Opening Weekend gave us everything we could have asked for. The ABS challenge system was a resounding success. This year’s rookie class is off to a roaring start. There were walk-off wins, vintage performances, and so, so much to overreact to. After each team’s first series of the season, let’s take a look at how the league stacks up.
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. 6 – Detroit Tigers
It would be unfair to consider the Detroit Tigers a dark-horse championship contender. They’ve come within a game of the ALCS in back-to-back seasons and began the year as AL Central favorites. Detroit opted not to trade the game’s best lefty, Tarik Skubal, for a haul this offseason. That’s a meaningful win for this front office and fanbase, even if it’s only a temporary solution.
The optimism was amplified by the Tigers jumping into the Framber Valdez sweepstakes. They’re capitalizing on the Skubal window and, in the meantime, working to insulate the rest of the staff. Kenley Jansen should be fine, and Justin Verlander will tug at the heartstrings of the Detroit faithful from the back end of the rotation. The result is a good-not-great roster with a high floor and room to cash in on upside.
Enter Kevin McGonigle.
It’s probably irresponsible to say that Detroit’s top prospect is the best position player on the roster. But after watching a weekend’s worth of plate appearances, it feels like it won’t take long to enter the Overton window.
In his debut, McGonigle found four hits (two doubles), scoring twice and knocking in another two. A day later, he had the single best plate appearance of the night, fighting off 10 Wandy Peralta pitches, without a whiff or called strike, to drive in the game-winning runs. McGonigle is largely penciled in to be a 2.5-3.5 WAR player. If he can exceed those expectations while taking away plate appearances from Zach McKinstry and Javier Báez, Detroit will have a newfound offensive ceiling.
Kevin McGonigle works a 10-pitch at-bat that ends in a two-run single to give the Tigers the LEAD pic.twitter.com/BWcachkXwF
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) March 28, 2026
Gleyber Torres and Colt Keith have started the year on the right foot. While Dillon Dingler has the team’s only homer, it was an adequate offensive showing. Scoring 13 runs in three games against the San Diego Padres is fine, even with Sunday’s shutout, and the pitching held firm. Skubal was his typical self and Valdez was excellent in his debut.
There are questions about the lineup’s depth and the bullpen’s potency, but winning a series against a competitive Padres team was a promising start. They began the year as division favorites and further entrenched themselves on Opening Weekend. So far, so good.
The Middle
No. 19 – San Francisco Giants
Since the most surprising 100-win season in recent memory, the San Francisco Giants have faded into baseball’s background. They aren’t the most talented team in baseball (or California). They certainly aren’t the most interesting, either. And even as a big-market club, finding stars has been a struggle. Their biggest splashes, signing Willy Adames and trading for Rafael Devers, are mired in as much skepticism as excitement. San Francisco had a quiet winter, headlined by the soft-hitting Luis Arraez moving up the defensive spectrum. It’s a whole lot of average, threatening to fulfill the .500 prophecies for the fifth year in a row.
Manager Tony Vitello hopes to change that. If nothing else, he has made San Francisco a story and a team to watch this spring. His transition from college to MLB has been ripe with turbulence, and his first series approached catastrophe.
The Giants were swept by the New York Yankees. There’s little shame in such a feat. Small samples are meaningless, and the Yankees, as listed below, are clearly elite competition. But the fashion in which San Francisco has fallen short is troubling. The Giants were shut out twice to begin the season before scratching across a run in the series finale. Outscored 13-1 in three games, New York looked better across the board.
This is a team led by its pitching and defense. Only Logan Webb comfortably projects for more than 2.0 fWAR. The Giants are below average defensively at first, second, and left, too, creating batted-ball concerns for a staff lacking strikeout stuff.
“We’re all Major League players, we can handle the ups and downs.”
Robbie Ray responds to manager Tony Vitello saying the #SFGiants were too emotional after their first two games. pic.twitter.com/PpbfYMWyB9
— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) March 28, 2026
That’s a recipe for underperformance, and Vitello’s first series of the regular season hasn’t added much optimism. He’s pointed to his pre-game speeches as a culprit, but his players seem to disagree. His major lineup shakeup felt panicky, his media relations look shaky, and publicly saying he can no longer talk down to his players doesn’t look good on paper.
Vitello will likely improve as his rookie season continues. He’ll have to if the Giants are going to complete their quest to mediocrity. Through three games, though, it’s worth considering whether they’re really better than teams like the Padres, Cincinnati Reds, and Atlanta Braves.
It was a disastrous start for San Francisco, albeit mitigated by the level of competition and an expanded playoff field. The Giants must tread water to remain in this second group of teams. With upcoming dates with San Diego, New York, and Philadelphia, that’s no guarantee.
Wait Until 2027
No. 28 – Los Angeles Angels
The only ones with any illusions about the Los Angeles Angels seem to be the Angels themselves. Los Angeles has once again run back the strategy of “guys you remember for good reasons that no longer exist,” this time with a lame-duck manager in Kurt Suzuki.
Will it work? Almost certainly not. The Angels have the second-worst playoff odds (FanGraphs) and little in the form of prospect reinforcements. Los Angeles lacks direction, and as Arte Moreno’s perpetual impatience takes its toll, this Angels squad will fight to avoid the first 100-loss season in franchise history.
However, for a weekend in Houston, Orange County’s finest took part in the festivities. Los Angeles split its four-game set with the Astros, winning the first two contests and offering the courtesy of entertainment in the following losses.
For nobody is this more important than the mortal Mike Trout. Last year was the first of Trout’s decline that couldn’t be chalked up entirely to health. He was a worse ballplayer, shuttled into 185 innings of work in right field. Trout played in 130 games but generated just 1.8 fWAR; his 120 wRC+ was the worst mark since his brief cameo in 2011.
Don’t want to make too much of it, given it’s only 3 games, but Mike Trout appears to be up to his old tricks.
His 0.6 fWAR currently leads all of baseball as we enter the first full week of play.
Hitting .462 with a 311 wRC+ while also playing plus-CF (+2 Rtot, +1 DRS). pic.twitter.com/2EkfObcU4G
— Louis Addeo-Weiss (@addeo_louis00) March 30, 2026
Simply put, Trout looked like his old self in Houston. He slashed .462/.650/.923 across 20 plate appearances. He hit two home runs, halved his stolen base total from last year, and made a diving catch in center field.
Hopefully, Trout’s promising start is a sign of more to come, that generational talents can defy the age curve. It seems like a much tougher task for Los Angeles to hold up its end of the bargain. We remain unconvinced of the Angels’ fortuity, despite the decent start. Even so, there are reasons to tune in. Zach Neto is one of the game’s most underrated stars. Nolan Schanuel is hitting for power now, and the combination of Jo Adell and Josh Lowe should create a league-average outfield.
The pitching was unsurprisingly rocky. José Soriano may have taken a step forward, and as the unquestioned ace, his path to production might be found in better infield defense. The Angels will look to capture the upward momentum of Reid Detmers and Grayson Rodriguez (when healthy) behind him, and while they aren’t the safest of bets, it’s a sign of life from an otherwise despondent pitching staff.
Los Angeles has earned our pessimism, and it’ll take more than a .500 start to earn our respect. As long as Trout puts on the cape, though, we’ll be happy to keep watching.
Feature image by Michael Packard (@CollectingPack on Twitter) | Photos by Brian Rothmuller & Terence Lewis/Icon Sportswire
