5 teams that could win the 2016 World Series
By Jason Evans
5. Kansas City Royals
First off, we have the champs of last year, the Kansas City Royals. Why? They are still the champs until someone manages to knock them out in the postseason and the only person who did that in the past two years is Madison Bumgarner.
It’s not Armageddon for them quite yet. The core of the team won’t be free agents until after 2017 (Alcides Escobar and Salvador Perez should have their options picked up after this coming season) so the Royals and their fans should enjoy another couple of successful seasons.
The strength of their team is the bullpen and it still should be strong. Greg Holland is still unsigned and Ryan Madson left via free agency, but the team brought back Joakim Soria to combine with Kelvim Herrera and Wade Davis to lock down the end of games.
They may not have an ace in the rotation, but it still should be solid. Edinson Volquez is probably the guy at this point and they have to hope Yordano Ventura can take another step forward this year.
Ian Kennedy was added in free agency, and the Royals hope is that his old pitching coach with the New York Yankees, Dave Eiland, can help him regain 20 win type of form.
The club managed to keep Alex Gordon another few seasons after re-signing him, but there are questions. Ben Zobrist replaced Omar Infante at the trade deadline last year. Can Infante rebound or will former first round pick Christian Colon take the reigns? Is Jarrod Dyson and Paulo Orlando enough in right field?
Projection systems may not love the club, but they’ve been wrong about them the past few seasons and could be again this year.
Next: 4. New York Mets