MLB playoffs 2024: Passan's team analysis, World Series pick - ESPN

After six months and 162 games — including one bonus doubleheader on Monday, with two playoff spots still at stake — Major League Baseball will enter its postseason on Tuesday with no clear favorite to win the World Series.

For a sport forever endeavoring to find on-field parity amid financial disparity, the 2024 MLB season offered a near-perfect example of what baseball can do: field a postseason with markets big (Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees and possibly the New York Mets) and small (Kansas City Royals and Milwaukee Brewers), with payrolls high (Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros) and low (Cleveland Guardians, Baltimore Orioles and Detroit Tigers).

The expansion of the MLB playoffs to 12 teams did nothing to eliminate the excitement from the regular season this year. It also, as evidenced by the 90-win Texas Rangers last season beating the 84-win Arizona Diamondbacks for the World Series title, enriched the opportunity for teams that didn't excel quite as much over the slog of a full season. In baseball, anyone can win a championship.

Here, then, is the case for every remaining team, listed in ascending order of regular-season winning percentage, including all three teams still battling for the final NL playoff spots. This is Why Your Team Can Win the World Series — followed by my 2024 World Series prediction, forecasting which of the remaining teams actually will win it.

Watch: Mets-Braves doubleheader, starting Mon. at 1 p.m. ET on ESPN2

Why the Detroit Tigers can win the World Series

The Tigers have been winning everything for almost two months. On Aug. 10, they were 55-63, and they had traded Jack Flaherty to the Dodgers, and yet everything wasn't exactly gloomy. They had managed to stay afloat, and