October is coming up, which means the Major League Baseball (MLB) postseason is almost here. In a 162-game season there are bound to be teams who shock all the “experts” for right or wrong reasons. In this review, I’ll be going through three teams that are overperforming and three teams that haven’t figured it out yet.
The first team that has blown people’s expectations out of the water is the best team in baseball as of Aug. 1: the Milwaukee Brewers. During the offseason, the Brewers lost a couple of key pieces. Pitcher Devin Williams was shipped off to the New York Yankees in exchange for starting pitcher Nestor Cortes and, at the time, third base prospect Caleb Durbin. The other piece was Willy Adames, who was a valuable bat and fielder in the everyday lineup, whom the Brewers lost to free agency. With these big losses, multiple news outlets predicted the Brewers finishing second to last or last in the National League Central Division.
Milwaukee started off the first month of the season slow, falling down in the standings from [previous standing from last year] to [standing at the beginning of the season this year]. But since mid-May, the Brewers have made an amazing comeback and gone 43-21. Milwaukee doesn’t have the slugging of the traditional best team in baseball, but they do all the little things right, like baserunning and situational batting. The stars of this Brewers team are their pitchers, who have a 3.63 team earned run average (ERA), which is the best in the MLB as of now. This is the fifth season in a row where Milwaukee has a team ERA under 4.00.
The second team that is doing way better than people expected is the Toronto Blue Jays. The Blue Jays are the second-best team in baseball as of Aug. 1. Toronto has a lot of high star power in first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., outfield and designated hitter George Springer and shortstop Bo Bichette; this has them in a top position in the American League and in a good spot for the postseason. Bichette is having a bounce-back season after a dreadful 2024 campaign where he hit .225 before a broken middle finger ended his season. This year he’s hitting a tad under .300 with 13 home runs and 67 runs batted in. Springer, Guerrero Jr. and Bichette have almost identical offensive stats, which helps a lot in consistency for the offense. The Blue Jays are 64-48 as of this article’s publication and have the best home record in the league at 37-19.
Now, let’s talk about the teams that are underperforming. These struggling teams are running out of time to shake off their losses and make a playoff push.
The Baltimore Orioles were one of the most talked-about teams in the offseason, and some experts had them as their World Series picks. They have a bunch of young players that showed a lot of promise last year, but have been struggling this season. Infielder Jackson Holliday, 2022’s number one overall draft pick, hasn’t been playing as well as the Orioles expected. This is especially problematic because some saw Holliday as the future face of their franchise, but it looks like he’s not paying off like they thought he would.
The same is true for catcher Adley Rutschman, who was an All-Star in 2023 but has been lacking power and overall offense in his 2025 season. Rutschman has been batting .232 with only 8 home runs on the season so far. A problem with a super young team, like Baltimore, is that there are going to be slumps for the young guys, and if the veterans can’t carry the team to a winning record, they will be playing from behind all season. The Orioles are currently last in the tough American League East Division.
The second team that has let down a lot of fans is the Atlanta Braves. Starting the season 0-7 didn’t have a lot of people doubting, but having multiple injuries to your key players started a downward spiral they can’t seem to recover from. Braves superstar outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. tore his ACL in 2024 after he broke history by having MLB’s first-ever 40 home run and 70 stolen base season in 2023. Acuna Jr. had to spend a year recovering before he could rejoin the Braves on May 23. On the first pitch he faced, he smoked a ball into the bleachers, which might’ve been the thing that the Braves needed to turn this season around. Unfortunately, Acuna found himself back on the IR after right leg soreness on July 30.
Four of the Braves’ key pitching bullpen relievers are also on the IR: A.J. Minter, Tyler Matzek, Joe Jiménez and A.J. Smith-Shawver. All missed time this year, which has been a big blow for the team, who find themselves almost 20 games under .500.
The Brewers and Blue Jays are at the top of the league right now, and things have never looked better; But it remains to be seen if they peaked too early in the season. For the Braves and Orioles, there are still about 50 games left in the season to make a comeback, so we can’t count them out just yet. Whoever wins or loses, this is looking like a pretty exciting season for baseball.
