The 2025 Major League Baseball season is upon us, and so it’s time for the yearly tradition of ranking every active franchise (save for a rather long hiatus I took from compiling this). For those new to this series, a brief reminder: My formula for ranking teams looks beyond World Series titles to evaluate several criteria that I think offer a more complete picture of success or failure over the years.
This is especially important in baseball where, until fairly recently, a team could turn in a really good season and not even be rewarded with a postseason appearance. Are we to completely forget those teams? Does the mark of a good season have to be just about trophies? I think not, and that’s what this system takes into account is designed to reflect.
With that out of the way, let’s take a look once again at my criteria and then get to the list. For a look at all the charts, click here.
The Criteria
The categories and point values are as follows:
- 20 points for a World Series title. Pre-1903 titles are not counted.
- 15 points for a pennant.
- 6 points for a playoff series win.
- 2 points for a win in the Wild Card game/series.
- 4 points for a division title.
- 3 points for a regular season winning percentage of .556 or higher, -3 points for a percentage of .444 or lower.
- 1 point for a winning season, -1 point for a losing season.
One significant change I made from the last (2019) edition was to remove the bonus for consecutive winning seasons. Turns out it didn’t really impact the rankings so much as the points awarded.
Feel free to share your thoughts on my rankings in the comments below. And as I do every year, I must give credit to two sites that helped form the basis of my own formulations — Bob’s Blog and Page 2.
All rankings are current through the end of the 2024 Major League Baseball season. Movement from the last list indicated in parentheses. Click on the image to be taken to the interactive version:
The Top 10
- New York Yankees (-) — 13.05 points
- Los Angeles Dodgers (+3) — 6.25
- St. Louis Cardinals (+1) — 5.42
- San Francisco Giants (-2) — 5.28
- Boston Red Sox (-2) — 4.65
- Houston Astros (+12) — 3.72
- Athletics (-) — 3.69
- Atlanta Braves (-2) — 3.50
- Arizona Diamondbacks (+3) — 3.21
- Chicago Cubs (-2) — 2.77
The Dodgers are red hot this decade so their jump to the 2nd spot is no surprise at all. Same goes for the Astros, who had the biggest jump on the list. I guess a few World Series wins will do that.
The Mediocre 10
11. Detroit Tigers (-2) — 2.63
12. Cleveland Guardians (-1) — 2.37
13. Toronto Blue Jays (-2) — 2.35
14. Pittsburgh Pirates (-4) — 2.20
15. New York Mets (-) — 2.16
16. Tampa Bay Rays (+8) — 2.14
17. Cincinnati Reds (-1) — 2.11
18. Kansas City Royals (-1) — 1.85
19. Chicago White Sox (-5) — 1.59
20. Philadelphia Phillies (-) — 1.121
The Rays have made the playoffs in every season but one since my last ranking, helping them vault out of the bottom tier.
The Bottom 10
21. Minnesota Twins (+2) — 1.119
22. Baltimore Orioles (-3) — 1.05
23. Los Angeles Angels (-1) — 1.01
24. Miami Marlins (-3) — 0.95
25. Texas Rangers (+1) — 0.94
26. Washington Nationals (-1) — 0.72
27. Milwaukee Brewers (-) — 0.59
28. San Diego Padres (+1) — 0.06
29. Seattle Mariners (+1) — -0.23
30. Colorado Rockies (-2) — -0.69
Not a ton of movement here, although the Orioles’ streak of losing seasons from 2017-21 finally caught up with them in the rankings. Additionally, Mariners fans now have company on the negative side of the franchise ledger. The Rockies have been nothing short of dismal in recent years, for which they were punished heavily due to being one of the younger teams in the league.
Team of the Decade (So Far)
The cream of the crop are clearly the Dodgers (three titles), Astros (one title, two pennants), and Atlanta Braves (one title, four division titles, five playoff appearances). But not all that far behind are the Yankees (one pennant, two division titles) and Phillies (one pennant). The Rangers do have a miracle World Series win to their name but also four losing seasons this decade.
