Pair of Dodgers charging up Hitter Power Rankings

The Dodgers have come on strong in the NL West race, and the same is true in the Hitter Power Rankings.

Entering Wednesday, L.A. had won 16 of 22 to jump from four games out of the division lead to two ahead. While the club still has pitching issues to address, its powerful offense averaged six runs and 1.7 home runs per game during that stretch, with a collective .808 OPS. Two big reasons for that? The lineup's two most famous superstars, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.

Both previous MVP Award winners have been firing on all cylinders of late, and both moved up at least four spots in this latest edition of the Hitter Power Rankings, voted on by an MLB.com panel based on track record, season-long excellence and recent success. The Dodgers joined the Braves (twice) as the only teams to place a pair of hitters in the top four in any of our nine polls this season.

All stats are through Tuesday's games.

1. Shohei Ohtani, Angels (Last poll: 1)
If Ohtani were just leading the Majors in triples, homers, slugging, OPS, OPS+ and total bases, that would be impressive enough. And yet, as we all know, he’s also been excellent on the mound as well. Now the only question is this: When the next edition of the Hitter Power Rankings arrives, will Ohtani still be an Angel?

2. Ronald Acuña Jr., Braves (2)
In addition to chasing homer-steal history, don’t forget that Acuña is leading the NL in both steals and OPS by healthy margins. The only two players to do that in the AL or NL since integration are Rickey Henderson (1990) and Willie Mays (1957-58).

3. Mookie Betts, Dodgers (7)
It wouldn’t be quite fair to say Betts got off to a slow start, but since May 1, he’s been operating at another level. Betts owns a .300/.395/.640 slash line during that stretch, with more home runs (23) than anyone other than Ohtani as he closes in on his career high of 35 set just last year.

4. Freddie Freeman, Dodgers (10)
And here’s the other half of the Dodgers’ dynamic duo. In his first year in L.A. last year, Freeman hit .325 with a .407 OBP and 155 OPS+. This year? He’s hitting .323 with a .403 OBP and 155 OPS+. That’s Mr. Consistent for you.

5. Luis Arraez, Marlins (3)
You know you’re having a good season when a “slump” means batting .304 (as Arraez is in July) -- and leaves you with a .376 average for the season. Look, Arraez probably isn’t going to crack .400 again, but nobody has even batted .350 in a non-shortened season since Josh Hamilton in 2010.

6. Corey Seager, Rangers (6)
Time on the injured list earlier this season means Seager still doesn’t have quite enough plate appearances to qualify for league leaderboards. If he did, he’d be second in the Majors in average (.348), fifth in OBP (.410) and second in slugging (.621).

7. Luis Robert Jr., White Sox (8)
After hitting a total of 25 homers over 697 plate appearances from 2021-22, a fully healthy Robert already has gone deep 27 times in 392 plate appearances this year. He has a good chance to become only the eighth player in White Sox history with a 40-homer season.

8. Matt Olson, Braves (4)
Olson entered Wednesday needing just one more home run to tie Aaron Judge (183) for the MLB lead since the start of 2018. He already has reached the 30-homer mark for the fourth consecutive full season (setting aside 2020).

9. Masataka Yoshida, Red Sox (not ranked)
Yoshida finally cracks the top 10 here for the first time this season, and it’s well deserved. The 29-year-old rookie from Japan has shown that he can thrive against Major League pitching, batting .318/.380/.503, including .442/.453/.731 over his past 12 games.

10. Yandy Díaz, Rays (not ranked)
One key to Díaz’s success this season? He’s feasting on breaking balls, batting .384 with a .646 slugging percentage and seven of his 13 home runs against them -- not counting his long ball off a Mitch Keller sweeper in the All-Star Game. Only Arraez has a higher batting average against breaking stuff in 2023.

Also receiving votes: Christian Yelich (Brewers), Cody Bellinger (Cubs), Juan Soto (Padres), Manny Machado (Padres), Corbin Carroll (D-backs), José Ramírez (Guardians), Fernando Tatis Jr. (Padres), Bryce Harper (Phillies), Elly De La Cruz (Reds), Kyle Tucker (Astros), Josh Naylor (Guardians), J.D. Martinez (Dodgers)

Voters: David Adler, Brett Blueweiss, Paul Casella, Doug Gausepohl, Thomas Harrigan, Sarah Langs, Travis Miller, Ricardo Montes de Oca, Brian Murphy, Sweeny Murti, Manny Randhawa, Efrain Ruiz, Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru, Andrew Simon, David Venn