2024-25 FTN MLB Power Rankings, March 31: Dodgers Off to a Hot Start

We’re a few games into the 2025 MLB season, which means it’s time to take a look at the FTN MLB Power Rankings.

Some things have gone as expected through the first weekend-plus of the season. For example, the Dodgers are 5-0 and look like an unstoppable Megazord of a baseball team, while Aaron Judge is pacing for something like a bajillion home runs. Others have been less expected — the Braves are 0-4, and Rafael Devers has struck out more times than Steve Urkel hitting on Laura Winslow.

Either way, everything so far is a small sample. The most powerful thing in any analysis on March 31 should be preseason projections, with only minor adjustments made for what we’ve seen so far (injuries aside).

That all said, let’s take a look at where the power rankings sit on the final day of March and how the FTN Model sees the season playing out. Below are some key takeaways, and then check at bottom for the full power rankings.

Key Takeaways

Dodgers Well Clear of the Field

The reigning World Series champions have done their level best to repeat, and everything so far has them in a good place to do so. The Dodgers are 5-0 despite getting two bad starts from Roki Sasaki, Mookie Betts losing a medium-size dog’s worth of weight to illness and Miguel Rojas, Max Muncy and Teoscar Hernández hitting about as well as the bad kids on your little league team. We can expect Betts to get better as his health improves, we can expect Sasaki’s results to improve or the Dodgers to send him to AAA and get one of their other wealth of starters in there, we can expect Shohei Ohtani to continue obliterating baseballs. The Dodgers can already start preparing for October.

AL East Could Be a Dogfight

Our power rankings have three AL East teams in the top six, four in the top 10 and all five in the top 14. The Yankees and their torpedo bats (the most overdiscussed story of all time) made the Brewers pitchers look like beer league pitchers, while the Orioles and Blue Jays played to a split over the weekend. The Red Sox opened 1-3, but then that was against our No. 5 team, the Rangers, and while yes, Rafael Devers could scarcely have hit worse, he’s still recovering from injury. He’ll improve. The AL East could be pushing for four playoff teams this year.

Braves Off to a Slow Start

Come back soon, Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider. Because the Braves are 0-4 and haven’t scored since the fifth inning Friday (that’s four innings Friday and two straight shutout losses Saturday and Sunday), and now they have three games at the unstoppable Dodgers. Jesse Chavez is already back, but that’s basically a good-luck charm — better to get back the former MVP and potential Cy Young winner. The Braves are still just fine in our rankings (currently third, projected for 94.8 wins), but with the Mets and Phillies also top-10 teams, they can’t afford to let a slump linger.

NL Central Feeling Sad

The Pirates are 19^th in our current power rankings, projected for 78.2 wins. That’s not very good! But it is notable, because they are not only the top NL Central in the rankings, they are comfortably that, with the Cubs-Reds-Brewers-Cardinals sitting at 23^rd-24^th-25^th-26^th. The five NL Central teams are among the bottom eight NL teams in the power rankings. There will be a team that rises above this level to be at least a competent division winner, but our model is not a fan of the division right now.

Check out our full rankings below: