Assigning Grades for Every MLB Team Halfway Through 2023 Season
Major League Baseball's All-Star break is still one week away, but every team has played at least 81 of its 162 games, making it time for a midterm report card.
For each squad, you'll see Preseason Win Total, Current Trajectory and Grade categories.
Preseason is simply what the DraftKings preseason win projections were, chronicled in this article published March 29, or "Opening Day Eve." (Please temporarily overlook our prognostication that both New York teams would exceed expectations, but hey, how about those Texas and Arizona picks?)
Current Trajectory is a 50-50 average of current winning percentage and current Pythagorean winning percentage—what the team's record should be based on run differential—extrapolated to 162 games.
And from there, grades are based entirely upon how that trajectory compares to the preseason win total.
Teams on a trajectory within one in either direction of their preseason win total received a C. Those on pace for 13 or more wins than expected got at least an A-minus, while those on pace for 13 or more losses than expected have been deemed failures.
Teams are presented in alphabetical order.
Arizona Diamondbacks
1 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 75.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 50-34, +40, 92.3 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: B
Current Grade: A
Who would have guessed in the preseason that Arizona would be the first NL West team and the fourth overall team to crack the 50-win plateau?
After spending the entirety of May slightly behind the Dodgers in the NL West, the Diamondbacks surged into first place in early June and have maintained that lead for nearly a full month.
Ketel Marte has reharnessed whatever mojo made him an NL MVP candidate in 2019, while rookie sensation Corbin Carroll is doing everything in his power to keep Ronald Acuña Jr. from running away with this year's NL MVP award. Carroll is batting .290 with 17 home runs and 24 stolen bases. In June alone, he had eight of each in 26 games played, good for a 50/50 162-game pace.
We'll see if Arizona's pitching can hold up, though. Recently losing Merrill Kelly (blood clot) to the IL for no one knows how long could be a huge blow. The D-backs were likely already going to be in the market to add a starting pitcher ahead of the trade deadline, but now they might really need one.
Atlanta Braves
2 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 94.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 55-27, +136, 107.3 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: B+
Current Grade: B+
A lot of readers were livid in mid-May when Atlanta was given a B-plus grade, despite having the best record in the National League and despite being the favorite to win the World Series.
Well, all of those things are still true. Atlanta is an even heavier favorite (+350) to win it all than it was seven weeks ago (+600) and is running away with the NL's No. 1 seed, and merely has a B-plus to show for it.
But let's not forget that these grades are based on how the team has performed relative to preseason expectations, and that Atlanta was viewed as one of the top World Series threats to open the year.
Anything better than a C for a preseason World Series candidate is pretty remarkable.
Case in point: Of the seven teams that had preseason win totals of at least 90—Atlanta, Houston, San Diego, Toronto, both New Yorks and the Los Angeles Dodgers—Atlanta is the only one with a grade better than C-minus. Moreover, of the 13 teams with a preseason win total of at least 84, only Tampa Bay and Atlanta are on track to surpass their win total, let alone on track to do so by more than 10 wins.
So, put down your pitchforks. We're not disrespecting this NL juggernaut with this grade.
Baltimore Orioles
3 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 76.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 48-33, +19, 90.4 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: A+
Current Grade: A-
Did you know that prior to this weekend, the Orioles had only endured one three-game losing streak all season?
It came in early May during back-to-back series against Atlanta and Tampa Bay. They went 3-3 overall during that six-game stretch against the two best teams in the majors but just so happened to drop three straight in the middle.
Aside from that, they've been the kings of consistency, reeling off the occasional sweep while avoiding any sort of prolonged funk.
A modest run differential is holding the O's back a bit in their trajectory, but they are still on track to post the sixth-best record in the bigs. And with Gunnar Henderson blossoming into a legitimate rookie star over the past seven weeks, it is growing easier to believe they'll actually stay on that track.
Boston Red Sox
4 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 78.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 42-42, +12, 82.1 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: A-
Current Grade: C+
Though currently in the basement of it, the Red Sox have held their own in a loaded AL East, entering Sunday's series finale against Toronto at 15-11 overall against the sport's best division.
However, interleague play has been their undoing.
The maddening part is it's not even the toughest interleague opponents, either. Boston won its series in Arizona, won its series in Milwaukee and split its series in Atlanta, going 5-3 away from home against those division leaders.
Unfortunately, the Red Sox were swept at home by the Marlins, swept at home by the Pirates and swept at home by the Cardinals. They've also lost home series against the Reds and Rockies in the process of sputtering to an 11-18 record against the National League.
Flip that record on its ear and Boston would be right in the thick of the AL playoff hunt. Instead, the Red Sox will need to beat a bunch of NL teams in order to avoid being sellers at the trade deadline, as they play a combined 11 games against the Cubs, Mets, Braves and Giants in July.
Chicago Cubs
5 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 77.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 38-43, +26, 81.2 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: A-
Current Grade: C+
If any team is going to do what the Mariners did last season—catch fire in early July to enter the All-Star break as a legitimate contender out of seemingly nowhere—it's probably going to be the Cubs, right?
They have the talent. They entered play Saturday tied for the eighth-best run differential in the majors, with every team in the top seven in that department sitting at least seven games above .500.
For whatever reason, though, Chicago hasn't yet been able to parlay that into a winning record, making this team a gigantic unknown of a domino one month out from the trade deadline.
The Cubs could heat up and win this division. Or they could sputter through a winnable second half of July—16 straight against Boston, Washington, St. Louis and the White Sox—before putting both Marcus Stroman and Cody Bellinger on the trade block.
Chicago White Sox
6 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 82.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 36-49, -59, 69.1 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: F-
Current Grade: F+
The good news is the White Sox have improved their trajectory by almost a full letter grade in the past six weeks, landing just barely on the wrong side of the D-minus/F-plus cutline. Only a handful of teams managed to pull that off.
The bad news is they're still a mess and haven't actually improved enough to justify hanging on to their many expiring assets ahead of the trade deadline.
That could still change, as the AL Central is doing everything in its power to keep Chicago from throwing in the towel. Despite sitting 13 games below .500, the White Sox are only 6.5 games back of first place in the division. They're closer to a playoff spot than the Padres or Mets are.
But with the exception of Luis Robert Jr. and the occasional Jake Burger moonshot, this season has been one gigantic disappointment for the White Sox, destined to produce a fire sale.
Cincinnati Reds
7 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 65.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 44-39, -21, 81.6 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: C+
Current Grade: A
Even before calling up Elly De La Cruz on June 6, the Reds were starting to heat up, winning seven out of 12 before the rookie's triumphant arrival.
But seven of 12 pales in comparison to the 17 out of 22 games they won after getting EDLC onto the roster.
The pitching still leaves quite a bit to be desired, as the only NL teams that have allowed more runs than Cincinnati dating back to June 6 are Pittsburgh and Colorado.
However, the Reds have taken on an early-2000s St. Louis Rams or mid-2010s Houston Rockets vibe of "defense be damned; we'll just outscore you and be the most entertaining team in the sport."
Whether they actually win the NL Central remains to be seen, but the Reds are probably going to be the first team to reach the over on their preseason win total.
Cleveland Guardians
8 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 86.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 40-42, -10, 78.9 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: F
Current Grade: D
The Guardians haven't had a winning record since they were 10-9, but at least the offense has finally woken up.
They were slugging .350 as a team at the end of May, but José Ramírez, Josh Naylor and Co. heated up in a big way in June as the Guardians at least temporarily caught up to the Twins atop this woeful division.
Now we wait to see if rookie catcher Bo Naylor is the catalyst for a turnaround like Adley Rutschman was for the Orioles last year.
The top prospect got the call on June 18, which was immediately followed by a four-game winning streak. But he's still finding his way with a .167 batting average and a sky-high strikeout rate. If he starts to deliver, though, Cleveland should make a more legitimate push toward running away with the AL Central.
Colorado Rockies
9 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 65.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 33-52, -137, 60.6 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: C+
Current Grade: D+
The 25-1 loss to the Angels on June 24 was a bit extreme, but Colorado's pitching has been some kind of awful all season.
Since shutting out the Phillies on May 14, the Rockies have allowed multiple runs in 44 consecutive games—302 total. That's 67 more than any other team has allowed during that time, and just a shade under seven runs allowed per game.
But what else is new, right?
Colorado "led" the league in runs allowed last season and has been searching for above-average pitching for its entire three-decade existence. This year, the Rockies have had 11 different pitchers make multiple starts, each of whom has an ERA of 4.70 or worse.
And with only one player (Ryan McMahon) who has hit 10 or more home runs, they simply aren't built to slug their way through bad pitching.
Detroit Tigers
10 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 69.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 36-46, -81, 67.6 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: C
Current Grade: C-
In late May, the Tigers were surging as a surprise contender, climbing to within one game of .500 and within one game of the Twins on May 28.
However, within the next 48 hours, they lost their two best players (Eduardo Rodriguez and Riley Greene) to the IL and immediately imploded, plummeting from 25-26 to 27-39 in the blink of an eye.
They've leveled out since then, posting a winning record over their last 16 games, even though their injured list is a mile long. But they've ended up pretty much right where they were expected to be, looking like a 65- to 70-win team that will be selling at the trade deadline.
Houston Astros
11 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 95.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 45-38, +55, 90.1 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: D
Current Grade: D+
Since polishing off their second sweep of Oakland on May 28, the reigning champs have gone just 14-17, with the pitching staff largely to blame for that mediocrity.
Not Framber Valdez nor J.P. France. They each made five starts in June with a sub-2.75 ERA. But the Astros allowed at least five runs in 13 of those 30 games, struggling to win series against anything other than teams that are at least eight games below .500.
Like the Yankees and Dodgers, though, Houston is still in good shape to make the playoffs, despite not being quite as good as it should.
Hopefully they're able to get Yordan Alvarez (oblique) back in the lineup shortly after the All-Star break. They're going to need him if they want to chase down the Rangers to win the AL West.
Kansas City Royals
12 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 69.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 24-59, -139, 50.7 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: F
Current Grade: F
Respect to the Royals for not even waiting until the beginning of July to unload their best trade piece, sending Aroldis Chapman to the Rangers for pitcher Cole Ragans and 17-year-old prospect Roni Cabrera.
By making him a three-month rental instead of waiting to turn him into a two-month rental, maybe they got a little more out of it.
And, well, at least that's a silver lining on being a dumpster fire for the first half of the season and knowing before Independence Day that you're just playing for draft position.
Now that there's a lottery for the top six picks instead of No. 1 simply being awarded to the worst team from the previous season, the race between Kansas City and Oakland for worst record is less intriguing. But if watching that unfold is your cup of tea, heads up that the A's will host the Royals for a midweek series in late August. You just might be able to find tickets for that Wednesday afternoon game.
Los Angeles Angels
13 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 82.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 44-41, +30, 85.2 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: C+
Current Grade: C+
We need to talk about the possible double Triple Crown.
Shohei Ohtani is leading the majors in both home runs and RBI. He entered Saturday second in the AL in strikeouts, fourth in batting average and eighth in ERA. He only has seven wins, so that part probably isn't happening. But it's outrageous we can even have this conversation.
Tragically but naturally, the Angels still would not make the playoffs if the season ended today. But at least they have been marginally better than expected and close enough to a playoff spot that trading Ohtani simply is not within the realm of possibility.
That said, their next 11 games are against the Padres, Dodgers, Astros and Yankees, and they haven't won a series in two weeks. We'd love to see the Angels finally make a postseason with the unicorn, but a predeadline collapse is still a very real possibility here.
Los Angeles Dodgers
14 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 95.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 46-36, +66, 91.8 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: C+
Current Grade: C-
C-minus might feel like a harsh grade for a team 10 games above .500 with the fourth-best run differential in the majors, but there's no denying the Dodgers are behind where we thought they'd be.
Los Angeles was tied with Houston for the highest preseason win total, projected to finish one game ahead of Atlanta for the No. 1 seed in the National League. Instead, the Dodgers find themselves nine games behind the Braves, three games back of the Diamondbacks in the NL West and jostling with the Marlins, Giants and Phillies for the three wild-card spots.
In early May, it looked like they had figured things out, winning 14 out of 16 games before ending May 15 in first place in the NL.
But since then, they've endured more three-game losing streaks (two) than three-game winning streaks (one) as the starting rotation (aside from Clayton Kershaw) has fallen apart. Per FanGraphs, Dodgers starters have a cumulative ERA of 5.26 since May 16, good for third-worst in the majors.
Miami Marlins
15 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 76.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 48-36, -19, 84.8 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: D
Current Grade: B
People get furious when we refer to the Marlins as lucky, but, again, put down your pitchforks. It's merely a reference to the "Luck" column on Baseball Reference's standings page, which shows that Miami has eight more wins than it should have based on its run differential. That's the most in baseball.
But while the Marlins were once a team that seemingly could not lose a one-run game, they have been just plain good as of late, going 23-10 with a plus-31 run differential dating back to May 26.
Granted, they did play a lot of those games against the likes of Oakland, Kansas City, Washington and Pittsburgh, and they have been absolutely destroyed by Atlanta this season, entering Sunday's game at 1-8 with a negative-51 run differential against the NL East leaders. Any lingering skepticism about the Fish is understandable.
Still, brace yourself for a brand-new world in which the Marlins are a buyer at the trade deadline.
Milwaukee Brewers
16 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 85.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 44-39, -19, 81.4 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: C+
Current Grade: D+
Fun Fact: Milwaukee has spent the entire season within two games of the NL Central division lead.
Occasionally, the Brewers will surge into first place by up to two games. Sometimes, they'll be in a close second. But it already feels like they are destined to enter the final weekend of the regular season in a tie for the division crown—perhaps even with the Chicago Cubs, for what would be a ginormous final head-to-head series, since the NL Central is looking unlikely to produce a wild-card team.
Will Brandon Woodruff—out since April 8 with a shoulder injury—be healthy for that series? Or will Corbin Burnes (4.00 ERA) snap out of his subpar season to carry them across the finish line? Perhaps assisted by a HR/SB combo meal from Christian Yelich, who hit .311 in June and is quietly starting to look at least a little bit like the NL MVP that he was five years ago?
This still feels like Milwaukee's division to lose, even though it hasn't lived up to the preseason hype.
Minnesota Twins
17 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 83.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 42-42, +32, 84.5 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: B-
Current Grade: C+
Minnesota's pitching has ranked among the best in the majors.
Joe Ryan recently got lit up by Atlanta, but he entered that start with a sub-3.00 ERA. Both Sonny Gray and Bailey Ober are still in that sub-3.00 club. And while Pablo López's ERA is north of 4.00, he has been every bit as good as the rest of the rotation.
Factor in Jhoan Duran's unhittable stuff in the ninth inning and the Twins should certainly at least have a winning record.
But the offense simply has not been good enough.
At the start of play Sunday, the only Twins who ranked top-11 on the roster in plate appearances and had an on-base percentage of .315 or better were Donovan Solano and Alex Kirilloff.
Considering the league-average OBP is .320, that's pretty bad.
If only they had held onto Luis Arráez...
New York Mets
18 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 91.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 37-46, -16, 75.0 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: F+
Current Grade: F
The Mets have gone from an F-plus down to a straight F and are even flirting with a dubious F-minus, as the men from Queens have been the kings of disappointment.
Even if they wanted to throw in the towel at the trade deadline, there wasn't exactly an eject button built into this nearly half-billion dollar machine.
Of the 11 players on the 40-man roster making more than $10 million this season, the only one not signed through at least next season is Carlos Carrasco. And even trading the massive salaries of Max Scherzer and/or Justin Verlander wouldn't actually save the Mets all that much money.
Sure would be something if the Mets end up with the worst record in the National League for what would be the biggest bust in the history of "World Series or Bust" teams.
New York Yankees
19 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 93.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 46-37, +36, 89.2 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: C-
Current Grade: D+
The Yankees are still very much in the mix for a playoff spot, and they made history last week with Domingo Germán's perfect game against Oakland.
However, this season has not gone according to plan, largely because of the constant state of multiple key injuries.
Just between Aaron Judge, Harrison Bader, Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Donaldson, we're talking 144 games played out of a possible 332. There's also Carlos Rodón, who has yet to appear in a game in pinstripes, and Nestor Cortes landing on the IL just a few days after his rotation mate, Luis Severino, was able to make his season debut in late May.
The Yankees have woken up basically every morning of the entire season with more money on the IL than any other team. But they should still be playing better than they are.
Oakland Athletics
20 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 60.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 23-62, -236, 42.7 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: F-
Current Grade: F
Don't you just love the randomness of a small sample size of Major League Baseball?
The A's were 12-50 on June 5, which is a .194 winning percentage. The odds of that team winning seven consecutive games—let alone seven consecutive games against Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Tampa Bay, which all had winning records at the time—were 1-in-98,282.
Yet, they pulled off that miracle...only to still have the worst current record in the big leagues.
Per Sporting News, the worst run differential in MLB history belongs to the 1932 Boston Red Sox, who ended up at negative-349. Oakland is on pace to finish at negative-457 and could make a run at the 1996 Detroit Tigers (1,103 runs allowed) for the worst pitching staff since 1940.
Philadelphia Phillies
21 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 88.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 44-38, +7, 84.7 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: F+
Current Grade: C-
If the Phillies were an F-plus on May 10, they were surely an F-minus after June 2. At that point, they were 25-32 with a negative-46 run differential, tied with the Nationals for last place in the NL East.
Since then, however, they've been one of the best teams in baseball, going 19-6 to vault back into the race for a playoff spot.
Saturday's 19-4 annihilation of Washington did finally push them up to a positive run differential for what I believe was the first time all season. Still, the reigning NL champs have some serious ground to cover in order to meet the preseason hype.
Getting Bryce Harper (no home runs since May 26) to start hitting again would be a big step in the right direction.
Pittsburgh Pirates
22 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 68.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 39-42, -34, 76.1 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: A
Current Grade: B
On the one hand, the Pirates are still in better shape than was expected three months ago. The old guard of Rich Hill, Andrew McCutchen and Carlos Santana has had a solid collective campaign, while the likes of Mitch Keller and Jack Suwinski have blossomed into legitimate building blocks for the future.
On the other hand, since winning 20 of their first 28 games, the Pirates have won just 19 of their last 54, jostling with Oakland and Kansas City for the worst record since late April.
They lost a series at home to the A's, shortly before enduring a 10-game losing streak.
Pittsburgh is still within a stone's throw of winning this division, but not with any sort of positive momentum.
San Diego Padres
23 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 93.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 38-45, +24, 80.1 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: D-
Current Grade: F+
Pitching has not been San Diego's problem. Among National League teams, only Atlanta has allowed fewer runs this season.
It's the star-studded lineup that has let the Padres down time and again.
Juan Soto and Fernando Tatis Jr. have been great at the dish, but both Xander Bogaerts and Manny Machado are still finding their way after agreeing to deals worth a combined $630 million this offseason. And the Padres don't have enough beyond that fearsome foursome to be able to tread water while two of them struggle.
Machado did homer twice in Saturday's win over Cincinnati, though. If that sparks a strong second half, maybe there's still hope here for a team that does have a plus-24 run differential. But San Diego needs to make up a lot of ground just to get back into the wild-card conversation.
Finally winning an extra-inning game would help, too. That 0-7 record is brutal.
San Francisco Giants
24 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 81.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 46-37, +40, 89.3 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: D
Current Grade: B
A bunch of teams improved by one full letter grade since the quarter mark.
But an improvement of two full letter grades is quite remarkable.
At the previous check-in, the Giants were on a trajectory for 72 wins, sitting at 16-19 with a negative-23 run differential. They proceeded to lose four of their next five games, dropping their trajectory down to roughly 69. They would have been a D-minus bordering on an F-plus on the morning of May 15.
But since then, they've gone 29-14 with a plus-67 differential, completely rewriting the script on what looked like a broken season.
They could use another outfielder and probably another starting pitcher ahead of the trade deadline, but they have leaned heavily upon the best bullpen in baseball to cement themselves as a contender.
Seattle Mariners
25 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 87.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 39-42, +16, 81.2 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: D+
Current Grade: D+
Despite losing Robbie Ray just one start into the season, Seattle's pitching has been mighty impressive. At the start of play Saturday, all 13 active pitchers on the staff had a FIP of 3.77 or better.
But after back-to-back seasons as one of the luckiest teams in baseball, Seattle can't seem to buy a close win in 2023.
The M's were 67-41 in one-run games and 25-12 in extra-inning games between 2021 and 2022, but they are 8-15 and 4-8, respectively, this year, "leading" the majors in losses that required at least 10 innings.
As a result, they are three games below .500 in spite of a positive run differential.
And with series away from home against San Francisco, Houston, Minnesota and Arizona in July, it's probably time to at least start thinking about what they should sell at the trade deadline.
St. Louis Cardinals
26 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 88.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 34-48, -28, 71.4 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: F-
Current Grade: F
In late May, it looked like the Cardinals had finally arrived. After a hideous 10-24 start, they won 14 out of 20 games, clawing into third place in the division, just four games back.
But it didn't last. They lost 17 of the next 26 games, culminating in a particularly embarrassing 14-0 loss to the Astros in their final game of June.
In short, the jig is up, and for the first time in a long time, there won't be much to root for in St. Louis in August and September.
Will they trade their stockpile of pitchers hitting free agency next month, or will they hang on to Jordan Montgomery, Jack Flaherty, Jordan Hicks and more? And if they do unload those pitchers, do they also look into moving Paul Goldschmidt and/or Tyler O'Neill, who are slated to hit free agency after next season?
Tampa Bay Rays
27 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 88.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 57-29, +158, 108.3 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: A++++
Current Grade: A+
In mid-May, the Rays were on pace for a historic 126 wins, but they were never going to be able to keep that up.
Though they have fallen well off that pace as of late, this is still arguably the best team in the majors.
In particular, the slugging has faded. After leading the majors by a laughable margin with 61 home runs in March/April, they managed just 25 round-trippers in June. They're still leading the AL in year-to-date home runs—as well as leading the majors in stolen bases—but that power outage is why they've slipped from "legendarily dominant" to "pretty good."
It will be interesting to see what they decide to do about the trade deadline, as yet another great starting pitcher landed on the IL this week in Shane McClanahan (back).
They already lost Jeffrey Springs (Tommy John) for the season and we've heard nothing about Drew Rasmussen (flexor strain) in the nearly two months since he landed on the IL. The rotation is in shambles at this point, but they haven't actually lost any ground in the AL East, so maybe they just try to ride it out.
Texas Rangers
28 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 82.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 50-33, +158, 103.1 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: A+
Current Grade: A+
From a pythagorean record perspective, Texas actually has been the unluckiest team in baseball. It's kind of wild to say that about a 50-33 team with a five-game lead in a strong division, but the Rangers' run differential suggests they should be 56-27.
That's because of their healthy stockpile of blowout wins. They are 23-0 when scoring at least eight runs, which is a mark they've been able to hit almost once per series on average.
Such is life when you've got nine hitters with an OPS+ of 117 or better. Nathaniel Lowe is batting .272 with eight home runs, and he is occasionally the only player in the starting lineup with an OPS below .800. Wild.
Trading for Aroldis Chapman was huge, as the bullpen is the closest thing this team has to a weakness. Don't be surprised if they bring in at least one more reliever as they try to hang on to first in the AL West.
Toronto Blue Jays
29 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 91.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 45-39, +20, 85.9 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: C-
Current Grade: D+
Despite having six players with double-digit home runs, a starting rotation that has been four-fifths solid and a great closer, the Blue Jays haven't been quite what was expected and seem to have spent this entire season just kind of lurking in the shadows.
Bo Bichette and Matt Chapman have been stellar and should both be headed for some MVP votes. Meanwhile, Kevin Gausman is well on his way to Cy Young consideration.
Yet, every time we look, Toronto is perpetually within a game of the wild-card cutline, almost content with underachieving its way to the No. 6 seed.
Perhaps the upcoming series against the White Sox and Tigers will serve as a springboard into a strong second half of the season.
Washington Nationals
30 of 30
Preseason Win Total: 59.5
Record, Run Differential and Current Trajectory: 33-49, -76, 65.7 wins
Quarter-Season Grade: B+
Current Grade: B-
Though nowhere close to actually relevant, the Nationals remain a pleasant surprise after opening the season projected for the worst record in baseball.
It's a foregone conclusion that they'll be trading impending free agent Jeimer Candelario, who has been one of their most valuable players. But Lane Thomas has been a breakout star while Josiah Gray and MacKenzie Gore have been reliable young cogs in the starting rotation.
The under-25 club of Keibert Ruiz, CJ Abrams and Luis García has also shown itself worthy of playing on an everyday basis.
For the Nationals, 2023 was never about winning games. It was about finding building blocks for the future. And they have done just that.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics and records are current through the start of play Sunday.
