, thoroughly battering the two best San Francisco starters in Logan Webb and Robbie Ray. It’s been a trying year for the Dodgers, much more than anyone probably expected. Yet, a glass-half-full kind of person can look at their current 2.5 lead in the NL West and be reasonably excited about the defending champs’ chances when the postseason rolls around.
As significant as that division lead and even the 5-1 record this past week are, the specifics of this current positive moment and how it relates to a potential deep playoff run are what truly stand out. Apart from Clayton Kershaw’s difficult outing on Saturday, the Dodgers’ rotation has been on fire, and for the most part, it’s the coming to fruition of a tendency that was always likely. Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Shohei Ohtani are all bona fide aces, and to be pitching like that, it isn’t necessarily a surprise. Glasnow and Snell’s injury problems and the caution around Ohtani coming back from elbow surgery were what prevented that for a big chunk of the year.
Offensively, Mookie Betts is the big storyline, with the shortstop set to finish what has otherwise been a disappointing season with the bat on a high note. Betts had already significantly improved in the second half, but his 1.159 OPS in September at the very least teases the possibility of a return to form. For the majority of the year, the Dodgers’ offense has felt incomplete due to Mookie’s struggles, and that no longer appears to be the case.
Even a Will Smith bone bruise after being hit by a pitch, which ultimately landed the All-Star catcher on the 10-day IL, hasn’t been able to slow this team down. With Dalton Rushing also on the IL but much closer to a return, having recently started a rehab assignment, Ben Rortvedt has been the Dodgers’ primary catcher, and a superb one at that. The former Ray is hitting .320 in nine games with Los Angeles.
The Middle
No. 9 – Seattle Mariners (82-68, +51)
Hammering the Angels 11-2 on Sunday, the Seattle Mariners earned their ninth straight win, good enough to open a one-game lead in the tightly contested AL West. Interestingly, this blowout victory was the only one at home for Seattle during this winning streak. Showcasing postseason-relevant chops, Seattle managed to win all six other games in this winning streak by no more than two runs.
Even with this winning streak, though, there is a good chance Seattle will still need to prove itself on the road against the Houston Astros with a three-game set scheduled in Houston on the weekend. The M’s are only one of two current division leaders with a below .500 record on the road, and the majority of their current nine-game winning streak has come at home.
With all the Cal Raleigh MVP talk, one could argue that the depth of this Mariners offense is being overlooked. Jorge Polanco was right in the middle of the action this past week with eight extra-base hits in seven games, including seven doubles. However, there is still room to grow, as these two series sweeps at home against the Cardinals and Angels came with Eugenio Suárez going 0 for 31. Despite homering nine times since the trade back to Seattle, Suárez hasn’t found his stroke, unlike Josh Naylor, who’s been able to, for the most part, maintain the production he had back in Arizona.
Wait ‘Til 2026
No. 26 – Atlanta Braves (66-83, -46)
A streak of eight consecutive seasons making the playoffs, with seven of them as a division winner, will inevitably come to an end this season. The Atlanta Braves are putting the finishing touches on what has been an entirely forgettable campaign for the organization on its way to its worst record since 2017. It’s been a particularly difficult time lately for the Braves, with a sequence of matchups against playoff contenders that started in the final series of August, when Atlanta dropped three of four in Philadelphia.
Atlanta hosted the Cubs and Astros in the past week; as one might expect, the Braves unceremoniously lost both series, too often failing to provide any danger offensively, scoring two or fewer runs in half of these games, all of them losses as you’d expect. The weird part of it all is that, looking at the names in the Braves’ batting order, this is not the usual case of a perennial contender crumbling in age-related decline. Sure, Marcell Ozuna hasn’t been his best version this year, but Chris Sale has been dominant when healthy, and that rib cage injury was more of a freakish accident than anything else. The veteran Pierce Johnson has actually been one of the better relievers in the National League. It’s mostly the young guys not getting it done.
Outside of Matt Olson, who was Atlanta’s best hitter this past week and has been his ever-consistent self once again, all of Atlanta’s primary position players have either dealt with significant missed time due to injury or severe underperformance. Once promising and reliable hitters, Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris II are struggling to perform at anything close to league-average numbers; the pair combined to hit below .100 in the last week.
Full Week 25 MLB Power Rankings
