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? 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?
The baseball world descended on Philadelphia for a half-week of All-Star festivities. It didn’t take very long into Tuesday’s action for the allure of regular-season baseball to return.
Fortunately, we’re back to our regularly scheduled programming, pressing play on the pennant races and trade rumors that make the July heat bearable. For now, that means focusing on our gracious All-Star hosts, the Philadelphia Phillies.
We know by now that firing one’s manager in season doesn’t do much to change fortunes. But when a healthy Zack Wheeler and a Cy Young-contending hot streak coincide with said decision, narratives run wild. So be it. The Phillies are hot, the Atlanta Braves decidedly aren’t, and the result is an NL East race that didn’t exist on Memorial Day. It’s the kind of race that the Arizona Diamondbacks wish they were in and the Athletics squandered, setting the scene for this week’s power rankings.
Contender
No. 5 Philadelphia Phillies (55-45, -13 run differential)
Philly’s attempt to chase down Atlanta isn’t finished. But after the Braves’ bats went cold, a lineup with Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber has become the envy of the NL East.
That isn’t to say the Phillies lack issues, some of which may prove fatal come October. The left side of the infield, held down by Alec Bohm and Trea Turner, is one of the worst sub-units in the sport. Two-thirds of the outfield is flirting with replacement level. And every fifth day, Aaron Nola’s contract looks a little worse.
Yet, Philadelphia is 25-16 since the calendar hit June. You can still see the vision of a championship contender, headlined by a playoff rotation with Wheeler, Cristopher Sánchez, and Jesús Luzardo. There’s more pedigree and playoff experience here than most contenders, with a strong late-inning bullpen to boot. It’s clear now that the Phillies were playing below their talent level early in the year. That has normalized. The result is a three-game deficit with 62 games to play, and it’s getting increasingly difficult to trust Atlanta.
10 strikeouts for Zack Wheeler!
He’s recorded 10+ Ks in 3 consecutive starts 👏 pic.twitter.com/3Q5fyFY428
— MLB (@MLB) July 12, 2026
That leaves Dave Dombrowski with two weeks to mold Philadelphia’s playoff hopes. It might come in the form of a Brad Keller replacement or a corner infield/outfield bat, but something is coming, and given their spot on the win curve, Dombrowski could make the most impactful move of the summer.
As the Los Angeles Dodgers learned last year, nobody wants to play the Phillies when weather gets worse. They took the eventual champions to the brink, scarred their fanbase in the process, and are now setting the scene for a sequel.
The Middle
No. 14 Arizona Diamondbacks (51-48, -11 run differential)
Is there a National League team less relevant than the Diamondbacks? The NL East is stocked with stories, good and bad, that have dominated headlines. The timezone over was even messier as surprising playoff contenders shaped early-season discourse. Out west, it’s Los Angeles and three teams in various degrees of free fall… and the Diamondbacks.
Arizona has nine pitchers on the injured list and one healthy starter with a sub-4.00 ERA. The roster isn’t quite as top-heavy as Philadelphia, either, despite the prowess of Corbin Carroll. Ketel Marte and Geraldo Perdomo are both falling short of expectations. It’s a lot of fringe-average, and the 27th-best starting rotation (by fWAR) isn’t doing any heavy lifting.
¡Eduardo Rodriguez con su debut en All-Star Games! 🇻🇪
Hola y adiós a los tres bateadores que enfrentó. pic.twitter.com/N8CWQUPKMi
— MLB Español (@mlbespanol) July 15, 2026
I’m not entirely sure how the Diamondbacks remain almost perfectly average. However, my best guess is that they are winning on the margins. Arizona’s bullpen ranks 13th in ERA and 15th in WAR, but second in WPA. Of the seven relievers with the most innings on this staff, Paul Sewald is the only arm with an ERA north of 3.00. We can safely file that under stats that are both meaningless for the second half and very descriptive of how we’ve gotten to this point.
Likewise, the Diamondbacks rank second in defensive WAR, with no real challenger behind them. It’s a recipe for outperforming one’s Pythagorean record, which might be enough if the other divisions can cannibalize themselves.
Arizona is only a half-game out of a playoff spot, with a handful of easy offensive fixes for deadline season. They’re a Marte hot streak away from forcing our hand closer to the top 10, even if it isn’t quite as sensible as we’d hope from afar.
Wait ’til 2027
No. 25 Athletics (42-57, -114 run differential)
The Athletics didn’t benefit from strong preseason projections, but in mid-May, their performance gave them a coin-flip chance at postseason play.
They are now eight games out of the worst division in baseball.
Needless to say, things have gone wrong in West Sacramento. Jeff McNeil and Lawrence Butler are utterly unplayable. Nick Kurtz isn’t ready for baseball activities, and Brent Rooker’s season is over. As strong as the top of this lineup looked to be, the bottom of the rotation is worse, which makes for a lot of relief innings—good news for accumulating WAR. One bullpen has generated less value.
Ranking last in defensive WAR certainly doesn’t help either, thrusting an ugly pitching staff deeper into the jaws of Sacramento’s launching pad.
JKG makes an AMAZING diving catch 😮 pic.twitter.com/38uw0ZM9WH
— Athletics on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) Athletics/status/2078679217391444287?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>July 19, 2026
The Athletics have the building blocks for their next playoff team, wherever their home games may be. There’s a nice assortment of contact and pop under team control, and J.T. Ginn and Gage Jump have locked themselves into long-term rotation roles. In a division that looks extra winnable when the Seattle Mariners struggle, the future is brighter than ownership’s blight would suggest.
It’s just not happening this year, with this roster, in this stadium. Maybe we’ll fall in love again early next spring.
Feature image by Michael Packard (@CollectingPack on Twitter) | Photos by Randy Litzinger, David J. Griffin & Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire
