I have always had Crocodile at YC3ish, maybe weaker than Jack or Cracker but close to them. Even in Alabasta I do not see him losing a fight to Perospero or Who’s Who level characters, I may take shit for saying that but I don’t care lol. Any character to ever be worthy of holding the Shichibukai rank for me is automatically above every non Sweet Commander Big Mom Pirate by default, even if we never get any feats from them (excluding Buggy).
Post-timeskip? Idk, he could’ve gotten stronger but there is a pretty significant strength gap between Cracker and King despite what French spoiler providers would have you believe, I pretty much think King/Queen would defeat Cracker convincingly while I don’t think pre timeskip Crocodile was stronger than Cracker at all. Sure Croc could’ve gotten stronger but how quickly do characters like Croc really grow? It’s still unclear.
So putting all agenda shit aside, I would put Crocodile as being barely stronger than Cracker currently at maximum.
Oh shit, I forgot about this, you guys are right.
Crocodile > Kaido.