MLB Playoff Power Rankings: Phillies at top heading into playoffs, Reds DEAD LAST

MLB Playoff Power Rankings: Phillies at top heading into playoffs, Reds DEAD LAST

on CBS and Paramount+. What a fun weekend to decide. Playoff teams in Major League Baseball’s regular season. Postseason is set. We see divisional matchups right off the bat in the American League. And over in the NL the Reds are in. And I think Brant Suter somewhere still doing that weird dance in the clubhouse. I’m sure if you take a look at the power rankings, we’ve consolidated the playoff teams. Brewers have spent nearly two months in Matt Snider’s penthouse, but they’ve fallen a couple of floors. NL betting favorites Phillies and Dodgers moving up. I’m Tommy Tran with Matt Snider. Puts these power rankings together for us at CBS sports. So we have the 12 teams. The Reds are the 12th playoff team. But in your overall rankings are actually 13. The Astros ahead. Take me through Cincinnati here as we start the postseason. Yeah. So I might feel a little bad about saying this because I really like Cincinnati. I’m in the Cincinnati chapter of the BBWAA. I love Terry Francona, probably my favorite manager in baseball. The Reds are a really likable team. Elly De la Cruz is one of the most exciting players in baseball. Love, Hunter Greene. Love TJ Friedl. They’re hitting the top of the order, but they’re not a playoff caliber team. They’re just not. There’s too many playoff teams. They only have 83 wins. It’s only the third team in history to make the playoffs with 83 wins. This was mostly about the Mets collapse. It’s not like the Reds came and stole it from them. They went 14 and 11 in September, 33 and 32 in the second half. That’s hardly a scorching finish there. But hey, give the Reds credit. The Mets left the door open and the Reds came through it, and they get to go to Dodger Stadium and try to deal with the Dodgers in the playoffs. And if you wanted to squint your way to the Reds making some noise. It starts with Elly De la Cruz being the superstar in the middle of the batting order, and then that rotation with Hunter Greene, all star Andrew Abbott and very high upside lefty Nick Lodolo. If those three throw like aces in October, which they’re capable of doing, and they get any kind of offense at all, then they could make a surprise deep run. Not unlike the Diamondbacks to the World Series a couple of years ago. Diamondbacks or the Cardinals. What was it maybe two decades ago? 85, I think when the regular season. Yeah, they got it done. And six Cardinals won the World Series after having 83 wins. Yeah. So it is possible. Yeah. All right. Let’s get to the Guardians and the Tigers. Boy, what a race. I guess that was depending on which team you’re at and which when you’re rooting for here. But take me through the Cleveland Guardians as they were able to pull off what many thought wasn’t possible a couple of months ago. Yeah, I mean, the vibes were absolutely wretched for the Tigers. Complete opposite. On the Guardian side, they won 17 of 19 at one point to completely run out. They were down 11 games in early September when they win the division. Are you kidding me? They look like they’re pretty well set up right now in the rotation, and it didn’t look like that was going to be the case six weeks ago. But Gavin Williams has been throwing like an ace. Tanner Bibby has locked back in and now they’ve got the youngster. Parker through seven starts looks pretty dominant as well. The back end of the bullpen. They had to do some scrambling as Emmanuel Klaus got put on leave for an investigation related possibly to gambling. But Cade Smith has filled in as closer and he’s been great. And of course, there’s Jose Ramirez, one of the best, even a little bit underappreciated players in all of baseball. So it’s they’re they’re in good shape heading into the postseason. Let’s get to the Mariners. What a season they had with the big dumper. And they make the move to get a Eugenio Suarez. And that fan base party like it’s 2001. What’s the thought on Seattle entering this postseason in 2025 I think they’ve just got to be hopeful. Hope is a good thing. It’s a very good thing. As we remember from Shawshank Redemption, the Mariners are the only team in Major League Baseball who have not been to the World Series before. They’ve got a real shot right now. Now, these are small sample series. They can be fluky. You need things to break, right? You need a little bit of luck. But in terms of having the personnel, you’ve got a rotation with Brian Wu, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, Luis Castillo. They’re capable of throwing like all star caliber pitchers. You’ve got Andres Munoz at the back end of that bullpen, a very, very good closer. And then you look at that offense. Randy Arozarena setting the table Julio Rodriguez was great in the second half. Cal Raleigh we know all about the 60 home runs. Best offensive catcher in baseball. And they added a Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor. The trade deadline. They’ve got some thunder in the lineup. They can steal bases. They can hit for average. They have every ingredient you need to win the World Series. It’s just a matter of if it all comes together and then the teams ahead of them is Toronto and New York Yankees, ahead of the Blue Jays. Even the Blue Jays get the bye, win the division. Take me through this here. Yeah, the Blue Jays have a great offense. I mean, you think about Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero. Hopefully Bo Bichette will be back by the Alds. But it was the supporting cast who really stepped up this year, George Springer with his second best season of his career at age 35. Daulton Varsho, when he was not hurt, was outstanding, especially with power and on defense. Addison Barger was a godsend for them in the middle of the season. Alejandro Kirk, a very good hitting catcher. Pitching’s a little iffy right now, and the Yankees closed the season a lot hotter. They ended up tied. The Yankees have a better run differential, but the Blue Jays won the regular season series. So even though the Yankees were tied for the best record in the American League, they have to be a four seed and have to deal with the Red Sox, which is not an easy assignment in the wild card round. Not at all, as we’re seeing some of the highlights of what Toronto can do. And we certainly know swinging the bat is one of them. So here is your playoff power rankings. And we’ve kind of made our way into the top three. Spent a lot of time talking about the fighting Pat Murphy’s. But let’s get to the Dodgers. That sky high win total betting favorites for basically 80% of the season. Let’s focus on LA. What concerns have you about entering this postseason? Not that many. Just basically the bullpen. The bullpen has been an issue for all the season. It remains an issue in September, but they’re so loaded in the rotation, they can move a few of their starters to the bullpen. Maybe that helps matters there, and I can’t help but wonder if they were kind of on cruise control for a lot of the season. Because the Dodgers are so talented, they’re much better than their record says they should have been, and they’re in the postseason every single year and their seasons of failure if they don’t win the World Series. Remember I talked to Mookie Betts. I was like, how does it feel to know that you’re a failure if you don’t win the World Series? And he’s like, well, my first thought is that it sucks, but if you dig a little bit deeper, it’s really a blessing to be in that position where everybody thinks you’re that good. And look, they won 15 of their last 20 games with a plus 50 run differential. So it seems like they took it off the cruise control and put the pedal to the metal, so to speak. So before we get to your number one team getting back to Milwaukee, why did you drop them? Despite having all those wins and playing so well and being as high as they were for you for most of this year, if you go back to the end of that winning streak through the middle of August, they’ve actually been mediocre since then. They’re 19 and 21 since that. That winning streak was halted, the Dodgers and Phillies finished much stronger. I don’t know if the Brewers have enough slugging that they need in the playoffs, and there are concerns in the rotation. Jose Quintana is hurt. Brandon Woodruff’s hurt. Jacob has not been the all star caliber pitcher that he was in the first half and making the all star team, so there are concerns with this Brewers team. They don’t look nearly as strong as they did six weeks ago. And then the Phillies are number one in your power rankings. They also overtook the Dodgers like three ish weeks ago in the betting market as well. What stood out to you? What continues to stand out to you as we get ready for playoff baseball? Even having lost Zack Wheeler, who was the most reliable ace in all of baseball, that rotation is really, really good. Capable of being the best rotation in the playoffs. With Christopher Sanchez at the top there, he’s probably going to finish second in Cy Young voting. You’ve got Ranger Suarez who’s capable of looking like a frontline starter. A little stumble down the stretch, but I still believe in him. Jesus Luzardo, high strikeout guy Aaron Nola’s last start. He looked like Aaron Nola of old. They’ve got Duran at the end of the bullpen. Stellar closer there who they acquired at the trade deadline. And then you’ve got the Thunder in the lineup with Bryce Harper Kyle Schwarber Trey Turner returned from injury yesterday to hit at the top in front of Harper and Schwarber. This is a team. We’ve seen the kind of noise they can make in October there is the only concern is the offense can run hot and cold and we’ve seen it. We saw it a couple of years ago in the NLCS when they just stopped hitting and the Diamondbacks beat them for the NL pennant. We saw it last year in their series against the Mets, where they just didn’t hit at all. So again, small samples can be fluky, but I believe the Phillies are the best set up on the National League side other than the Dodgers. And who knows what you’re going to get with the Dodgers. And I think the Mariners are the best set up on the American League side. Yeah, the Phillies also took a dart throw in Walker Buehler. And who knows if it ends up paying dividends for Phillies Dodgers. Could you imagine that storyline if somehow Buehler factors into that. So you just hinted at who you like in the Fall classic here it sounds like Seattle and Philly. Yes. How’d they get there in terms of Seattle and then who wins it all in the end? Yeah I think it’s going to be the Phillies to take it. But I wouldn’t be surprised. Nor would I argue with the Mariners. That’d be great. It’d be really cool to see them get to the World Series for the first time and win it again on the on the mayor’s side, looks like it could be a four strong rotation with a good back end of the bullpen. A lot of power and speed in the lineup. That’s a good formula for the postseason. And the Phillies. It’s just again, it’s a matter of if the offense can get hot enough. And I’m going to bet that they do. The biggest series I think in the playoffs is going to happen before we even get to the LCS round, because it looks like we’re going to see Phillies Dodgers in the NLDS and that will be amazing. Hopefully five games worth of theater. And I think that whoever wins that series is probably going to win the World Series. As a neutral fan, that would be fantastic to see them go the distance in that particular round. Matt, certainly appreciate it. Thanks for breaking down your power rankings and postseason predictions. Again, it all starts with wild card series matchups, a lot of divisional ones that we’ve seen here l

Matt Snyder joins CBS Sports HQ with his MLB Playoff power rankings.

(0:00) No. 12 Cincinnati Reds
(2:13) No 10. Cleveland Guardians
(3:15) No. 6 Seattle Mariners
(4:25) No. 5 Toronto Blue Jays, No. 4 New York Yankees
(5:40) No. 2 Los Angeles Dodgers
(6:34) No. 3 Milwaukee Brewers
(7:16) No. 1 Philadelphia Phillies

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