Handing out 2026 midseason grades for all 30 MLB teams - ESPN

It's time for first-half grades, so let's just get right to it — especially since we've technically passed the halfway point, as teams are reaching the 90-game mark of the 2026 Major League Baseball season.

After all, we had a World Cup game to watch! Only during commercial breaks of baseball games, of course.

(All stats through Sunday.)

Jump to a team:

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

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

After three straight 100-loss seasons and low expectations entering this one, the first-place White Sox have been the best story of 2026. They're the only team with three players with 20 home runs, even though one of them — Munetaka Murakami — hasn't played since May 29. Colson Montgomery has turned into the top power-hitting shortstop in the game, and Miguel Vargas simply decided to swing harder and became an All-Star.

The talent doesn't stop there, with Braden Montgomery now in the majors, Caleb Bonemer mashing home runs in the minors, and the White Sox soon to make the first pick in the 2026 draft. They split four games with Cleveland this past weekend, but it could have been a sweep as they blew a seventh-inning lead in one game and a ninth-inning lead in another. This points to the concern: Is there enough pitching to get through 162 games?

Run differential doesn't lie. A 101-win pace doesn't lie. The Brewers are good, and might end up running away with the National League Central. Jacob Misiorowski put together the most breathtaking individual performance of the first half, lighting up radar guns with unfathomable velocity — starting pitchers