Power Rankings: How the 12 postseason teams stack up

We, at last, have the postseason field. One of the following 12 teams will be putting up a championship flag next March. But even with all 12 teams having a chance, not all 12 teams are created equal. Some teams come into the playoffs thinking World Series or bust. Some teams are just delighted to be here ... and eager, of course, to see if they can make a run. So, in our first Power Rankings of the postseason, we look at The Stakes for each team: What’s on the line, what matters, where they’ve been ... and where they might be going.

• Postseason schedule: Game times, how to watch and more

These rankings, as always, are compiled from rankings from MLB.com contributors whose names you can find at the bottom of this (and every) piece, but the words are mine. If you dislike the rankings, yell at all of us. But if you dislike the words, feel free to yell at me.

1. Phillies (previously: 2)
Season high: 1 | Season low: 8
The stakes: The Phillies haven’t won a World Series since 2008, but, more to the point, most of their veteran stars -- Trea Turner, Zack Wheeler, J.T. Realmuto, Aaron Nola, Nick Castellanos and, especially Bryce Harper -- have never won one … and this whole season, and era of Phillies baseball, is built to win a World Series. That’s the goal. That’s the only goal.

2. Dodgers (previously: 1)
Season high: 1 | Season low: 6
The stakes: The Dodgers have had all sorts of injury issues in their rotation, they lost Mookie Betts for a big chunk of the season and their lineup has been top-heavy all year. They also have Shohei Ohtani (who’s about to play a postseason game! At last!), Freddie Freeman (assuming his ankle is feeling OK) and Betts ... and, oh yeah, the best record in baseball (again.) The regular season is prologue. All that matters is winning the World Series.

3. Yankees (previously: 3)
Season high: 1 | Season low: 7
The stakes: The Yankees came into the season, after winning only 82 games in 2023, facing pressure they hadn’t been under in years. And they ended up winning the AL East, earning the No. 1 seed in the American League and getting an all-timer season from Aaron Judge, as well as what might be a career year from Juan Soto. This is great and all, but this is still a proud franchise that hasn’t made a World Series since Jasson Domínguez was 6 years old. That’s still the house minimum for the Yanks this year.

4. Astros (previously: 6)
Season high: 5 | Season low: 26
The stakes: It looked in June like this might be the end of the Astros dynasty; there were even Alex Bregman trade rumors there for a while. Here they are again, though, winning the division and peaking at the right time. They’re aiming for their eighth straight American League Championship Series appearance, a streak that is hard to fathom.

5. Padres (previously: 6)
Season high: 7 | Season low: 21
The stakes: The vibes in 2024 couldn’t possibly have been more different than they were in 2023, in every possible way. The Padres have felt as sun-kissed this year as they felt snake-bitten last year. Maybe this team can fulfill the grand ambitions that last year’s team -- and so many Padres’ teams of the past -- were unable to.

6. Guardians (previously: 4)
Season high: 2 | Season low: 21
The stakes: This team hasn’t taken the shape of past Cleveland teams: It hits a little bit better, it pitches a little bit worse. (At least until recently.) But the club has the highest seed, No. 2, in the playoffs that it has had since 2017. Who knows when the Guardians will have a better opportunity than this?

7. Brewers (previously: 5)
Season high: 4 | Season low: 19
The stakes: We are in the peak era of Milwaukee Brewers baseball. From 1970-2017, they reached the playoffs four times. They’ve now made it six of the last seven seasons since then. But the one thing they still don’t have is a World Series title. For that matter, they have only one World Series appearance, and that was in 1982. Bob Uecker deserves one. This whole fanbase does.

8. Orioles (previously: 8)
Season high: 1 | Season low: 8
The stakes: The young lineup never quite congealed like it was expected to, the rotation was ravaged by injuries and the second half of the season was rough. They still get their first postseason series at home and have an MVP candidate at short (Gunnar Henderson) and a real ace on the mound in Game 1 (Corbin Burnes). At the very least: This core needs to win its first postseason series.

9. Mets (previously: 9)
Season high: 9 | Season low: 25
The stakes: Like the Padres, the Mets overcame a disastrous 2023 with a downright inspirational 2024. Unlike the Padres, expectations are comfortably low for the postseason, especially having to play a Monday doubleheader and negating a pre-Wild Card off-day. By making the postseason, the Mets have done something special. It’s all bonus at this point.

10. Braves (previously: 12)
Season high: 1 | Season low: 13
The stakes: There aren’t many teams that could overcome the losses of Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider, let alone Austin Riley -- and now maybe Chris Sale? -- and still make the playoffs. You wouldn’t think they could make any sort of World Series run this year. But you wouldn’t have thought that in 2021 either, when they were also ravaged by injuries, including one to Acuña. And as we all remember, they won it all that year.

11. Tigers (previously: 13)
Season high: 7 | Season low: 24
The stakes: Hey, come on now: They’re here! That’s incredible! Who in the world saw that coming? (Not them: They traded Jack Flaherty at the Deadline, after all.) Now that they’re here, they have some 2007 Rockies vibes to them, but even if they crash out in Houston, the Tigers finally have some proof of concept: This team isn’t going anywhere.

12. Royals (previously: 11)
Season high: 6 | Season low: 24
The stakes: They limped to the finish, particularly on offense, where they had Bobby Witt Jr. and … also eight other lineup spots. You’re counting on everything falling right in a bit of a ludicrous way, but remember: This is a franchise that has reached the World Series the last three times they’ve made the postseason.

Voters: Nathalie Alonso, Paul Casella, Anthony Castrovince, Mark Feinsand, Daniel Feldman, Will Leitch, Travis Miller, Sweeny Murti, Arturo Pardavila, Mike Petriello, Manny Randhawa, Andrew Simon, David Venn.