MLB Has Already Achieved Parity, There Aren't Any Good Teams This Year

When the Los Angeles Dodgers signed Blake Snell, Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates and Roki Sasaki to join Shohei Ohtani in the offseason, fans of opposing teams rushed to social media to say the Dodgers had ruined baseball – that baseball was no longer worth watching. There was no need to even play the World Series, they said, because L.A.’s stacked roster would produce a record-breaking regular season and steamroll the playoffs.

Oddly, the New York Mets didn’t face the same blowback after signing Juan Soto to a record-breaking $765 million contract. The Mets, long atop baseball’s payroll rankings, signaled they would keep spending for a division title and a World Series run.

Fast-forward to the last few weeks of the 2025 season, and there’s no sign baseball is "ruined" or that the World Series has already been decided. In fact, it’s the opposite. There simply aren’t any dominant teams this year. It’s the continuation of a slow-burn trend that has reached a new peak—and most of baseball social media hasn’t noticed.

New York Mets right fielder Juan Soto. Photo: Brett Davis-Imagn Images

MLB Teams Struggling As Season Winds Down

The "ruining baseball" Dodgers were just swept by the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates. Over their last two games in Pittsburgh, the Dodgers scored just four runs, and highly-paid free agent starter Blake Snell allowed five to one of the sport’s weakest lineups on Thursday.

With a battle for the National League West and a first-round postseason bye on their hands, the Dodgers have gone 14-16 over their last 30 games. They're 10-10 in their last 20, and 5-5 in their last 10. No NL West team has scored fewer runs since the All-Star Break than the Dodgers. Surely, they must have been passed for first place in the NL West during that timespan by the hard-charging San Diego Padres, who were typically aggressive in adding talent at the trade deadline. Right?

Heading into a massive August series in L.A., the Padres won seven of eight. Then they got swept by the Dodgers. Then they went 5-2 against the Giants and Dodgers the following week. Then they lost five of six to the Minnesota Twins and Baltimore Orioles, including a sweep by the Orioles at Petco Park. They’re 8-12 in their last 20—somehow worse than the Dodgers.

Another aggressive deadline team, the Seattle Mariners, looked to be in prime position to capitalize in the AL West, winning 10 of 11 immediately afterward. Then they went 6-14. 

The Mets have been similarly inconsistent, at one point going 2-14, then 8-3 with a sweep of the Phillies, before losing three out of four to the Marlins. Out of nowhere, the Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants have been two of baseball's hottest teams, with Texas going 9-1 in their last 10. Similarly, the Yankees, after a string of embarrassing defensive miscues and 3 losses in a row to the Red Sox, are 8-2 in their last 10 and 14-6 in their last 20.

What about the Brewers? Milwaukee went on a historic run from the middle of May through the middle of August. They're unquestionably the best team in baseball, right? Well, as their timely hitting and unbeatable pitching has deserted them, they've gone 5-5 in their last 10 and 9-11 in their last 20.

The Detroit Tigers, another division leader, are 3-7 in their last 10, yet 12-8 in their last 20. That's 9-1, followed by 3-7.  

There are 21 of 30 teams that are 5-5 or worse in their last 10 games. Unless the Brewers get hot again and finish 14-7, this will be the second consecutive season without a single team winning 100 games or more. The Dodgers have just wrapped up a stretch of playing to a 22-30 record, the single worst 52-game sample of manager Dave Roberts' tenure in LA. They're on pace to win just 90 games this year, and still on track to win what was expected to be a highly competitive NL West.

This isn't an accident, it's a direct result of how the league has developed over the last few years, the rise of analytics and pitch design, and a reminder of why baseball doesn't need a salary cap to develop parity.

When the league instituted new rules ahead of the 2023 season, including the pitch clock, the goal was to increase offense and drive more action. It worked. The league averaged 4.28 runs per game in 2022, which jumped to 4.62 in 2023. But as pitchers realized how they could work around the clock to give themselves more time, runs per game have crept back down, to just 4.39 in 2024 and 4.48 in 2025. Pitching is dominating, because all 30 teams (well, maybe not the Rockies), have figured out how to use analytics and pitch design to improve their staffs.

The gap between good pitchers and average ones might be the smallest it's ever been. Especially with relievers, as teams have created factory assembly lines of pitchers who throw 97-100 with a devastating "sweeper." And it's closed the gap between teams. 

As a result of that rapidly closing gap, the top seasons by pitching wins above replacement over the last decade have all come before the analytics revolution. Per Fangraphs, the highest rated season by WAR from a pitcher over the past few seasons has been Tarik Skubal this year, with 6.3. Except since 2015, that ranks just 21st among individual pitching seasons. In fact, he's the only pitcher from 2025 to rank in the top 30. 2018 Jacob deGrom was worth 9.0 WAR, for example. 2015 Clayton Kershaw was worth 8.6. 

It's simply not possible to be that valuable as a pitcher, because the average pitcher has gotten too good. That's what's creating parity. And it's an example of how baseball differs from say, football. Football teams can't do this with quarterbacks. Baseball teams can with pitchers. It's why there's no possible way to buy a World Series, and why MLB has more parity than the NFL. There's nothing the Cleveland Browns can do to turn someone into Patrick Mahomes, or Tom Brady. But there is a way for the Minnesota Twins to turn Joe Ryan into a star. Or the Phillies with Christopher Sanchez. Or the Mariners with Bryan Woo. Heck, Jose Siriano has been the 18th most valuable pitcher in baseball this year. Even heard of him? 

No? That's the point.