MLB Playoffs: Ranking The Final Four Teams From Best to Worst

The League Championship Series are set.

In the American League, the New York Yankees will play the underdog Cleveland Guardians, who eliminated the Detroit Tigers in Game 5 of the AL Division Series on Saturday.

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In the National League, the Los Angeles Dodgers host the New York Mets beginning Sunday, a rare matchup of the nation’s two largest media markets — and two highest payrolls.

How do the four teams stack up from best to worst? In reverse order, here’s our countdown of which team is most likely to be hoisting the Commissioner’s Trophy when the postseason ends:

4. New York Mets

The Mets are a tricky team to rank. On paper, they still exhibit some of the same flaws that left them a season-worst 11 games under .500 on June 2. But momentum is everything in October — and the Mets have plenty.

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Forget Grimace and OMG. The Mets can actually plan on having their best pitcher, Kodai Senga, start two of a possible seven games against the Dodgers after spending most of the season on the injured list. Their best hitters, Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso, have been their most clutch. Their starting pitchers allowed four earned runs in four games against the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS.

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The prediction here is that the Phillies’ late-season woes (the Mets had a better record than their NL East rivals over the season’s final two months) left them weaker in reality than on paper. The Dodgers’ lineup poses a far tougher task and will challenge the Mets’ starters and relatively weak bullpen.

3. Cleveland Guardians

The Guardians are playing the role of lovable small-market underdogs in a postseason field of big-market giants. (Never mind that Cleveland is actually the country’s 19th-largest media market; the plot won’t be hard to follow when they’re playing the Yankees.)

Give credit where it’s due: the Guardians led the AL Central for most of the regular season, at times holding the best record in the league. They beat Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, arguably the best pitcher in either league, in a do-or-die Game 5 Saturday. And their bullpen and defense might be the best among the four remaining teams.

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Cleveland’s problem: its roster is one elite bat and one starting pitcher away from being a safe pick to win any series. That might work out OK in a best-of-five format. In a best-of-seven against a superior Yankees team, it’s a weakness likely to be exposed as the series progresses.

2. Los Angeles Dodgers

The Dodgers held a stout San Diego Padres lineup without a run for the last 24 innings of their five-game NLDS. Much like the Yankees, the Dodgers’ relievers will have their work cut out for them keeping that up in a seven-game series — particularly with starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto likely limited to one start, in Game 4.

The Dodgers still have the deepest lineup of any remaining team, which washes over a multitude of sins. They are more quality relievers than they know what to do with, with the caveat that losing left-hander Alex Vesia to an intercostal strain could prove costly.

The only question is whether their beleaguered pitching staff can withstand the rigors of a seven-game series. For this round, at least, starters Jack Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Walker Buehler, and Landon Knack should be able to handle their next opponent.

1. New York Yankees

The Aaron Judge postseason breakout hasn’t happened yet, and the Yankees still waltzed smoothly past the Kansas City Royals in a four-game AL Division Series. The Guardians have more going for them than the Royals, and Giancarlo Stanton will be hard-pressed to keep up his torrid hitting, but there’s a lot to like about the Yankees.

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Their starters (Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon, Clarke Schmidt) are capable of taking over a game on their best days and still taking down five innings on their worst. Their bullpen didn’t allow a run against Kansas City, and closer Clay Holmes is as good as they come. Their lineup is probably more balanced than the regular season suggests.

The bullpen will likely allow a run at some point. We can’t rule out the possibility that Judge is simply out of gas. Cole won’t be able to pitch one-third of the Yankees’ innings in the ALCS like he did against Kansas City. If those are the major question marks, most teams will take them.

For more MLB postseason news, visit Newsweek Sports.