The 2022 MLB.tv Watchability Rankings
Every year, I rank the MLB teams by MLB.tv watchability. It’s not a ranking of the best teams, it’s a ranking of the most interesting ones: some great teams are boring and some terrible teams are train wrecks you can’t take your eyes off of.
Typically, I do this exercise in March before the season starts. It’s intended as a guide of sorts as we try to figure out how to manage our time over the course of something like 2400 MLB games per year. This year, we’re doing things right around Opening Day so you should be all set for a long summer of masked fans, foul balls bouncing through nearly empty sections, stupid Rob Manfred-mandated rules, and baseball! Below is Part 1.
To check out part one of last year’s 2021 rankings, click here. For 2021 part 2, click here.
Part 1 of 2020’s rankings: the top 10 teams you should watch in the abbreviated 2020 season, is here. Parts 2 and 3 are here and here You can check out the 2015 MLB.TV rankings here, and part 1, and part 2 of the 2016 version here. The 2018 version is here, and 2019 is here. (Yes, there is no 2017.)
Without further ado, the 2022 MLB.TV Watchability Rankings!
1. Chicago White Sox
It remains absolutely inexplicable that baseball’s most fun, most exciting, most diverse team is managed by 8 million year old racially-insensitive, fun-insensitive, innovation-insenstive (at this point in his career), already-Hall of Famer, previously-10 year retired Tony La Russa, but that’s just one more thing that makes the White Sox baseball’s most compelling MLB.tv watch.
With Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert healthy going into the season, the White Sox should slug their way to the AL Central crown in 2022, though they may not have to with Lucas Giolito starting every 5th day. Plus, Michael Kopech is finally getting his chance to start this season. Essentially, this roster is exciting fun from top to bottom and Jason Bennetti is one of the only announcers in baseball that materially improves the viewing experience.
2. Los Angeles Angels
Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout are baseball’s two best and most compelling players to watch. No team with even one of those guys could rank much lower than this on this list, and the Angels have both. They also have Anthony Rendon and now Noah Syndergaard, and…. honestly not all that much else.
Ohtani’s unprecedented hitting and pitching heroics make this an easy choice, but after that 3rd spot in the batting order goes by…woof.
3. Toronto Blue Jays
The Blue Jays are the trendy pick for the AL pennant and it’s not hard to see why. Their lineup, built around last year’s run, home run, OBP, slugging, OPS, OPS+, and total base leader Vladimir Guerrero Jr., is the deepest in the AL, and their pitching staff is now both solid and, crucially, fun, despite losing the the AL Cy Young award winning Robbie Ray to free agency in the offseason.
Tune in for Vladito and get George Springer, Bo Bichette, Teoscar Hernandez, Matt Chapman, Jose Berrios, Hyun-Jin Ryu and much, much more for free. Plus, they’ll probably be locked in an intense divisional race all summer long.
4. Los Angeles Dodgers
If the Blue Jays don’t have baseball’s best lineup, it’s because the Dodgers do. With 4 former MVPs on the roster, the Dodgers have 8 All Stars in their regular lineup. The most likely one to win the MVP award this year is Mookie Betts….or maybe Freddie Freeman…or Will Smith…or Trea Turner… or, honestly, it wouldn’t be a total shock if any player in their normal lineup was the most valuable player of the whole league this year.
The pitching isn’t the game’s best, but with Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, and Craig Kimbrel, and with Dustin May hopefully coming back at some point, it should be one of the most fun to watch, and that’s all that matters.
5. San Diego Padres
Last year was kind of a bust, but the Padres have reloaded and will hopefully provide the Dodgers with the divisional foil we’ve been hoping they’d become.
No Fernando Tatis Jr. for the start of the season is a major bummer, and the reason they aren’t even higher on this list, but they still have Manny Machado and a rotation that boasts a starter you’d want to watch every single night with Joe Musgrove, Sean Manaea, Yu Darvish , Blake Snell, and Mike Clevinger.
Plus, they have one of baseball’s best uniforms and the MLB.tv experience includes views of the lovely San Diego skyline.
6. New York Mets
This ranking depends a little on how long Jacob deGrom is out, but regardless, the Mets still have Max Scherzer and one of league’s most interesting and exciting lineups. Fransisco Lindor is looking to bounce back and anchors a lineup with Pete Alonso, Dom Smith, Brandon Nimmo, Starling Marte, and, just to keep things interesting, Robinson Cano.
The Mets expect to be really good this year, but they’re the Mets so they’ll likely finish with either 90 wins or 90 losses and not much in between. Tune in to find out!
7. Philadelphia Phillies
Like runs? Well then I have the team for you! The Phillies have one of baseball’s most potent offenses and undoubtedly it’s most inept defenses. They have like 5 starters who should really just be DH’s at this point. The bet they are making on Nicholas Castellanos, Kyle Schwarber, Rhys Hoskins, Alec Bohm, Didi Gregorius, and Jean Segura is that they all hit enough to make up for any fielding deficiencies they might have. Guess we’ll find out if it’ll work!
Oh, they also have baseball’s best catcher, JT Realmuto, and the reigning NL MVP Bryce Harper. Fun team.
8. Minnesota Twins
The Twins made the top 10 on this list last year too, and now they’ve added Carlos Correa to the mix. He joins Byron Buxton, a perennial on the very short list of most fun players to watch when he’s healthy. Plus, with Gary Sanchez and Miguel Sano, the Twins have cornered the market on guys featured prominently in the awesome 2011 documentary Pelotero.
9. Atlanta Braves
Baseball’s defending champs have a strong claim to be even higher on this list- they replaced Freddie Freeman with Matt Olson, one of the only first basemen in baseball who might be better than Freeman. They return their championship core of Max Fried, Charlie Morton, Austin Reilly, Ozzie Albies, Dansby Swanson etc.. Best of all, they get their best player, and one of baseball’s brightest stars, back this year as Ronald Acuna Jr. returns from the knee injury that ended his 2021 season.
The Braves are in for a tough climb to the top of the NL East, but they’re likely the best team in the division.
10. Kansas City Royals
If you thought I was nuts for including the Phillies in the top 10, this is the team for you! KC has baseball’s slickest infield defense with Nicky Lopez, Adalberto Mondesi, and Bobby Witt Jr. joining Carlos Santana and Salvador Perez. Witt is one of the game’s very best prospects and is finally making his MLB debut.
The pitching is…fine. But Amir Garret is very fun and Zack Greinke is back in blue this season after more than a decade away.
11. San Fransisco Giants
The Giants inexplicably won 107 games last season thanks to resurgent seasons from Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt, and Evan Longoria, and the emergence of Logan Webb atop the rotation. Posey is retired now, but the rest are back, joined by Carlos Rodon and prospects Heliot Ramos and Mauricio Dubon. I doubt they’ll win 107 games again, but I didn’t think they were going to last year, either.
12. New York Yankees
If you like home runs, look no further. Even without Gary Sanchez, the Yankees still boast Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Joey Gallo and now Josh Donaldson.
If you like strikeouts, look no further. Even without Gary Sanchez, the Yankees still boast Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Joey Gallo and now Josh Donaldson.
The Bombers are doubling down on their ‘all or nothing’ approach to offense, which can make their games a little rough to watch, but they have Gerrit Cole, a healthy Luis Severino and baseball’s best bullpen as they head into what is sure to be a great divisional race.
13. Houston Astros
Even without Carlos Correa, Houston still has Yordan Alvarez, Jose Altuve, Yuli Gurriel, and Justin Verlander to make tuning in worthwhile. Kyle Tucker may actually be the best player on the team and Houston thinks rookie Jeremy Pena is so good they may not miss Correa for all that long.
14. Boston Red Sox
If you like pitching, this is the not the team to watch. But with Rafael Devers, Xander Bogaerts, Trevor Story, and JD Martinez in the middle of the order, you’re in luck. Balls bouncing off the Green Monster is fun too.
15. Tampa Bay Rays
The Rays are usually one of the more boring great teams because their model relies more on depth and consistency than star power. While that remains true, Wander Franco is a glaring exception. The 20 year old who took the league by storm in his rookie half-season last year is absolutely must watch MLB.tv this year. He’s joined by Shane McClanahan, a trendy AL Cy Young pick, Randy Arozarena, and a bunch of people who spell their name ‘Lowe’ but pronounce it differently.
16. Milwaukee Brewers
Corbin Burners and Brandon Woodruff are two of baseball’s best starters and Josh Hader and Devin Williams are two of baseball’s best relievers. The offense isn’t bad, but relies heavily on Andrew McCutchen and Christian Yelich, two former MVPs who appear to be different players now.
Milwaukee is expected to win the division and their pitching should make them potent in the playoffs.
17. St. Louis Cardinals
Yes, the only thing more annoying than the Cardinals are their fans, and no, year 1,000,000,000 of the Adam Wainwright/ Yadier Molina battery is not interesting to me. But any team with both Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt is absolutely worth watching.
Plus, the Cards finally have a healthy Jordan Hicks and Dylan Carlson and Tyler O’Neill might do something awesome at any moment.
18. Seattle Mariners
The Mariners decided to call up top prospect Julio Rodriguez to start the season and that’s good. Even though this team may win 90+ games and make the playoffs, the Jesse Winker, JP Crawford, Logan Gilbert-led M’s aren’t the team I’m going to flip to if I stay up late enough for West Coast Games.
19. Texas Rangers
The Rangers famously spent half a billion dollars this winter on shortstops, yet did not really address any of the other numerous weaknesses on their roster.
They won’t win a ton of games in a competitive AL West, but newly signed stars Marcus Semien and Corey Seager teaming up with Adolis Garcia and…. not really any pitchers, its going to be an interesting experiment.
20. Miami Marlins
The Marlins as an organization are as frustrating as ever, and their offense is basically Jazz Chisholm and a bunch of guys who likely wouldn’t start elsewhere. You flip over to the Marlins for the starting pitching. Pablo Lopez, Sandy Alcantara, Jesus Luzardo, and hopefully later this season Sixto Sanchez give Miami a top 4 to build around.
21. Detroit Tigers
For the first month of the season, you need to tune in to Miguel Cabrera‘s chase for his 3000th hit. After that, it’s about Javier Baez, the debut of Spencer Torkelson, and the development of Casey Mize.
22. Chicago Cubs
The Cubs are this high on the list because they’re the Cubs and watching games at Wrigley Field, on tv or in person, is always a good idea. The 2022 version of the franchise is mostly an uninteresting team. The exceptions are Ian Happ, Nico Hoerner, Seiya Suzuki, and maybe Marcus Stroman.
23. Cleveland Guardians
The next couple teams are all about tuning in to watch individual players, and of that group, the Guardians have the most. Jose Ramirez, Shane Bieber, Emmanuel Clase, and maybe Steven Kwan. Plus, they have a new name.
24. Colorado Rockies
The Rockies somehow have Kris Bryant but they also play in a cool stadium, in a great division, against interesting opponents, in a unique color.
25. Washington Nationals
This is an all Juan Soto ranking. He might be baseball’s best hitter and he’s on a team that might win 65 games if they’re lucky. Sorry, 2015 World Series Champion Alcides Escobar doesn’t do it for me.
26. Pittsburgh Pirates
Ke’Bryan Hayes is really, really good. And if they ever call him up, O’Neil Cruz will be too. Mitch Keller throws hard and usually in the general direction of home plate. Bryan Reynolds is an All Star caliber center fielder, but he probably won’t be on the team past June or July.
27. Arizona Diamondbacks
Ketel Marte is the best player on the team. Daulton Varsho is a guy who plays catcher and centerfield and that’s pretty cool.
28. Baltimore Orioles
That the Orioles refuse to build around Trey Mancini, Cedric Mullins, and soon Adley Rutschman is borderline criminal.
29. Cincinnati Reds
The Reds have Joey Votto and for that reason alone don’t deserve to be this low, but the last two spots on the watchability rankings are reserved for punishment. The Reds are being punished for trading away all their good players even though they had a competitive team. But I guess, where you gonna go?
30. Oakland A’s
The A’s deserve to be punished for selling off every good player on their team in a shameful attempt to cut salary. They’re engaged in a multi-year effort to bilk the people of Oakland out of money for a new stadium and are generally the poster child for all that is wrong with professional sports in America in 2022. I like their uniforms.
-Max Frankel
