For all the work done projecting the 2025 MLB season, we know the final standings aren't going to match the preseason forecasts.
The fun part is seeing the teams that emerge from this morass of rational prediction and become surprise stories -- the breakouts.
Last year we asked, What sort of traits do breakout teams tend to share? and applied those characteristics to spit out our list. The approach worked OK. Two of the five teams made major win leaps -- the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals.