The Major League Baseball (MLB) season is a long nine months spanning from February all the way to October for all the best teams. These teams play 165 regular season games, but before that they play a month of “spring training.” In October, the teams that make it the postseason duke it out for the World Series title. There are many ups and downs throughout the season, and teams hit hot streaks.

Unfortunately, this fluctuation also means that teams go cold.  The power rankings shift from the beginning of the year to the end and sometimes change dramatically throughout the year. However, in the off-season, Mlb.com always does an early list of the best teams right after free agency, and this year is no different. According to Mlb.com, the list of top five teams in the league has switched up a little bit. The team in first place and the third place team have switched spots from the last list. The Yankees had one major problem this past season—their pitching. They needed to build up their rotation. Since then, they have done that by agreeing to a major contract with ace Garrett Cole. The Dodgers are good every year and will stay in the second spot of the rankings.

In the third spot, the Astros have been bumped down possibly because of the major scandal going on around them concerning cheating accusations in the postseason. They also lost some key pitchers. The rocket hitting Twins complete fourth place, “Blowing past expectations with 101 wins in the previous season, the second most in franchise history, while also sitting a major league record 307 homeruns,” said mlb.com.  Rounding out the top five is a new face, the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays played well in 2019 and almost beat the heavy-hitting Astros in the division series just coming up short one game. The Rays will be back in 2020, and fans couldn’t be more excited to see the new deals and how the season ends up.