First-month grades for all 30 MLB teams: Handing out A's and an F-minus-minus

As we roll into May, the Yankees are in first place and possess the best record in the American League. The Mets are also in first place and own the best record in the National League. This is quite fun if you root for the Yankees or Mets or write headlines for the New York tabloids. A little reminder, however: The last season both teams actually finished the year in first place was 2006.

With their hot starts, it's no surprise the Yankees and Mets top our list as we hand out April grades. The team at the bottom — and we mean way down there, below the muck and the mud, perhaps buried alongside the baseballs from 2019 — is also no surprise. Let's get to it. Included are each team's projected playoff odds from FanGraphs entering Monday's games, with the change from the start of the season.

Jump to a team:

AL East: BAL | BOS | NYY | TB | TOR AL Central: CHW | CLE | DET | KC | MIN AL West: HOU | LAA | OAK | SEA | TEX

NL East: ATL | MIA | NYM | PHI | WSH NL Central: CHC | CIN | MIL | PIT | STL NL West: ARI | COL | LAD | SD | SF

Playoff odds: 95.1%, up 9.1%. Not much has changed. FanGraphs saw the Yankees and Blue Jays as essentially even heading into the season, and that remains the case. The Yankees landed in Toronto riding a nine-game winning streak, but the only winning team they've played so far was a four-game set against the Blue Jays early in the season (they split the series, with the Yankees tossing shutouts in their two wins).

Best storyline: Anthony Rizzo's MLB-leading nine home runs — seven of them at Yankee Stadium, where he has popped a few routine fly balls into the short porch — have been a big story, but the pitching has been outstanding. New York leads the AL in ERA, something the Yankees haven't done