May is a fascinating month in baseball. Patterns have formed, but some will prove fleeting. Others will end up foreshadowing for what lies ahead in the 2024 MLB season.
We'll try to sort out some of that uncertainty by asking two simple questions: First, what did we expect from each team? Second, what has happened to each team ... so far. Then, we'll do our best to provide some clarification for 30 team portraits that are still very much out of focus.
1. Los Angeles Dodgers
Win average: 104.3 (Last: 100.0, 1st)
In the playoffs: 99.7% (Last: 96.4%)
Champions: 29.3% (Last 22.3%)
Expected: To be one of baseball's two best teams.
So far: The Dodgers are one of baseball's two best teams.
There is nothing to indicate that the Dodgers are not what we thought they'd be. Freddie Freeman's power bat has started slow. The L.A. rotation remains injury-riddled, even as Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto have been an elite one-two. Dave Roberts has had to get creative with his late-inning bullpen at times. Through it all, the Dodgers remain on a 100-win pace and own a run differential that suggests they are even better than that. These little dings in the armor can all be smoothed out, suggesting that the best is yet to come. That is a scary thought.
