The Mild, Mild AL West

I may have been laser focused on the Stanley Cup and NBA Playoffs, but I have been keeping an eye on the 2026 MLB season as well. I've spent the last month or so wondering what my first baseball story of 2026 would be, and I had a few candidates. After seeing quite the oddity in the standings yesterday, I just had to chose this as my story: the American League West being mid so far.

We are pretty much a hair over one third into the season; the month of May is over in baseball, and June is on the horizon. Now, it's still early, but as the late, great Lawrence Peter Berra famously said, "It's getting late early out there." June is the final full month before baseball starts to enter their All-Star break, and while there's still plenty of time for teams to get right, it's not a lot of time for some of them to have any realistic shot at something. Regarding AL West so far, it's a mess this season. All of the records are quite mediocre as the season of summer closes in.

But someone has to lead this division. And that someone is:

In all of this "mid" madness, it's the Seattle Mariners leading the division at 31-29, just two games over .500, and they had to win six straight and eight out of their last 10 to get across that line. The Mariners are coming off winning the West for the first time in 24 years, and falling one win short of winning their very first pennant in franchise history. This season is a milestone for them--it's their 50th--yet they are sputtering following their best season in team history. Julio Rodriguez, Josh Naylor, and Randy Arozarena are showing their mettle, but the Mariners need to continue their current hot streak to increase their chances of repeating as champions of the West.

The biggest surprise in the AL West so far this season is the Athletics, who are currently in a second place tie with the Texas Rangers. They were actually in first place at one point, but they have fallen off quite a bit. The A's have lost seven of their last ten, and their 13-8 loss to the Yankees saw them give up all 13 runs in the 3rd inning (10 of them before an out was recorded). The A's are in their second season of their transition from Oakland to Las Vegas, a very tough stage that has been hard on the team, but they are making it work so far. I do think they have a realistic shot at not only a postseason appearance but also the AL West, which they haven't won since 2020.

The Texas Rangers are three years removed from their World Championship, but they haven't come close to that level since then. The team acquired Brandon Nimmo from the Mets for Marcus Semien, but other than Semien, they also lost Adolis Garcia, who I've been a fan of ever since he made Astros fans cry during the ALCS three years ago. They're 2.5 games out of first, but they are close, and there is a lot of time left in the season. We'll see if the Rangers can get on track and keep pace with the Mariners and A's in the West.

Is there a more beautiful sight in baseball than the Houston Astros being hot garbage? After years of holding the AL West and the ALCS hostage, the Astros actually missed the postseason last year, and from the looks of things, they could miss out again. Houston sits 4.5 games out of first place entering the month of June, but even so, it looks like they have quite an uphill battle. I don't see them climbing out of this one. Houston better prepare for years of mediocrity and futility. I hope you enjoyed those ill-gotten gains, because as Daffy Duck once said, "You must pay the penalty." And only in cash. With the way you guys cheat, we'd be fools to accept checks from you.

I'll give the Astros this, though: at least they're not the Los Angeles Angels. I get and accept that Orange County is Los Angeles' little brother in, well, everything, but must the Angels act like it year in, year out?! October 3, 2014--on that day, the Angels lost Game Two of the ALDS to the Royals, who went on to sweep the Angels as part of their run to the World Series. That exact date is the last time that an MLB postseason game took place in Anaheim. The Angels have gone 11 full seasons without a postseason. That is the longest current drought in baseball. When even the NHL's Buffalo Sabres ended their own drought before you have, that's a big problem. Right now, the Angels are in the bottom of the AL West--eight games out of first. Even with four months left, the Angels aren't getting out of this. The drought will reach a dozen years. Poor Mike Trout. One of the best hitters in baseball, but has only played three postseason games, and lost all of them. He deserves better than this.

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The AL West being mid is interesting, because that means it's division or bust. Most likely, if the East and Central remain strong, whoever wins the West will most likely host a Wild Card Series. We have four more months of baseball to go, that is a lot of time to decide so much. It's going to be quite an interesting division race, especially if it remains close by the pivotal months of August and September.