Through all of baseball's evolutionary steps through the decades, one thing has remained a constant: Every team sets out from Opening Day with an end goal of winning the World Series.
So here we are, back at the beginning, wading into the new MLB season. While this annual blossoming has been with us since the days of steamboats, this season feels particularly new, thanks to the new set of rules -- pitch clocks, the banning of the shift, etc. -- to which we are still becoming accustomed.
Yet everything we've already seen -- this spring's scintillating World Baseball Classic, the preseason injuries, the first handful of refreshingly brisk games under the new rules -- it's all a means to the same eternal end of winning it all.
How realistic is that aspiration for each team? The answer for each club, as ever, varies.
So where does your favorite team stand? Here is how all of the 30 clubs stack up at the outset of the 2023 season -- their chances to win a ring or make the playoffs this season (if any) -- and what it means for the years to come.