MLB

MLB Team Power Rankings Update: The Twins Keep Hanging Around

Fresh off a 103-loss season in 2016, nobody expected the Minnesota Twins to be duking it out with the Cleveland Indians on the verge of July, but that's what they're doing.

Everything that could've gone wrong for the Minnesota Twins in 2016, did go wrong -- unless Brian Dozier and his 42-homer campaign is the topic of discussion.

After a surprising 83-79 performance in 2015, they lost their first nine games last season and never recovered on their way to a 59-103 mark, which was the franchise's most losses in a season since the 1949 Washington Senators lost 104 games.

There were some obvious problems with Minnesota, but this surely didn't seem to be your typical tear-it-all-the-way-down rebuild project. Still, nobody in the front office probably expected them to be just 0.5 games behind the Cleveland Indians for the American League Central lead and currently in control of a Wild Card spot with July right around the corner. But that's how baseball goes sometimes.

And while Ervin Santana has been great most of the season and Jose Berrios has put the struggles from his first taste of big league experience last year behind him, it'll be tough for a pitching staff with a cumulative 4.85 ERA and 5.03 FIP to stand the test of time when it comes to a race toward the postseason. They're doing what they can, though -- they've been great defensively as their 21 Defensive Runs Saved as a team is only bested in the AL by the Tampa Bay Rays, while their 10.3 Ultimate Zone Rating is a top-10 mark in baseball. Our metrics only give them a 16.4% chance of making the playoffs. That's not great, but it's probably a lot higher than anyone would've expected in four months ago.

Who else has seen their stock rise or fall over the last week?

Unlike some other power rankings around the interwebs, ours here at numberFire aren't influenced by hype or the latest narratives. We put faith into our algorithms and use nERD to see which team is the best, which is a metric that represents runs scored above or below a league-average team per game.

Our rankings will include each team's nERD, their current record and playoff odds, along with how much their spot has changed over the past seven days.