2024 Vendetta MLB Power Rankings: August

2024 Vendetta MLB Power Rankings: August

There are just two months left in the 2024 MLB Season. With the trade deadline ultimately behind us, it’s time to rank the top teams at the start of August! Let’s dive right into it!

(Editor’s note: Stats are through Aug. 8.)

30. Chicago White Sox

The White Sox just snapped a 21-game losing streak straight games and are 14.5 games back of the Rockies for the second-worst record in MLB–as big of a gap as it is from No. 29 to 21. They’re historically bad.

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29. Colorado Rockies

In a seller’s market, the Rockies made little effort to move off of notable pieces that could command reasonable value–such as Cal Quantrill, Austin Gomber, Elias Diaz and Ryan McMahon. Instead, they trade Nick Mears and Jalen Beeks for three combined prospects. In the Rockies’ state, that’s simply not enough.

28. Miami Marlins

The Marlins made out very well at the trade deadline. They acquired Connor Norby and Kyle Stowers for Trevor Rogers, who’s having the worst year of his career; they hauled in catcher Agustin Ramirez from the Yankees in the Jazz Chisholm trade, who now becomes arguably the best backstop in the organization; they got solid returns back for AJ Puk and Tanner Scott, two of the more sought out relievers heading into the deadline. All in all, Peter Bendix deserves credit here.

27. Oakland Athletics

The Athletics–yes, the Athletics!–were the best offense in baseball in July. They tallied a 136 wRC+ and were second in runs scored with 148–trailing only the Arizona Diamondbacks (164). They capped off the month 15-9 with a plus-45 run differential, their best over a single month since June of 2021 (plus-46). They’re still bad, but that tidbit is intriguing!

26. Los Angeles Angels

Unfortunately for Angels fans, Mike Trout won’t be back for the season after another meniscus tear. Over his first nine seasons, he played in roughly 89 percent of his team’s games–missing 40 games just once. Over his last four, he’s missed at least 40 games each season, appearing in 49 percent of his team’s games (after this season concludes). On a more encouraging note, the Angels appear to have some good young talent with Zach Neto and Logan O’Hoppe. 

25. Toronto Blue Jays

The Blue Jays were another team that did well at the deadline, specifically with the Yusei Kikuchi trade. They are also getting–and somewhat wasting–a revitalized version of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who’s been one of the best hitters this season. Toronto’s nine games below .500, but Guerrero has a 20-game hitting streak and owns a video game-esque 1.206 OPS over his last 45 games. Give this man his extension!

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24. Washington Nationals

Washington had its worth month of the season in July, going 10-16 with a minus-39 run differential. They traded Hunter Harvey and Lane Thomas at the deadline and got a decent crop of prospects in return. Speaking of prospects, could we see 2023 No. 2 pick Dylan Crews, who’s already in Triple-A, make his big league debut this season? He has a combined .775 OPS in the minors this season, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Washington gives him some run by the end of this season.

23. Detroit Tigers

Detroit followed disappointing May and June with a positive July, though they were still sellers at the trade deadline and are way beyond any sort of postseason contention. I don’t think they did enough to replenish their farm, holding the ace in the hand with Tarik Skubal. We’ll see if they decide to flip the AL Cy Young candidate in the offseason or if they will continue to add to what’s a fairly mediocre roster.

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22. Texas Rangers

The Rangers continue to scratch and claw, remaining only 5.5 games out of the AL West lead with just under two months left in the season. They were within 2.5 games before a 1-6 stretch put them further behind the 8-ball. However, it could be worse. They have baseball’s seventh-easiest schedule coming up, though they begin a pair of pivotal road series against the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox on Friday.

21. Tampa Bay Rays

Tampa Bay had an excellent trade deadline, with the headliner being acquiring Christopher Morel from the Cubs for Isaac Paredes. I’m surprised that they didn’t decide to part with either one of Yandy Diaz or Brandon Lowe, who are better hitters than Paredes. Trading with Tampa never feels like a good idea anyway. Taj Bradley’s been sneaky excellent this season, even though he’s had two rough outings in a row against the Marlins and Cardinals, respectively. Before that point, he owned a 0.82 ERA, .465 OPS allowed and 10.6 K/9 over his previous nine starts, five coming against current postseason squads! 

20. San Francisco Giants

One of July’s biggest standouts was shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald. He enters Friday with a .314/.375/.634 slash line–equating to a 181 wRC+–clobbering eight homers in 16 July games alone. Matt Chapman’s also swinging a very hot bat, sporting a 1.206 OPS over his last 14 games. San Francisco’s pitching hasn’t been consistent and it just got Robbie Ray back from injury. Though if the bats continue their hot surge, they may climb back into a Wild Card spot, which it’s three back of. They do need a lot for that to happen over the next six weeks, however.

19. St. Louis Cardinals

Tommy Pham’s return to St. Louis has netted beautiful results so far. In eight games, he’s posting a .355/375/.710 slash line with five extra-base hits, two home runs and nine RBIs. It was an uninspiring Cardinals debut for Erick Fedde, but he bounced back Wednesday with five innings of four-hit, one-run ball against Tampa. 

18. Chicago Cubs

Am I the only one confused that Chicago traded Christopher Morel for Isaac Paredes? I might be proven wrong over time, but none of the underlying metrics suggested that Paredes was the better player–even if their 2024 numbers at the time, suggested otherwise. I also don’t love the return they got for Mark Leiter Jr., by far their best reliever who had multiple years of control left. I am not sold on their “we are going to compete in 2025” vision, yet.

2024 MLB Trade Deadline Winners: The Tampa Bay Rays

17. Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pirates added at the deadline? The Pirates added at the deadline! It wasn’t anything crazy–maybe they still feel buyer’s remorse from the Chris Archer deadline–but making a postseason push in Paul Skenes’ first year is encouraging for the future. Isiah Kiner-Falefa will be able to play around the diamond while Bryan De La Cruz will mash … if he makes solid contact. They have the fourth-worst offense in baseball, so any viable contributions for the Bucs are welcome!

16. Cincinnati Reds

Elly De La Cruz continues to be arguably the most electric player in the sport. How many shortstops would you earnestly take ahead of him? Sure, he leads baseball in strikeouts with 149–fanning at a 30.4 percent clip. But he’s a pitcher’s nightmare on the basepaths–he’s on track to steal 85 bags–while sporting a 135 OPS+ and 11 outs-above-average at short. The Reds are still a year away, but he’s a must-watch talent every night he steps onto the diamond.

15. Seattle Mariners

Since July 26, coincidentally the day that the Mariners traded for Randy Arozarena, the Mariners have the 10th-best offense across MLB. Arozarena hasn’t been the main contributor, but he’s definitely been one of them. Jorge Polanco, Josh Rojas and Cal Raleigh have been the primary sparks, combining to sport an .887 OPS and 149 wRC+ over that span. Seattle’s dropped three straight, but have one of baseball’s best pitching staffs who’s capable of spearheading a deep postseason run. If the bats can stay hot? Watch out.

14. Boston Red Sox

Craig Breslow hunted the pitching market at the deadline, acquiring multiple controllable arms. He must have plenty of trust in Andrew Bailey with the additions of Luis Garcia, Lucas Sims and Quinn Priester. It was an underwhelming few days for a team in the thick of the postseason chase … at least they re-upped Alex Cora, who was in the last year of his deal, for three more seasons? We’ll see if Boston, which has had a top-3 offense since the start of June, can maintain the chase in the AL Wild Card race with one of the hardest remaining schedules.

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13. Houston Astros

The Astros are in the thick of an AL West chase with the Mariners, who they are just 4-7 against this season. The price paid for Kikuchi, who’s having one of the worst seasons of his career, was … a bit much. He adds a decent floor to a depleted staff, but he’s only had one above-average season in his six-year career. His first two starts were encouraging, but I am going to need to see more to justify that hefty haul, even though Houston’s rotation needed a mid-tier arm in the worst way.

12. New York Mets

The Mets were one of the more active teams at the deadline, acquiring Jesse Winker, Huascar Brazoban, Ryne Stanek and Paul Blackburn, who’s excelled in his first two starts in New York. Jeff McNeil and Francisco Lindor have heated up after both starting slow, propelling the Mets to a fringe top-5 offense. Pete Alonso’s struggles continue, however, though it hasn’t made a huge difference of late with others stepping up. It’s been a rocky season for New York’s pitching staff, though perhaps their new additions help stem the tide over the latter stretch.

11. Atlanta Braves

I don’t care what else they did–or didn’t do–bringing back World Series MVP Jorge Soler for the #vibes is objectively cool. He hasn’t carried his hot bat into Atlanta, who’s been crushed by injuries, yet. But at this point, it needs to find a way to get to October with the reinforcements it has. The Braves’ offense has been piss-poor, but the pitching staff has been anything but. If they can get the former to click come October, this group–minus Ronald Acuna Jr. and Spencer Strider–still has a puncher’s chance … even though that’s a big ask.

10. Arizona Diamondbacks

Arizona has an MLB-best 127 wRC+ since the start of June, spearheaded by Ketel Marte, Eugenio Suarez and Joc Pederson. Even Josh Bell, who they acquired at the deadline, picked up ahead of the deadline, has crushed four homers in seven games, including two Wednesday against the Guardians during their split doubleheader. As a result, they have won 12 of their last 15 games and are now 10 games above .500–closing the gap on the Dodgers by the day.

9. Minnesota Twins

The Twins were the last team to make a trade at the deadline, acquiring Trevor Richards. Their rotation has been one of the league’s best units over the last month, led by Bailey Ober. Though the unit suffered an unfortunate blow Wednesday with Joe Ryan leaving after two innings with triceps tightness. Carlos Correa is on the precipice of his rehab assignment while Royce Lewis has smacked four home runs since returning from injury (11 games). I’m not super high on the Twins’ postseason prospects, admittedly, but I could see them making it interesting in the American League if everything clicks at the right time.

8. San Diego Padres

Death. Taxes. AJ Preller making a splash at the trade deadline. Acquiring Tanner Scott–the best reliever on the market by a fair margin–came at the heels of winning seven straight, and the Padres have won six of their last seven since. San Diego also nabbed Jason Adam to lengthen the back-end of their bullpen plus added Martin Perez–who threw six innings of one-run ball in his Padres debut–from a team they’re directly competing against in the Wild Card chase. They’re three back of Los Angeles, but have only three games left against them. So they will need to stay hot with some additional fortune if they have any hopes at the division.

7. Milwaukee Brewers

Milwaukee’s rotation desperately needed reinforcements, and general manager Matt Arnold elected to bring in Aaron Civale and Frankie Montas–both of whom are having suboptimal seasons. Willy Adames and Jackson Chourio have sparked plenty of offense since the All-Star break and closer Devin Williams is on his way back. The signs are pointing up for Milwaukee, but I wish they would’ve been a little more aggressive in adding rotation arms in preparation for October. 

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6. Kansas City Royals

If Aaron Judge didn’t exist, I feel comfortable saying that Bobby Witt Jr. should be the AL MVP. He’s on pace to be the batting champion with a top-5 OPS+ and elite fielding metrics at the most important position in the infield. Over his last 29 games, he’s posted an absurd .455/.481/.810 slash line with 11 doubles, 10 home runs and 30 RBIs. That’s nearly 20 percent of the season! That’s insane!

5. Los Angeles Dodgers

Despite having won 66 games at this point of the season, the Dodgers have underperformed relative to the talent they have on their roster. It doesn’t help they’re injured all over the diamond. They did a good job adding reinforcements at the deadline with Tommy Edman and Jack Flaherty, but their offense outside of Mookie Betts (who’s injured), NL MVP frontrunner Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman leaves plenty to be desired. The pitching staff hasn’t also been up to par and the back of their bullpen still has a massive question mark.

4. New York Yankees

It’s felt like the Yankees have been in a free fall for two months … though they have the second-best record in the American League. It wasn’t the splashy deadline a Yankee fan may have hoped for with Judge and Juan Soto steering the ship, but it also wasn’t the worst. Jazz Chisholm has provided an instant impact at a position of need while Leiter has bailed them out of multiple (late-game) jams. I still think they don’t have enough starting pitching, but Clarke Schmidt is on his way back soon and Gerrit Cole can’t be this mediocre forever … right?!?

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3. Baltimore Orioles

Since coming back up in late July for his second big league stint, top prospect Jackson Holliday is slashing .321/.387/.786 with four home runs and 10 RBIs in seven games. He’s racked up two hits in three of those games with at least one RBI in six. Anthony Santander is also second in home runs (12), 9th in isolated power (.339) and 18th in wRC+ (169) since the start of July. Baltimore didn’t capitalize in July on building their lead against the then-struggling Yankees, but still have the best record in the American League. Though they need to figure out their closer situation sooner rather than later. Craig Kimbrel’s not cutting it.

2. Cleveland Guardians

The Guardians have dropped five straight for the first time all season, but maintain a 3.5-game lead in the AL Central with the second-best record in MLB. I liked the Lane Thomas acquisition at the deadline, considering they need more right-handed bats and, most importantly, bats who can hit left-handed pitching. The Guardians still operated with a tight budget and didn’t acquire an impactful starter. Instead, they’re rolling with who they have plus Matthew Boyd (recovering from elbow surgery) and 36-year-old Alex Cobb, who’s suffered multiple setbacks after undergoing offseason hip surgery. Why?

1. Philadelphia Phillies

Despite ending July on a 3-7 slide, the Phillies remain the best team in the National League. Kyle Schwarber clobbered four home runs over their final two games against the Dodgers this week. Dave Dombrowski continued being aggressive at the deadline with Carlos Estevez, who is now their presumptive closer alongside Jeff Hoffman, plus outfielder Austin Hays in an odd contender-contender swap with Baltimore. They’ve been knocking on the doorstep for the last two years–will they be able to get over the hump? We’ll see. 

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