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David Schoenfield
Multiple Authors
As we wrap up the 2026 Major League Baseball regular season, it’s time for some final grades.
As expected, the Los Angeles Dodgers challenged the single-season record for wins. The New York Mets had a huge offseason that paid off with the National League East title. The New York Yankees dominated the American League East. The Milwaukee Brewers failed to scrap their way to the playoffs. Tarik Skubal carried the Detroit Tigers to the AL Central championship. The Chicago White Sox? A joke once again.
Wait … no, that’s not at all what happened. The only joke — outside of the usual ineptitude we see from the clubs at the bottom of the majors — was the AL West, which might see a team with a losing record capture the division title.
The 2026 season might not have gone as expected, but we still had breakout performances, surprising teams, unpredictable results, a flamethrowing phenom, a season for the ages and a very mediocre AL. Let’s go to the grades.
What a wonderful, engaging and thrilling regular season for the Brewers. They’ve already set the franchise record for wins in a single season, breaking last year’s mark of 97, and are heading to the top record in the majors for the second year in a row. Jacob Misiorowski has been the best individual story of the season — alongside division rival Pete Crow-Armstrong — but it has been an impressive teamwide effort.
Milwaukee’s rookie pitchers have started 77 games, most in the majors, while another pair of rookies in shortstop Cooper Pratt and right fielder Luis Lara will be starting in October. Brice Turang’s 6.9 bWAR is second among MLB position players, and he should finish in the top five of the MVP voting. Oh, and the bullpen is top five in the majors in win probability added.
Not bad for a team that was 11th in ESPN’s preseason power rankings. At least we got “the thing we’ll be talking about most this season” right for Milwaukee: Misiorowski’s sophomore year.
Nope, the Rays never faded. In fact, they went 18-10 in August and are 14-6 in September after clinching the division (and the top record in the AL) with a win over the Yankees on Tuesday.
Tampa Bay has been a little hard to analyze at times as it has gone 25-14 in one-run games, which helps erase its 22-23 record in blowout games decided by five-plus. (Good teams almost always have a winning record in blowout games, so this is a weird anomaly.) While Junior Caminero has been a standout and Jonathan Aranda is closing in on 100 RBIs, it has been a year of unsung heroes: Drew Rasmussen, who started the division-clinching win on Tuesday, has 16 wins and a 2.67 ERA, while Nick Martinez has 15 wins and a 2.94 ERA; Griffin Jax transitioned from reliever to starter; Bryan Baker leads the majors in saves; Victor Mesa Jr. added surprising power in the second half.
You can ask the same question about the Brewers and the Rays: Will this be the year?
More steady than dominant, the Braves built an early lead in the NL East but appeared vulnerable at times to the Phillies catching them — a lead that was as large as 10½ games on May 22 got as low as two games — but Atlanta beat Philadelphia four out of seven games in September to essentially wrap up the division.
Huge shoutout to Chris Sale, who carried a rotation that received just eight starts from Spencer Strider and none from Spencer Schwellenbach. Grant Holmes and Martin Perez also stepped up, while trade addition Tyler Mahle has been the best pickup of the deadline. Alongside Sale, the bullpen has been the team’s MVP, with the highest win probability added in the majors.
We’re keeping this an A for now, although if the White Sox can rally over these final few days and win the division, it should bump up to an A+ as one of the least likely division titles in recent memory. Preseason forecasts: 61-101 on ESPN, 67-95 on FanGraphs. Instead, with Miguel Vargas, Munetaka Murakami and Colson Montgomery each topping 30 home runs, the White Sox have slugged their way — hopefully — into the playoffs, even if it’s just as a wild card.
They got just enough pitching, especially from a bullpen that has pitched the most innings in the majors (and is wearing down a bit as the season ends). Heck, Tristan Peters went from former Savannah Banana to AL All-Star. What’s not to love about this season?
For most teams, closing in on 100 wins is an easy A grade. For the Dodgers, that’s called meeting expectations. True, they might get there even though Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell have combined for just 20 starts and Shohei Ohtani didn’t pitch again after early July, finishing with a 1.79 ERA in 14 starts. But still, nobody feels sorry for them. Those various pitching injury concerns led to the Skubal trade.
So, the concerns have now shifted to an offense that scuffled at times in the second half — although it has averaged 5.7 runs per game during the current 15-3 stretch. Even Kyle Tucker is suddenly red-hot, with six home runs and a .641 slugging percentage in September. That stretch, other than Tuesday’s win over the Padres, came against non-playoff teams with bad pitching, though — the Dodgers are just 18-18 against the five other NL playoff teams.
Nonetheless, with Skubal and Snell pitching well and Yoshinobu Yamamoto as good as ever, the Dodgers might be peaking at the right time.
It has been a roller coaster of a season for the Padres, who are playing their best baseball heading into October. They got off to a strong start that saw them 29-18 on May 18 and in first place in the division — even though Fernando Tatis Jr. hadn’t homered, Manny Machado was hitting .180 and Jackson Merrill was hitting .202. Remarkably, Tatis didn’t homer until his 56th game but is now up to 25.
By July 23, however, the Padres were 50-53, but they won eight of nine just before the trade deadline and general manager A.J. Preller boosted the rotation with Casey Mize and Robbie Ray. Those two haven’t actually pitched well, but the resurgent offense has helped them match the Rays for the best record since the deadline. With Tatis and Merrill on fire, Ty France having a huge season and Mason Miller ready to lock things down in the ninth inning, maybe this is the Padres team that gets to the World Series.
General manager Brian Cashman has been much maligned by Yankees fans in recent years for failing to build a World Series winner, but the depth of the roster he built has once again carried the team to the postseason. Even with Aaron Judge missing more than 90 games, the Yankees are still neck and neck with the Cubs for most home runs in the majors. Despite Max Fried, Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon missing significant time, they lead the majors in rotation ERA.
Two relievers Cashman picked up off the scrap pile of free talent, Paul Blackburn and Brent Headrick, are a key reason the Yankees are second in bullpen ERA. Then there’s Cam Schlittler, who burst onto the scene last year and has now turned into a sure-thing Cy Young winner. Judge’s right calf strain, which put him back on the IL — the reason he’s not expected to play in the wild-card series — is a big worry, but maybe the Yankees can pitch-and-defense their way to their first World Series championship since 2009.
The Red Sox are a playoff team, which isn’t necessarily a surprise, but it’s a huge surprise given they were 32-46 on June 24 and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow appeared like he might be joining manager Alex Cora on the unemployment line. Soon after, a 9-0 road trip turned into a 15-game winning streak, part of a remarkable 32-5 stretch — and they did that without Garrett Crochet and Roman Anthony, their projected two best players.
A bunch of unsung role players — such as Nick Sogard, Anthony Seigler, Mickey Gasper and Jake Bennett — have contributed, as has a bullpen that leads the majors in ERA and outfielders Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela, who have each posted 5-WAR seasons. Breslow went all-in to acquire Adley Rutschman at the deadline, giving up three top-10 prospects, but Rutschman has hit .214/.270/.398 in 28 games with the Red Sox.
The “win now” nature of that trade means the Red Sox aren’t really underdogs, even if they’re painted as such — and they’ll have to beat the Yankees and Rays just to reach the American League Championship Series.
No doubt, there’s a little “right division, right time” going on for the Guardians, but while the Tigers underachieved, and the Twins couldn’t put it all together, and the Royals stumbled around all season … well, none of that ever happens to the Guardians, does it? They always reach their level.
That’s mostly because the pitching is usually good and sometimes great. They’re the only team with four starters with at least 30 starts (no other team has more than two), and then they added Foster Griffin at the trade deadline. The offense has been much better in the second half with Steven Kwan getting on base at around a .400 clip, which sort of gets everything going. Rookies Chase DeLauter and Travis Bazzana rank Nos. 1-2 on the team in OPS+. Throw in team MVP Parker Messick — he’s 12-9 with a 2.55 ERA — and this might be the best rookie class in franchise history.
The goal was a division title — which has eluded the Cubs in a full season since 2017 — so finishing in second place for a fourth consecutive season, and not especially close to the Brewers either, is a bit anticlimactic. Thanks to Crow-Armstrong and the majors’ leading offense, however, it was an entertaining season — and the Cubs are at least headed to the playoffs barring a last-week collapse. PCA’s 10.6 FanGraphs WAR is the second highest by a position player in franchise history (behind Rogers Hornsby’s 11.0 WAR in 1929). That’s the stat of the year for the Cubs — followed by the 14 different relievers who have recorded a save (tied for second most in MLB history).
The Marlins are going to finish with about the same record as last season, but this was a much better club. The 2025 squad went 79-83 but had a minus-89 run differential. Sitting at plus-3 with a few games remaining, this year’s Marlins might finish with a positive run differential for the first time since — drumroll, please — 2010. Ouch.
Miami’s top takeaway of 2026 was the double-play combo of Otto Lopez and Xavier Edwards. While both faded at the plate in the second half, they still combined for 9 WAR, giving the Marlins their best middle infield since the heyday of Hanley Ramirez and Dan Uggla. Max Meyer made the All-Star team before finishing on the injured list with a neck injury, and Eury Perez flashed his top-of-the-rotation stuff (and midrotation inconsistency). Unfortunately, pitching prospects Thomas White (shoulder) and Robby Snelling (Tommy John surgery) were unable to impact the major league team as expected heading into the season.
The Nationals are probably going to finish third in the majors in runs scored, which nobody would have predicted heading into the season — and they’re doing it with the youngest group of position players in the league, per Baseball Reference. President of baseball operations Paul Toboni did cash in on Luis Garcia Jr. and Curtis Mead at the trade deadline, so the offense has been only middle-of-the-pack since then, but it’s a promising turnaround for a moribund franchise.
Has any player changed his game as much as CJ Abrams? When he came up with the Padres in 2022, he was a skinny, slap-hitting 21-year-old with no power — he ranked 262nd out of 281 position players in average exit velocity. Fast-forward to 2026 and he has hit 33 home runs. Now get Abrams and James Wood some pitching help.
Few teams have kept their core group in place for as many years as the Phillies — Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto, Bryson Stott and Alec Bohm have all been regulars since 2022, with Trea Turner joining the team in 2023 — and it looks likely to result in a fifth consecutive playoff appearance. It hasn’t been an easy season though.
Manager Rob Thomson got fired. The Phillies ceded the NL East title back to the Braves for the first time since 2023. The offense is mediocre (14th overall in runs, including 24th on the road). The defense, especially in the first half, was terrible. And now Jesus Luzardo, the team’s best starter the past two months, is injured with his playoff status up in the air. At least Aaron Nola is pitching his best baseball in a couple of years. Given the age of this team, it’s World Series or bust one more time.
What a fascinating yet ultimately frustrating season for the Pirates. They made a basically impossible improvement on offense, jumping from last in the majors in runs to fifth. Brandon Lowe led the way, but it was a deep lineup, with 20-year-old rookie Konnor Griffin showing why he projects as a future star. The aggravating part comes with Paul Skenes’ 3.91 ERA — he recently said pitching in the World Baseball Classic was the “root” of his issues — and Mitch Keller’s 5.29 ERA in 22 starts. With better results from those two, maybe the Pirates make the playoffs for the first time since 2015.
The Diamondbacks somehow hung in the wild-card race all the way until the final week of the season, even though their core group — Corbin Carroll, Geraldo Perdomo, Ketel Marte, Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen — have all had better seasons. Carroll was the best of the group and Perdomo came on in the second half, but Kelly and Gallen are 12-23 with minus-1.4 WAR and Marte had another mysterious absence this year.
Others stepped up — Gabriel Moreno should finish in the top 10 of the MVP voting and Eduardo Rodriguez will receive some down-ballot MVP votes, while the bullpen was shockingly one of the best in baseball — but the Diamondbacks need to figure out how to build a 95-win team instead of an 85-win one. We’ll see if general manager Mike Hazen and skipper Torey Lovullo will remain around to do that.
The Rangers have hovered between six games under .500 (the low point on May 28) and three games over .500 (the high point on July 28) all season. Thanks to their division, they’ve never been more than three games out of first and entered this final week one game ahead of the Astros. The team MVPs have been utility guy Ezequiel Duran and closer Jacob Latz. That feels like the very definition of a C grade. The Rangers have struggled to score runs all season and, no, that’s not just Globe Life Field: They’re 23rd in runs per game at home and 25th on the road. They don’t even have an ace, as Jacob deGrom has been their best starter and he’s 11-10 with a 3.86 ERA. Despite all of that, they might luck into a division title anyway.
As is the case with the Rangers, this mark can go up or down a half grade based on the final standings — but regardless of the final outcome, this is the worst Astros team since 2014, the final losing season before the rebirth began in 2015. Owner Jim Crane certainly isn’t happy with how the season has gone, firing general manager Dana Brown in late August with manager Joe Espada likely to go as well when his contract expires after the season.
Was Crane right to expect more? Not really. Houston was 13th in ESPN’s preseason Power Rankings with a projected record of 84-78. FanGraphs saw the Astros as the third-best team in the AL West, predicting an 80-82 record. They are what was expected: a flawed, top-heavy roster with thin depth on the pitching staff. That’s how it played out.
And — stop me if this sounds familiar — they might luck into a division title anyway.
The Cardinals weren’t a disaster in 2026, which is a good thing, considering this team could have easily gone sideways. Chaim Bloom, in his first year heading up baseball operations, completely committed to youth, running out the second-youngest group of position players in the majors.
Jordan Walker finally broke out and Alec Burleson is leading the majors in RBIs, which no Cardinals player has done since Joe Torre in 1971. JJ Wetherholt showed he’s going to be a valuable player; he and Masyn Winn might both win Gold Gloves. There is more young talent on the way, too, with Leo Bernal and Joshua Baez getting a taste of the big leagues this season, and Rainiel Rodriguez, Liam Doyle and Tanner Franklin next in line.
The best thing here is that the Cardinals were at least interesting for the first time in a long time. (Even some of their recent playoff teams weren’t all that exciting.) The payroll has been trimmed to the bare bones, so there’s room heading into 2027 to address the rotation and bullpen.
Minnesota was close in the division race until fading — once again — over the final two months, a period in which Byron Buxton played just 11 games and Joe Ryan made just four starts. (The Twins lost all four.) What this franchise needs more than anything is some star power. Maybe late-season call-ups Walker Jenkins and Emmanuel Rodriguez will eventually be those guys. Or shortstop Kaelen Culpepper, who looked promising in the 25 games he played before getting injured. Taj Bradley did have a superb season, and rotation mates Zebby Matthews and rookie Connor Prielipp also flashed some good stuff at times. There’s a potentially nice foundation brewing here, but keep in mind: The Twins’ Opening Day payroll was their lowest since 2014. If only ownership were a little more committed to winning.
Meh. I mean, you could say that about the entire AL, but the Orioles were especially “meh” in 2026. OK, Pete Alonso was fun, although the most fun he had was his return to Citi Field last week. Whatever happened to Gunnar Henderson is one of the biggest mysteries of the entire 2026 season. Any hope for the Orioles in 2027 rests on him returning to superstar status. Jackson Holliday? Still young, but his star has dimmed. Rutschman? Gone. Samuel Basallo? Promising, maybe fun. The story of the 2023-to-2026 Orioles is this: You never know what the future is going to bring. Go for it when you can. And if you have a new owner who promises he wants to win, don’t believe it until he shows it.
It might be easy to blame the bullpen here, as despite a plus-73 in run differential — best in the division and fourth best in the AL (and just a few runs behind the Rays and Red Sox) — Detroit’s 15-27 record in one-run games dragged down its overall record. But let’s focus on something else.
The Tigers went 3-10 against the Guardians and 4-9 against the White Sox, averaging just 3.3 runs per game in those 26 contests. That’s not going to work, even if Mariano Rivera is your closer. Despite a nice run in June and July when they went 30-20, the Tigers decided to punt at the deadline and traded Skubal. They played well immediately after the trade and got to 2½ games out of the division lead before a 3-14 stretch buried them. With Skubal done and dusted, president of baseball operations Scott Harris will need to take a deep look at where the Tigers stand: Since last Aug. 24, they are 83-106.
The Rockies will finish with a fourth straight 100-loss season and likely the worst record in the majors, but this was still a major step forward from 2025, as their run differential improved from minus-424 (the worst in modern MLB history) to minus-183 (not even the worst in 2026).
Most of the strides came on offense, as the Rockies improved from last in the majors in runs per game on the road to 21st, as the first year of the Paul DePodesta/Josh Byrnes-led front office unearthed a 3.5-WAR player from the Yankees in TJ Rumfield and saw another big season from Hunter Goodman, plus promising returns from farm system prospects Kyle Karros and Cole Carrigg. The pitching remains a mess, and you can’t give a 100-loss team a grade higher than a D+, but as DePodesta and Byrnes work to modernize the organization, the Rockies might be headed in the right direction.
It has obviously been a disappointing follow-up to Toronto’s World Series appearance last year, so it’s fair to ask: Was 2025 just a fluke? The Blue Jays were 74-88 in 2024, 94-68 in 2025 and 77-80 so far in 2026. The outlier was an offensive surge in 2025 compared with the other two seasons — and it’s not all on Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s shoulders, with the Jays on pace to score 145 fewer runs in 2026 than last year. Guerrero is responsible for about 41 runs of that decline, or about 28%. That leaves 72% for the front office to figure out how to fix for next season.
The path to nowhere for the Royals was set early when Bobby Witt Jr. somehow scored just one run in the team’s first 18 games. He then scored three runs in a game — but then went six more runless games and didn’t hit a home run until his 29th game. This isn’t on Witt, as he’s likely to get some first-place MVP votes since he leads AL position players in FanGraphs WAR, but it’s an example of how the Royals just never got in sync all season. They had just one winning month, in August, and they especially struggled against good teams, going a wretched 7-24 against the AL East and 19-29 against the NL. After back-to-back winning seasons, it was a disappointing flop, leaving Kansas City with a lot of holes to fix.
After making the playoffs in 2025, only the A’s and Rockies are going to end up with a worse run differential than the Reds. Somehow, they have Elly De La Cruz, probable NL Rookie of the Year Sal Stewart and Chase Burns, who went 15-3 with a 2.86 ERA and 185 strikeouts, and yet still ended up as a dreary watch — especially disappointing considering they were 20-11 at the end of April. Blame the rotation. After ranking 16th in the majors in rotation ERA in 2024 and an impressive ninth (considering its bandbox of a home park) in 2025, Cincinnati fell to 28th in 2026 despite Burns’ excellence.
It feels like the Reds need an identity. They’re not a pitching-and-defense team. (The defense was bad.) They have the veneer of a power-hitting team, at least in 2026, but the park helps inflate their power totals. They don’t hit for average (last in the majors). If they’re going to build around pitching, maybe it makes sense to change the dimensions of the park and get some better defenders to surround De La Cruz and Stewart.
The A’s can at least use injuries as an excuse for going backward from 2025, as Nick Kurtz, Brent Rooker, Shea Langeliers, Jacob Wilson and Tyler Soderstrom all missed significant time. Indeed, they were hovering around .500 in late May — which meant they were in first place in the AL West — until all the injuries became too much. They’ve been the worst team in the majors since July 1. Rooker and Wilson didn’t hit when they played, and Lawrence Butler spent the first half hitting like Craig Paquette’s long-lost cousin. It’s easy to point fingers at the pitching staff — the A’s have allowed nearly 100 more runs than any non-Rockies team — but some of that is playing in Sacramento, as the A’s have a lower road ERA than AL West rivals Seattle, Houston and Texas.
A reminder: ESPN ranked the Mets sixth in its preseason Power Rankings with a projected record of 92-70 and 78% playoff odds. FanGraphs had the Mets as the NL East favorites with a 38% chance of winning the division, just ahead of the Braves, and an 80% chance of making the playoffs. On paper, it did look like a good team, so the playoff expectations were absolutely realistic. We all know what happened: injuries, poor performance, Alonso leading the league in RBIs … for the Orioles. Oops.
What keeps the Mets from receiving a failing grade, however, is they at least have been respectable under interim manager Andy Green — so much so that the interim tag was removed and Green was given a three-year deal on Tuesday — and rookies Nolan McLean, Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing have performed well, providing a much-needed influx of young talent. Still, president of baseball operations David Stearns is on the hot seat to improve this club for 2027 after his 2025-26 offseason (signing Bo Bichette, Jorge Polanco, Marcus Semien, Freddy Peralta, Luis Robert Jr. and Devin Williams) goes down as one of the worst ever.
The Angels set a franchise record with 99 losses in 2024, and with 97 losses so far, this team may surpass that mark, so we’re pretty much stuck giving them a failing grade. If you’re counting, that’s 11 consecutive losing seasons and 12 consecutive non-playoff seasons. The best news came in early September when Arte Moreno agreed to sell the team for $4 billion to Stan Kroenke, owner of the Los Angeles Rams, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, Arsenal F.C. and other sports franchises. On the field, there were — believe it or not — some interesting developments, especially Walbert Urena and Reid Detmers in the rotation, part of a group that has the second-best ERA since the beginning of August.
It’s fair to say the first year of the Tony Vitello managerial era played out with all the fervor of fireworks on a rain-drenched Fourth of July. Did he get the most out of this team? No. Is the team’s second 90-loss season since 2008 his fault? Also no. President of baseball operations Buster Posey has voiced his support, so Vitello will likely return for 2027, which puts the pressure on Posey to figure this out.
The biggest problem here: Rafael Devers, while rebounding from a terrible start to have a productive season, is signed for seven more years and $223 million; Willy Adames is owed $155.5 million for five years; Matt Chapman, just over $100 million for four years; and Jung Hoo Lee, $65 million for three. That’s a lot of money for a group that combined for less than 10 WAR. While Bryce Eldridge had a promising rookie season and the farm system — led by Josuar Gonzalez — is intriguing, those contracts look like a drag on the franchise’s future.
On July 5, the Mariners beat Toronto 4-0 for their second straight shutout win and third in four games, thus finishing their first half at 47-44 and in first place in the AL West. It hadn’t been a smooth ride, but they looked like the best team in a weak division and FanGraphs agreed, giving them a 63% chance of winning the division and 85% of making the playoffs. If Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez got going, they might even cruise to the division title.
Alas … disaster, disappointment and despair. The Mariners were plus-27 in run differential through July 5 and are minus-90 since, with only the A’s, Rockies and Reds allowing more runs. Raleigh and Rodriguez never really did get going, and the rotation, the supposed strength of the team, ranks in the bottom five of the majors in ERA since that date.
The problems were across the board, however: 28th in runs scored, poor defense (26th in defensive runs saved), and closer Andres Munoz is tied for the MLB lead with 10 blown saves. Dan Wilson is certainly out as manager, and president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto has now made the playoffs just twice in his 11 seasons running the team. If only the Mariners had won 54% of their games.
