The end of the 2018 regular season is upon us (except for two tie-breaker games), so how do the MLB Power Rankings shake out now that all is (almost) said and done?
While we all prepare for an exciting postseason, let’s wrap up the 2018 regular season with some MLB Power Rankings. It was one heck of a season. For starters, there were three teams with 100 or more wins. This is just the seventh time in MLB history this has happened. Big props to the Boston Red Sox (108 wins), Houston Astros (103 wins) and New York Yankees (100 wins). All three teams were in the American League, which is the first time one league had three 100-win teams.
On the other hand, there were also three teams with 100 losses. Whatever the opposite of big props is, that that should be doled out to the Baltimore Orioles (115 losses), Kansas City Royals (104 losses) and Chicago White Sox (100 losses). There have been nine seasons in which three or more teams lost 100 games. The last time this happened was in 2002, when four teams did the trick.
Along with those three 100-loss teams, there were four teams with 95 or more losses. The Cincinnati Reds (95 losses), San Diego Padres (96 losses), Detroit Tigers (98 losses) and Miami Marlins (98 losses) were all just one ugly week from joining the terrible trio who lost 100 or more games. The bottom tier of baseball teams this season had some really bad teams.
With all of the 100-win and 100-loss teams in the American League, there weren’t many middle-of-the-pack teams in the AL. It was truly a league of haves and have-nots. In a surprising twist, the National League had the advantage in interleague play for the first time since 2003. Go figure.
Okay, let’s get to the rankings. These rankings are based on each team’s actual record, run-differential, expected record and how they’ve played since the All-Star break. I’ve included that information with each team in the list below.