NL East

Without Juan Soto even hitting his stride yet, the Mets have started as well as any team. Soto might not have Aaron Judge behind him anymore, but Pete Alonso—after a disappointing stint in free agency—is swinging like an MVP candidate himself. We'll see if it holds up, but a starting rotation that many thought could be New York's undoing has been great, with all five members of the starting rotation—Kodai Senga, Clay Holmes, David Peterson, Tylor Megill and Griffin Canning—pitching at high levels.

Record-wise, the Phillies are in a good spot for this time of the year. But there are concerns. Outside of Kyle Schwarber, they haven't yet homered at the clip that was expected of them coming into the season. Even with a slow start from Aaron Nola and Ranger Suárez missing all of April, Zack Wheeler and Jesús Luzardo have pitched well enough to make clear this is one of the best starting rotations in baseball. But the lack of reliability in the bullpen outside of José Alvarado and Matt Strahm looks like it could be a fatal flaw for the NL East champions.

A major reason why the Braves have such a low grade is because they started the season 0-7. Since then, though, they've largely dug themselves out of that early hole, putting themselves in position to make a run at the NL East if they get a combination of underperforming veterans (Chris Sale, Raisel Iglesias and Ozzie Albies) to return to form, while getting both Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuña Jr. back from injuries and healthy for the balance of the season.

James Wood, MacKenzie Gore and CJ Abrams look like stars, but the Nationals as a team still feel pretty far away from contention. A big part of that is a disastrous bullpen, which has produced an NL-worst 6.55 ERA thus far. Nathaniel Lowe has been solid, but imagine how much better they would be if they had signed Alonso in the offseason, as opposed to acquiring Lowe and/or the struggling Josh Bell. The bottom line is that they need to begin to spend again, which will likely first require a sale of the team.

Coming into the season, the return of former NL Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcántara was supposed to be the lone bright spot for the Marlins. But he has an unsightly 8.42 ERA through seven starts, casting doubt on whether they'll be able to trade him this summer. Holding onto the 29-year-old might not be the worst thing, but this just seems to be a directionless franchise. Miami is in a constant cycle of rebuilding, with little payoff to show over the last two decades.