Power Rankings: How the LCS teams stack up

We have reached, at last, the final four: Both League Championship Series matchups are now set. Over the next few weeks or so, we will find out, once and for all, who the top team is, who will raise the Commissioner’s Trophy and celebrate by spraying all sorts of beverages all over each other in the clubhouse. We’ll know who’s the best.

But hey: Why wait that long? Why let the field decide it? Just let us! Thus, heading into Sunday night’s NLCS Game 1, we have our final Power Rankings of the 2024 season -- ranking just these four teams. Who’s got the best chance to win? The least? Who’s the strongest right now? The weakest? Here’s our best guess ... along with a look at the postseason history, and World Series history, of each team.

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. Dodgers
Last title: 2020 (7th in franchise history)
Last World Series appearance: 2020 (beat TB)
Last postseason result: Lost 2023 NLDS (vs. AZ)

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Dodgers, even with all their rotation woes, remain the favorite in the eyes of our voters. Having Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman atop your lineup will do that, even if Freeman is not at full strength due to a right ankle injury. Still: Those rotation woes have not resolved themselves, and they are unlikely to do so. The offense and bullpen will have to do some heavy lifting, as they did in Games 4 and 5 against the Padres.

2. Yankees
Last title: 2009 (27th in franchise history)
Last World Series appearance: 2009 (beat PHI)
Last postseason result: Lost 2022 ALCS (vs. HOU)

It really is all set up for the Yankees. The Astros, their longtime postseason tormentors, and the Orioles, the team that had pounded them during the regular season, were both eliminated in the Wild Card round, leaving only AL Central competitors. The Bombers dispatched the Royals without too much trouble in their ALDS. They are mostly healthy. They have home-field advantage. They’re playing a team they’ve historically handled in the postseason, a team that in many ways is just happy to be here. The Yankees came into the season thinking World Series or bust. The urgency has only increased since then.

3. Mets
Last title: 1986 (2nd in franchise history)
Last World Series appearance: 2015 (lost to KC)
Last postseason result: Lost 2022 NLWC (vs. SD)

You have to assume the Mets players have been sleeping very well the last couple of days. From Monday, Sept. 30 (when they played their makeup doubleheader in Atlanta) through Wednesday, Oct. 9 (when they closed out the NLDS against the Phillies), they:

a: Came back from eighth-inning deficits four times;
b: Clinched a playoff berth and won two postseason series;
c: Turned their fans into giddily blubbering merchants of joy;
d: Made everybody think, incredibly, that this year really could be the year.

They will return to the field tonight after those days off. They have certainly earned the rest.

4. Guardians
Last title: 1948 (2nd in franchise history)
Last World Series appearance: 2016 (lost to CHC)
Last postseason result: Lost 2022 ALDS (vs. NYY)

Remember back in Spring Training, when people were down on the Guardians because they had barely added anything to a team that didn’t even make the playoffs last year? Turns out, the club knew exactly what it was doing. Cleveland has looked better at every point this year and is now eight wins away from something this franchise hasn’t done in nearly 80 years. The Yankees are the franchise's longtime postseason nemesis, though, winning four of the teams’ six series, including three in a row, all since 2017. So it’s fitting that’s the team the Guardians will have to get through first.

Voters: Nathalie Alonso, Anthony Castrovince, Mark Feinsand, Daniel Feldman, Will Leitch, Arturo Pardavila, Mike Petriello, Andrew Simon, David Venn, Zac Vierra