This weekend is the first official Rivalry Weekend in Major League Baseball, with MLB, as the league itself puts it, “highlighting some top geographical rivalries … with every team [playing] its designated rival, with 11 Interleague series and four non-Interleague matchups.”
While these matchups are set up with those long-term rivalries in mind, the best ones this year have immediate relevance, games that feature teams already fighting their way up and down the standings this very second. Sure, Rivalry Weekend sets up all sorts of bragging rights. But they also are actual games in the standings, featuring some of the best and most fascinating teams in the sport.
Here's a look at the top five matchups of Rivalry Weekend presented by Booking.com, based on the quality of the teams playing this very second.
1. Mets-Yankees
This one has all the intrigue you’d expect from the Subway Series, with it all a little bit elevated by the spectacle of Juan Soto making his first trip to Yankee Stadium as a member of the hated Mets. But even when you put aside the ongoing battle for NYC supremacy, these are two of the best, and most intriguing, teams in the sport right now.
The Mets got off to a blistering start behind some incredible individual performances -- it should be noted that Soto is in fact the third-most qualified MVP candidate on this team this very second -- but have surely noticed the Phillies’ footsteps starting to sprint up behind them in the NL East.
And while the Yankees find themselves in first place, enjoying what sure looks like an all-timer of an Aaron Judge season in the brewing, the rest of the division is starting to get its act together a little bit: Their three-game lead on the Red Sox is closer than you probably think it is. They both play in fiercely competitive, stacked divisions, with the stakes for both teams this season absolutely titanic. Every win is going to matter for each of these teams, all year. Including these. Especially these.
2. Mariners-Padres
This is one of those geographic matchups you have to squint a little bit to make work -- Seattle and San Diego are nearly as far away from each other as Chicago and Salt Lake City are -- but on the field, it’s undeniably compelling. These are two of the most stirring stories of the young MLB season so far. The Mariners, after years of not quite delivering on the promise of the 2022 season, look like the complete package in a way they weren’t quite even that season; with Big Dumper Cal Raleigh leading the way, this looks like a legitimately exciting offense.
The Padres certainly know of that: Their offense is loaded, led by MVP candidate Fernando Tatis Jr. and a newly healthy Jackson Merrill. And these are also two of the top rotations in the sports as well. This is kind of a hipster World Series matchup, isn’t it? (They’d have to wear their ‘80s uniforms, it would be amazing.)
This matchup gets bonus points for the way the clubs are leaning into it, creating the Vedder Cup in honor of Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, who is a big baseball fan and has lived in both cities. The winner of the series will take home a trophy featuring one of Vedder’s guitars. Will we see our first ever air guitar-inspired home run celebration?
3. Braves-Red Sox
The Braves, after a miserable start, have clawed all the way back to .500, and they’re about to get both Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuña Jr. back: We’ve only scratched the surface of what they’re going to be this year, even if catching the Mets and/or Phillies in the NL East could be a tall order. The Red Sox have had their fair share of drama so far, but that drama -- and their injuries, including an injury that led to some of the drama -- has helped disguise the fact that this feels like a bit of an underachieving team so far.
The Alex Bregman signing had everyone thinking this was a leaping-off season for the Red Sox, but they’ve mostly been stuck around .500 … you know, the same place the Braves are. The difference is that the Braves have an excellent excuse. These both still feel like playoff teams. The question is when they will start showing it.
While this rivalry doesn’t make geographical sense right now, it did at one point, with the Braves playing in Boston until 1952. (They moved to Milwaukee at that point and then Atlanta in 1966.)
4. Cardinals-Royals
A month ago, this one didn’t look so hot. On April 19, the Cardinals had lost three in a row and were mostly dealing with a whole bunch of reporters asking them when they were going to trade closer Ryan Helsley and if they were going to try to trade Nolan Arenado again, while the Royals, a team that made the playoffs last year and was expected to contend to do so again this year, had an even worse record, having lost six in a row.
But the two Missouri teams have picked it up big-time since then. The Royals have more wins than anyone in baseball since April 19, thanks largely to a rotation that has been cruising (and Bobby Witt Jr. of course). The Cardinals have been even more surprising, with a recent nine-game winning streak turning what sure looked like a rebuilding year into a one of the more intriguing young teams playing right now. (Victor Scott II is the 1980s Cardinal you’ve all been missing so much.) These teams have all sorts of ‘80s history with each other, but this is one of the rare years in which they’re both good at the same time … and have plenty at stake when they face off.
5. A’s-Giants
All right, so it’s not a Bay Area series anymore, though it still counts as a Northern California one. And of all the Rivalry Weekend matchups, this has to be unlikeliest battle between contenders. The A’s have been an absolute gas so far this season, at one point climbing within one game of first place (and if they’d won a game that night they led heading into the ninth, they’d have made it).
Meanwhile, Buster Posey’s new-look Giants have been one of the biggest stunners so far; before a recent downturn, they were battling the Dodgers and Padres for first place in the NL West, and they haven’t fallen that far off the pace even with the skid. They may have moved farther away from each other geographically. But the games themselves are more vital than ever.