With the rise of AI, the way people discover, evaluate, and talk about MLB teams is changing. Fans, travelers, sponsors, media, and even future players are asking AI which teams matter, which ballparks are worth visiting, which clubs are best run, and which organizations give sponsors the strongest platform.
The engines are already answering.
The MLB AI Visibility Index measures which teams show up in those answers, how often they appear, and whether winning, payroll, market size, or brand strength actually translates into AI visibility.
AI visibility is not a ranking of the best teams in baseball. It is a measure of how often AI engines surface each club when asked the kinds of questions that shape perception, attention, and interest.
We tested 100 team-neutral questions across eight categories: fan experience, talent and organizational reputation, audience and reach, sponsorship, market relevance, business and franchise strength, brand identity, and a new-fan / who-to-follow category.
Each question was run through five major AI answer engines: ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overview. The search engines were each tested three times per question, while Google AI Overview was captured once per question, generating 1,300 answers in total.
Every team mention was counted and scored based on how prominently the club appeared.
The goal was simple: understand which MLB teams AI consistently highlights, which teams it overlooks, and where the results challenge what you would expect from payroll, standings, market size, or real-world popularity.
Because whether teams are optimizing for it or not, AI is already becoming a new layer of sports discovery. This report shows who is winning attention there.
These are the clearest patterns. The teams AI names most, the clubs punching above their weight, and the organizations getting left out of the answer. If you read nothing else, read this.
The Dodgers set the pace. Everyone else is chasing.
Each club's score reflects how often and how prominently AI named it across 1,300 answers. The Dodgers are indexed at 100. The Yankees, at 75.4, appeared about three-quarters as often. A team at 20 appeared about one-fifth as often.
Some clubs earn more AI visibility than their franchise value would suggest. Others fall short of their market profile.
A strong 2025 finish did not guarantee AI visibility. Some division winners fell down the AI rankings, while lower-finishing clubs expanded their presence.
Only the biggest movers are drawn — hover over any team to trace its line.
Instead of wins and losses, each division is ranked by AI Visibility Score, showing which clubs lead the conversation against their closest real-world rivals. The big number is the club's visibility score. The smaller "# overall" shows where it ranks across all 30 teams.
The AI Visibility Index blends every answer into one score, but the engines do not always see MLB teams the same way. This table shows each AI's visibility raw ranking, so you can spot the consensus teams, the outliers, and the clubs whose visibility changes depending on who is answering.
Swipe across to compare all five engines →