The Braves are the class of baseball. A White Sox rookie is making history. And two managers already lost their jobs.
One month into the 2026 MLB season, the storylines are already impossible to ignore. The Atlanta Braves are running away from the competition. A White Sox rookie is putting up historic numbers. Two managers got fired. And the Big Unit got his number retired in Seattle. Here is your full MLB week in review and recap.
The Best Team in Baseball: Atlanta Braves
There is no debate right now. The Atlanta Braves are 22-10, the best record in all of baseball, with a 6.5-game lead in the NL East. They have the best offense and the best ERA in baseball simultaneously — a combination that almost never happens.
Matt Olson is the engine. He is hitting .306 with 9 home runs and 28 RBI, a 175 wRC+, and leads the NL in fWAR heading into May. He walked off the Tigers on April 29 with a ninth-inning homer to clinch the series. After missing the playoffs last season, Atlanta came back with something to prove and they are proving it every night.
The Best Rookie Story in Baseball: Munetaka Murakami
While everyone was focused on the chaos in Philadelphia and Boston, the Chicago White Sox have been quietly giving their fans something to smile about — and his name is Munetaka Murakami.
The 26-year-old Japanese star came to MLB with little fanfare outside of hardcore baseball circles. Through his first 29 games he has 12 home runs and a .965 OPS, tied with Aaron Judge for the MLB home run lead. He homered in each of his first three MLB games — only the fourth player in history to do that. And his first 12 extra-base hits were all home runs, the longest such streak to start a career since at least 1900.
The White Sox have been rebuilding for what feels like forever. Murakami is not going to single-handedly fix everything. But on a team starved for good news, watching a player put up one of the most historically unusual starts in recent memory is exactly what that fanbase needed. Keep an eye on this one.
Chaos in the Dugout: Two Managers Gone
The biggest managerial news of the week — really of the early season — happened in Philadelphia.
The Phillies fired Rob Thomson after a 9-19 start, tied for the worst record in baseball. Don Mattingly was named interim manager. The rotation had the worst ERA, WHIP, and opponent average in baseball. The offense ranked 29th in OBP. Something had to give.
We covered the full story — including the Alex Cora angle — in a standalone piece on the Phillies firing. And if you missed it, Alex Cora's dismissal in Boston has its own twists worth reading. But in the weekly context: two managers fired before May. That is not normal.
Around the League
The Cardinals are quietly sneaky. St. Louis is 17-13 and sitting in a playoff spot in the NL Central. Nobody is talking about them. They probably should be.
The Reds are for real — for now. Cincinnati is 18-10 and leading the NL Central. That will be tested as the schedule stiffens, but credit where it is due.
The Athletics are still here. Oakland/Sacramento sits atop the AL West at 15-13 despite a negative run differential. Regression is coming but they keep winning.
The Angels are struggling. A seven-game losing streak this week, including a loss to the Mets. Losing to a team in the middle of an 11-game skid tells you everything you need to know about where the Angels are right now.
Pitching Gem of the Week
Nathan Eovaldi threw 7 scoreless innings for the Rangers on April 29, striking out 7 in a 3-0 win over the Yankees. That is the kind of outing that sets a rotation apart. Eovaldi has been quietly excellent.
Injury Report
A rough week for the Detroit Tigers — Justin Verlander hit the 15-day IL with left hip inflammation, Reese Olson went to the 60-day IL after shoulder surgery, and Parker Meadows is already on the 60-day list. The Tigers were showing some early promise and this is a brutal stretch.
Luis Robert Jr. landed on the IL again with a back injury. It is becoming an all-too-familiar story for a player with immense talent who simply cannot stay healthy.
A Moment Worth Pausing For
The Seattle Mariners retired Randy Johnson's number 51 on Saturday. The Big Unit — one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball history — is the fifth number retired by the Mariners franchise. The D-backs retired it back in 2015. He now joins the short list of players who have had their number retired by multiple teams.
The resume speaks for itself: 5 Cy Young Awards, 303 career wins, and 4,875 strikeouts — second all-time behind only Nolan Ryan. If you are a baseball fan of a certain age, Randy Johnson was an event every time he took the mound. A well-deserved honor.
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