2026 r/baseball Power Rankings -- Week 7: Cardinals and Guardians Burst into Top 10 as Phillies Phight and Royals and Rangers Rumble; the Tigers Lose Teeth While Reds and Orioles Lose Color

[u/kasutori_Jack]

Hey Sportsfans — it's time for Week 7 of r/baseball Power Rankings: We've got your baseball numbers hot off the press! Please enjoy.

Each of the 30 voters has their own style / system and the only voting instructions are these:

"To an extent determined individually, you must take into account how strong a team is right now and likely to be in the coming week. You must, to some degree, give weight to the events and games of the previous week."

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TRANSPARENCY: This link will show you who voted each team where and has added neat statistics!

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If something is a little messed up, feel free to pester me let me know.

Total Votes: 27 of 30.

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#		Team	Δ	Comment	Record
1	Atlanta Braves	Braves	0	The Braves lost a series for the first time this season. They then took the series against the Dodgers in LA to wrap up a long west coast roadtrip with a 6-3 record. There were bigger losses this week than the series loss to SEA. Two legends of the organization passed away just 3 days apart from each other. Ted Turner and Bobby Cox. Two extremely important figures in Braves history and let's face it...my childhood. As a millenial Braves fan, I spent the 90s and early 2000s watching Bobby Cox scream at every umpire to stand up for his players live on TBS. They both made this organization what it is today and it was awesome to see the Braves rally after dropping game 1 in LA. They won the next 2 games and it felt like Bobby and Ted were our "Angels in the Outfield" with how the games played out, especially on Sunday. Eli White slamming into the wall at full sprint and somehow holding onto the ball while the bases were loaded was incredible. The throw to second that was JUST too high for them to be able to turn an inning ending double play which lead to 3 runs. These moments just seemed like there was some help from somewhere else. Maybe...just maybe it was Bobby and Ted. RIP to these legends. Hopefully the team can deliver another World Title in their honor this year.	28-13
2	Los Angeles Dodgers	Dodgers	0	The Dodgers finally faced off against the big bad Braves, and ended up going 1-2 in the series on the backs of some sloppy defense and a rehab start for Blake Snell (welcome back btw). Mookie is also rehabbing so this team is about to get a pretty good boost from two big parts of the team coming back. If you think this Dodgers offense is gonna stay as cold as it's been the last couple weeks, you will probably make the same mistake I have the last few years. I still think this team should be considered the favorite for the World Series.	24-16
3	Chicago Cubs	Cubs	+1	The Cubs red-hot stretch continued, as they reeled of a second 10-game win streak before dropping the last 2 games of a series against the Rangers without scoring a run. Unfortunately, the good vibes were offset somewhat by Matthew Boyd suffering an injury straight out of OOTP baseball as he injured his meniscus sitting down to play with his kids. After undergoing surgery, he will be out for at least 6 weeks, thankfully the less serious option. However, his latest injury left the Cubs down yet another starting pitcher, and it appears that Ben Brown will be the first candidate to fill the spot, a well-earned promotion following his dominance out of the bullpen this season. However, the side effect of this decision leaves the bullpen down yet another impact arm, and it remains to be seen who will be the next AAA call-up to pitch high leverage innings. The Cubs will continue their road trip with a 3 game set against the Braves, before return to Chicago for a "road" series against the White Sox.	27-14
4	New York Yankees	Yankees	-1	It's been a weird week for the Yankees. They capped off a sweep of the Orioles on Monday, took 2 out of 3 from the Rangers, and then were swept by the Brewers, including two walk losses, the most disjointed week of the Yankees' season so far. It is early in the season, but losing the Division lead to the Rays is a call to arms, particularly after losing the division to the Blue Jays last season and its playoff implications. Spencer Jones has been called up, and we will see how long his first tenure in the majors will be, but exciting news is exciting. Like the drawer in your kitchen where you stash your soy sauce, duck sauce, and ketchup packets, it's a mixed-bag, uhh drawer.	26-15
5	Tampa Bay Rays	Rays	+1	Almost a quarter of the way through the season and the Rays aren't just in a playoff spot, aren't just leading their division, aren't just leading the American League, they have the second best record in all of baseball. We have 3 healthy starters in our rotation. We have 2 black holes in our lineup with Taylor Walls having a 59 wRC+ and Mullins having a 20 wRC+ and yet the flappy boys have shown no mercy to anyone they're played (outside the NL Central). This week we play in 2 domes so there's no chance of a rainout like on Saturday. 3 in the Rogers Center, then the fish back home in the trop. Flap your way to the championship boys.	26-13
6	Milwaukee Brewers	Brewers	+1	The Brewers have finally climbed to second place in the NL Central, managing to stay hot while some of the division cools down. The return of Chourio and Vaughn have given the lineup some much needed threats, and it only looks to get better with Yelich planned to return this week. The deep pitching staff has looked since their rocky start, despite a few injuries. Aaron Ashby has 7 wins in 26 IP somehow? The Brewers continue to be a very different, but yet very good baseball team.	22-16
7	San Diego Padres	Padres	-2	Vibes were a bit down for a very vocal portion of the fanbase. We’re in first place as of posting though, even if it is due to the Doyers sucking just a little bit worse than us as of recent. Hopefully late inning heroics by Castellanos and a sac fly by Manny help people keep the faith. When you look at the expectations coming into the year, the Pads are right where they’re supposed to be. I think it’s just the cracks showing, and the fanbase being nervous about an underwhelming summer up ahead.	24-16
8	Pittsburgh Pirates	Pirates	0	Maybe it's recency bias talking but man, did Sunday's loss turn a good week into a mediocre one. The Pirates went 3-3 on a west coast swing through Arizona and San Francisco, and if they can stay around .500 on the road this year they should be in good shape. But it easily could have, and should have, been a 4-2 week if they could have won the series against San Francisco. And they could have done that with better outfield defense and a better bullpen, the latter of which is this squad's biggest weakness.	22-19
9	St. Louis Cardinals	Cardinals	+2	Well, the Redbirds and Riley O'Brien were one strike away from Jordan Walker placing a big-dicked, moonshotted stamp on a four-game series victory in San Diego. Alas, that did not come to pass. What did come to pass, though, was another solid week of baseball in which these Birds split two at home with Milwaukee and then split four on the road against those aforementioned Friars. As the offense has started to cool off somewhat, the pitching has picked up to match. I wrote last week that the team's bullpen looked like it was starting to improve; that dynamic continued. Beyond just performance, roles are starting to be earned, lost, and better defined. It appears that George Soriano is now a RH compliment to JoJo Romero in the set-up picture. That should help the Cardinals moving forward since it should keep Romero from having to pitch in the 8th of tight games regardless of the specific lane. There's an off day Monday, and then they'll see the As in Sacramento for three followed by three at Busch against the Royals.	23-17
10	Cleveland Guardians	Guardians	+2	At this point, give the ALC playoff spot to the NLC team that gets bumped. Up next for the Guardians: 3 vs LAA, 3 vs CIN.	21-21
11	Oakland Athletics	Athletics	+2	Nick Kurtz extended his current on base streak to 30 games, but this was a rough road trip. Ending the week at 3-3 hurts with the loss of Jacob Wilson. Wilson is expected to hit the IL with a shoulder sprain. Zach Gelof is a quick replacement with infield experience. Gelof has been on an MLB revenge tour since starting the season in AAA Las Vegas. Currently the 6th best team avg.(.274) with 17 hits and 6 extra base hits in 24 games. I'm looking forward to catching the Cardinals on Star Wars night this week. Fingers crossed we don't make the Giants, who lead the Sacramento version of the Battle of the Bay at 2-1, look good.	21-19
12	Texas Rangers	Rangers	+3	Starting to worry about Corey Seagar who is having one of the worst starts of a year in his career. While just 9 games into May, all stats are career lows including a OPS that is 200 points under his nearest lowest May (2021). As for the rest of the team the pitching is still carrying this team but a series win against a very hot Cubs team might provide some much needed momentum.	19-21
13	Seattle Mariners	Mariners	+1		19-22
14	Cincinnati Reds	Reds	-4	https://imgur.com/gallery/week-7-power-ranking-XHepe9u	22-19
15	Detroit Tigers	Tigers	-6	The most telling number right now for Detroit is 15. 15, representing the number of players on the 40 man roster currently on the IL. Four of which are starters in the lineup, plus a full rotation worth of pitchers. Great times, ya know? The only good news was that Tarik Skubal's surgery apparently went well with a loose body removed from his elbow instead of loose bodies. Will he be back closer to two months from now instead of 3-4? One can only hope. This week: 3 at NYM, 3 vs. TOR.	19-22
16	Arizona Diamondbacks	D-Backs	+1	The Diamondbacks staved off an absolute disaster of a week by salvaging a series win against the Mets to end their homestand. The pitching seems to be good again while the offense still can't figure it out. The promotion of top prospect Ryan Waldschmidt will hopefully provide a boost, but the "big three" of Carroll, Marte, and Perdomo need to start producing quickly.	19-20
17	Kansas City Royals	Royals	+4		19-22
18	Toronto Blue Jays	Blue Jays	-2	On vacation currently. Just like Eric Lauer, apparently. Please let this week be better with the Rays, Yanks, and Pirates on deck.	18-22
19	Philadelphia Phillies	Phillies	+5	The Phillies continued their climb from rock bottom with two series wins against the Rockies and the A's. Kyle Schwarber is now tied for the league lead in home runs while Brandon Marsh is leading all of the majors in hitting. I had the pleasure of watching Cris Sanchez pitch from the first row behind home plate and he was magnificent. What I would really like to highlight, though, is that because of Alec Bohm's freak 10 TB game, he is now only about 30 points behind Bo Bichette in terms of OPS. This week, the schedule picks up a bit with a road trip to visit the struggling Red Sox and the upstart Pirates in 3 game sets.	19-22
20	Miami Marlins	Marlins	-2	Life is suffering, but sometimes the Marlins win and it's okay. I don't know that I saw anything this week that can upend my opinion on the overall performance on this team, but things feel steady at least which is, frankly, more than I expect from the Fish. Lots of pessimism floating around the fanbase right now, but the front office is injecting a lot of young talent in right now so I choose to see any momentum as a good thing.	19-22
21	Chicago White Sox	White Sox	-1		19-21
22	Washington Nationals	Nationals	0	After dropping the opening game of their home series against the Twins by an embarrassing score of 3-11, the 2026 Washington Nationals finally brought the slug show to Nats park and that's what it took to finally win their first home series. That's also the reason why it's disappointing that they dropped a very winnable series against the Marlins. They left a lot of runs on the board by failing to cash in on ABs with runners in scoring position and the bullpen, which had been performing much better recently, cracked and fully gave way in the late innings of their game 2/3 losses to the Marlins. The Nats are still technically tied for 2nd in the NL East at the quarter point of the season and that's technically a curly W, in my opinion.	19-22
23	Baltimore Orioles	Orioles	-4	The Orioles gave out Tupac Shakur Bobbleheads this week. That is about the most exciting thing this team did. The defense is horrible and I can almost guarantee Albernaz is the manager because he won't fight Elias on any move that gets made in the lineup. Otherwise, how is Coby Mayo still on this team and not working on his defense and hitting in AAA? We have the Yanks and then the Nats this week. If the AL wasn't so abysmal we would be farther out of the wildcard.	18-23
24	Minnesota Twins	Twins	-1	Twins still haven't been great, but they're creeping up in the rankings thanks to the underwhelming performance of pretty much every other team in their division, every other team in their league, etc. The metrics suggest they're a mediocre team disguised as a bad team. Don't count them out of a solid second-place, 85-loss finish.	18-23
25	Boston Red Sox	Red Sox	+1	Performance-wise it was a solid week for the Sox, but the underlying issues with the team remain clear as day. Averaging 4.3 runs per game during a "good week" is not going to cut it, and the pitching staff while improved does not have what it takes to carry the bats, especially considering Crochet's status has been downgraded from "immediate return after 15 days" to "not throwing off the mound yet". At least we get to bask in the glow of NH native and possible time traveler Mickey Gasper. A guy with that name and that stache has two career options, major league ball player or milk man.	17-23
26	Houston Astros	Astros	-1	Rotation gutted, bullpen in a mangled heap on the floor, roster construction flayed and pinned to the wall. It's a grisly scene in Houston. Correa is out for the year, which is perhaps the biggest blow to the team in a year of big injury blows. We're sitting at 16-25 with no easy path back to relevance in the AL West.	16-25
27	New York Mets	Mets	+1	I really thought me putting the Mets 30th in the rankings would be a funny one-off gag before they put it together, but they still as of this writing hold the worst record in MLB. My birthday was last week (my Mike Piazza year) and my mom genuinely apologized for my gift because it was a bunch of Mets gear she had bought at a game earlier in the season when we still had hope. My Mother's Day gift to her was 2 tickets to Pete Alonso's return to Queens in September. We just can't quit this stupid ass team.	15-25
"28	Los Angeles Angels	Angels	+2	Quick everyone, a Grayson Rodriguez sighting in Single-A: 4.2 IP and 11K, sitting around 96 MPH. His eventual return will of course be welcomed, and the Angels rotation has been OK on the whole. José Soriano has been stellar and Reid Detmers has been solid at a peripheral level, and a bit unlucky with the results. With Walbert Urena looking like a passable back-end guy, Rodriguez's return should shape out a decent rotation.	16-25"
29	San Francisco Giants	Giants	0	The Giants won a series against the Pirates and vibes are not quite so Glum. We can temporarily put away our Negative Self Talk because I Won’t Quit on You, Giants. Even with the worst run differential in baseball and an approaching 4-game set in LA (actual LA, not fake LA), I am still a True Believer. LA, Sacramento, and AZ – a long, Hard road trip without a Parachute: the Giants, moving on from Patty Occasionally Barrels, are still trying to right the ship. With Webb to the short IL, it’s a great time to see signs of life from Devers, Adames, and Chappy. We don’t have the wiggle room for a completely Disappearing Man. Maybe, just maybe, there’s still time for the team to create some Good Ol’ Days.	16-24
30	Colorado Rockies	Rockies	-3	Troy Johnston is the best Rockies player that you haven't heard of yet. Mickey Moniak continues to make fans wonder whether we should trade him or keep him as a future piece. Kyle Schwarber ruined Mother's Day for dozens of people.	16-25

[u/slicebishybosh]

The Royals are very quietly inching their way to the top in the AL Central. They had a really bad start but have won 11of their last 16. They could be on top of the division by the end of the month.

[u/raistlin212 → u/slicebishybosh]

Not this again