2026 Memorial Day MLB standings check: Surprises, letdowns, more - ESPN

It's Memorial Day, which means something different for baseball fans than it does for most people. You are officially free to look at the MLB standings!

Among MLB fans, the saying goes that you should avoid checking the standings until Memorial Day because by that point teams have finally played enough games through two months to add meaning to what we're seeing play out in every division.

Your team's position in the standings today doesn't guarantee it will end the season there, of course, but there is something to the concept: According to Elias Sports Bureau data, 59% of teams (102 of 172) that were in sole possession of first place on the morning of June 1 have gone on to win their division in the wild-card era (since 1995, excluding 2020).

We asked ESPN MLB experts Jesse Rogers, Bradford Doolittle, Buster Olney, Jeff Passan, Alden Gonzalez and David Schoenfield to look at this year's standings and weigh in on what stands out most.

Olney: Everybody is talking about the mediocrity of the American League — mediocrity, actually, might be too polite of a description — and how that will keep teams in play down the stretch.

The Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Kansas City Royals and others are off to horrific starts, but what Baltimore pitcher Chris Bassitt said recently about his team is exactly right for a number of AL clubs: The O's are still in play, sitting just 2½ games out in the race for the third wild card.

Passan: The number of low-payroll teams at the top and the number of high-payroll teams at the bottom. A look at the 10 best and worst teams by record reveals a very interesting fact: Their payrolls are almost identical. The 10 best teams in MLB this season are spending a combined $1.89