2022 MLB season preview – Power rankings, playoff odds and everything you need for all 30 teams

After a hot stove season interrupted by a work stoppage, it’s time to rejoice, baseball fans: MLB opening week is finally here!

As the new season begins following an offseason filled with player movement, there are big questions across the majors. How will the Atlanta Braves follow up their surprising march to the 2021 World Series title? Will anyone stop the preseason favorite Los Angeles Dodgers now that All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman moved from Atlanta to L.A. this winter? Will the Toronto Blue Jays soar past the Tampa Bay Rays, Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees in a loaded AL East? And who are the potential surprise teams that could surge in our rankings throughout 2022?

We asked our baseball experts to rank every team from 1-30 going into the new season for our first MLB Power Rankings of the year, while ESPN MLB writers Bradford Doolittle, Alden Gonzalez and David Schoenfield teamed up to provide a rundown of what the season could bring along with Doolittle’s win-loss projection and playoff odds for all 30 teams.

Here’s everything you need to know before Opening Day arrives on Thursday.

Projected record: 101-61 (97.3% playoff odds)

If everything goes right …: They become the first National League team since 1930 to score 1,000 runs in a season as Trea Turner, Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts each hit .300 while Freeman, Max Muncy and Cody Bellinger each top 30 home runs. They win the most games ever for an NL team in a 162-game season at 110, as Walker Buehler and Julio Urias both win 20. Then they go 11-0 in the postseason to win their second World Series title in three seasons. — Schoenfield

Weakness that could stop them: There are two cop-out answers you can make for any team. One is randomness, the other is a spate of injuries to a team’s rotation. For the Dodgers, we’ll take the latter, as they are such a complete team that in a 12-team playoff universe, it’s really hard to design a scenario in which they don’t make it to October. Once there,…