Why your team will — and won't — win the 2024 World Series

Welcome to the most unpredictable time of the year. While parity in Major League Baseball seems greater than ever, it's been a fabric of the postseason since the turn of the century. No team has won consecutive World Series titles since the 2000 Yankees, a streak that will continue as the defending champion Texas Rangers have nothing to defend this October. 

While there are new and familiar favorites heading into these playoffs, recent history has shown that the past six months should be taken with a grain of salt. It's all about who can catch fire over the next four weeks. And all 12 — well, 13 for now — remaining clubs are contenders.

With that, FOX Sports MLB experts Rowan Kavner and Deesha Thosar make the case for why each postseason participant will and won't win the World Series in 2024. 

(Teams are listed by seeding. The National League's final two wild-card seeds will be determined Monday by the Braves-Mets doubleheader. World Series odds from FanDuel Sportsbook.)

AMERICAN LEAGUE

1. New York Yankees
World Series odds: +450

Why they'll be 2024 World Series champions: The Yankees own the best offense in the American League, and even though there's a steep drop-off in production after their top-heavy heart of the order, they've still managed to overpower opposing pitching staffs throughout the course of a nine-inning game. Facing Aaron Judge and Juan Soto is a pitcher's nightmare, and if Giancarlo Stanton can replicate his .963 postseason OPS and Austin Wells recaptures some of his late-summer magic, there will be little choice but to go through New York's dynamic duo, rather than just give them free passes. The Big Three of Judge, Soto, and Gerrit Cole operating at their best this October gives the Yankees