MLB Power Rankings Week 1: Who are top teams to start season? - ESPN

There's been a lot of exciting baseball already just one week into the 2026 MLB season.

Rookies are dominating the conversation around the sport as they've had stellar starts to their major league careers. Chase DeLauter and Munetaka Murakami made history by homering in each of their first three major league games, only the third and fourth rookies to ever do so. Kevin McGonigle had a four-hit debut, and JJ Wetherholt hit his first major league home run in his debut.

We've also seen bullpen concerns in the early days (especially in Kansas City), an exciting first start on the mound from Shohei Ohtani and a surprising team atop the standings in Miami, and no teams have gone undefeated in the first week of game play.

Is your favorite club off to a dominant start — and more importantly, will it last? Or are you hoping the first week's returns aren't a glimpse of the future?

Our expert panel has ranked every team based on a combination of what we've seen so far and what we already knew going into the 162-game marathon that is a full baseball season. We also asked ESPN MLB experts Buster Olney, Alden Gonzalez and Bradford Doolittle to weigh in with an observation for all 30 teams.

Preseason rankings

Record: 4-2
Preseason ranking: 1

Roki Sasaki was a disaster in spring training, allowing 26 of the 52 batters he faced to reach base, 15 of which did so via walk. When he took the mound for his regular-season debut Monday, many expected the worst. And then he was… fine. Sasaki pitched into the fifth inning and allowed just one run and two walks. It certainly wasn't dominant, but it was clearly a building block — an exceedingly important one, given that Sasaki said he had «no confidence at all» going into that start. The Dodgers