As Major League Baseball reaches the final week of the 2026 regular season, eighteen teams prepare for the offseason while twelve contenders secure postseason berths. Meanwhile, young standouts like Jac Caglianone and Carter Jensen are providing a late-season offensive surge for the Kansas City Royals.
The 2026 regular season is hurtling toward its final week, bringing the year’s ultimate playoff picture into focus as the final MLB.com Power Rankings of the year take shape. In exactly one week, 18 of these teams will go home, and 12 will be left. Across the league, teams are wrapping up their campaigns, with twelve franchises advancing to October baseball and eighteen heading home. These rankings are compiled from MLB.com contributors whose names you can find at the bottom of every piece.
Brewers Claim the Top Spot While Division Races Settle
Milwaukee Brewers and Jacob Misiorowski
At the very top of the final power rankings, the Milwaukee Brewers sit in the number-one position with their eyes on a historic milestone. According to league reporting, the club is on the verge of winning 100 games for the first time ever in what marks the best season in franchise history. Bolstered by Cy Young frontrunner Jacob Misiorowski, the team enters October looking to right the wrongs of last year’s postseason bummer. Their season high water mark reached 1 this week.
Elsewhere in the National League, the Los Angeles Dodgers hold the second spot despite navigating significant turbulence. The club weathered a rocky first season at Chavez Ravine for Kyle Tucker and injury concerns for Shohei Ohtani while remaining the team everyone knows is looming in October. Their season high water mark hit 1 on Aug. 17. Over in the American League, the Tampa Bay Rays defied early expectations by seizing control of the tough AL East, anchored by Junior Caminero, who looks like he’s going to be a signature star in this league for the next decade-plus. Their season high water mark reached 2 on May 25.
Young Sluggers Provide Optimism for Kansas City’s Future
Kansas City Royals Win Over Miami Marlins
While playoff contenders finalize their rosters, teams outside the October picture are already evaluating the building blocks for next year. It was made clear entering this season that the Kansas City Royals were banking heavily on the continued development of their young players, specifically Jac Caglianone and Carter Jensen. For the Kansas City Royals, a season that did not go as planned for the Royals nevertheless generated substantial optimism through the development of Jac Caglianone and Carter Jensen. That development has been on display all season for the young, slugging duo. It was evident in Thursday’s 7-3 win over the Miami Marlins, as Jensen and Caglianone were responsible for the bulk of Kansas City’s offense. Jensen finished the game just a single shy of the cycle, going 3-for-4 with a home run, triple and double, while Caglianone went 2-for-4 with two RBIs.
Jac Caglianone Breakout Season
Caglianone is in the midst of a serious breakout season and has shown no signs of letting his foot off the gas. The 23-year-old is slashing .284/.333/.497 with an .829 OPS. He also leads the Royals in multiple offensive categories, including batting average, home runs (23) and RBIs (69). This has been the breakout we knew Caglianone could bring to the big league level, and after a rocky rookie season, many were eager to see how he would respond this year. The sky is the limit for the outfielder, as the power and bat-to-ball skills he possesses are out of this world.
Meanwhile, teammate Carter Jensen has matched that offensive output behind the plate. After an impressive debut month last September, expectations were high for Jensen entering his rookie season. This year, he has shown flashes of just how dangerous the catcher can be at the plate, slashing .231/.316/.442 and ranking second on the team with 67 RBIs and 22 home runs. Jensen has opened the month of September on a heater, and in his first 12 at-bats of the month, he has already hit three home runs and collected six RBIs.
Contenders Position Themselves for the Wild Card Stretch
Boston Red Sox and Pete Crow-Armstrong
Back in the playoff race, historic turnarounds and individual milestones define the final week. The Boston Red Sox completely flipped a lost June that had fans tearing their hair out into a late-summer surge, riding that run all the way to a playoff spot that sets up another installment of The Rivalry in the Wild Card, having hit a season high water mark of 6 on Aug. 5. In Chicago, Pete Crow-Armstrong is about to end the Shohei Ohtani MVP reign, doing so while becoming one of the most popular players in the sport and having one of the best seasons in Cubs history.
As the final out of the regular season approaches, the definitive matchups will soon replace the projection lists. The 12 remaining postseason qualifiers will test their momentum starting next week, leaving the rest of the league to build toward the future.
