There's not much that you can learn from just one baseball game, whereas a whole lot can be learned from 2,429 games played out over 194 days.

And as such, now is a good time to ponder the lessons of the 2024 MLB regular season.

Specifically, we're going to be looking at one thing we learned about each of the league's 30 teams. This is big-picture stuff for the most part, but there are also times when it's appropriate to zoom in on a single player.

For example, could Paul Skenes become the best pitcher the Pittsburgh Pirates have ever had? It ought to be a ridiculous question, given that they've been around for 143 years. And yet, it's not.

Let's get into all this and more, going one team at a time and in alphabetical order by city.

Arizona Diamondbacks: Sometimes Even the League's Best Offense Isn't Enough

Record: 89-73, 3rd in NL West

"Pummelage" is only a word according to Urban Dictionary, which defines it like so: "To kick another's [backside] to unrecognizable condition."

It really is the only word that accurately summarizes what the Diamondbacks offense did to the opposition this season. They scored 44 more runs than any other team, and often in chunks of 10 or more at a time. And this was with Corbin Carroll hitting like a bald Samson for basically half the season.

It's too bad, then, that the Snakes also allowed more runs than all but four other teams.

The tragedy is that it's not as if they brought it on themselves. They began the year with a seemingly elite closer in Paul Sewald and a rotation that had recently gotten $105 million worth of new additions in Eduardo Rodriguez and (much to owner Ken Kendrick's chagrin) Jordan Mongtomery.

These and other well-laid plans simply failed to congeal, resulting in the reigning National League champs ending up on the outside looking in at the postseason.

Atlanta: Dice-Rolls Got Them to the Playoffs

Record: 89-73, T-2nd in NL East

The lesson of Arizona's pitching implosion is more or less the same as that famous Homer Simpson bit: "You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is never try."

On the contrary, consider the gambles Atlanta took on Chris Sale and Reynaldo López.

In the moment that each move happened, Atlanta signing López and trading for and subsequently extending Sale felt...odd, honestly. Sale had last been a healthy, functional starter in 2019. For López, that moment was all the way back in 2018.

But here's what ultimately happened: Sale won the pitching triple crown in the NL and he teamed with López to go all 1975 Andy Messersmith in producing a 2.22 ERA over 312.1 innings. Atlanta went 38-16 in games they started.

This means they went 51-57 when anyone else started, which isn't terribly surprising given just how much the Injury Bug decimated their roster throughout the season. It is therefore not a reach to suggest that Sale and López saved Atlanta's year from total ruin.

Baltimore Orioles: Momentum Is a Fickle Thing

Record: 91-71, 2nd in AL East

Make it back-to-back years with 90-plus wins and a playoff berth for the Orioles. Previously, they hadn't done that since a half-century ago in 1973 and 1974.

So why does it feel like the O's took a sizable step back in 2024?

Well, going from 101 wins and a quick playoff exit to just 91 wins and a quick playoff exit will have that kind of effect. And especially so when a step up initially seemed more likely. Most of Baltimore's 2023 roster was still in place, after all, except now it had Corbin Burnes atop its rotation and No. 1 prospect Jackson Holliday waiting to join the lineup.

What the O's didn't count on was their rotation losing Kyle Bradish and John Means to Tommy John surgery and, eventually, Grayson Rodriguez to a lat strain. And Holliday just never got many reasons to celebrate. He got in 60 games and hit only .189.

One wants to believe that the Orioles will regain their momentum in 2025, but that won't be so easy if they lose both Burnes and 44-homer slugger Anthony Santander to free agency.

Boston Red Sox: Pitching Gimmicks Can Only Work for So Long

Record: 81-81, 3rd in AL East

When you've languished in last place in two straight seasons, even a .500 finish feels like a warm blanket of progress.

The Red Sox's season nonetheless feels like a story of unfulfilled promise, and not just in the sense that FanGraphs gave them a 53.0 percent chance of making the playoffs at one point.

A major storyline early on was the apparent wizardry that chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and pitching coach Andrew Bailey had worked on the pitching staff. It had a sub-3.00 ERA as late as May 22, which was credited to a novel philosophy: fastballs are for suckers.

But then the league adjusted, and that sub-3.00 ERA jolted into the mid-4.00s throughout the rest of the year. Notably, only two teams gave up more home runs after May 22.

The takeaway here shouldn't be that trying new things is a bad idea. It should be that gimmicks only go so far when they're not backed by better talent, which is what Boston really needs on the mound.

Chicago Cubs: The Offense Needs a Big Bopper

Record: 83-79, T-2nd in NL Central

Don't blame it on the pitching. The Cubs had a foursome of starters post a combined 3.24 ERA, and their bullpen ended up being one of the best in baseball after May.

Yet the explanation for how a team with that kind of stability on the mound could miss the playoffs ultimately isn't too confounding: Dudes couldn't hit.

This is not, for the record, the same as saying that no individual Cubs hitters had a good year. Ian Happ, Michael Busch and Seiya Suzuki each topped 20 home runs, and Cody Bellinger really only had one bad month despite falling short of expectations.

On the whole, though, the Cubs lineup felt like a planet without a center of gravity. The matter of their best hitter was a debatable one, and not the fun kind a la Aaron Judge vs. Juan Soto.

The Cubs must rectify this situation during the winter. If not by signing Soto, then perhaps by going after Pete Alonso, Alex Bregman or Anthony Santander.

Chicago White Sox: The Most Poorly Run Team in MLB

Record: 41-121, 5th in AL Central

Honestly, the most appropriate content for this space would be an audio clip of wailing souls. This one, for instance.

But since this is a text-based enterprise, here's the gist: The White Sox's 2024 season is the inevitable result of Jerry Reinsdorf being one of the worst owners of all-time, though general manager Chris Getz shouldn't escape blame either.

Much has been written (including by yours truly) about what a terrible decision-maker Reinsdorf has been historically, but let's also grant that there was a scenario in which the White Sox came away from this season with at least a smidgen of hope.

To wit, what if they had cashed in Garrett Crochet and otherwise scored well in the trades they did make? It's a fun hypothetical, putting it in stark contrast to the grim reality that they bungled the Crochet situation and failed to get good returns on other deals.

It's a safe guess that the White Sox won't be any worse than this in 2025. But at the same time, I don't want to guarantee it either.

Cincinnati Reds: Injuries are the Worst

Record: 77-85, 4th in NL Central

The Reds seemed headed places after going 82-80 last year, if for no other reason than they had a whole bunch of hitting talent and several electric arms.

But even if he didn't exactly make matters better, let's just say it's not all David Bell's fault that the Reds' 2024 season began, proceeded and ended with a whimper.

Nothing can derail a promising season quite like injuries, after all, and the Reds had a lot of those. Like, a lot as in a lot. Using RosterResource data, I crunched the numbers and found that Reds players spent a total of 2,408 days on the injured list.

That was the second-most of any team in MLB, trailing only the Red Sox.

It's too bad, but it also need not be the end of days. It would be more alarming if all these injuries had been racked up by an older team, and the Reds are definitely not that. The average age of both their hitters and pitchers was in the 20s.

Cleveland Guardians: Honestly, Who Needs Starting Pitching?

Record: 92-69, 1st in AL Central

First of all, any and all fists should be shaken at whoever conjured the rainstorm that denied José Ramírez his last shot at a 40-40 season. Looking at you, Link.

But I digress, because the real story here is about how the Guardians won 92 games despite finishing ahead of only the Colorado Rockies in WAR from starting pitchers.

It is, of course, only fair to point out that Tanner Bibee (3.47 ERA, 173.2 IP) and Ben Lively (3.81 ERA, 151.0 IP) resisted the pull of meh-ritocracy that engulfed all other Guardians starters. Plus, it's not like losing Shane Bieber to Tommy John surgery was part of the plan.

In the abstract, though, only one of the greatest bullpens in history could have bailed out a rotation this feckless. And that's what the Guardians got in 2024, as no other team even came close to their bullpen's 2.57 ERA.

The question now, of course, is whether this formula will hold up in October.

Colorado Rockies: They Can't Even Score Runs Anymore

Record: 61-101, 5th in NL East

It's enough of a blight on the Rockies that they now have two 100-loss seasons after experiencing zero through their first 30 years.

However, it's not like this is the first time the Rockies have ever been bad. Quite the contrary, as they've finished a year with a winning record just nine times since 1993.

The difference now is that the Rockies suddenly aren't even able to push runs across anymore. The 2023 season was the third-worst scoring season in their history. The 2024 season did it one better, setting a new bar for the worst scoring season in Rockies history.

The record should show that the Rockies still play at Coors Field, which remains 5,200 feet in the air and, therefore, subject to all the offense-boosting elements that come with the territory. This is not a problem of circumstance.

It is, frankly, one of personnel. The Rockies must stop doing things like signing Kris Bryant, and start doing other things such as cultivating a better hitting development program.

Detroit Tigers: They Threw Out Their Playbook and Wrote a New One

Record: 86-76, T-2nd in AL Central

For anyone who's been out of the loop since July 30: Yes, the Tigers are in the playoffs and, no, it's not because they got givesies-backsies on the Jack Flaherty trade.

It doesn't make sense from 30,000 feet up. It makes even less sense here on the ground.

Though Tarik Skubal needs no introduction as a Really Awesome Pitcher, he and Keider Montero were basically the only true "starters" the Tigers used after the trade deadline. Hence why their rotation accounted for a league-low 196.1 innings.

It's not a recommended recipe for success by any means, but it worked for the Tigers because A) throwing different attacks (i.e., pitchers) at your enemies (i.e., hitters) can be an effective combat strategy and because B) Detroit's defense got really good right on time.

This was another "We'll see if it works in October" situation at the outset of the playoffs, but it's so far, so good. The Tigers hardly looked intimidated as they swept the Houston Astros out of the Wild Card Series.

Houston Astros: That Slow Start Hurt Them

Record: 88-73, 1st in AL West

Ever heard the phrase "disastrous rollout?" Because there's no better way to describe how the Astros started their 2024 season.

They got swept right out of the gate by the Yankees and were 12 games below .500 by May 8. According to FanGraphs, their playoff odds were down to 31.3 percent from 86.2 percent.

The ship, of course, was eventually righted. Houston won more games than anyone after May 12, in part by way of a league-low 3.38 ERA.

That slow start still mattered, though, if for no other reason than because it cost the Astros a chance to nab a bye for the first round of the playoffs.

Some may understandably see such things as unintentional booby traps, but a bye would have given Yordan Alvarez basically another week to rest his sprained right knee. It also conceivably would have allowed the Astros to miss Tarik Skubal, who dominated Game 1 of the Tigers' two-game sweep of Houston in the Wild Card Series.

Kansas City Royals: It Pays to Make an Effort

Record: 86-76, T-2nd in AL Central

The 2023 season didn't just mark the Royals' eighth straight year with a losing record. It was also the worst yet, as they tied a franchise-worst with 106 losses.

Extreme pessimism was the only logical reaction after the fact. The Royals were a rebuilder, after all. And a small-market one, at that. Put those concepts together in your mind, and there's liable to be an infinite loop of "stay the course" blasting through your frontal lobes.

Instead, the Royals spent.

Come the end of the 2023-24 offseason, they had invested $426 million in players. Most of that went toward Bobby Witt Jr.'s extension, but $77 million went toward signing Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha.

The result is another one for the anti-Homer Simpson crowd. Lugo and Wacha combined for a 3.16 ERA over 373.1 innings and the Royals won 34 of the 62 games they started. If they hadn't signed those two hurlers, there's a strong possibility that they wouldn't have made the playoffs, much less advanced to the AL Division Series.

Los Angeles Angels: It's Going to Be a Long Rebuild

Record: 63-99, 5th in AL West

Unless we're talking about that one guy, words like "bad" and "doomed" don't tend to be associated with Angels as a general concept.

But the Angels as a baseball team? Yeah, those words suffice.

Just as a reminder, the Angels came into 2024 having missed the playoffs in nine straight seasons. A depressing feat, to be sure, and yet almost an impressive one considering that they had Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani in their prime for most of that.

With the latter gone and the former left to wander in the barren landscape outside the walls of his prime, the Angels' 2024 season never was built on a foundation of hope. That it went as poorly as it did was basically nature taking its course.

The Angels' future manages to look even more bleak. They still owe Trout and Anthony Rendon, a fellow hollowed-out husk of a former All-Star, just about $300 million. The farm system, meanwhile, only checked in at No. 21 in the latest rankings from B/R's Joel Reuter.

Los Angeles Dodgers: Shohei Ohtani Is Underpaid

Record: 98-64, 1st in NL West

The Dodgers are on the hook to pay Shohei Ohtani $700 million over the next 10 years. Except, it's really over the next 20 years and the modern-day value is more like...

Eh, whatever. We've been over this. Just trust me when I say that the Dodgers are not paying Ohtani enough.

Previously, you could only argue this case on the strength of the vibes of the Ohtani-Dodgers partnership. The biggest baseball star in the world joining forces with the sport's most powerful organization was basically the platonic ideal of the Predator handshake meme.

But then Ohtani founded the 50-50 club and casually racked up 400 total bases and north of 130 runs and 130 runs batted in. And it all mattered to the Dodgers, who notably went 57-19 when Ohtani drove in a run.

He's obviously going to win his third MVP, which will prove beyond a shadow of the doubt that he doesn't even need to be an ace pitcher to be the most consequential player in MLB. For a guy like that, $700 million (or whatever) actually sounds light.

Miami Marlins: Winning Doesn't Seem to Be the Goal

Record: 62-100, 5th in NL East

According to Baseball Reference, the Marlins made the playoffs in 2020 and again in 2023.

One supposes it's true that they did, but it doesn't sound right. It implies that the organization values winning, which runs contrary to all available evidence in the here and now.

Jeffrey Loria generally didn't make much of an effort to win when he owned the Marlins. And since buying the franchise in 2017, Bruce Sherman has acted as if that attitude just sort of comes with the territory.

The club's payrolls have remained among the cheapest in the league in Sherman's seven seasons at the controls, and those who have demanded a little more effort (i.e., Derek Jeter) or even just recognition (i.e., Kim Ng and Skip Schumaker) have been shunned and discarded.

"At least we have it better than the White Sox" is about the only positive spin that any self-respecting Marlins fan can put on things right now. Yet even that is only partly non-delusional. For all their warts, at least the Pale Hose have a decent farm system.

Milwaukee Brewers: Still the Low-Budget Champs of the NL

Record: 93-69, 1st in NL Central

There is, of course, a problem with thinking that high payrolls guarantee success and that low payrolls portend doom: It doesn't really work that way.

The correlation between payroll and winning can vary, and not just because even high-budget teams (e.g., the $420 million Mets of 2023) can go "splat." It's also because of teams like the Brewers, who are almost annoyingly proficient at converting dollars to wins.

They haven't ranked higher than 17th in Opening Day payroll since 2018, and yet they've made the playoffs six times in seven tries. This year particularly feels like a blatant troll job, as they lopped eight figures off their 2023 expenditures and moved up in the win column.

Some people are just smart, and it seems like a significant percentage of those people gravitate toward Milwaukee's front office. Notably, it placed well in The Athletic's poll of MLB executives meant to suss out the best front offices in the league.

The Brewers have a particular knack for churning out bullpens, but maybe the best thing their front office does is connect on big swings. Getting Christian Yelich and Lorenzo Cain in 2018 sure worked out, and the same will be true of Jackson Chourio's extension.

Minnesota Twins: Actually, the Payroll Cuts *Did* Hurt

Record: 82-80, 4th in AL Central

There are normal, run-of-the-mill payroll cuts, and then there are payroll cuts like the Twins made between the end of 2023 and the start of 2024.

They slashed about $26 million in Opening Day expenses, of which Sonny Gray was a notable casualty. The three-year deal he signed with the Cardinals guarantees him almost exactly that much money annually.

And yet, this was Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey speaking after the Twins were eliminated from the playoffs last Friday: "The harder part for me as I sit here today is that this stretch of baseball and us not being where we need to be was not about payroll."

This just doesn't pass muster, especially considering that the Twins planned to replace Gray in the aggregate by leaning more heavily on their depth. Injuries to Joe Ryan and others put the kibosh on that, as did the bullpen's reliability regression.

The uncertainty swirling around the future of Twins broadcasts indeed can't be ignored as an influence here. But if the team were to both acknowledge that and how it complicates their efforts to compete, that would at least be intellectually honest.

New York Mets: Jeremy Hefner Had a Good Year

Record: 89-73, T-2nd in NL East

Contrary to the last three teams we've discussed, payroll shortcomings are not going to be a realistic concern for the Mets for the foreseeable future.

But if anyone in the organization nonetheless finds themselves tasked with spinning straw into gold, they'll at least be able to look to pitching coach Jeremy Hefner for inspiration.

Though it was mainly the offense (and Grimace, one supposes) that cut a path toward the postseason, the Mets also got dramatically improved pitching as the season went along. They had a 3.52 ERA after August, compared to a 4.17 ERA through July.

New York's six best pitchers in the last two months were guys who were already there. They just plain pitched better, and it's not like we're talking about a supposed carnival of known quantities like the one the Mets thought they had when they brought Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer into last season.

This is on Hefner, who is thankfully getting recognition for the work he's done—it seems to mostly involve preaching the sinker—in his duties as pitching coach. As reliever Reed Garrett said of him: "I don't think we could do what we do on the field without him."

New York Yankees: The Juan Soto Trade Made Their Season

Record: 94-68, 1st in AL East

That the Yankees did well in the Juan Soto trade is an easy argument to make, but it's still fun how many layers there are to it.

There's what's on the surface, where you can see Soto having perhaps the best year of his career by way of a .989 OPS and career highs for home runs (41) and runs scored (128). There's also how he paired with Aaron Judge to form one of the best offensive duos in history.

Yet there's also a more compelling question: Could Judge, who posted a career-high 1.159 OPS with 58 homers, have done what he did without Soto?

Those who would argue "yes" can merely point to Judge's 62-homer outburst from 2022, but bear in mind that Judge got substantially more strikes to swing at this year. Related to that is how he batted more often with a runner on, which mostly came from hitting behind Soto.

Whether you agree with all this or not, there's plenty of common ground for us to share on this notion: For the Yankees, not keeping Soto beyond 2024 is not an option.

Athletics: Oakland Is Losing a Promising Team

Record: 69-93, 4th in AL West

It just says "Athletics" up there, because the Oakland Athletics are officially no more.

That last goodbye to the Oakland Coliseum was a sweet moment, but also one tinged with bitterness. The A's are leaving Oakland not because the East Bay isn't a viable place to do business, but because owner John Fisher somehow convinced government officials in Las Vegas to spend taxpayer dollars on a Sydney Opera House knockoff.

The situation sucks just in a vacuum, and that much more so when one grapples with the promise inherent in the team's 19-win swing in the right direction from 2023 and 2024.

The A's aren't good yet, but how they might become good no longer requires imaginative leaps into abstract brain spaces. Lawrence Butler is a building block. Shea Langeliers is a building block. Mason Miller is a building block. And within MLB's No. 7 farm system are many more, including Big Hype shortstop Nick Wilson.

It would have been fun to watch these pieces come together in Oakland. And, darn it, it should have been possible, too.

Philadelphia Phillies: Who Says Starting Pitching Is Dying?

Record: 95-67, 1st in NL East

Something in baseball (and oftentimes the whole danged sport itself) is always dying. And right now, that thing is the starting pitcher.

If so, well, somebody either forgot to tell the Phillies or they just plain disagree.

Even despite the mockery that Taijaun Walker and others made of the No. 5 spot, Philadelphia's rotation hardly stunk of death in 2024. It was third in the National League with a 3.81 ERA, and was the only one in the NL to top 900 innings pitched.

It wasn't even all Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola. Cristopher Sánchez and Ranger Suárez were better than even Nola from a run prevention perspective, thus allowing the Phillies to finish with arguably the best starting foursome in MLB.

Let the record show that Phillies starters ranked 23rd both in fastball velocity and overall spin rate. Other teams should take note: There's more to pitching than convenient, uncomplicated measurables.

Pittsburgh Pirates: Paul Skenes Is What They've Been Waiting For

Record: 76-86, 5th in NL Central

Here's a brief history of the Pittsburgh Pirates and their best pitchers:

• The Team's Origins: Founded in 1882 as an American Association team
• The Team's Best Pitchers: Uh, well...

That second point is obviously facetious, yet not that much of a reach. The Pirates have only two Cy Young Award winners (Vern Law in 1960 and Doug Drabek in 1990) in their history. Their most accomplished Hall of Fame pitcher is Pud Galvin, and his best years were with the aptly on-the-nosely-named Buffalo Bisons.

Which brings us to Paul Skenes, and particularly how uniquely suited he is to be A Really Big Deal in Pittsburgh.

He already is, of course. He's the first live-ball era starter to post a sub-2.00 ERA as a rookie. Also by way of his ERA, he was even the best pitcher in baseball after he debuted on May 11.

As such, it sure seems like the Bucs chose wisely when they opted for Skenes with the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft. It's only one year, but he's already not that far from cementing himself as the best pitcher the Pirates have ever had.

San Diego Padres: A Lower Payroll Didn't Lessen A.J. Preller's Ambition

Record: 93-69, 2nd in NL West

Remember when we were talking about the Twins and how much their $26 million payroll reduction cost them on the field?

Well, this is where they go from looking already bad to even worse.

The Padres ultimately cut more than $90 million off their payroll from 2023 to 2024, yet that didn't stop them from waltzing to 93 wins and a playoff berth. Contained within is the Tao of general manager A.J. Preller, which essentially boils down to never not going for it.

Though he pretty much had to trade Juan Soto, at least the deal brought back an electrifying righty in Michael King. And while he didn't have to trade for Dylan Cease, Luis Arraez or basically a whole new bullpen, he did anyway.

Such things shouldn't necessarily paper over the problems that Preller's style has caused in the past. But at a time when so many clubs run according to strict risk-aversion, you have to admire a guy who always goes all-in regardless of how many chips are in his stack.

San Francisco Giants: A Step Back with a Silver Lining

Record: 80-82, 4th in NL West

This year just did not pan out for the Giants.

Not exactly Hard-Hitting Analysis, but what else is one supposed to say when a sound concept clanks off the hardened armor of uncooperative baseball gods? The Giants went for it with offseason deals with Blake Snell, Matt Chapman, Jordan Hicks and Jorge Soler, yet only the first two bore fruit amid a season that never broke free from mediocrity.

It all cost Farhan Zaidi his job as president of baseball operations, but he wasn't wrong when he alluded to "the best group of young players we've had on the roster since I've been here" in what amounted to his exit interview.

It was a breakout year for center fielder Heliot Ramos and shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald, and a promising one for hurlers Kyle Harrison and Hayden Birdsong. Meanwhile, slugging first baseman Bryce Eldridge had a fine year across four levels of the minors.

Which is ultimately to say that Buster Posey, the Giants' once and hopefully future hero, has things to work with in his new role in Zaidi's stead. If anything, the pressure's on him not to ruin what Zaidi was building.

Seattle Mariners: This Is Still Just Half of a Great Team

Record: 85-77, 2nd in AL West

The Mariners had a chance to win every game they played this season.

This is either obvious or an over-simplification, yet it's true based on how they were pretty much guaranteed to have the best pitching on any given day. Their staff co-led the majors in ERA and finished comfortably in first with a 1.08 WHIP.

But for the second year in a row, Seattle hitters topped 1,600 strikeouts. And this time, they collectively hit like late-stage Josh Donaldson.

This cost them, particularly to the extent that they played 55 one-run games and lost 28 of them. As they barely finished out of the money in the AL West and AL wild-card races, it's conceivable that just a few more hits here and there could have gotten them to October.

The Mariners did hit better after Dan Wilson and Edgar Martinez took over as manager and hitting coach, respectively, on August 23. But they must treat that not as something to bank on, but as another excuse to believe they only need another hitter or two to get over the hump in 2025.

St. Louis Cardinals: A New Cardinal Way Is Needed

Record: 83-79, T-2nd in NL Central

It's already out there that the coming winter will be a transitional one for the Cardinals.

According to Katie Woo of The Athletic, the team will not pursue a reunion with 2022 NL MVP Paul Goldschmidt. Change is also afoot in the front office, where John Mozeliak will remain as president of baseball operations but cede more control to Chaim Bloom.

To which the only thing to say is this: Good.

After playoff appearances in four straight seasons and in 16 of the last 23 overall, it is shocking how quickly the Cardinals devolved first into a memory, and then into a mere whisper of a memory of a great franchise in 2023 and 2024. They were more forgettable than terrible, perhaps, but what they surely were was behind the times.

The Cardinals could use some swing-and-miss in their rotation, not to mention more power and more speed in their offense. The best way forward is to build within, so it'll do for hope that Bloom is practiced in that arena.

Tampa Bay Rays: This Year Was an Encouraging Bummer

Record: 80-82, 4th in AL East

The Rays were never going to be good this year.

It's ordinarily a bad idea to write them off, given that they're another low-budget champion with a front office full of brainiacs. But then again, they came into this season with precious few healthy arms and question marks up and down their lineup.

Yet even though the Rays ultimately allowed 59 more runs than they scored, they were never more than five games under .500 and they actually broke even as late as September 22.

The club's can-do spirit clearly wasn't completely dead, and there are indeed specific positives to take away from 2024. The pitching got healthier and better as the year went along, with Shane McClanahan next to return in 2025. And despite some growing pains, rookie third baseman Junior Caminero mostly looked pretty good.

Granted, Yandy Díaz and Brandon Lowe could end up following Randy Arozarena out the door this winter. The offseason will nonetheless be a fresh shot for the Rays to chart a way forward, and that is where their track record speaks for itself.

Texas Rangers: Repeating Is Hard

Record: 78-84, 3rd in AL West

It'll be a few more weeks before we know which team is this year's World Series champion, but we've known for a while now that it won't be the Rangers.

They were eliminated from playoff contention on September 19, thus ensuring that MLB will go 24 years without a repeat champion. It is the longest such streak in the history of any of the four major North American professional sports leagues.

That repeating as World Series champs is hard is nothing new, but the lesson to be learned from the Rangers is that they had the wrong idea for how to buck the trend.

It turns out that it's not such a great idea to punt on half the dang season. That they even thought to do so required taking too much for granted, including the continued excellence of last year's offense and reliable return timelines for injured veteran pitchers, including Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom.

The Rangers stand to be a threat again in 2025, especially if deGrom's elbow holds together and Wyatt Langford builds on a promising rookie year. For now, though, 2024 feels like a missed opportunity.

Toronto Blue Jays: Doubling Down on Run Prevention Backfired

Record: 74-88, 5th in AL East

For Blue Jays fans, the most crushing "What might have been" scenario imaginable right now involves the plane that Shohei Ohtani never actually got on.

Lest anyone forget, there was a brief moment during the winter when it seemed like Ohtani was moments from becoming a Blue Jay. And goodness, what a difference that would have made for a club that had a middle-of-the-road offense in 2023.

What happened instead is a baffling case study in cognitive dissonance: Ohtani took his bat to Los Angeles, and the Blue Jays doubled down on run prevention.

It didn't make sense even at the time. And as such, the only appropriate reaction to what happened to the Blue Jays this year is to exasperatedly throw one's hands in the air and walk away.

The message coming from Toronto is that contention is still in play for 2025. Maybe that is true, but only if they go get the bats for which their need has only grown stronger. To put just one data point to this notion, they've gone from first to 26th in home runs just since 2021.

Washington Nationals: They're Ready to Make a Push

Record: 71-91, 4th in NL East

Nobody wishes for a 91-loss season, but there are definitely times when it's appropriate to welcome a 91-loss season in for hot tea and a warm chat.

Such is the case with the Nationals.

Though they won as many games in 2024 as they did in 2023, it really did feel different this time. All sorts of promise came bubbling up from the ground, notably with CJ Abrams and Luis García Jr. establishing themselves as a middle infield duo and outfielders James Wood and Dylan Crews both graduating from the minors.

Up next, according to president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo, is a push forward:

"I think we need to improve ourselves in any avenue we can. Free agency will certainly be one of the avenues that we'll attack to improve. Also we have to look at the trade market and the development market. We have to be hitting on all of those cylinders to get us where we want to go."

That's the spirit. And even if the possibilities aren't endless, it's good enough that one of them realistically involves stealing Juan Soto from the Yankees and Mets.

Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.