MLB Power Rankings: Cubs Enjoy Best Start Since 2016, Braves Continue Ascent

MLB Power Rankings: Cubs off to hottest start since 2016, while Braves keep soaring up the standings

The Rays, meanwhile, are the leaders of the (admittedly weak) American League

By Matt Snyder

May 11, 2026 at 8:55 am ET • 2 min read

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The Cubs kind of put a damper on this introduction, having lost two games in a row heading into the new week of baseball. Still, it's been quite a start to the season for the North Siders.

On Friday, the Cubs won their 10th consecutive game, capping off their second 10-game winning streak of the season, all before the middle of May. It was the first time a team posted two different 10-game winning streaks this early in the schedule since the 1955 Dodgers and only the third time a team has done so since the 1800s.

Despite the two losses on Saturday and Sunday, it's still one of the best starts in franchise history. There were some great teams in the early 1900s, but if we set the timeline to the last 100 years, here are the best Cubs records through the first 41 games in a season.

Year Record through 41 games Final W-L record Postseason?

2016

29-12

103-58

Yes, World Series champs

1977

27-14

81-81

No

1969

27-14

92-70

No

2026

27-14

TBD

TBD

1984

25-16

96-65

Yes, lost NLCS

In other words, the only better start for the Cubs in the last century was the year the Cubs won the World Series for the first time in 108 years.

Is it sustainable? Depends on what we mean here. The record right now is a .659 winning percentage, which is a full-season pace of 107 wins. I can't see them winning more than 100. Mid-90s? Yeah, that's definitely doable for this group.

The offense is fifth in average, leads the majors in OBP and is fifth in slugging. Individually, no one really sticks out as an obvious regression candidate on offense at this point, while it's reasonable to believe Michael Busch and Alex Bregman -- and possibly Pete Crow-Armstrong -- get better the rest of the way.

Defensively, the Cubs rate out on several different team-wide stats as one of the best teams in baseball. Up the middle is especially strong with Nico Hoerner at second, Dansby Swanson at short and PCA in center.

The bullpen has been banged up, but Craig Counsell has managed it well and now Daniel Palencia and Phil Maton are back, while Caleb Thielbar isn't very far off from a return. The bullpen ERA of 3.87 is 12th in the majors.

The concern is the rotation, due to serious injuries to  Matthew Boyd  and  Cade Horton , as well as a setback for  Justin Steele . Still, Shota Imanaga has been ace-like and the Cubs have gotten mostly good work from Jameson Taillon and Edward Cabrera . Colin Rea has filled in admirably and Ben Brown threw four no-hit innings Friday as he looks to transition into the starting rotation.

Through Friday, the Cubs had won 20 of 23 games. They've still won 20 of 25. It's one hell of a stretch of baseball. It's the best they've looked since 2016. Pair this with how the Braves have played so far and the Dodgers might just have their hands full on the National League side of the playoffs this October after slicing through it last year with a 9-1 record.

Biggest Movers 6 Phillies 7 Tigers Rk Teams   Chg Rcrd 1 Braves They lost their first series of the season last week, then responded by taking two of three in Dodger Stadium. And Spencer Strider looked a lot like his old self Saturday. -- 28-13 2 Cubs It seems their biggest Achilles is following up the 10-game winning streaks. After the first 10-gamer, the Cubs lost three straight and were outscored 27-11. This time, they've lost two straight and have been outscored 9-0. 1 27-14 3 Rays While the Cubs have their two 10-game winning streaks, the Rays spread theirs out a little bit more. They have three six-game winning streaks since April 8. 2 26-13 4 Dodgers Since April 17, the Dodgers are 9-12. -- 24-16 5 Brewers The Brewers got some reinforcements when Jackson Chourio and Andrew Vaughn recently returned. Then they swept the Yankees. 5 22-16 6 Yankees Subpar 2026 debut from Carlos Rodón in his return from surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow. The five walks were especially bad. The assumption here is he'll get better. Growing pains can happen after returning from surgery. 4 26-15 7 Padres While others in the lineup struggle, Xander Bogaerts has been very good this season. We won't likely ever see him finish in the top five of MVP voting again or anything, but kudos to him for helping this offense stay afloat. 1 24-16 8 Cardinals The Cardinals have been one of the best road teams in baseball at 13-7 so far, coming off a split in San Diego. 1 23-17 9 Pirates We know plenty about the ace here, but Mitch Keller and Braxton Ashcraft have been great this season, giving the Pirates a nice three-headed monster of frontline starters. 1 22-19 10 Athletics Shea Langeliers was already good, but so far this season he's putting up MVP-caliber numbers. 3 21-19 11 Reds The Reds pulled a very fast first-to-worst in the NL Central, thanks in part to how stacked the division is. Of course, losing their first eight games in May didn't help. They've now won two straight, though, keeping them above .500. 2 22-19 12 Guardians Rough week for Gavin Williams, allowing 10 earned runs on 18 hits in 12 innings. That's now three clunkers in his last four starts after a 2.12 ERA in his first five games. -- 21-21 13 Phillies Cristopher Sánchez got off to a bit of a rough start, but he's back. He has a scoreless innings streak of 20 with 17 strikeouts in his last 15 innings. 6 19-22 14 Mariners While the Mariners had a much better start to the season last year, they had bad spurts. In fact, they had a losing record as late as June 11 (33-34) and still ended up in Game 7 of the ALCS. It's a marathon, people. 2 19-22 15 Royals They've won 11 of 16 since the horrible start to the season. They dug quite a hole for themselves. No worries, the AL Central is here to help, as the Royals are only 1 ½ games out. 3 19-22 16 Rangers I'm not saying they should be a great offensive team, but they could sure use a lot more from Corey Seager, who is now hitting .193/.300/.379 on the season. 1 19-21 17 Diamondbacks The D-backs had lost 12 of 16 before winning two straight over the Mets. Rough sledding for Arizona right now. 3 19-20 18 Tigers The win Sunday snapped a five-game losing streak that nearly dropped the Tigers from first to last in just a few days. 7 19-22 19 White Sox Through just 111 career MLB games, Colson Montgomery has 31 home runs. He's being overshadowed by a certain teammate, but let's not overlook his power. 3 19-21 20 Blue Jays Should we be concerned about Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s power? Or, rather, lack thereof? He's hitting .308 with a .395 OBP, but he's slugging just .397 with two home runs in 146 at-bats. 5 18-22 21 Orioles Gunnar Henderson is only hitting .211 with a .269 OBP. The offense needs more consistency from him to really get going. The good news is he's 4 for 9 in the last two games. Any time you see a player like Henderson have back-to-back multi-hit games, it could be the start of a special run. 2 18-23 22 Marlins In Otto Lopez (.344) and Xavier Edwards (.322), the Marlins have two of the top eight in batting average in baseball. 2 19-22 23 Nationals Heading into the season, if I told you the Nationals would have someone tied for the MLB lead in RBI on May 10, you definitely would have guessed CJ Abrams, right? He's tied with Matt Olson! By the way, Abrams has 36 RBI right now. His career high for a season is 65 (2024). 2 19-22 24 Twins How about the on-base machine that is Austin Martin? He hasn't played enough to be qualified for the leaderboards, but he's not far off with 116 plate appearances (it's 3.1 per team game, meaning he'd need 127 right now). He has a .466 OBP. The qualified MLB leader is Taylor Ward of the Orioles at .426. -- 18-23 25 Red Sox Sweeping the Tigers in Detroit was a nice step, helping the Red Sox to go 4-2 in the week. Baby steps are steps. 2 17-23 26 Giants The Giants won a series, thanks to a comeback, extra-innings win on Sunday. 2 16-24 27 Astros This is the Astros' worst start since ... 2024! Those Astros also started 16-25 and ended up winning the AL West at 88-73. Maybe it's just getting caught up in the moment here, but it sure doesn't feel like this club has that kind of juice, does it? 1 16-25 28 Mets The Mets rank dead last in the majors in OPS by 20 points. 1 15-25 29 Angels Is Vaughn Grissom finding some footing? Remember, he went to Boston from Atlanta in the Chris Sale trade. It didn't work out in 2024 and he spent all year in the minors in 2025. Now with the Angels, in 21 MLB games, he's hitting .279/.361/.426 with more walks than strikeouts. 1 16-25 30 Rockies Former No. 1 overall pick Mickey Moniak appears to have found his home. He's now played in 168 games for the Rockies and has been a well-above-average hitter for them, even with ballpark-adjusted stats. His line this season? .303/.349/.655. 5 16-25

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_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-power-rankings-cubs-hottest-start-since-2016-braves-rays/)._