What if the MLB standings were all about hitting the baseball hard? We look at the 2023 MLB standings ordered by average exit velocity.
Just about any baseball fan can go to any website and look at the MLB standings based on the traditional wins and losses. We know that the Tampa Bay Rays are pacing the American League while it's the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers doing so in the National League.
But what is the case if we were creating the MLB standings based on something else. After all, there are so many advanced stats in baseball these days, so there are so many metrics to eye that you could essentially rank the league by.
And in that light, who doesn't love to see the baseball get absolutely tattooed off of the bat? So which teams are doing that the best? We went to Baseball Savant for the answers and have the MLB standings if the teams in baseball were ordered by their average exit velocity for the 2023 season as of May 30.
MLB standings ordered by average exit velocity: Braves, Rays, Angels pacing baseball
- Atlanta Braves – 91.2 mph
- Tampa Bay Rays – 90.3 mph
- Los Angeles Angels – 90.0 mph
- New York Yankees – 89.9 mph
- Texas Rangers – 89.9 mph
- Baltimore Orioles – 89.8 mph
- Los Angeles Dodgers – 89.8 mph
- St. Louis Cardinals – 89.7 mph
- Kansas City Royals – 89.6 mph
- Pittsburgh Pirates – 89.4 mph
- New York Mets – 89.3 mph
- Detroit Tigers – 89.2 mph
- Seattle Mariners – 89.2 mph
- Boston Red Sox – 89.1 mph
- Minnesota Twins – 89.0 mph
- Arizona Diamondbacks – 89.0 mph
- Philadelphia Phillies – 89.0 mph
- San Francisco Giants – 89.0 mph
- San Diego Padres – 88.9 mph
- Chicago Cubs – 88.9 mph
- Toronto Blue Jays – 88.7 mph
- Miami Marlins – 88.5 mph
- Chicago White Sox – 88.4 mph
- Houston Astros – 87.8 mph
- Colorado Rockies – 87.8 mph
- Washington Nationals – 87.8 mph
- Milwaukee Brewers – 87.8 mph
- Oakland A's – 87.7 mph
- Cleveland Guardians – 87.7 mph
- Cincinnati Reds – 87.0 mph
When you look at the MLB standings in this context, it's truly not that surprising. The Braves, though they haven't scored the number of runs that the Rays, Rangers and Dodgers have this season, have been mashing the baseball. As of May 28, Atlanta had eight more home runs that traveled 440+ feet on the season than any other team in baseball.
As for the Rays, Rangers and Dodgers, they are the league-leaders in runs scored this season, so it's no shock to see these clubs ranking inside the Top 10 of these standings in terms of exit velocity.
Down at the bottom of the standings, though, it's shocking to see the Astros and Brewers in the bottom third considering that they are both playoff teams if the season were to end today. Having said that, they've also done tremendous work in terms of pitching and, perhaps more notably, the lack of pop might help explain why Milwaukee leads the NL Central with a -21 run differential on the season.