Culture
Were the Paris Olympics the greatest ever? They were on TV and streaming
It feels like a lifetime ago, before Léon Marchand had a nation cheering his every stroke at La Défense Arena, before Simone Biles had us out of our seats watching the women’s gymnastics all-around competition, before Steph Curry put the French crowd to sleep at Bercy Arena, and before the U.S. women’s basketball team eked out a thrilling finish for its eighth straight gold medal, there was a looming question that hung over the Paris Games as the world arrived in the City of Light.
Could the Olympics get its groove back?
Prior to Paris, Olympic viewership had tumbled significantly in recent cycles. The COVID-moved Tokyo Olympics averaged 15.6 million viewers per night in 2021 across NBC’s various television and digital platforms. The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics averaged 11.4 million across all platforms, the least-watched Olympics in the modern era. It was a sharp decline from the 19.8 million average for the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
But the Olympics bloomed again in France’s capital. Beginning with the opening ceremony through Saturday, NBCUniversal posted a 16-day total audience delivery average of 31.3 million viewers across the combined live Paris Prime (2-5 p.m. ET) and U.S. prime time (8-11 p.m. ET/PT). The final numbers will be in this week. Some of the viewership data was simply extraordinary, including 12.7 million viewers on NBC and Peacock live on a Tuesday afternoon to see Biles and Team USA win gymnastics gold.
As we have noted throughout, there is important context: NBC rolled up its numbers for the Paris Games to include live viewership from 2-5 p.m. ET featuring NBC, Peacock, USA Network, CNBC, E!, Paris Extra 1, Paris Extra 2 and additional NBCU digital platforms, as well as U.S. prime-time viewership on NBC, Peacock and USA Network. (Total audience delivery is based upon live-plus-same day custom fast national figures from Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics.) The network said the revised methodology was a more accurate way to present viewership information for Paris because viewers had never before had the option to watch a live fully produced Olympics on NBC or Peacock in the daytime in addition to the traditional prime time (which was a curated presentation given the competition day had ended in Paris, six hours ahead of Eastern time in the U.S.). That’s how they sold it to advertisers.
“We decided to be progressive in our thinking about how we present the Games,” said Mark Lazarus, the chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group in an interview late last week. “We chose to modernize our production and our presentation of the Games. When we changed our methodology on presentation, we changed the methodology in conjunction with the marketing community.”
I think these have been the best Olympics of my lifetime, and I say that as someone who covered the Olympics on-site in Salt Lake City, Athens, Turin, Beijing, Vancouver, London and Sochi. Unlike covering the Games in person, I experienced these Games via NBC and Peacock, and the combination of being able to process events live on Peacock and elsewhere, and then watch a curated presentation was an excellent experience.
With the Olympic flame over Paris now extinguished, here are 20 media-centric thoughts and reported items on the Paris Games.
1. NBC leaned heavily on celebrity for its presentation, and you should expect this for future Olympics. The opening ceremony featured Kelly Clarkson and Peyton Manning. The closing ceremony featured Jimmy Fallon. You could not go a day without seeing Snoop Dogg. There were endless crowd shots of famous people (hey, John Travolta) in the crowd.
There were times the celebrity-drenched coverage felt too much, but NBC makes no apologies. They see the Olympics as a mix of sport and entertainment, especially when the time difference does not offer live sports in prime time.
“We did research over what’s been going well and what’s not over the last bunch of Games, and we thought about how we could bring up the Q score value of our broadcast,” said Lazarus. “Now Paris did some of that on its own. Some of the people that are here, we had nothing to do with them being here. We’re not dwelling on them, but we’re definitely taking a shot of them in the crowd if it’s relevant to our audiences or interesting to the American public.”
2. NBC’s “Gold Zone” coverage, an “NFL RedZone”-inspired whip-around show that streamed daily from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Peacock, was an addictive and uber-modern way to watch the Games. It ranked in the top five most-watched Olympics titles on Peacock and was a technological success given all the elements at play.
Scott Hanson, who has served as the host of “NFL RedZone” since its inaugural season in 2009 and is also an NFL Network host, was a genius hire, and NBC got a free run of positive press from that move alone. Fellow hosts Matt Iseman, Andrew Siciliano and Jac Collinsworth provided the requisite high-energy metabolism needed for the production. “Gold Zone” was one of the massive successes of these games for NBCU.
3. The top broadcast medalists for me were the primary race callers for the track and field competition — NBC’s Leigh Diffey and Rob Walker of the Olympic Broadcasting Service (the world feed). Diffey was phenomenal on his calls, particularly 0n Quincy Hall winning the men’s 400.
NEVER doubt Quincy Hall. 😱
A EPIC comeback to win 400m GOLD! #ParisOlympics
📺 NBC & Peacock pic.twitter.com/qQJqfxrH9n
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 7, 2024
Same with Cole Hocker’s win in the men’s 1500.
AN UPSET IN THE MEN’S 1500M! 🤯
Cole Hocker surges on the final stretch for OLYMPIC GOLD.
📺 #ParisOlympics on NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/4ElH2uxckn
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 7, 2024
Yeah, he missed the Noah Lyles call, but I give grace for things like that because he doesn’t have the benefit of a delete key as I do. NBC’s track and field group of Diffey, Sanya Richards-Ross, Ato Boldon, Kara Goucher, Trey Hardee, Paul Swangard and Lewis Johnson were consistently excellent during the meet. Walker’s calls could be heard on Peacock if you watched the coverage, and the Brit really knows how to call a race. Also, Noah Eagle and LaChina Robinson were sensational in calling the Americans’ 67-66 win over France in the women’s basketball gold-medal game on Sunday.
4. Laurie Hernandez showed an innate gift to communicate gymnastics to a broad audience combined with genuine enthusiasm for the success of her former teammates (she and Biles won gold in the team competition at the 2016 Rio Olympics). It made for an exceptional viewing experience if you watched women’s gymnastics live on Peacock.
5. I thought NBC’s swimming coverage went incredibly light on the revelations in recent months about dozens of positive drug tests among Chinese swimmers. It’s a global story and one that was particularly significant on the final day of swimming as China won gold in the men’s 4×100-meter medley relay. It deserved more than the perfunctory coverage we received on NBC during its prime-time rebroadcast of the swimming competition last Sunday night.
6. There will be a significant number of NBA broadcasting jobs open given NBC and Amazon will enter the market in 2025 as media rights-holders. Given his Hall of Fame profile and the reps he undertook in Paris, Dwyane Wade will get a serious look from networks if he’s interested. Wade said he’s worked with both a speech and vocal coach for preparation.
“When I got asked to do this, I looked at this as probably one of the biggest challenges in my 2024 calendar year,” Wade said. “… I decided to dive into it, understanding that it was going to be a lot of things that was going to be learned on the fly. … Being able to sit right next to Noah (Eagle) … I’ve definitely asked him a lot of questions about this world, stuff that I didn’t know. Something as simple as, ‘Hey, bro, what does No. 1 mean? What is a No. 1 team?’ I don’t know those things. I’m not afraid to say what I don’t know. But most importantly just being myself. That’s the one thing that everyone told me, and that’s what I told myself when I signed up to do this. I’m going to bring my brand of basketball to the airwaves, understanding, just like in life, some people are going to love it. Some people will not love it.”
NBC Sports president Rick Cordella said no talent decisions have been made for NBC’s NBA coverage other than Mike Tirico and Eagle will play significant roles as play-by-play voices. (Tirico will be the No. 1.) But NBC now has a relationship with Wade, and that should seriously count should Wade decide he wants to do this. NBC also needs multiple analysts, so Wade would not have to be on the No. 1 team at the start.
“We’ll sit down this fall and talk about talent in the pregame show, talk about talent on our play-by-play analyst positions,” Cordella said. “We’ll need multiple because we have games on three nights a week.”
Dwyane Wade called U.S. men’s basketball games during these Olympics. It could put him in position to land an NBA job if he wants one. (Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBAE via Getty Images)
7. Look for NBC to take the multi-view feature for the Olympics that was part of the Peacock experience and use it for its coverage of the Premier League.
“It makes the most sense when you have a lot of things going on at once and you don’t get that with Big Ten football or one NFL game at a time,” Cordella said. “But for the Premier League with those Saturday morning windows, you could expect to see that. I don’t know if we’ll have that for launch or not, so don’t hold me to that. … But certainly over time you will see that product feature with that sport.”
8. The biggest surprise for NBC as far as viewership was how many people they were able to get during the day parts of their coverage. An educated guess would be part of the reason is the increase in a work-from-home environment in a post-COVID world.
“We were able to aggregate a significant audience,” Cordella said. “For instance, a men’s basketball game at 11:50 in the morning drew 11 million viewers for that game. Peacock often got close to five million streamers a day. So that’s probably the biggest surprise we had.”
The singular most remarkable afternoon viewership number came on Saturday when NBC and Peacock averaged 19.5 million viewers for the U.S. men’s basketball team’s thrilling 98-87 victory over France. It was the most-watched gold-medal game since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. The game peaked at 22.7 million viewers from 5-5:15 p.m. ET in the final quarter of the game.
9. How did NBC executives view those who had an issue with parts of the opening ceremony?
“In 7,000 hours, you’re gonna have people who don’t like something, and I understand and respect that,” Lazarus said. “As it relates to the opening ceremonies, we have an outline of what’s going to happen, but there were things we didn’t know were going to happen. I think the way I look at it is we document the proceedings. We didn’t comment on those things that were somewhat controversial. As long as we are taking the role as the group that is just showing the proceedings that are being shown by the organizing committee, and we’re not making commentary about them, I don’t feel we’ve done anything to create a controversy for ourselves.”
10. I asked followers on X to offer thoughts on what they thought of NBC/Peacock’s coverage of the Paris Games. Some really interesting replies here.
11. As I reported last week after talking to NBC Sports brass, I would be stunned if Snoop Dogg is not back for future Olympics.
Snoop Dogg became his own storyline at these Paris Olympics. Except NBC to welcome back for future Games. (Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
12. NBC is always going to have U.S.-centric viewing — and that’s understandable. But they short-changed viewers significantly when it came to the prime-time coverage of the final day of the women’s heptathlon. Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam won her third successive Olympic women’s heptathlon gold medal — an otherworldly achievement in the sport — but that was barely touched on as the coverage focused heavily on American Anna Hall.
Hall is a phenomenal athlete, she has a great story, and she was a big part of NBC’s marketing promotion heading into the Games. She’s going to be a star in L.A. four years from now. So this isn’t about the coverage she received, there simply had to be a way to give viewers more on Thiam in prime time given this is a once-in-a-century athlete in her event.
13. The point person for NBC’s Olympics production is Molly Solomon, the executive producer and president of NBC Olympics production. She’s the first woman to hold that position. Since covering the Olympics, I’m not sure I have seen NBCU receive better overall social media feedback than they had in Paris, and that matters along with the traditional viewership metrics.
Some of that is, of course, related to how the competition played out (it was a great Olympics for the U.S.), but it’s also related to how the audience perceived the production including how friendly it was for viewers. Solomon sets herself up as the person to lead NBCU on what will be its biggest Olympics and most-anticipated production ever — the Los Angeles Games — four years from now.
14. Will people stay with Peacock after the Games end? The data will come in a couple of months. Cordella said that 70 percent of those who signed up for the NFL wild-card game in January were with Peacock two months after that game.
“We do have some good data on (people) coming in for sports and staying,” he said. “We’re also lucky that this is now mid-August and we’re heading into football season with Big Ten games, NFL games on Peacock, and the exclusive NFL game on Friday of opening weekend in Brazil (Eagles-Packers).”
15. I was very mixed on how NBC presented the opening ceremony, and I would love to see a little more traditional sports or news people be part of it as opposed to the heavy celebrity. (I do not think NBC will follow my wishes here for Italy in 2026 and L.A.)
GO DEEPER
At the Olympic opening ceremony, a force of nature upset the plan but not the point
16. Lazarus said the Olympics will make money for NBCU. “It will exceed our revenue goals, and be more revenue than we’ve ever had before in an Olympics,” he said. “We’ll make a nice profit, and I’m sure at some point, we’ll talk about it on an earnings call.”
17. Lewis Johnson has served as an Olympics reporter for NBC since the Sydney Games — his primary focus for Summer Games is track and field — and he consistently delivers for viewers by asking pertinent questions about why things happened. He also frequently does what someone in his position should do — he takes advantage of his role as a member of the host broadcasting team and uses that access to unearth details for the audience, as he did with Noah Lyles in Paris. Every Olympics I find myself thinking: This guy does an excellent job.
18. Rowdy Gaines said the 2028 Olympics will be his last as an Olympics commentator. NBC has used Michael Phelps as a roving correspondent of sorts for the Paris Games, but when he’s been specifically assigned as a swimming commentator, he has been tremendous for the audience. NBC should really push to get Phelps as the replacement for Gaines, and both should be on swimming in L.A.
19. The live closing ceremony was where NBC’s celebrity push was brutal for Olympic viewers. Ask yourself what Jimmy Fallon added here for viewers? The dude asked Katie Ledecky, “When do you fly home or are you going to swim home?” It’s cross-promotion over value for the audience.
Terry Gannon, Tara Lipinski, Johnny Weir and Tirico were more than good enough for this. Also, on Tirico: This is how you quickly and definitively acknowledge an error.
20. Getty Images photographer Hector Vivas, take a bow. You too, Ezra Shaw. And check out these photos as well.
GO DEEPER
Paris Olympics in pictures: 32 captivating photos from each event of the Summer Games
(Top photo of NBC correspondent Snoop Dogg: Carl Recine / Getty Images)
The Kansas City Royals are good for baseball, and not just because they’re a small market team vying for a postseason spot or because Bobby Witt Jr. is one of the game’s brightest young stars.
No, the Royals are good for baseball because they’re a shining example of what every organization in professional baseball should be doing: trying.
The Royals, you may recall, spent nearly $110 million on free agents this winter. The moves were well-received, but didn’t exactly make national headlines. They didn’t spend a half-billion dollars on two players like the Texas Rangers did before 2022. They didn’t win the Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes.
The Royals, who lost 106 games last year, wanted to get better quickly. They recognized that player development and amateur scouting weren’t going to be enough, so they supplemented the roster in free agency, aggressively adding more than a half-dozen players. Now, with a winning season already in hand, they’re on the precipice of clinching a postseason berth, perhaps as early as this week.
Revolutionary? Hardly. Rare? In today’s game, very.
“Sometimes you need that slap upside the head, right?” Royals owner John Sherman, who greenlit the expenditures, asked reporters this spring. “We don’t know what’s going to happen, but we cannot tolerate something like that again for our fans.”
Every owner can afford an offseason like the Royals had. They were aggressive without being foolish, and added again at the trade deadline and during the past month via the waiver wire. And yet, few have done it.
While MLB has added measures to try to help combat the sport’s tanking epidemic, getting teams to consistently try, front offices to assume risk and owners to open their wallets has been another problem altogether.
J.J. Picollo, the Royals’ executive vice president and general manager, has made his operation stand out from that of other teams. (Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)
Witt’s otherworldly season (he will easily clear 10 fWAR) would make him a shoo-in for American League MVP if not for the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge. It also comes after a spring in which Sherman OK’ed an 11-year, $288.8 million contract extension for the Royals young star, which could be worth as much as $377 million over 14 years when it’s all done. It’s the most lucrative deal in franchise history.
Again, if Kansas City — one of the smallest markets in baseball — can do it, why can’t everyone else?
As other teams downsize departments and chop personnel — last week alone, a half-dozen teams made cuts to scouting and player development, according to league sources, or “restructured” in the nonstop efficiency-speak of front offices — the Royals have added infrastructure. In the two years since executive vice president of baseball operations J.J. Picollo took the reins, Kansas City reimagined all three scouting departments with new leaders, modernized the organization and changed the culture. The Royals have emphasized data, adding six new people to the research and development team, including a new director. They’ve folded that in by hiring people with traditional baseball resumes, but open minds.
Picollo, who was internally promoted when Dayton Moore was fired, hasn’t hesitated to hire outsiders, even those he has no previous relationship with, like manager Matt Quatraro. Quatraro, like Picollo, has been widely credited for steering the turnaround, and for bringing a curious mind and willingness to innovate. These aren’t two hotshot young Ivy League grads leading the charge; both men played minor league baseball and are in their 50s.
Perhaps the new market efficiency is doing things just a little differently, for zigging when others are zagging, even if it’s not always new territory. These Royals, for all their successful efforts to modernize, are also masters of the basics.
Only the San Diego Padres lineup has a lower strikeout rate, and Kansas City also ranks among the league’s best defenses, further elevating a solid pitching staff.
From Day 1 of last offseason, the Royals targeted pitchers Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha, not because they were the best players available (they weren’t) or because either guy had wipeout stuff (neither pitcher has had a 200-strikeout season to date) but because they fit certain tenets. Lugo was an All-Star this year who could get some Cy Young Award consideration, despite a rare rough outing on Monday, while Wacha has gone 9-1 with a 2.67 ERA and 71-to-20 strikeout-to-walk ratio since the beginning of July.
At 52-45 at the start of the second half, Picollo and company didn’t wait to see which route the team would take, like so many other clubs who weren’t leading their division did. Instead, they again moved quickly, unafraid to double down after some of their offseason relief options didn’t pan out. Kansas City acquired Hunter Harvey from Washington two weeks ahead of the deadline, and also added Oakland’s Lucas Erceg along with swingman Michael Lorenzen and infielder Paul DeJong.
When first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino went down, Picollo added three players on waivers to fill the void: Yuli Gurriel, Tommy Pham and Robbie Grossman. The cost was cash. The payoff was immediate. The Royals had targeted Pham and Grossman at the deadline but weren’t able to secure either. The group could have helped several clubs ahead of Kansas City in the waiver order. No one else jumped.
Not every move the Royals made has worked out. But, like their lineup, the Royals front office has a pretty low whiff rate. And as they attempt to chase down the Baltimore Orioles for the top wild-card spot, Kansas City’s model has proven to be a good one.
It’s good for the city, which hasn’t had a playoff team since the 2015 World Series champions. It’s even better for baseball.
(Top photo of Bobby Witt Jr. celebrating a win with teammates: Jay Biggerstaff / Imagn Images)
By Grant Brisbee, Andy McCullough and Stephen J. Nesbitt
Every week, we ask a selected group of our baseball writers — local and national — to rank the teams from first to worst. Here are the collective results.
There are two weeks left in the Major League Baseball regular season. Each team has four series remaining between them and whatever is on their October calendar: playoffs or pool time.
But November looks the same for all of ’em.
That’s awards season, baby!
We’ve paired this week’s Power Rankings with picking each team’s top individual award candidate — MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, Jomboy Lip-Reading of the Year, et cetera. This isn’t to suggest each team has someone with a shot to win. Far from it. Some races have basically been called. But it’s still worth tipping a cap to each team’s best bet.
Record: 90-59
Last Power Ranking: 2
Top award candidate: Zack Wheeler, NL Cy Young Award
This might be Wheeler’s best season with the Phillies, which is saying something, considering how excellent he has been since he joined the team heading into 2020. He has accumulated more wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs, than any other pitcher during that time frame. He is operating at a high level as the postseason approaches. In his last eight starts, Wheeler has posted a 1.76 ERA while striking out more than a batter per inning. He is the ace of the best team in baseball, the sort of horse Philadelphia intends to ride back to the World Series. — Andy McCullough
Record: 88-61
Last Power Ranking: 1
Top award candidate: Shohei Ohtani, NL MVP
I know this will be a controversial choice because Ohtani doesn’t even play in the field (!!!), but I’m thinking this will be the first time in baseball history that an injured pitcher wins the NL MVP. It would be his third MVP, which means he’d join the three-timers-and-more club:
• Jimmie Foxx
• Joe DiMaggio
• Stan Musial
• Roy Campanella
• Yogi Berra
• Mickey Mantle
• Mike Schmidt
• Alex Rodríguez
• Albert Pujols
• Mike Trout
• Barry Bonds (7)
That’s a ridiculous list, but Ohtani is a ridiculous player. He’ll fit in just fine. — Grant Brisbee
Record: 87-63
Last Power Ranking: 3
Top award candidate: Aaron Judge, AL MVP
Well, duh. He is having the best season of his career, even in the midst of a brief slump. (Judge went 16 games without hitting a home run before blasting a grand slam in a stirring victory over the Red Sox on Friday.) The downswing will prevent Judge from breaking his own American League home run record of 62, but he still may wrangle his second MVP trophy out of the clutches of Kansas City sensation Bobby Witt Jr. Witt is a five-tool dynamo and a delight to watch — but Judge has come close to replicating the production of Barry Bonds at his peak while playing center field. — McCullough
Record: 86-63
Last Power Ranking: 4
Top award candidate: Pat Murphy, NL Manager of the Year
If your predecessor walks for a record contract and your ace is traded away but your team doesn’t miss a beat — another 90-win season, another division title — yeah, you’re winning this award. It’s a pretty easy pick. So, here’s a second award candidate: Jackson Chourio, NL Rookie of the Year. He was so overmatched in April and May that many wondered if he’d head to Triple A.
Before June 1: .210/.254/.327, 5 HR, 61 wRC+, 27 K%, 5.7 BB%
Since June 1: .309/.368/.555, 16 HR, 152 wRC+, 16.4 K%, 7.8 BB%
Turns out, Chourio figures things out just fine on the fly at the major-league level. Another reason to give his manager an award! — Stephen Nesbitt
Record: 86-64
Last Power Ranking: 7
Top award candidate: Emmanuel Clase, AL Reliever of the Year
Let’s start with Clase’s case for Reliever of the Year as of this writing: 0.66 ERA, .659 WHIP, MLB-leading 45 saves in 68 1/3 innings. Got it? Got it.
Now for the bigger argument: Cy Young. No reliever has won the award in 21 years, and all signs point to the Tigers’ Tarik Skubal winning this time. But, man, what Clase’s doing is incredibly rare. I could only find 10 pitchers with a sub-1 ERA and at least 68 innings pitched, most recently 2018 Blake Treinen. Only two have matched Clase’s ERA.
2012 Fernando Rodney: 0.60 ERA, 48 saves in 74 2/3 innings
1990 Dennis Eckersley: 0.61 ERA, 48 saves in 73 1/3 innings
Both finished fifth in Cy Young voting and got down-ballot MVP votes. (Eck won both awards in 1992 when he had a 1.91 ERA and 51 saves.) — Nesbitt
Emmanuel Clase doing Emmanuel Clase things. pic.twitter.com/OEhKj7jQWy
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 17, 2024
Record: 86-65
Last Power Ranking: 6
Top award candidate: Jurickson Profar, NL Comeback Player of the Year
Because it’s a more common tale, this award often goes to the best player who was injured the previous season and then came back to post his usual numbers. Back in 2011, Lance Berkman won it over Ryan Voglesong, who had one of the better comeback stories in modern history. Not that I still think about these things. But it’s the perfect example of how the vote usually goes.
Profar wasn’t injured much last season. He just stunk it up and got released. This year, he was an All-Star for the first time, and he’s going to be a key part of the Padres’ postseason hopes. It’s refreshing, honestly. This award should go to players who stunk the season before. Profar has the best case in years. — Brisbee
Record: 84-66
Last Power Ranking: 5
Top award candidate: Gunnar Henderson, AL MVP
No, he will not take home the hardware, not in a season graced by Aaron Judge and Bobby Witt Jr. But a year after winning the American League Rookie of the Year award, Henderson leveled up in 2024. During a season in which many of his young teammates have dealt with extended slumps or nagging injuries, Henderson boosted his OPS from last year by about 100 points while playing solid defense at shortstop. He has struck out less, walked more and made consistent solid contact. It’s an excellent combination. He just turned 23 this summer. He figures to be a fixture in this discussion for years to come. — McCullough
Record: 83-66
Last Power Ranking: 8
Top award candidate: Mike Hazen, NL Executive of the Year
OK, so Eduardo Rodriguez and Jordan Montgomery haven’t quite worked out yet, but that’s an argument for Hazen winning this. He created a roster that could withstand dud seasons from their two biggest free agents. Randal Grichuk wouldn’t be a bad choice for Comeback Player of the Year. Corbin Carroll might be a good candidate for the award based on the difference between his first and second halves. Every regular in the lineup has an OPS+ of 100 or better, and the Diamondbacks are absolutely lapping the rest of baseball in runs scored, in no small part because of the creative additions to the roster, both during the season and in the previous offseason. The trade for Eugenio Suárez alone should make Hazen a strong contender for the award. — Brisbee
Record: 82-68
Last Power Ranking: 9
Top award candidate: Bobby Witt Jr., AL MVP
If WAR is the answer, this race is still neck-and-neck between Witt and Aaron Judge. By FanGraphs WAR, Judge leads, 10 to 9.7. By Baseball-Reference WAR, Judge is up, 9.7 to 8.9. The odds remain in Judge’s favor after he snapped a 16-game homerless drought with two big flies over the weekend. But Witt is still authoring an incredible season. He’s in line for a batting title, hitting .331 with 31 homers and 28 steals. He also has 17 outs above average at shortstop, tied with Francisco Lindor and Marcus Semien for second among infielders, trailing only Andrés Giménez (18 OAA). We may have jinxed Witt with the hitting-.400-at-home headline. He’s only batting .379 at home now. That’s on us. — Nesbitt
Record: 81-69
Last Power Ranking: 11
Top award candidate: Yordan Alvarez, AL MVP
Quietly one of the best hitters of his generation. Or of any generation, for that matter. Alvarez might put up yet another OPS+ over 170, which would be his third time doing so. The only players to have more of those seasons before turning 28: Ty Cobb, Mike Trout, Frank Thomas, Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, Johnny Mize, Rogers Hornsby, Babe Ruth and Tris Speaker. Alvarez is on the next tier down, which means he’s only keeping up with guys like Albert Pujols, Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig. He’s never won an MVP award, and he won’t this year. But he’s deserving of something. So, here, take this acknowledgment in a power rankings. Print it out and stick it to the fridge with a magnet that has a funny saying on it. You’ve earned it. — Brisbee
Record: 81-68
Last Power Ranking: 10
Top award candidate: Chris Sale, NL Cy Young Award
For baseball fans of a certain vintage — the type of people old enough to have hard opinions about the relative merits of Timbaland’s “Shock Value” and “Shock Value II” — it has been charming to see Sale dominating this season like he did in the previous decade. Sale was the best pitcher in the 2010s to never win the Cy Young. He finished in the top six in voting in seven consecutive seasons but never topped the balloting. That figures to change in 2024. Sale entered this week on track to win the Triple Crown with a 17-3 record, a 2.35 ERA and 219 strikeouts in 172 2/3 innings. At 35, after several years disrupted by injury, he has authored a remarkable comeback story — and been the best pitcher in baseball. — McCullough
Record: 81-68
Last Power Ranking: 12
Top award candidate: Francisco Lindor, NL MVP
Lindor’s importance to the Mets was apparent long before his back injury sidelined him for a pair of crushing defeats to the Phillies this past weekend. If he can return to the lineup soon, there will be a fierce MVP debate pitting Lindor, a strong shortstop, against Shohei Ohtani, who has not played the field this season. Ohtani’s heroics at the plate may make him the first designated hitter to win MVP. But Lindor has put together a strong case. He has been more valuable than Ohtani, according to FanGraphs’s version of WAR (while Ohtani has the edge, according to Baseball-Reference). One point in Lindor’s favor — besides the whole “playing a position every day” thing: He has been reliable with runners in scoring position, posting an .847 OPS. — McCullough
GO DEEPER
Is WAR the answer? How one advanced metric has come to dominate MVP voting
Record: 79-70
Last Power Ranking: 13
Top award candidate: Carlos Santana, AL Gold Glove
Can the Comeback Player of the Year award go to a guy with 50 fewer games than the previous year? Asking for a different Carlos (Correa).
Let’s set that aside and stump for Santana to win his first Gold Glove. The 38-year-old has been a solid contributor with the stick this season, with 22 homers and a 113 OPS+, and has continued playing superlative defense at first base. He has 13 outs above average. The only other first baseman in his orbit is Christian Walker, the NL’s two-time defending Gold Glove first baseman, who has 12 OAA. — Nesbitt
Record: 77-73
Last Power Ranking: 14
Top award candidate: Cal Raleigh, AL Gold Glove
The Mariners have an absurdly talented rotation, with five different starters with at least 19 starts and an ERA between 2.38 and 3.62. Those five starters have combined to walk 152 batters as of this writing; Randy Johnson walked 152 batters by himself in 1991.
You can’t avoid walks if your catcher isn’t stealing strikes, though, and Raleigh is one of the best at doing it. He leads all AL catchers in defensive metrics according to both FanGraphs and Baseball Savant, and it isn’t especially close. He’ll almost certainly be one of the finalists after the season, and he’s earned it. — Brisbee
Tarik Skubal has impressed this season, with a 16-4 record and a 2.50 ERA. Will he be Detroit’s fifth Cy Young winner? (Duane Burleson / Getty Images)
Record: 77-73
Last Power Ranking: 16
Top award candidate: Tarik Skubal, AL Cy Young Award
A Cy Young has been in Skubal’s sights since he returned from Tommy John rehab before the 2023 All-Star game. He dominated down the stretch last season, with a 2.80 ERA, and has delivered more of the same this season. Skubal is 16-4 while leading the league in ERA (2.50), FIP (2.56) and strikeouts (214) across 180 innings. The 27-year-old lefty has been brilliant all season, and lately, the Tigers have matched his level, surging into the postseason race as the finish line nears. It’s still a long shot but not out of the question, and that’s wild. Skubal would be the Tigers’ fifth Cy Young winner, joining Denny McLain (who did it twice), Willie Hernández, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer. — Nesbitt
Record: 76-73
Last Power Ranking: 15
Top award candidate(s): Shota Imanaga and Michael Busch, NL Rookie of the Year
Neither Imanaga nor Busch has a real shot of winning the award, but since they’re equally unlikely, we’ll recognize both. The Cubs acquired Busch from the Dodgers for prospects Zyhir Hope and Jackson Ferris — now ranked Nos. 5 and 12, respectively, in the Dodgers system by Baseball America. The trade may work out wonderfully for both sides. Busch has blasted 20 homers with a .793 OPS (122 OPS+) while playing plus defense at first base for the Cubs. The 31-year-old All-Star Imanaga, signed to an entirely reasonable contract with team options through 2028, has been terrific in his first season stateside, allowing three earned runs or fewer in 24 of 27 starts and posting a 3.03 ERA. — Nesbitt
Record: 75-75
Last Power Ranking: 17
Top award candidate: Tanner Houck, AL Cy Young Award
In an odd year for starting pitchers, Houck should land on a few Cy Young Award ballots, even if he entered the season’s final fortnight with a losing record. No longer do starters get punished as harshly by voters for their win-loss results, and Houck has been a stable presence for Boston all season. He has kept hitters off-balance by leaning heavily on his sweeper and his splitter. In turn, he’s kept opposing lineups from going deep, which is never an easy task in the American League East. — McCullough
Record: 74-75
Last Power Ranking: 18
Top award candidate: Ryan Helsley, NL Reliever of the Year
After missing much of the 2023 season with a forearm strain, Helsley has been both healthy and excellent this year, leading the league with 44 saves — more than doubling his previous high of 19 — and posting a 2.19 ERA. Helsley’s fastball averages 99.6 mph, though this season, his slider is his primary pitch — and for good reason: opposing hitters are batting .164 against it. Helsley has been more hittable in 2024, with a higher WHIP (1.15) and lower strikeout rate (28.7 percent) than he had the previous two seasons as the Cardinals’ closer. But despite the traffic, he’s limited damage by missing barrels. — Nesbitt
Record: 73-77
Last Power Ranking: 19
Top award candidate: Junior Caminero, AL MVP (in 2027)
We write about Caminero relatively often in this space, so forgive us for repeating ourselves, but he’s been a burst of energy in an otherwise bleak season. The Rays underachieved early in the year. The front office tore down the roster at the deadline. Taj Bradley ran out of gas. (Well, at least Ryan Pepiot proved to be a better bet than Tyler Glasnow.) The reasons for long-term optimism center around faith in the team’s baseball operations department and hope in players like Caminero, the 21-year-old infielder who is capable of ferocious contact and ferocious whiffs in equal measure. — McCullough
Record: 73-78
Last Power Ranking: 22
Top award candidate: Elly De La Cruz, NL MVP
While Hunter Greene will receive down-ballot Cy Young votes, we’ll go with the guy who’s been healthy. De La Cruz has leveled up across the board in his first full MLB season. He leads the majors with 64 steals, is slashing .257/.342./.469 (120 OPS+) and has contributed 14 outs above average at shortstop. De La Cruz is crushing fastballs, walking more and chasing less than last season. He has 24 homers, and with his astounding raw power he could turn more barrels into homers in future years. His clear flaw is his strikeout rate, which still sits at 31 percent. If that comes down, watch out, Ohtani. — Nesbitt
Record: 72-78
Last Power Ranking: 20
Top award candidate: Tyler Fitzgerald, NL Rookie of the Year
Fitzgerald won’t pull this off when his competition is Paul Skenes, Jackson Merrill and Jackson Chourio, all of whom deserve to win. But in a season that’s not as saturated with future stars, he’d have a chance. A recent back injury scuttled his chances at a 20-20 season, which is impressive for a player who didn’t become a lineup regular until the middle of June.
The Giants have other award-adjacent types, like Patrick Bailey (Gold Glove candidate) and Ryan Walker (Trevor Hoffman Award candidate), but in a normal season, Fitzgerald would be getting a lot more attention for the Rookie of the Year. If the Giants didn’t have him, goodness, they would be lousy. More so. — Brisbee
Record: 72-78
Last Power Ranking: 23
Top award candidate: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., AL Silver Slugger
This is not damning with faint praise. This is progress! After two quieter seasons at the plate, Guerrero returned as a force in 2024. Too bad it wasn’t in service of a postseason chase. At least Guerrero has set himself up for a massive payday. That could come in the form of an extension with the Blue Jays, who are committed to attempting to contend again next season with this year’s core. Or, if Guerrero wants to test the market, it could come in free agency after 2025. He is still so young that he would hit the market while entering his age-27 season. No free-agent first baseman has inked a deal worth $200 million since Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder heading into 2012. Guerrero could change that. — McCullough
Record: 71-79
Last Power Ranking: 21
Top award candidate: Bruce Bochy, AL Manager of the Year
Why not just vote for the most respected manager, regardless of their team’s record? Surely the folks who created this award never thought it would become “Manager of the team that did way better than expected” every stinking year. Where’s the love for the managers who are simply doing their jobs better than others?
So start a revolution. I don’t know if the Rangers would be 61-89 without Bochy, or if they’d be three games up in the wild-card chase without him. All I know is how his players and ex-players talk about him, and it seems like this award would be a fine way to honor him or any of the other widely respected managers around either league. The last time he won a MOY award, he was 40, almost as old as two of his players at the time, Rickey Henderson and Fernando Valenzuela.
All Bochy has done since is build an unbeatable Hall of Fame career. Seems like managers like that should get more awards, not be tied with Tony Peña, Gabe Kapler, Kirk Gibson and Matt Williams, who combined to manage 17 seasons. That is, 10 fewer seasons than Bochy alone. — Brisbee
Record: 71-78
Last Power Ranking: 24
Top award candidate: Paul Skenes, NL Rookie of the Year
Skenes entered his start Monday with a 2.10 ERA over 120 innings as a starter. Here are the last five rookies to do that.
1986 Mark Eichhorn: 1.72 ERA in 157 innings
1980 Doug Corbett: 1.98 ERA in 136 1/3 inning
1973 Steve Rogers: 1.54 ERA in 134 innings
1968 Stan Bahnsen: 2.05 ERA in 267 1/3 innings
1968 Jerry Koosman: 2.08 ERA in 263 2/3 innings
That’s the whole list going back to the Year of the Pitcher, 1968. Corbett and Rogers pitched entirely in relief. Bahnsen was the only one of the group to win Rookie of the Year. Skenes is in toss-up territory. He was the story of the Midsummer Classic and has dominated hitters. But Mr. Clutch Jackson Merrill has had an everyday impact in getting his team to the playoffs. The Pirates have only had one Rookie of the Year winner: Jason Bay in 2004. — Nesbitt
Record: 68-81
Last Power Ranking: 25
Top award candidate: James Wood, NL Rookie of the Year
It’s tough to be a National League rookie in 2024, a season blessed with the debuts of Paul Skenes, Jackson Merrill and Jackson Chourio. That trio has overshadowed Wood — and, with his 6-foot-7 frame, Wood rarely gets overshadowed. He has held his own since the Nationals called him up on July 1. His size will always leave him prone to strikeouts. But he has the potential to be a star for a franchise that could use some. — McCullough
Record: 65-85
Last Power Ranking: 26
Top award candidate: Brent Rooker, AL MVP
The former first-round pick is just a couple years removed from wondering if his career was almost over. In April 2022, Rooker was a throw-in to the deal that sent Taylor Rogers to the Padres. A couple months later, the Padres traded him to the Royals for a backup catcher who never reached the majors with them. Two months after that, the Royals waived Rooker. He had just turned 28, he had a .668 OPS in the majors, and the marketplace was suggesting his value was somewhere between a fringey backup catcher and a waiver claim. That’s right about when some start thinking about law school or opening a sandwich shop.
Instead, Rooker will finish in the top 10 in the AL MVP voting, and it’s hard not to get sentimental about stories like his. Although I’m really in the mood for a sandwich right now, so I’m wondering what his shop would have offered. — Brisbee
Record: 60-90
Last Power Ranking: 27
Top award candidate: Zach Neto, AL MVP (10th place)
The order I write these capsules is determined by the alphabetical order of the team name. That’s how they show up in the document every week, which means I typically have to think about the Angels first. This one feels like an OSHA violation.
This was the category that broke me. You look for a player on their team who can win an award, even a simple Gold Glove. You can’t.
This will be the first season the Angels haven’t had a top-five MVP finisher since 2011, which is wild. So while we can’t pretend that Neto deserves a top-five finish for the AL MVP, he’s got a shot at a single 10th-place vote, at least. He’s currently 23rd in the AL in WAR among position players, according to FanGraphs, but he’s a win-and-a-half away from 10th place. Fudge a little and give him extra credit for being one of the brightest lights in a dark situation. The Angels can get a single 10th-place MVP vote, as a treat, to wean them off the award endorphins that are long gone. — Brisbee
Record: 57-93
Last Power Ranking: 29
Top award candidate: Brenton Doyle, NL Platinum Glove
Any Tom, Dick and Harry can win a Gold Glove. And they have. (Tom Pagnozzi, Corey Dickerson and Harold Reynolds, to be specific.) But it takes a true fielding freak to win a Platinum Glove, and Doyle certainly qualifies. Coors Field has a monstrous, punishing outfield, and the Rockies will always need one of the best defensive center fielders in the game. They have one in Doyle. Now he’s hitting well, too, which seems unfair. There go those Rockies again, catching all the breaks.
This would be the 15th Platinum Glove in the award’s history. If Doyle wins, this would be the breakdown by team:
• Cardinals (6)
• Rockies (6)
• Cubs (1)
• Braves (1)
• Padres (1)
If Nolan Arenado wasn’t traded, the Rockies might have more than three-quarters of the Platinum Glove awards. Wild. — Brisbee
Record: 55-95
Last Power Ranking: 28
Top award candidate: Skip Schumaker, Manager of the Year (in 2025)
Schumaker will become the darling of the free-agent managerial market when the season ends. The move was telegraphed months ago when Miami eliminated his option year for 2025 after Peter Bendix replaced Kim Ng as the head of baseball operations. Schumaker won Manager of the Year after the Marlins snuck into the postseason last season. There was far less good fortune in 2024. Miami was a wreck from Opening Day onward, and the rebuilding figures to take a while. Schumaker is expected to take over in a different dugout next spring — and he’s likely to benefit from Craig Counsell’s financial windfall with the Cubs. — McCullough
Record: 36-115
Last Power Ranking: 30
Top award candidate: Jerry Reinsdorf, Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award
The Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award has been given out to 15 individuals. Cal Ripken Jr. for his Iron Man streak. Tony Gwynn for his batting titles. Mariano Rivera for his saves record. Most recently, Shohei Ohtani for making two-way history. Only one team has received the commissioner’s award: the 2001 Mariners for tying the 1906 Cubs’ wins record of 116.
If winning the most games makes you worthy of the award, losing the most should, too. I humbly nominate Reinsdorf and his 2024 White Sox to be the second club honored. Outdoing the 1962 Mets’ loss record of 120 would be nothing short of historic. — Nesbitt
(Top photo of Mookie Betts: Rich von Biberstein / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Before Sidney Crosby’s first home opener at Pittsburgh’s now-extinct Mellon Arena in October 2005, Mario Lemieux walked past a media scrum encircling Crosby and into the players’ lounge, pouring a cup of black coffee.
Smirking, he opined about soon being “forgotten.” Then, in an unusually earnest moment, Lemieux predicted Crosby would “own all my records one day,” nodded his head and walked out.
Lemieux might have undersold it. Crosby will have an opportunity to break Lemieux’s Penguins records, but also NHL records by Wayne Gretzky (most consecutive seasons averaging at least a point per game) and Steve Yzerman (most consecutive seasons as a team captain).
“(Lemieux) really said that?” Crosby said on Monday afternoon, after speaking with Pittsburgh media following his annual delivery of season tickets to an unsuspecting family in Mars, Pa. “Like, really?
“Uh, there’s still a long way to go.”
Not too long. Crosby needs 99 goals, 30 assists, and 128 points to knock Lemieux from the Penguins’ perch in those regular-season categories. He long ago set the franchise marks for postseason assists (130) and points (201), and needs only six postseason goals to do one better than Lemieux’s 76.
Still, after Crosby signed a new, two-year contract with an $8.7 million average annual value with the Penguins on Monday, he’ll get at least three more cracks at a bargain rate to notch more accomplishments.
GO DEEPER
Crosby’s new Penguins contract is his sweetest assist yet
Whether he drags the Penguins along for the ride — and back into a position of prominence — or becomes the only reason to care about a proud-turned-fledgling franchise could determine if Crosby does what Lemiex did in Pittsburgh: stay until the end of his career.
Crosby has said he wants to play only for the Penguins. He also wants to chase another Stanley Cup championship.
The Penguins have not qualified for the last two playoffs and will again enter a season with one of the NHL’s oldest rosters. Since Kyle Dubas traded for star defenseman Erik Karlsson last August, the Penguins’ front-office boss’s most intriguing acquisitions have been a handful of prospects.
Once a rite of passage for Crosby’s Penguins, a postseason appearance is hardly guaranteed before his new contract expires. Intriguingly, that contract is structured so he can leverage an exit before its final season if Dubas doesn’t quickly return the Penguins to contender status.
Crosby’s contract is designated 35-plus, a notable status per the collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and its Players Association. The contract includes two signing bonuses — a choice, essentially, by Crosby and agent Pat Brisson to get the bulk of the actual money paid before Crosby plays the final season of the new deal.
Crosby will earn $780,000 and $1.09 million in salary respectively in Years 1 and 2 of the new contract. But he will have been paid $16.31 million in real money before playing a game in Year 2.
Who cares how Penguins owner Fenway Sports Group pays Crosby so long as it pays him, right?
Every other GM in the league will care.
With 93.7 percent of Crosby’s salary paid before Year 2 of the new contract, he would come cheap — again, in terms of actual money — in any potential trade during the 2026 offseason. By paying the supermajority of Crosby’s real money before that second contract season, the Penguins could justifiably demand a more favorable return in any potential trade, especially if, as would be likely, they took on a sizeable chunk of Crosby’s cap hit.
It would be just a one-season hit if Dubas retained even 50 percent ($4.35 million) to maximize the return in a trade that would end — albeit probably only temporarily — one of the NHL’s great love stories.
Crosby didn’t sign this new contract to not see it through. He’s said repeatedly, publicly and privately, that he wants to play only for the Penguins.
He also said he wants to win. He reiterated that point a few hours after the Penguins announced his new contract on Monday.
“I had some conversations with Kyle throughout the process,” Crosby said of the negotiations. “I think that was reassuring — just based on what we discussed as far as there’s still hunger from the organization and ownership to win and a commitment there.
“I think that’s really important. I feel like as players, for all the different guys that have played here over the course of the time that I’ve been here, it’s something that you build as a culture… something’s that’s ingrained. And missing the playoffs for a couple of years, not being in it, is difficult.
“You want to try to find every way possible to get back in there and make sure that we compete for the Stanley Cup. So, I think that was reassuring to hear and that helped. But no, I think it was more just hearing that reassurance.”
After next season, Crosby will be approaching his 39th birthday, and Dubas will have had three full years to set a course. His franchise icon should be able to look at the roster and assess whether it’s a Cup contender. By then, Crosby’s view of the situation in Pittsburgh could depend as much on his opinion of the roster as it could on whether he wants to continue without Evgeni Malkin (likely to retire) and possibly Kris Letang, whose final two contractual seasons are not as trade-prohibitive.
Crosby reiterated Monday how special it’s been to play 18 seasons with Malkin and Letang as teammates. The Penguins’ Big Three isn’t going past 20 seasons, if only because of Malkin’s contract.
If, after next season, one or both of his dear friends have moved on and the Penguins aren’t closer to winning their first playoff series since 2018, who would begrudge Crosby for wanting what could be his final NHL season to be a shot at the Cup somewhere else?
The onus is on Dubas to make Crosby’s decision easy by then. By keeping his cap hit as is, Crosby provided Dubas precious millions to upgrade the Penguins next offseason and the one after it. If the Penguins are on the upswing after 2025-26, who better than Crosby to show their next potentially great team how to win?
That would be a picture-perfect swan song for Crosby — with the Penguins in the playoffs, one last run before No. 87 is done.
Then, he can take however much time away he wants, start a family and return to the franchise in whatever off-ice capacity he chooses. He doesn’t need to become an owner, as Lemieux did, but he might.
Crosby’s heart is with the Penguins. He made that clear on Monday.
“It’s probably difficult to put that … into a sound bite,” he said, speaking from the back porch of a suburban Pittsburgh home where he playfully traded high-fives with children wearing various versions of his No. 87 Penguins jersey. “Support (from) the people, the fans, the organization, just everything over the years — it’s been really special, and we’ve had some incredible experiences and memories.
“I just want to continue that.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Photos: Jeanine Leech and Brandon Sloter / Icon Sportswire / Getty Images)
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