Who Can Compete With The Dodgers?

The Dodgers are clearly the best team in baseball, and anything else feels like an attempt to be contrarian for the sake of it. They are the defending champions, they look even stronger heading into 2026, and the market has priced them like a superteam. Sitting around +225 in the preseason is an absurd number in a sport as volatile as baseball, but it also tells you exactly how the betting world sees this roster. The Dodgers are not just the favorites. They are the team everybody else is measuring themselves against.

They appear better than last season with the additions of Kyle Tucker and Edwin Díaz, and you would also have to assume the starting pitching will be healthier than it was a year ago. That is a scary thought for the rest of the league. When a team already this talented adds more star power and expects better health, the gap becomes difficult to ignore. At least on paper, Los Angeles is the closest thing baseball has to a juggernaut.

So the real question is not who is best. It is who is second.

In the American League, the Mariners and Yankees look like the most likely answers. Seattle has the kind of pitching and overall balance that can make it dangerous over a long season and especially in October. The Yankees remain the Yankees, with enough talent and big-game presence to be taken seriously no matter what. The Blue Jays also deserve mention as a team capable of entering that conversation if things break right.

The Tigers are a little different, but they are worth real attention. Detroit should be able to handle business in the AL Central, and any team with one of the best starting pitchers in the game has a chance to matter once the postseason begins.

In the National League, the Phillies and Mets probably have the best shot at challenging the Dodgers, but for now it still feels like a stretch. That is the story of 2026 entering the season: the Dodgers are on top, and everybody else is trying to prove they belong in the same conversation.