MLB power rankings: Orioles, Mariners climb while Angels, Cardinals fall

The Seattle Mariners and Baltimore Orioles are two of the hottest teams in Major League Baseball as the MLB All-Star Game approaches, and they’re creeping up the ladder in our latest MLB power rankings.

In this week’s MLB power rankings, the Baltimore Orioles and Seattle Mariners are on their way up while the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Angels take a tumble.

A four-game sweep of the Angels at home put an exclamation mark on the week for the Baltimore Orioles, who enter Tuesday’s road matchup against the Chicago Cubs with an eight-game winning streak and has plenty of people wondering if the 43-44 Orioles may surprise everyone by reversing their expected role as sellers at the upcoming MLB trade deadline.

Seattle is also showing signs of life, going 10-1 in their previous 11 games, including a four-game sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays. The Mariners head into Tuesday’s game at Washington with a 45-42 mark and tied with the Blue Jays for the final AL Wild Card spot.

Toronto, meanwhile, is limping into the week before the All-Star break, winning just two of their last 11 games. The same can be said for the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants, a pair of teams with postseason aspirations but sinking in the standings with just over one week to go before the Midsummer Classic.

Below is this week’s MLB power rankings. As always, we have included one note of interest about one team in each of the thirds of our list.

1. New York Yankees (last week: 1)

2. Houston Astros (last week: 2)

All eyes will be on the right hand of Houston’s Yordan Alvarez as he heals up from inflammation that has landed him on the injured list before the All-Star break. The slugger paces all MLB batters in OPS (1.058), slugging percentage (.653) and at-bats per home run (10.31), and the Astros have a home double-header with the New York Yankees two days after the All-Star Game. Will they have Alvarez in the lineup?

3. Los Angeles Dodgers (last week: 3)

4. New York Mets (last week: 4)

5. Atlanta Braves (last week: 5)

6. San Diego Padres (last week: 6)

7. Milwaukee Brewers (last week: 7)

8. Boston Red Sox (last week: 8)

9. Minnesota Twins (last week: 9)

10. Philadelphia Phillies (last week: 14)

11. Tampa Bay Rays (last week: 11)

12. Toronto Blue Jays (last week: 10)

13. Seattle Mariners (last week: 19)

14. St. Louis Cardinals (last week: 12)

15. Baltimore Orioles (last week: 20)

16. San Francisco Giants (last week: 15)

17. Cleveland Guardians (last week: 13)

The wheels have come off for the Guardians lately, and they look like a team that could desperately use the All-Star break to regroup. With Sunday’s loss to Kansas City, Cleveland has dropped 14 of their last 19 games since June 23. Compare that to the 17-4 record they put together between May 30 and June 22 and you can see why there’s plenty of reason for concern in Cleveland.

18. Miami Marlins (last week: 16)

19. Chicago White Sox (last week: 17)

20. Texas Rangers (last week: 18)

21. Arizona Diamondbacks (last week: 23)

22. Los Angeles Angels (last week: 21)

23. Colorado Rockies (last week: 22)

24. Detroit Tigers (last week: 26)

Robbie Grossman’s error on a pop-up against the Chicago White Sox on Sunday was his first since June 13, 2018. That error by the Detroit outfielder put a halt to a 440-game error-free streak, the longest by a position player in MLB history.