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MLB Power Rankings: Ranking World Series contenders after the trade deadline

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Coming out of the trade deadline seems like an appropriate time to look at the MLB power rankings for 2021. After all, it was a busy trade season with some of the trades being made being among the biggest trade deadline deals of all time.

One of the biggest MLB trade deadline takeaways was that almost every team in contention for a playoff spot did something to improve their roster. But that doesn’t mean every team improved equally or did enough to position themselves for a World Series run.

MLB Power Rankings – August 2021

Of course, the one thing to remember about the trade deadline is that we don’t always know the winners and losers until much later.

But we can speculate on who are the World Series favorites coming out of the deadline, which is why we wanted to put together MLB power rankings for the 2021 stretch run.

5. Brewers

Few have looked at Milwaukee as a bonafide World Series threat this season, but the Brewers deserve to be among the top contenders.

       

The pitching has been there all season with the likes of Brandon Woodruff, Corbin Burnes, and Freddy Peralta leading the rotation. But the Milwaukee lineup has started to turn a corner lately, and the Brewers only added more weapons at the deadline.

Rowdy Tellez was an underrated addition while Eduardo Escobar was added to play third base with Travis Shaw on the IL. Given their pitching, if the Brewers can be just an average offensive team, they’ll be a championship contender.

4. White Sox

On the one hand, the White Sox didn’t do much to improve their lineup at the deadline. Instead, they will wait for Luis Robert and Yasmani Grandal to return from injury.

Those two will feel like mid-season additions, just like Eloy Jimenez, who recently returned from the IL. The big move the White Sox made was acquiring Craig Kimbrel, who’s having a great season and will now be the setup man for closer Liam Hendriks. The White Sox already had one of the best rotations in baseball and now they have the bullpen to match.

       

3. Giants

Deep down, we keep expecting the Giants to fade, but that hasn’t happened yet. San Francisco’s pitching has been so good this year that the Giants have been able to survive several injuries to some of their veterans.

Of course, they needed a boost offensively at the trade deadline and they got one in the form of Kris Bryant. He will help to balance out a left-hand heavy lineup while also moving to various positions based on any injuries that might pop up.

2. Dodgers

At the trade deadline, the Dodgers proved once again that there is no limit to how far they are willing to go to win a championship.

They pulled off one of the biggest trade deadline deals of all time by acquiring Max Scherzer and Trea Turner. Los Angeles was already doing just fine before adding another ace and an all-star shortstop, but they traded for Scherzer and Turner anyway. Even though they are still second in the NL West, they look more like a championship team than the Giants.

1. Astros

The Astros weren’t super active at the deadline, but they did make several additions to a problematic bullpen.

That’s the one area that needs to be better for Houston, so it was a successful deadline. The Astros have a championship-caliber lineup and a rotation that’s good enough to go deep in October. They also lead the American League in wins and figure to be the clear favorites in the AL to reach the World Series.

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