I need to get better at watching baseball. Once upon a time, either because my day job depended on it or because I had the time and bandwidth (i.e., pre-fatherhood), I followed Major League Baseball closely enough that I could manage a decent fantasy team (I won my league once; shout-out to Billy Hamilton) and speak somewhat knowledgably about what was happening in the sport.

More recently, when and if I can pay attention to baseball, I’m only following my Seattle Mariners. I can tell you some stuff about my hometown team — but I can’t tell you much about their American League West division rivals, and I can’t tell you anything about the National League; the NL might as well be the Dominican winter league for me.

In 2024, I’m trying to change that. Throughout spring training I’ve listened to some podcasts and read some articles and watched a little TV, and now I can at least put together a list of 10 teams worth watching as the baseball season gets underway in earnest later this week.

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1. Los Angeles Dodgers — This is must-see MLB. If you don’t like the modern-age concept of “superteams” in pro sports, then the Dodgers will annoy you. If you like the old stories of powerhouses like “Murderer’s Row” and the “Big Red Machine” from baseball’s past, then the Dodgers will intrigue you.

After signing the best player on the planet, slugger/ace Shohei Ohtani, to a $700 million contract in the offseason, the endless-budget Dodgers enter 2024 with MLB’s most talented roster and with higher expectations than any team has had in a long time.

Why so high? The Dodgers have three legit MVP candidates in Ohtani (AL MVP in 2021 and 2023), Freddie Freeman (NL MVP in 2020), and Mookie Betts (AL MVP in 2018), a six-time Gold Glove outfielder who is switching to shortstop this year yet isn’t expected to miss a beat.

Ohtani isn’t going to pitch this year while recovering from elbow surgery, which means L.A. “only” has one popular Cy Young Award candidate — that being newcomer Tyler Glasnow, who struck out 162 batters with the Rays last season. Or maybe L.A. does have two candidates, depending on how well Rookie of the Year contender Yoshinobu Yamamoto makes the transition from Japan to the majors.

And in case things weren’t interesting enough, now Ohtani and the Dodgers have a cloud of controversy hanging over their heads thanks to a potential gambling and/or theft scandal.

2. Texas Rangers — The 2023 World Series winners took an improbable road to the franchise’s first championship. After finishing the regular season with an above-.500 record for the first time since 2016, the Rangers barely got into the playoffs as a wild card, swept the Rays and Orioles (who’d won an AL-best 101 games), then beat the reigning champion Astros before taking the World Series in decisive five-game fashion over the Diamondbacks. Was it a fluke run of good luck and better timing, or are the Rangers for real?

The foundational pieces are there for this to be a sustained run of excellence. Shortstop Corey Seager (the World Series MVP) and second baseman Marcus Semien (who finished third in regular-season MVP voting) are the best double-play tandem in the sport. Adolis Garcia hit 39 home runs last season and won a Gold Glove in the outfield. Veteran pitchers Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer are stars on paper, but they’re both old (in athlete years) and injury-prone.

MLB hasn’t had a repeat champion since the Yankees three-peated in 2000. This Rangers squad looks like one that is just as likely to pull off that feat as it is to miss the postseason altogether.

3. Atlanta Braves — The team that everyone thought was going to win the World Series went out sad in the NLDS, a 3-1 loss to their NL East rival Phillies. The Braves entered the 2023 postseason with a historically explosive offense, and the good news for them now is that they’re bringing the key pieces of it back for 2024.

If there’s anyone poised to challenge Ohtani for the title of Best Baseball Player in the World, it’s Atlanta outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. Last season’s NL MVP hit 43 home runs and led the league with 217 hits and 73 steals. Matt Olson led the league with 54 homers and 139 RBI, and as a team the Braves tied a major league record with 307 homers. Oh yeah, and the pitching was good. Spencer Strider’s 20 wins and 281 strikeouts led the league, and Bryce Elder struck out 128 with a 3.81 ERA. Strider and Elder were two of the eight Atlanta players to make the All-Star Game.

4. Arizona Diamondbacks — As improbable as it was for the Rangers to win the World Series, it felt even more unlikely for Arizona to get to the World Series. Making their first postseason appearance since 2017, the D-backs took out the heavily-favored Dodgers and the 2022 NL pennant-winning Phillies on their way to the Fall Classic. Including the Brewers in the wild-card round, every team that 84-win Arizona faced in the postseason had a better regular-season record, and the D-backs beat all but one of them.

So, the same question that has been asked of the Rangers applies to the Diamondbacks: Are they a serious contender, or a one-hit wonder?

Corbin Carroll hopefully isn’t a one-hit wonder. Arizona’s 23-year-old outfielder won NL Rookie of the Year and finished fifth in MVP voting last season. Second baseman Ketel Marte peaked at the right time, winning MVP of the NL Championship Series. The D-backs fell short at the end, but this offseason added some veterans to the lineup in Joc Pederson and Eugenio Suarez who can still contribute to a winning team.

5. New York Yankees — What the Dallas Cowboys are to the NFL and the L.A. Lakers are to the NBA, the Yankees are to Major League Baseball. Even when they’re not great on the field, they’re great for media content and fan arguments.

New York hasn’t won a World Series since 2009, which by New York standards is simply not good enough. But the Yankees had at least made the postseason every year from 2017 to 2022 … before missing their playoffs in 2023. That’s definitely not good enough.

This season is supposed to be better. The Yankees are a popular pick to win the AL East after trading for All-Star power hitter Juan Soto and outfielder Alex Verdugo, bolstering a lineup that already includes superstars Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. The pitching staff is anchored by Gerrit Cole, who won the 2023 AL Cy Young but will miss the start of this season with an elbow injury. They’ll need good outings from Carlos Rodon and Nestor Cortes, who were both All-Star pitchers in 2022, as well as new addition Marcus Stroman, who made the All-Star Game in 2023 as a member of the Cubs.

6. San Diego Padres — A Yankees-like spending spree over the past couple years did result in an NLCS trip for the Padres in 2022, but then they missed the playoffs in 2023 despite having the third-highest payroll in baseball ($256 million). Was trading one of those high-priced stars (Juan Soto) this offseason an admission by the Padres that their plan failed?

Fernando Tatis Jr. came back last season from injuries and suspensions that threatened to extinguish his rising star to re-establish himself as one of the most dynamic players in baseball. Tatis, third baseman Manny Machado and second baseman Xander Bogaerts can lead a potent offense, but San Diego’s pitching staff has to recover from losing two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell and All-Star closer Josh Hader in the offseason.

The Padres took a big swing and missed, but they’re not out of it yet.

7. Baltimore Orioles — Another surprise success story of last season, the O’s went from having the worst record in baseball in 2021 to the best record in the American League in 2023.

Years of being bad and stockpiling draft picks paid off when young standouts like catcher Adley Rutschman, pitcher Grayson Rodriguez, and infielder Gunnar Henderson helped carry Baltimore to sudden contender status. While their postseason run ended earlier than expected, the Orioles brought in some veterans in the offseason to push them over the hump, most notably former Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes and battle-tested closer Craig Kimbrel.

8. Oakland A’s — If you’re fascinated by failure, the A’s are the team to watch. Last season, Oakland had an MLB-worst record of 50-112. The season before that, Oakland had an AL-worst record of 60-102.

This season, Oakland’s reported team payroll of $46.2 million is well behind that of the next-cheapest team, the Pittsburgh Pirates ($72 million). In other words, if the A’s aren’t willing to pay for even average talent, don’t expect 2024 to be any better for them on the field as the last two years have been.

Then there’s the off-field stuff. The franchise is slogging through a long process of ultimately relocating to Las Vegas, which has created a toxic relationship between Oakland’s fans and the team, in which the fans are rejecting the team at every turn. The home-game atmosphere is depressing, and while the A’s have a few good players (Esteury Ruiz, Brent Rooker), there’s zero goodwill and not much good baseball.

9. Philadelphia Phillies — This could be the Phillies’ year. In 2022, they made it to the World Series and lost. In 2023, they came one game short of making it to the World Series, losing in Game 7 of the NLCS (after leading 2-0 and 3-2 in the series). The optimist would say Philly is due. (But this is Philly, so of course the louder pessimist would say the team is nothing but a proven loser.)

Two-time NL MVP Bryce Harper is the face of the franchise, but his move from the outfield to first base/designated hitter last season suggests the 31-year-old is in the shaky “if he can stay healthy” portion of his career. Harper is surrounded by other young-ish vets like Trea Turner, J.T. Realmuto, Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, and pitchers Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler — they’re all young enough to still perform at an elite level, but old enough to have been around the block and know what it takes to win.

10. Seattle Mariners — I promise, this is not a homer pick; the Mariners are actually one of the more interesting teams in baseball. In 2022, Seattle snapped a 20-year playoff drought, but in 2023 fell short of expectations by missing the postseason (albeit not by much). In 2024, they’re back on the list of sleeper contenders.

AL Cy Young candidate Luis Castillo headlines what might be the best pitching rotation in the game. Julio Rodriguez, who’s earned two Silver Slugger awards in two major league seasons, headlines a lineup that just needs to adequately support the stellar pitching staff that also features Cy Young contenders George Kirby and Logan Gilbert.