Who are the winners and the losers at the MLB halfway mark?
The All-Star break is behind us, which means MLB is entering the second half of its season. with all teams trying to keep on course or change their luck.
An increased playoff field will make for an exciting end to the MLB season, but most teams already know whether their objectives are still within reach or if they should just be looking forward to next season’s games.
MLB winners
New York Yankees (64-28)
The biggest winners in the league, from any possible aspect, are the Yankees, the most laureate franchise in American Sports with 27 World Series titles, and are as such always supposed to be good, but this season they are great. Their pitching is marvellous, they have Judge hitting homers like he’s fighting for a big new contract in October (he is!), and even Matt Carpenter is a star right now. They will win their division and no one can ask more from them so far, but it all hinges on their playoff performance.
New York Mets (58-35)
A team with enough talent to win their division, and maybe even the pennant, for a few years already, but this is the season when they have decided to stop “Metsing” around. Buck Showalter and Max Scherzer, a veteran manager and a veteran ace, have stabilized a Mets team that still has a mighty divisional rival in the current champs, the Braves, but they will make the playoffs and keep building from there. Oh, the best pìtcher in the world, Jacob DeGrom, might be coming back for them as well.
Seattle Mariners (51-42)
Any season in which they are in position to make the playoffs after the midseason break is a good season for the Mariners at this point, but their path here has not been easy. They were barely treading water for the first month and a half, with both Julio Rodríguez and Jarred Kelenic struggling, then they started to drown when Haniger and Ty France got injured. There was the bench clearing brawl with the Angels on June 26th, and from that point on the Mariners have been the best team in baseball, going into the break on a 14-game winning streak. They might not trade for Soto, but they have a superstar in J-Rod.
Minnesota Twins (50-44)
They went hard for SS Carlos Correa, made a few deals, like acquiring Gary Sánchez and Gio Urshela from the Yankees in exchange for Josh Donaldson, and they extended Byron Buxton. They did all of that and then waited to see if it was enough, if all the pieces clicked and they could once again have a strong team, and they sure do. Luis Arráez and his .338 batting average are a welcome addition for a team that will try to lock in their division in the coming months.
MLB losers
Los Angeles Angels (39-53)
A healthy Trout, Ohtani pitching better than ever and hitting homers, good starting pitchers and a winning start to the season. Those were more than enough elements to believe this could be the season in which the Angels finally turned things around. It is not. They were playing their divisional rival, the Mariners, on June 26th, they shared the same record, 34-40, and even though both teams were on a slide it was still possible to see either of them winning this series and getting back to .500 before the All-Star break, keeping the season alive. They won that game, and somehow now find themselves 11.5 games behind Seattle. Another lost season, sights already set on finding the formula to finally win.
Chicago White Sox (46-46)
The Tony LaRussa reunion tour might be nearing its last stop. The White Sox were the clear cut favorites to win the AL Central and try their luck in the playoffs once again. They have multiple All-Stars in Tim Anderson, Lucas Giolito, Lance Lynn, Liam Hendriks and others, and a not too far removed MVP in Jose Abreu, but nothing is working as expected. They have the same record as the overperforming Baltimore Orioles, and Fangraphs projected them to win a measly 25 games more than them. They can still catch the Twins, but it is not looking good.
Toronto Blue Jays (50-43)
Baseball is a game of expectations, and the Blue Jays are simply underperforming theirs. They recently went on a 1-9 skid that pushed them out of a playoff spot for a few days, but with the Red Sox struggling as much as them, they still have a 2 game margin for the new third wild card position. But this is not how the season was supposed to go, as shown by the firing of manager Charlie Montoyo a couple of weeks ago. It’s still early to see if this move changes the course of their season, but most analysts predicted a division-winning performance after their 91-71 2021 season and it seems like Vlad Jr and company will still struggle to get into the postseason.