Opening Day is around the corner, less than a week away. Every club, at least for now, is undefeated, their record unblemished, their highest hopes undashed.

But while no games have been played, not all 30 teams are created equal. Let’s do some ranking.

Jump to a team by clicking on the links below:

• AL East: Blue Jays | Yankees | Red Sox | Rays | Orioles

• AL Central: Guardians | Tigers | Royals | Twins | White Sox

• AL West: Mariners | Astros | Rangers | Athletics | Angels

• NL East: Phillies | Mets | Marlins | Braves | Nationals

• NL Central: Brewers | Cubs | Reds | Cardinals | Pirates

• NL West: Dodgers | Padres | Giants | Diamondbacks | Rockies

30. Colorado Rockies

The 2026 Rockies should be better than the 2025 Rockies, but the 2026 Rockies might still be worse than every other ballclub. Colorado’s disastrous season precipitated a long overdue front-office overhaul. That new direction won’t reorient the big-league team’s fortunes this season, but it’ll be interesting to see if there are any legitimate signs of improvement. Keep an eye on starting pitcher Chase Dollander, the most talented arm in the organization. If he takes steps forward, that’s a huge deal for Colorado and a positive harbinger.

29. Chicago White Sox

At least they have the pope on their side. Chicago had a fun offseason; Munetaka Murakami is exactly the type of high-risk, high-reward hitter bad teams should be targeting. Yet this is still a team years away from seriously contending. This season will be all about figuring out which position players have a chance to be on the next good White Sox club. Good thing there’s a lot of them to sift through.

28. Los Angeles Angels

What a pointless endeavor the Angels have become, the epitome of trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. New manager Kurt Suzuki is on a one-year deal, which doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the project. Zach Neto is really, really good, but he might be the only player on this roster who is really, really good. Hopefully Mike Trout can stay healthy.

27. Washington Nationals 

This pitching staff could be historically bad, but look on the bright side: At least they have technology now! After years of living in the baseball stone ages, the new Nationals front office has embraced modern technology. The results might not show up immediately, but things do appear to be headed in the right direction. Offensively, this unit has a chance to be pretty good. James Wood is special, CJ Abrams is a borderline All-Star, and Dylan Crews and Brady House are talented youngsters with something to prove. The Nats won’t win the World Series, but there’s a new day dawning in D.C.

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26. Minnesota Twins

Minnesota traded away its entire bullpen (and Carlos Correa) at last year’s deadline in what appeared to be the embracing of a rebuild. But this winter, the Twins changed course, opting to hold on to pieces such as Pablo Lopez, Byron Buxton, Joe Ryan and Ryan Jeffers. The AL Central could be weak enough that Minnesota hangs around longer than people expect, and this roster definitely doesn’t suck, but it’s hard to see a team with such a lengthy injury history making a real run at October.

25. St. Louis Cardinals

The Cardinals did a ton of subtracting over the winter, parting ways with veterans Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras and Brendan Donovan. New president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom clearly has a vision, but one that might take a few years to actualize at the big-league level. This pitching staff, as currently constructed, looks like a weak spot, but there are some interesting upper-level arms on the precipice of helping in St. Louis. Whether the Cards can finally unlock talented young bats such as Jordan Walker, Masyn Winn, Victor Scott II and Nolan Gorman will be the litmus test for their season.

24. Miami Marlins

The 2025 Marlins played over their heads a little bit. As fun as that team was, it’s tough to envision Miami pulling that off again without any massive additions. Owen Caissie, acquired from Chicago in the Edward Cabrera deal, should help right away, but he’s a boom-or-bust type who might need some time to adjust to the bigs. If Miami can simply match its win total from last season, that would be a huge success. Getting Sandy Alcantarra back on track has to be priority No. 1.

23. Tampa Bay Rays

It feels like this franchise is in a full holding pattern until a new stadium gets built. Junior Caminero is a superstar, but does Tampa Bay have anything with which to support him? Is there another 4.0-WAR position player anywhere in this organization? It doesn’t seem like it. Shortstop Carson Williams, a sparkling defender, could be that guy if he fixes his big swing-and-miss issues. Otherwise, it’s slim pickings. That said, the Rays’ rotation should be better than it was last year, especially if Shane McClanahan is truly back from his long injury detour.

22. Athletics

Do you like runs? Well, the A’s are about to score and surrender quite a few. This lineup is electrifying and has some of the best young hitters in the sport. A full season of Nick Kurtz should be exhilarating. This pitching staff, however, leaves much to be desired. Luis Severino looked great in the WBC but has yet to show that form in green and gold. An offseason impact starting pitching addition — say, Zac Gallen, Framber Valdez or Ranger Suarez — would’ve done wonders for this club.

21. Cincinnati Reds

Hunter Greene being out for the first few months of the season is a big, big deal. The Reds have a host of talented arms to weather the storm — keep an eye on Chase Burns — but Greene is pretty irreplaceable. On the offensive front, it’s all about Elly De La Cruz. The unicorn shortstop was squarely mediocre from a production standpoint last season. This team needs him to go super saiyan, establishing himself as an MVP contender, if it’s going to have a chance to return to October.

20. Texas Rangers

Texas had the lowest ERA in baseball last year, and it didn’t matter one bit. And that pitching unit, talented it might be, is due for some regression. For all the famous names in this lineup, Texas’ offense has been straight-up bad the past two seasons since winning the 2023 World Series. New manager Skip Schumaker is highly respected and should provide a jolt of energy, but the Rangers just need to hit.

19. Cleveland Guardians

A heroic, late-summer run handed Cleveland an improbable AL Central title last year, but this organization did very, very little over the winter to supplement a roster that was pretty mediocre for much of the season. The Guardians are counting on a handful of young hitters — Chase DeLauter, George Valera, Bo Naylor, CJ Kayfus, Travis Bazzana — to develop into impact players. Perhaps some of those names do break out, but it’s   hard to envision a Cleveland hitter not named José Ramirez making the 2026 All-Star team.

18. San Francisco Giants

How new manager Tony Vitello makes the leap from college to the pros will be one of the more fascinating storylines of the entire MLB season. How that manifests on the field, though, will be difficult to assess. The Giants simply might not have enough talent for any manager to lead them to the promised land. San Francisco's rotation looks particularly shallow, though perhaps an improved defensive unit and one of the more pitcher-friendly parks in the game will be enough.

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17. Arizona Diamondbacks

Arizona just needs to tread water for the first month of the season until ace Corbin Burnes returns from Tommy John surgery. This pitching staff doesn’t inspire oodles of confidence, but at least Arizona’s offense is good enough to win a bunch of 7-6 games. Corbin Carroll’s hamate surgery is a big storyline just because it typically takes guys some time to rediscover their power stroke after coming back from that injury.

16. Pittsburgh Pirates

A popular dark-horse pick right now, Pittsburgh is coming off one of the most punchless offensive team seasons in recent history. Thankfully, the Pirates have four new main characters taking the stage: three offseason additions (Ryan O’Hearn, Marcell Ozuna and Brandon Lowe) and one top-prospect phenom in Konnor Griffin. Whether or not Griffin makes the team out of camp, the 19-year-old supernova should be up for most of the season. It’s a lot of pressure to put on a literal teenager, but Paul Skenes and this strong pitching staff need all the help they can get.

15. San Diego Padres

Offensive starpower be damned, this roster scares the heck out of me. Despite the combo of Fernando Tatis Jr., Jackson Merrill, Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts, the Padres finished third-to-last in baseball in home runs last year. Add a very top-heavy pitching rotation — Randy Vásquez, Germán Márquez and Walker Buehler are the 3, 4 and 5 starters — and this organization looks to be balancing on something of a tightrope.

14. Houston Astros

The much-predicted offseason trade never happened, which means the pieces on this roster still don’t all fit together. Jeremy Peña starting the year on the IL might simplify Houston’s defensive alignment coming out of the gate, but finding enough at-bats for all the veteran infielders might prove difficult. But none of that is as important as Yordan Alvarez’s health. The gargantuan slugger played in just 48 games last season, and the Astros still almost won the division. The future is not particularly bright in Houston — this farm system stinks — but the Astros still have enough talent to return to October.

13. Atlanta Braves

If the Braves stay healthy, they should be pretty good. Unfortunately, they’re already not healthy, with Sean Murphy, Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep starting the season on the injured list. Losing Jurickson Profar to another PED suspension doesn’t help, either. Can the top of this roster — Ronald Acuña Jr., Chris Sale, Austin Riley, Matt Olson and Spencer Strider — perform at a high enough level to make up for the injury woes and lack of depth?

12. Kansas City Royals

Speaking of a lack of depth, the Royals are shallower than a kiddie pool. Thankfully, the high-end talent here is pretty incredible. Bobby Witt Jr. is the third-best player in the world. Maikel Garcia and Vinnie Pasquantino should be All-Stars. Carter Jensen is a fun Rookie of the Year pick. A healthy Cole Ragans could be an X-factor. If Kansas City can dodge the injury bug, it’ll have a good shot at the AL Central crown.

11. Detroit Tigers

If this is Tarik Skubal’s final season in Detroit, well, let’s hope the Tigers go down swinging. Adding Framber Valdez to the rotation was a reassuring development, but this offense is still lacking a true difference-maker. Maybe that’s Kevin McGonigle, one of the top prospects in baseball, who could make the team out of spring training. If he hits the ground running, watch out.

10. Chicago Cubs

Swapping in Alex Bregman for Kyle Tucker is a vibes upgrade but a production downgrade. Where else can Chicago make up the difference? Maybe on the pitching front, where offseason trade acquisition Edward Cabrera enters the season with tons of hype. Which Pete Crow-Armstrong shows up — the first-half MVP candidate or the second-half struggler? — will play a huge role in dictating how this Cubs season turns out.

9. Milwaukee Brewers 

Can they really keep getting away with this? After leading MLB in wins, the Brewers dealt away their best pitcher (Freddy Peralta) and two every-day position players (Caleb Durbin, Isaac Collins). A full-bore breakout from youngster Jackson Chourio would counteract those losses. So, too, would a full, dominant season from Jacob Misiorowski. No team has more young talent than Milwaukee, so even though they seem like smoke and mirrors at times, the Brewers are a good choice to repeat as NL Central champs.

8. Baltimore Orioles

How did things get so ugly for the 2025 O’s? Bad starting pitching and position-player injuries. Baltimore solved the first problem by acquiring Chris Bassitt and Shane Baz to go alongside a back-from-injury Kyle Bradish and out-of-nowhere-breakout Trevor Rogers. The second problem is a little trickier. Adding Pete Alonso, one of the game’s most durable position players, will help a lot. But spring training injuries to Jackson Holliday and Jordan Westburg don’t exactly put the worrywarts at ease. In the end, however, the entire operation probably comes down to Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson.

7. Boston Red Sox

The more I look at this roster, the more I like it. There are some perplexing dynamics, some pieces that don’t mesh, some hitters with question marks, but in the main, Boston has assembled an interesting group. A disproportionate amount of pressure will be placed on the shoulders of young Roman Anthony, but as he showed in the WBC, Anthony is a special hitter capable of carrying that type of load. He’ll need some help from his supporting cast, which makes Willson Contreras, Trevor Story and Wilyer Abreu absolutely crucial to Boston’s season.

6. Toronto Blue Jays

This lineup, inches from a World Series victory in November, will probably be worse than it was last season. Some of that is because of Bo Bichette’s departure, but it’s also difficult to see characters such as George Springer, Davis Schneider and Daulton Varsho delivering such productive offensive campaigns again. The arrival of Kazuma Okamoto could help bridge that gap, but there are enough injuries on the pitching side to feel a bit more cautious than the consensus regarding the defending American League champs.

5. New York Mets

It was quite the whirlwind winter for the Mets, who overhauled nearly half their big-league roster and said goodbye to a whole host of franchise stalwarts. The end result, however, is pretty encouraging. Freddy Peralta is a bona fide ace. Bo Bichette rakes and should be able to handle third base. Luis Robert Jr. retains stupid levels of upside in center field. Jorge Polanco will raise the offense’s floor. Those newcomers should pair wonderfully with Juan Soto, Nolan McLean, Francisco Lindor and the rest to propel New York back to October.

4. Philadelphia Phillies

One day, perhaps soon, this Phillies window will close. The core of Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, Zack Wheeler and Co. certainly isn’t getting any younger. But while this roster is dangerously devoid of depth, there are enough high-end, impact characters on both sides of the ball to keep the Phillies in contention for at least another 365 days. A pair of rookies in Justin Crawford (outfield) and Andrew Painter (rotation) will have a big say as to whether this is a wild-card team or a division champ.

3. New York Yankees

The Yankees got a lot of flack for opting to run things back in 2026 with a nearly unchanged roster, but I think it’s a pretty defensible strategy ,considering how good this team was last season. Mix in a full season of starter Cam Schlittler, an Austin Wells bounce-back, another Ben Rice breakout and the underrated addition of Ryan Weathers, and the Yanks start to look like a strong World Series contender. They also, by the way, employ the best hitter on Earth.

2. Seattle Mariners

Could the World Baseball Classic handshake drama surrounding Cal Raleigh tailspin Seattle’s season into a tornado of messy clubhouse drama?! I’m not buying it. That’s not really how baseball works, and this team is too dang talented to let something as trivial as a fistbump slight derail its plans. The Mariners, who were one win away from their first World Series appearance last year, got better in the offseason with the addition of Brendan Donovan. Some regression is inevitable for Raleigh, but a long-awaited, full-blast season from Julio Rodriguez could make up the difference.

1. Los Angeles Dodgers

Will the Dodgers win the most regular-season games in 2026? Probably not, but that’s not their goal. This isn’t the Premier League. For L.A., the regular season is merely a warm-up for the playoffs, through which the Dodgers appear primed to stampede once again. The two-time defending champs got resoundingly better over the winter, adding both the best hitter (Kyle Tucker) and the best closer (Edwin Díaz) on the free-agent market. A million things could happen between now and October, but there is no stronger playoff lock than the Dodgers.

MIAMI — They won. They cried. They prayed. They sang. They cried some more.

Venezuela’s 3-2 victory over Team USA on Tuesday in the WBC final was, above all else, a deluge of emotion — for the players, for the fans, for an entire beleaguered nation of 33 million. All tournament long, those on the diamond and in the stands provided a volcano of joyous noise, a fitting soundtrack to a tournament that exists for the fun of it. There was drumming in the dugout, chanting in the seats and dancing in the streets, all very loud and very proud.

That symphony reached its crescendo at 10:36 p.m. local time courtesy of veteran slugger Eugenio Suárez. With the game knotted at two and a runner on second base, Suárez connected squarely with a poorly located Garrett Whitlock changeup. The ball crested gracefully into the left-center gap, finding a clean patch of grass. Runner Javier Sanoja jogged home from second into the waiting arms of his teammates, who had already streamed out of the dugout.

Suárez, upon reaching second, separated his arms above his head to welcome the praises of his rollicking countrymen. Then, and only then, did the hero of the evening and a nation turn his attention to the sky to acknowledge his creator. For three seconds, as the world roared around him, Suárez stayed perched on second base, hollering his thanks to the heavens.

He had much to be grateful for.

“I have a lot of appreciation,” Suárez expressed after the game. “I have to say thank you [to] all the fans coming in here to support our team, our country. It's been so loud for us. It's been awesome, the support that we have.”

Venezuela entered this tournament as the most decorated and successful baseballing country to have never won the World Baseball Classic. In fact, across the event’s five prior editions, the South American nation hadn’t even reached the final. Heartbreak and disappointment were its fate year after year, with expectations eternally unmet. Venezuela’s most recent exit, in 2023, was the cruelest: a rip-your-heart-out quarterfinal defeat to Team USA. In that one, Venezuela sat just six outs from the biggest win in its history. Instead, Trea Turner clobbered an eighth-inning grand slam to craft an instant comeback.

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The sting of that memory, for the Venezuelan players, carried more weight than any geopolitical narrative. On Tuesday, they were out for revenge of the sporting kind, plain and simple. That also seemed to be the case for many of the Venezuelans in the building. These fans didn’t need government face-offs or presidential provocations to care more about the World Baseball Classic than their American counterparts.

Numerically speaking, Tuesday’s crowd was split just about even, a decidedly more pro-USA, anti-Venezuela ratio than was in attendance for the semifinal games. But in terms of decibels, the two sides weren’t remotely close.

“The noise here in the World Classic is unique,” Suárez said. “It's been very, very noisy. The Latin fans really feel and live the support to their teams. They are living this, and this is an extra motivation for us. The Venezuelan fans showed yesterday how passionate the fans are for baseball.”

It certainly helped that Venezuela, playing as the road team, gave its fans something to cheer about in the early going, netting the game's first run off Team USA starter Nolan McLean via sac fly in the third. Venezuela doubled that lead two frames later on a solo shot to dead center by outfielder Wilyer Abreu.

From there, that slim margin held, thanks to Team USA’s embarrassingly anemic offense, which was held in check by a locked-in Venezuela pitching staff. Multiple times in this WBC, Venezuela has had to play from behind. That wasn’t the case in the final because of 4 1/3 splendid innings from starter Eduardo Rodriguez, who took the start only because Pablo López withdrew from the WBC due to injury and Jesús Luzardo declined to participate.

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The veteran southpaw was unexpectedly brilliant, stymieing a lineup of MVPs and All-Stars with a well-crafted cocktail of 93-mph heaters and 89-mph cutters. Before Rodriguez’s gem on Tuesday, Venezuelan starters had allowed 12 runs across 15 2/3 innings of WBC work. That’s a 6.89 ERA, the fourth-worst mark in the tournament, ahead of only Israel, Czechia and Brazil. But with timely hitting and a dynamite bullpen, Venezuela was generally able to overcome those early deficits. 

Against the USA, it didn’t even have to. For most of the evening, Venezuela clung to that slim 2-0 lead, with a carousel of relievers keeping Team USA at bay.

That came undone in an instant in the eighth inning, after a Bobby Witt Jr. walk brought Bryce Harper to the plate as the tying run with two outs. The Phillies’ star dispatched the second pitch he saw, a middle-middle changeup from Andrés Machado, over the fence in center to even the game. It was a trademark moment for the future Hall of Famer, one that would’ve been the highlight of the tournament had the USA found a way to win. Instead, it became a whimsical footnote, thanks to Suárez’s heroics.

Suárez is one of the most universally beloved personalities around the game, a kind and effervescent soul who thrives off human connection. The type of person who has never woken up on the wrong side of the bed, Suárez would offer a warm grin and friendly hello to a raincloud. It’s impossible to imagine him, say, declining to shake an MLB teammate’s hand during an international competition.

He is, in that way, a wonderful encapsulation of what made this Venezuela team special. Relaxed fearlessness. Easy confidence. Passion with a smile. That’s how they played against Team USA on Tuesday, and that’s how they played all tournament.

During the game’s final at-bat, Suárez waited on the dugout railing, a Venezuelan flag in his right hand. When the last out came — a strikeout via closer Daniel Palencia — Suárez hopped onto the diamond and fell to his knees. With his nation’s colors shawled around his shoulders, he once again looked toward the loanDepot roof and whatever higher power might exist beyond it.

In the chaos surrounding him, tears, so many tears. There was screaming and hugging and jumping and all the other revelry that comes with winning, but the emotion was too large to not include crying. It was quite a sight, all those red, tear-tinged eyes.

After receiving their gold medals, the entire Venezuelan team gathered on a podium shaped like the World Baseball Classic logo. The country’s anthem, “Gloria al Bravo Pueblo (Glory to the Brave People),” bellowed from the stadium speakers. The players, many still weeping, belted the words at full roar.

It looked like Suárez and captain Salvador Perez were trying to make sure folks back in Venezuela could hear them. Fans in the stands joined in. Surely, so did those watching at home. It was a rousing rendition, one quite worthy of the moment.

Venezuela, a nation of champions who can’t help but sing along.