Most Hated MLB Team In Every State

Every state has an MLB team it loves to root against -- and in baseball, that grudge often burns hotter than any hometown loyalty. We forced the question in all 50 states, and the map that emerged is a study in pinstripe resentment. 

Our data has also been uddated as of mid-September with the playoff push in full swing. 

It's the latest in our most hated series, which includes: 

• Most Hated Golfers in 2026
• Most Hated NFL Head Coaches 
• Most Hated WNBA Players
• Most Hated EPL Clubs By English Cities

New York, New York

The New York Yankees are, unsurprisingly, the most hated team in the country, drawing the ire of 13 states -- five clear of anyone else. Their reach is widest in the Northeast, where all six New England states -- Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont -- name the Yankees their No. 1 villain, a clean sweep for Red Sox country. 

The rivalry runs both ways, though: in New York and New Jersey, fans flip the script and save their loudest boos for the Boston Red Sox.

As of mid-September, the Yankees and Sox are destined to meet in a Wild Card playoff series. Safe to say - this hatred isn't going anywhere. 

The New York Mets rank second at eight states, a total driven almost entirely by the Braves' deep-South adopted footprint -- Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee all inherit Atlanta's oldest NL East grudge -- with Phillies-leaning Pennsylvania and Delaware rounding out the count.

Data Viz

The Most Hated MLB Team in Every State

Each state's most hated MLB team, mapped — determined by rivalry-driven logic (divisional history, geographic proximity, and recent postseason friction), with every state forced to an MLB pick regardless of baseball's local popularity.

13

Yankees-led states

8

Mets-led states

13

Teams represented

50

States covered

State

Team

Hover or tap a state for its most-hated rival. Small Northeast states are called out at right with connector lines. Hawaii is shown as an inset at true shape but not true scale/position, a standard map convention. Washington, D.C. was not part of the 50-state study.

Data: RotoWire Fandom Survey composite rivalry data. Methodology: divisional history, geographic proximity, recent postseason friction. Updated: July 2026.

Dodgers, Astros Among Most Hated 

From there, the chase pack sorts by division. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros tie at five states apiece, each collecting their region's most heated modern rivalries across the NL West and AL West; the Dodgers, in particular, draw hatred clear across the Mountain West -- Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming. 

Both are likely to win their respective divisions this year as well. 

Just behind, the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants each land four, splitting the NL Central and the West Coast. The long tail tells its own story: the Braves, Rangers, Guardians, Phillies and Reds each own exactly one state -- proof that even a single fierce local feud can define a border.

Methodology

Per RotoWire, each state's most hated MLB team was determined using rivalry-driven logic (divisional history, geographic proximity, and recent postseason friction), forced to an MLB pick in all 50 states regardless of whether baseball is the state's top overall sport. The RotoWire Fandom Survey composite rivalry data served as a baseline layer for the 17 states already identified as MLB-dominant; the remaining 33 states were built out using the same framework.

Full State-by-State Data