With June now underway, we're roughly two full months into the 2026 Major League Baseball regular season. That's about one-third of the season behind us, and it's time to check in on all of MLB's 30 teams.
The grades below are informed by the standings, each team's underlying performance, and how those measures compare with reasonable expectations entering 2026. There's no such thing as a good team with a bad grade, but teams expected to be good won't earn grades as high as those qualifying as "pleasant surprises." Let's get to grading. First up, the American League...
Oakland Athletics: B-
The Athletics are merely .500-ish with a negative run differential, but first place is first place. The margins are slim, and the AL West has been one of the weakest divisions to date. The rotation has been surprisingly solid so far, at least on a park-adjusted basis.
Catcher Shea Langeliers is looking like a stealth AL MVP candidate so far.
— Dayn Perry
Baltimore Orioles: F
It's closer to an F- than a D. Baltimore's rotation has againcollapsed — 2025 revelation Trevor Rogers has a 6.96 ERA through nine starts — and there hasn't been enough offense to compensate.
Pete Alonso and Taylor Ward were supposed to provide right-handed power. Both have just been fine. If they continue to hang around the bottom of the AL East standings, the Orioles have some useful veterans they could move at the trade deadline: Rogers, Ward, Chris Bassitt, Ryan Helsley, Andrew Kittredge, etc.
I can't imagine POBO Mike Elias thought this was where the Orioles would be in 2026 after kicking off that rebuild in 2019.
— Mike Axisa
Boston Red Sox: F
Turns out Alex Cora wasn't the problem after all. Boston is dead last in the American League in home runs, and that lack of power was completely predictable entering the season. There are just too many zeroes in the lineup on any given day.
Ceddanne Rafaela is a really good player, but he should be more like his team's sixth- or seventh-best hitter, not their third-best. The Red Sox would have two very nice rentals to peddle at the trade deadline, Aroldis Chapman and Sonny Gray, should they not move up the standings and decide to sell.
— Mike Axisa
Chicago White Sox: C+
The White Sox were 41-121 two years ago. Last year, they went 60-102. When they started this year 6-13, it looked like maybe they would be one of baseball's worst teams again.
Since then, they've been pretty formidable — winning seven of eight and reaching multiple games above .500 for the first time in years. The two-year, $34 million signing of Munetaka Murakami has been amazing, and with Colson Montgomery and Miguel Vargas, the White Sox now have one of the most powerful trios in baseball. On the mound, Davis Martin has also been excellent.
— Matt Snyder
Cleveland Guardians: B+
They rank in the bottom third of the majors in both batting average and OPS. They pitch well, though, notably in missing bats — leading the majors in strikeouts by pitchers.
The Guardians wouldn't have earned this relatively high mark a few weeks ago. They were just a .500 team as late as May 10, when they were 21-21. Since then, they've racked up the wins and taken control of the AL Central. They're doing what they do, just piling up victories in seemingly quiet fashion.
— Matt Snyder