It's Memorial Day and that means we are all now free to obsess over the Major League Baseball standings. Memorial Day is the traditional start of summer, and at this point, we kind of have to stop saying "it's early."
The 2026 season is nearly two months complete, and the contenders are starting to separate themselves from the pretenders. Those hot and cold starts are sorting themselves out. Now that summer has unofficially begun, let's take stock of the baseball landscape.
This is already Year 5 of MLB's 12-team postseason bracket and, frankly, it might be the last year, too. MLB could again push for a 14-team postseason as part of the upcoming collective bargaining agreement. Nine of the 12 teams in postseason position on Memorial Day last year ultimately made the playoffs.
These would be the postseason brackets if the season ended today (based on winning percentage):
American League
- BYE: No. 1 Rays (.680) and No. 2 Guardians (.582)
- WC1: No. 6 Twins (.491) at No. 3 Athletics (.509)
- WC2: No. 5 White Sox (.500) at No. 4 Yankees (.585)
National League
- BYE: No. 1 Braves (.667) and No. 2 Dodgers (.623)
- WC1: No. 6 Cubs (.547) at No. 3 Brewers (.600)
- WC2: No. 5 Cardinals (.569) at No. 4 Padres (.596)
A sub-.500 team is in postseason position in the AL at the moment. That likely won't be the case after 162 games, but who really knows. No team in either league is more than 9½ games out of a postseason berth right now. The season is not over for anyone yet, which is a good thing for baseball overall, but it is getting late early for some teams.
American League Superlatives
Best Team: Rays
Sunday's walk-off loss to the Yankees was only Tampa's fifth loss in their last 27 games. At 34-16, the Rays have the AL's best record by 4½ games (six games in the all-important loss column). They are out over their skis a bit in terms of run differential (+40 projects to a 29-21 record) and Base Runs (27-23).
Regardless, the Rays are the only team whose rotation has a sub-3.00 ERA (2.88), and they're top 10 in overall pitching and overall offense. In April, the Yankees looked like the AL's best team. In May, the Rays stormed to the top of the league standings.
Worst Team: Angels
They're bad and they seem oblivious to the fact they're bad, and to the reasons they're bad. José Soriano has been fantastic and is having a real breakout season. Mike Trout has not quite been vintage Mike Trout, but he's been terrific. Zach Neto is one of the game's best shortstops. And none of it matters.
The Angels have the AL's worst record (20-34) and run differential (minus-62). Even after sweeping the Rangers this past weekend, they've dropped 24 of their last 33 games. "Sell the team" chants are a nightly occurrence in Anaheim. They're not sure any team is in worse long-term shape than the Angels.
Biggest Surprise: White Sox
At 26-26, the White Sox have a non-losing record this late in the season for the first time since 2021. On the position player side, there is a real foundation in place with Sam Antonacci, Chase Meidroth, Colson Montgomery, Munetaka Murakami, and Miguel Vargas.
Davis Martin has been one of the best starters in the league according to both the surface stats (2.04 ERA) and the under-the-hood numbers (2.30 FIP and 3.56 x ERA). The ChiSox may not have the pitching depth to hang around the postseason race all year, but in the watered-down AL, who knows? The arrow is definitely pointing up on the South Side.
Biggest Disappointment: Tigers
Tarik Skubal and some others are injured, but the Tigers are 6-17 since Skubal's last start and they've lost 16 of their last 19 games. You can't attribute that all to Skubal's absence. Not when the offense has averaged 3.83 runs per game (2.95 in May) and they rank 24th in home runs.
Dillon Dingler, Riley Greene, and rookie standout Kevin McGonigle are a three-man army on offense, and the pitching staff has struggled to keep them competitive.