It seems like every day has brought new challenges for the Red Sox, who have been snakebitten by injuries but have largely managed to keep the ship afloat.

Yet as uniquely difficult as this season has seemed, how does it compare to what everyone else has gone through?

Look around the league and you’ll see the Red Sox aren’t the only ones who have encountered adversity, and quite a few teams viewed much more highly coming into the season haven’t responded nearly as well. Now that we’re a month in we can begin drawing some conclusions, so who has emerged as a contender, who has been a disappointment and who has defied expectations, for better or worse?

Best team: Atlanta Braves

This isn’t much of a surprise. The Atlanta Braves have been one of the most talented clubs in baseball for the past several seasons now, and this year’s version hasn’t been any exception.

Coming into the weekend the Braves boasted the best record in baseball at 18-6, standing 2.5 games up on the Philadelphia Phillies for first in the NL East and with an MLB-best plus-48 run differential. The Braves had won four straight entering Saturday and 10 of their last 11 games overall, and they also rank first in baseball in runs per game (5.96) as well as ninth in runs allowed per game (3.96).

Even after losing ace Spencer Strider to season-ending elbow surgery the Braves have remained a force to be reckoned with. Expect this group to remain a strong contender to win their second World Series title in four seasons.

Worst team: Chicago White Sox

We knew this was going to be a long year on the South Side, but boy are things looking dark for the White Sox.

Chicago stands as far and away the worst team in baseball, standing at 4-22 entering the weekend with a league-worst minus-80 run differential. They’re already 14 games out of first place, rank worst in MLB in runs per game (2.50) and second worst in runs allowed per game (5.58), and with a farm system ranked 18th entering the season by Baseball America, things aren’t likely to turn around anytime soon.

Biggest surprise: Kansas City Royals

While the White Sox are stuck in the depths, their AL Central rivals have engineered one of the most remarkable single-season turnarounds we’ve seen in a long time.

After going 56-106 last season, the Kansas City Royals responded by signing their 23-year-old MVP candidate Bobby Witt Jr. to a historic contract extension and surrounded him with proven big leaguers like starters Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo and outfielder Hunter Renfroe. Now the Royals have emerged as one of the best teams in baseball, currently ranking second in the division to the Cleveland Guardians with a 17-10 record.

The Royals’ pitching has been especially impressive. Kansas City has allowed only 2.96 runs per game, the fewest in baseball, and the staff’s ERA (3.01) is tied with the Yankees for second best in the league. Lugo has pitched like an ace, boasting a 1.66 ERA over 38 innings, and up-and-comers Cole Ragans (3.90 ERA, 30 innings) and Brady Singer (2.76, 29) are enjoying breakout seasons. The team’s plus-47 run differential is also second in MLB behind only the Braves.

We’ll see if Kansas City can keep it up, but even the biggest Royals fan likely wouldn’t have predicted things would flip this much this quickly.

Biggest disappointment: Houston Astros

What is going on with the Houston Astros?

After seven straight trips to the ALCS, the Astros have come crashing down to Earth in shocking fashion through the season’s first month. Houston entered the weekend 7-19, behind even the lowly Oakland Athletics for last in the AL West. The Astros were swept by the Yankees to open the season and have been swept three more times since, most recently by the Cubs earlier this week at Wrigley Field.

So what’s going on? Houston still has most of its championship-era roster intact, but its starting rotation is in tatters. Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, José Urquidy, Lance McCullers Jr. and Luis Garcia are all on the shelf and future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander only recently returned after missing the first three weeks. That’s a lot for any club to overcome, but even if the Astros can eventually right the ship, they’ve already put themselves in a deep hole, one that will be difficult to climb out of.

Punching above their weight: Boston Red Sox

After an offseason that left a lot to be desired, the Red Sox came into the new year with low expectations, and every week has seemingly brought another backbreaking injury.

Lucas Giolito. Trevor Story. Triston Casas. On the list goes.

Those setbacks have resulted in some threadbare lineups, and the defense and decision-making has frequently been Triple-A caliber as well. Yet for everything that’s gone wrong, the Red Sox have actually weathered the storm remarkably well.

Entering the weekend Boston stood at 14-13, good for third in the AL East and a game ahead of both the Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays. They’ve consistently beaten up on bad teams, and the bulk of their losses have come at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles and Cleveland Guardians, who as of this writing boast two of the best four records in baseball.

Whether the Red Sox can hold up over the course of a long season remains to be seen, but they deserve credit for holding up in the face of adversity.

Slower start than expected: Los Angeles Dodgers

Would you have guessed that more than three weeks into the season the Los Angeles Dodgers not only were just a game above .500, but had a worse record than the Red Sox?

It’s crazy, but it was true.

After a historic offseason that saw them bring in Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Teoscar Hernandez, among others, the Dodgers took a while to get going. Los Angeles at one point lost seven of nine games to fall to 12-11, but the Dodgers have since gotten back on track with five straight wins to improve to 17-11.

Los Angeles is now first in the NL West and back among baseball’s best teams, but it hasn’t exactly been the wire-to-wire domination everyone expected so far.

Toughest division: AL East

We knew the AL East would be a monster once again, and the division hasn’t disappointed.

Through the season’s first month all five AL East clubs have mostly stood above .500, with the Baltimore Orioles (16-9) and New York Yankees (17-10) emerging as legitimate championship contenders. The Orioles have assembled one of the most exciting collections of young talent we’ve seen in a long time, and the Yankees have become must-see TV with both Aaron Judge and Juan Soto anchoring their lineup.

The Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays have been a little bit disappointing, and the Red Sox have been better than expected but certainly not great, but they’ve collectively been a lot better than the other divisions most expected to rank among the game’s best.

Weirdest division: NL West

You could argue the AL West has been equally disappointing given Seattle Mariners (14-12) and Texas Rangers (14-13) underwhelming start and the Astros’ collapse, but the NL West is even tougher to explain.

The Dodgers have gotten out of their early funk, but every other team in the division came into the weekend below .500. The San Diego Padres (14-15), San Francisco Giants (13-14) and defending National League champion Arizona Diamondbacks (12-15) were also viewed as likely playoff contenders, but they certainly haven’t been playing like ones early on.

Sooner or later one or two more of these clubs should right the ship, but considering the preseason talk that the NL West could produce two or even three Wild Card teams, the fact that right now it would get none is pretty stunning.

Biggest standout: Mookie Betts

You aren’t going to believe this, but Mookie Betts is having another outstanding season.

The Los Angeles Dodgers superstar has emerged as the early favorite to win National League MVP, posting outrageous numbers at the plate while successfully transitioning from the outfield to the middle infield. Entering the weekend Betts ranked first in MLB in wins above replacement (2.7), batting average (.382), on-base percentage (.485), OPS (1.130), runs scored (28), hits (42) and walks (22) while also boasting six home runs and 22 RBI, and he even ranks top-10 in defensive WAR after abruptly transitioning to shortstop midway through spring training.

Even on a star-studded roster that now includes two-time MVP Shohei Ohtani, Betts is in a class of his own.

Ohtani hasn’t been any slouch either, posting a 1.100 OPS to start his first season with the Dodgers, and Juan Soto has been everything the Yankees hoped for and more since his arrival this offseason. But maybe the most under the radar star has been Arizona second baseman Ketel Marte, who ranks second to Betts in WAR (2.1), leads baseball in defensive WAR (0.8) and is batting .321 with a .915 OPS.

Marte played a big part in Arizona’s run to the World Series last fall, and the NLCS MVP is so far showing that star turn wasn’t any fluke.

Story of the season: Injuries abound

For all the great performances we’ve already seen on the diamond, the story of this season has been how many players haven’t been able to get on the field.

From Gerrit Cole to Spencer Strider, Trevor Story to Cody Bellinger and dozens of other stars across the game, MLB is experiencing a rash of injuries unlike any in recent memory. Pitchers have been particularly affected, and it’s gotten so bad that MLB has assembled a task force to study the issue.

Injuries have always been a part of the game, but having so many of its biggest stars on the shelf is bad for baseball. Reversing the trend won’t be easy, especially given the recent emphasis on maximizing velocity and spin rate, but hopefully something can be done so the best players can not only take the field, but stay on the field.