Bradford Doolittle May 9, 2026, 07:10 AM ET

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MLB writer and analyst for ESPN.com

Former NBA writer and analyst for ESPN.com

Been with ESPN since 2013

A tongue-in-cheek projection sent to me by a colleague a couple of days ago gets to the heart of how the American League standings look so far:

Yankees: 94-68

Rest of AL: 81-81

Angels: 68-94

No, the final standings won't look like that, and the joke is probably unfair to the Tampa Bay Rays , though their plus-17 run differential portends a finish closer to the AL's rabble than to the New York Yankees (at plus-75) -- but it's hard to look at the AL records from top to bottom and not wonder what the heck is going on.

Nearing the quarter mark of the season, two of the AL's three division leaders are just two games over .500 (the 20-18 Athletics and 21-19 Cleveland Guardians ) while the Detroit Tigers and Seattle Mariners are tied for the final wild-card berth at 18-21.…