This was some week in Baltimore. The Orioles were swept in back-to-back series against the Twins and Nationals. After the fourth loss of six, GM Mike Elias decided to suddenly rescind his vote of confidence in manager Brandon Hyde.
Hey, a guy has the right to change his mind, especially when the spotlight will inevitably turn to the man who did the grocery shopping. Read more about that here.
Only the Yankees are above .500 in the AL East. The rest of the division is not so far out of range if things could only start to turn around, but right now, that doesn’t look so probable. And even if the Orioles were able to turn things around, the object is to make the playoffs, not beat underperforming AL East rivals.
The AL Central has four teams above .500. That means jumping past the Red Sox, Rays and Blue Jays would hardly help the Orioles jump past a whole lot of AL rivals.
Here are this week’s MLB power rankings:
1. Detroit Tigers (31-16, No. 3 last week): A.J. Hinch has an incredibly steady and highly effective starting rotation — and his bullpen has been much better than expected.
2. Los Angeles Dodgers (29-18, No. 1): Look, you can’t convince anyone that this team won’t be right there when this whole thing gets decided, but Andrew Freidman, Brandon Gomes and Dave Roberts have to be worried about the pitching staff.
3. Chicago Cubs (28-19, No. 6): They murder the lightweights. Pete Crow-Armstrong just keeps getting better and better. That’s good news for Wrigleyville.
4. New York Yankees (27-19, No. 7): The Yankees are not as good as the Tigers at this time, but they still have Aaron Judge and that still counts for a lot, considering he has an OPS of better than 1.200.
5. New York Mets (29-18, No. 4): The Mets remain the only team in baseball with a staff ERA under 3.00. They have given up just 31 home runs in 415 innings — quite remarkable and might just be their secret weapon.
6. San Diego Padres (27-18, No. 2): The Padres have played two over-.500 teams in the past two weeks, going 1-2 against the Yankees and 0-3 against the Mariners. They have to do better than that.
7. Philadelphia Phillies (28-18, No. 5): Dave Dombrowski has his work cut out after José Alvarado was suspended for 80 regular-season games and the entire postseason for a PED violation. Dombrowski will get someone to replace him, but it’ll have to be a waiting game. Might he be interested in Orioles reliever Andrew Kittredge, an expensive piece on a last-place club? It wasn’t all bad news for the Phillies on May 18, though. Rookie Mick Abel, the club’s No. 1 pick in 2020, made a great debut in outdueling Paul Skenes.
8. San Francisco Giants (28-19, No. 10): Is the Bob Melvin Effect alive again in the Bay Area?
9. Seattle Mariners (26-19, No. 11): This is the only team that can match up rotation-wise with the Tigers. They’re about 7-10 days away from getting back George Kirby and maybe three weeks away from Logan Gilbert. It’s a funky offense.
10. Atlanta Braves (24-23, No. 14): The Braves have gone 19-12 since a 4-11 start. Alex Verdugo has filled in nicely, and the Braves have more help on the horizon. Ronald Acuña Jr. is about two weeks away from his return.
11. Arizona Diamondbacks (25-22, No. 13)
12. Kansas City Royals (26-22, No. 8)
13. Cleveland Guardians (25-21, No. 9)
14. Minnesota Twins (26-21, No. 20)
15. St. Louis Cardinals (27-21, No. 17)
16. Houston Astros (24-22, No. 18)
17. Texas Rangers (25-23, No. 15)
18. Cincinnati Reds (24-24, No. 19)
19. Boston Red Sox (23-25, No. 12)
20. Athletics (22-25, No. 16)
21. Milwaukee Brewers (22-25, No. 21)
22. Toronto Blue Jays (22-24, No. 22)
23. Tampa Bay Rays (21-25, No. 23)
24. Washington Nationals (21-27, No. 25)
25. Los Angeles Angels (20-25, No. 27)
26. Baltimore Orioles (15-30, No. 24)
27. Miami Marlins (18-27, No. 28)
28. Pittsburgh Pirates (15-32, No. 26)
29. Chicago White Sox (14-33, No. 29)
30. Colorado Rockies (8-38, No. 30)