In a sense, it took the Los Angeles Dodgers six months to move up one spot.
This 2024 Major League Baseball season was a circuitous, bumpy, non-linear journey to the end of September, certainly for the very best teams and most certainly the Dodgers. Yet as October looms, the Dodgers find themselves atop USA TODAY Sports' final power rankings of the season.
It's not a vast departure from our final rankings as the season began, with the Dodgers perched in the No. 2 slot. But ask the preseason No. 1 Atlanta Braves just how much plans can diverge over 162 games, as the six-time NL East champs relinquished that crown and are still fighting for their playoff lives through a deluge of injuries.