MLB Teams Poised to Improve Their Win Totals in 2024 Season

After an eventful offseason with big moves in the biggest markets of Los Angeles and New York, spring training is underway and spring games are just around the corner.

There are still some big-time free agents on the market and while those names could certainly alter a team's fortunes, we have a decent idea of what rosters will look like when the games begin to count for real.

With that in mind, yet recognizing things could change between now and opening day, let's take a look at three teams that are poised to improve their win total in the 2024 MLB season as things stand today.

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Kansas City Royals

It's not splitting the atom to make an argument for the lowly Royals to be a little less lowly in 2024. After all, how difficult could it be to surpass the 56 wins the team registered in 2023?

The Royals have had an active offseason, signing Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, Hunter Renfroe, Chris Stratton and Garrett Hampson and will have a full season from Cole Ragans, who went 5-2 with a 2.64 ERA in 12 starts after coming over from the Texas Rangers at the end of June.

I had my eye on the Royals all last season as the underlying numbers suggested a team that was leaving wins on the field and they came in dead last in my MLB Regression Report, meaning the upside potential was high.

THis was only reinforced by the ESPN Expected Wins model which ended up at 62 for the Royals with the Pythagorean Expectation 64, and my model settled at 60.

That's anywhere from four to eight additional wins before all of the offseason additions.

I'm not suggesting the Royals will win the World Series or even the AL Central , but with FanDuel setting their win total at 73.5 the Royals could take the biggest leap of any team this season.

New York Yankees

I'm going back to the well after the Yankees were the only team that I missed on in a similar exercise last preseason, and boy was it a big miss with the Bronx Bombers finishing just over the .500 mark.

They've added Juan Soto, Trent Grisham, Marcus Stroman and Alex Verdugo, while losing Michael King, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Luis Severino, which is a huge net positive.

Unlike the Royals, this team overperformed with 82 wins last season, with the numbers suggesting they should have won only 78.

This is also a bet that Anthony Rizzo, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton stay healthy enough to do damage, along with Soto crushing balls into the right-field stands.

Age in general and pitching are a concern, but this is the Yankees and big-name pitchers remain available and further additions are not out of the question.

I'm not suggesting this is a 100-win team as constructed, but 90-93 wins is not unreasonable.

Arizona Diamondbacks

Lost in the shuffle of Arizona's magical World Series run is the fact that the Diamondbacks were outscored and won just 84 regular season games last season.

The Diamondbacks hit only 166 home runs last season and went about rectifying that by trading for Eugenio Suarez and signing Joc Pederson, while also re-signing Lourdes Gurriel.

The bullpen, though middling in most areas, returns and Arizona added Eduardo Rodriguez to shore up a rotation that wasn't great after Zach Gallen and Merrill Kelly.

With the Braves and Dodgers in the National League, a repeat trip to the Fall Classic seems unlikely, but an improved rotation, decent bullpen and more power will find this team on the plus side of 84 wins.

Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.