Here's how we found the Ultimate Bandwagon Team of 2025

Look, if you have a favorite MLB team -- and I suspect most of you do -- then, as we approach the new season, your rooting interest is settled.

You¡¯re already watching Spring Training games, you know the Triple-A depth chart, you¡¯re all in. But if you don¡¯t have a favorite team -- or if you just want a backup plan in case your team¡¯s season doesn¡¯t quite turn out the way you¡¯d like it to -- you¡¯ll want to keep an eye out for the right bandwagon to hop on. You¡¯ll want to find your Ultimate Bandwagon Team for 2025.

So today, I¡¯d like to help you.

What is a bandwagon team? Think of it almost like a hipster team. This is the scrappy underdog few see coming, a team with modest expectations it could easily exceed -- almost like a growth stock for which you can get in on the ground floor. You don¡¯t want a team that was all that successful last year; then you¡¯re just jumping on board with a team you already know is good. You want a team that has exciting young players and may be just about to turn a corner; think, say, the 2015 Cubs, or the 2022 Orioles. And you want a team that¡¯s new, fresh and exciting. You want a team that maybe hasn¡¯t been there before.

Can we determine this year¡¯s Ultimate Bandwagon Team? Let¡¯s give it a shot.

Step 1: Eliminate 2024 playoff teams
Sorry, but any team that reached October last year, by definition, can¡¯t be the fun bandwagon team that comes out of nowhere in ¡®25. This does not mean you cannot root for these teams, of course: Jump on any bandwagon you want. You do you. But to be a true Ultimate Bandwagon Team, you have to surge into a place you weren¡¯t last year. You¡¯ve gotta be new to the party.

Not this year:
Astros
Braves
Brewers
Dodgers
Guardians
Mets
Orioles
Padres
Phillies
Royals
Tigers
Yankees

The Tigers might have been a fun choice, had their amazing, late-season run not carried them into the playoffs in 2024. But, alas. Already, we¡¯re down to 18 teams.

Step 2: Focus on 2025 contenders
It¡¯s one thing to bandwagon a team that has upside potential; it¡¯s quite another to pick a team that lost 100-plus games the year before and doesn¡¯t appear set up for a significant improvement this year. Some of these teams could potentially be bandwagon teams next year, if they can continue to build. But for now, well, we can only include teams that have a realistic path to contention.

Sorry to:
Marlins
Rockies
White Sox

Step 3: Set aside recent(-ish) rings
So now we¡¯ve cut our possibilities in half. Next? Well, your bandwagon team, even if it made the playoffs last year, can¡¯t be a team with too great a history of success. It¡¯s difficult to feel insurgent if they¡¯re almost always in the playoffs, or they¡¯ve won a World Series fairly recently. This is why, say, the Steelers can never be an Ultimate Bandwagon Team in the NFL, or, say, the Spurs in the NBA: They¡¯ve just got too much happy history.

Where¡¯s the cutoff here? Here¡¯s a good quick-and-dirty one: Let¡¯s eliminate teams who have won a World Series this century. Their fans just haven¡¯t suffered nearly long enough for the Ultimate Bandwagon Fan¡¯s liking. If this makes any of their fans sad, well, they can stare at those championship rings for a while to make themselves feel better.

Goodbye to:
Angels
Diamondbacks
Cardinals
Cubs
Giants
Nationals
Rangers
Red Sox

Yes, we do feel bad putting the Angels here, considering Mike Trout was 11 years old when they won their only World Series to date, but rules are rules.

Step 4: Turn away from familiar October faces
And so now we¡¯re down to a manageable group of seven: the Athletics, Blue Jays, Mariners, Pirates, Rays, Reds and Twins. Any of these could be reasonable choices. Each of them has something going for them: Star players, fiercely loyal fans, likable narratives, young upstarts, a history of frustration, a legit chance at making the playoffs this year.

But we¡¯ve got to eliminate some. Let¡¯s start with three teams that haven¡¯t won a World Series this century but have become familiar faces in the postseason in recent years ¡­ perhaps too familiar. There¡¯s a sense that they may have already missed their window with their current rosters. I reserve the right to bring these teams back if they get hot late and feel like the breakthrough team their fans have been waiting for, but for now ¡­

See ya:
Blue Jays
Rays
Twins

Those teams have made a combined 14 postseason trips in the past 10 years, and that doesn¡¯t feel quite right here.

Step 5: Look to the stars
All right. Four teams left. One of the best reasons to get on a team¡¯s bandwagon is a wildly charismatic superstar player whom everyone stops everything they¡¯re doing to watch. This is the sort of transcendent talent who will be around for many years and who you can imagine someday wearing that team¡¯s cap on their Hall of Fame plaque.

Three of these teams clearly have one: The Mariners with Julio Rodr¨ªguez, the Pirates with Paul Skenes and the Reds with Elly De La Cruz. The fourth team might have one, but it¡¯s not as obvious. So with no offense meant to Brent Rooker and Lawrence Butler ¡­

Adi¨®s:
Athletics

Step 6: Play the percentages
OK, we¡¯ve got three worthy choices remaining. But what¡¯s the tiebreaker? I¡¯m going to rely on the FanGraphs Playoff Odds to give it to me. Two of these teams -- even if you want to argue (correctly, I¡¯d say) that they¡¯re playoff contenders -- are projected to have losing records and finish fourth and fifth in what might be the weakest division in baseball. Both have overall playoff odds below 20%. These are bandwagons that just might pay off in a big way, but it¡¯s also not hard to imagine them stalling out yet again.

Close, but no cigar:
Pirates
Reds

And so, at last, that leaves us with the final team standing. This is a team that recently went two decades between playoff appearances, employs a generational star, has one of the most devoted fanbases in baseball and is the only team in the sport that has never reached the World Series ¡­ that¡¯s our pick.

Congratulations, Mariners: You are our 2025 Ultimate Bandwagon Team. Get on board, everyone. There¡¯s plenty of room.