Big Bear Nolan's Blog

The 2026 MLB season is about to complete its second full month and while there is still plenty of season to go, there is a lot of fun quirks and suprises in the league that I want to talk about.

1. The disparity between records in the two leagues

As I am typing this, a 33-20 record in the National League which is currently the record of the Milwaukee Brewers has them the lead in the NL Central but 3rd in the postseason seeding. Meanwhile, the Athletics who don’t even have a full time home are leading the AL west with a 27-28 record. Now with Houston getting healthy and Seattle still in that division it will for sure be competitive. But the highly competitive NL Central has no teams below .500 while the highly competitive AL West has no teams above .500. Both divisions symbolize the differences of records between the NL and AL. The National League also features the Braves, who boasts the best record in the league with a 37-18 record and the 2x defending World Series champion in the Los Angeles Dodgers.

2. The teams in postseason spots also explain the disparities

When you look at the current NL standings, you will see the league leading Braves and the defending champion Dodgers with a perennial NL central champion and the team who had the No. 1 seed in 2025 in the Brewers at the top. The San Diego Padres are the No. 4 seed currently in the NL with a 31-23 record. Meanwhile when you look at the American League, you got the Rays blowing everyone away as the AL East and AL leader with a 34-18 record and New York as the fifth seed but second in the East with a 33-22 record. Besides the Cleveland Guardians who leads the AL central with a 33-25 record, everyone else in the American League postseason right now has a record below .500. Which the two teams holding the last two spots in the Chicago White Sox are two seasons removed from having the worst record in the league, and the Minnesota Twins who hold the No. 6 seed are a season removed from a historic fire sale at the trade deadline.

3. The teams that no one expected have young talent shining

I just spoke on the Twins and the White Sox, but they’re benefiting from a refresh. Right now, veteran and all star center fielder Byron Buxton is the face of the Twins, but one of their most underrated players is the young outfielder in Austin Martin. Who is slugging .288 with 2 home runs and 16 RBI’s on 42 hits. The Twins young pitching staff led by Joe Ryan and Taj Bradley has been good to start the year too. Minnesota also has been getting big hits from guys like Luke Keaschall, Brooks Lee and Kody Clemens. On the White Sox side, this was maybe a little bit more expected with the young talent they had from last season like Colson Montgomery and Chase Meidroth. But I would be wrong if I didn’t mention one of if not the the biggest piece that they added this season in Japanese free agent Munetaka Murakami. In his first two months of MLB so far, Murakami is slugging .234 with 19 home runs along with 39 RBI’s on 45 hits. The Athletics who have a lot of young talent like Nick Kurtz, Lawrence Butler, Tyler Soderstrom and Darrell Hernaiz are also backed by veterans like Brent Rooker and newly signed free agent in Jeff McNeil. So its no wonder why they’re taking advantage of the weak AL West

4. Teams that expected to be here are suffering from injuries or just plain slow starts

The Brewers did have a somewhat slow April and that was mostly due to the fact that players like Jackson Chourio, Christian Yelich and Andrew Vaughn saw time on the IL. But now those players are back, the Brewers are predictably rolling like predicted. However, the biggest team that is suffering from injuries is the Houston Astros. Houston has had a knack for slow starts, even in its 2022 World Championship season when they started 11-11 to the season. But this year, the ‘stros have seen players like catcher Yanier Diaz, 3B and SS Carlos Correa and 2B Jose Altuve miss time. Even the ace of the staff in Hunter Brown has been on the IL, same with the Astros’ closer in Josh Hader. Luckily for the Astros, the weak AL west has allowed them to stay in it and they are starting to figure it out either way

While there is still plenty of season left, 2026 has been off to an interesting start as we officially will now enter the summer months this weekend.