Every MLB Team's Best-Case Scenario for Rest of 2021 Regular Season

Did everything break right for your team this season? Probably not, because even the vaunted Los Angeles Dodgers aren't in first place in their own division with less than two months of regular season baseball to play.

Now that we're a little more than a week past one of the more eventful trade deadlines in recent years, it's time to take a look at what needs to happen for each team over the rest of the regular season.

The best case scenarios for the contending teams winning their respective divisions, but each team has different needs in order to be able to win a division title or a Wild Card spot to clinch playoff appearances. For the non-contending teams, it's about looking to the future and developing the prospects.

Here is the best-case scenario for each team the rest of the way through the 2021 season.

Baltimore Orioles, Texas Rangers, Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland baseball team, Los Angeles Angels, Seattle Mariners

These clubs have not been mathematically eliminated but are heading in that direction. All, with the exception of the Mariners, were sellers at the trade deadline and they're just playing out the string.

The best thing for all of these teams is to develop the prospects that are MLB ready or nearing it. The Royals have some players who could benefit from big league playing time. The rebuilding club was competitive throughout the first half of the season but were not able to sustain that first-place start and ended up trading longtime ace Danny Duffy to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Of their top 10 prospects, five are in Triple-A or in the Major Leagues.

The Angels badly need to develop pitching to be able to complement Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. A decade of prioritizing offense has left the team in limbo, not good enough to make the playoffs but not bad enough to completely rebuild. Top pitching prospect Reid Detmers is currently getting some looks in the major leagues.

Arizona Diamondbacks, Pittsburgh Pirates, Miami Marlins, Colorado Rockies, Washington Nationals, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals 

The same goes for these teams. They have not been eliminated yet, but their deficits are too great to make up. There is no waiver-trade deadline this year so teams only had the one opportunity to better their prospect pools.

Most teams took that opportunity. The Rockies did not.

Getting Jack Flaherty back for the rest of the season would be a nice boost for the Cardinals, but the two National League Wild Card spots will probably be locked up by two NL West teams, so their best case scenario is to lock up their franchise cornerstones in Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina to secure their leadership for 2022.

Tampa Bay Rays: The defending American League champs will need more from their starting pitching staff with Tyler Glasnow out after undergoing Tommy John Surgery and Ryan Yarbrough on the injured list. Rookies Luis Patino, Josh Fleming and Shane McClanahan need to step up. McClanahan has been doing exactly that, going 4-2 with a 3.26 ERA over his last seven starts.

Boston Red Sox: The starting pitching situation is not great. The Red Sox have had an ERA over 5.00 since the All-Star break and opted not to throw all of their best prospects at the Nationals for Max Scherzer, looking at the short- and long-term pictures. Chris Sale's return gave the Red Sox a boost Saturday as they trounced the Orioles 16-2. Sale allowed two earned on six hits and struck out eight over five innings. It's a good step in the right direction for Boston, but the team may ultimately have to slug its way past Tampa Bay to try and win the AL East if the inconsistent pitching performances remain a trend.

New York Yankees: Is the division title within reach? Doubtful. A Wild Card is a better bet. To be able to surpass Boston or the Oakland A's to reach a playoff spot the Yankees will need to find someone capable of pitching in high-leverage innings. Closer Aroldis Chapman is on IL and Zack Britton told manager Aaron Boone that he doesn't deserve save opportunities after blowing one Thursday night in the Field of Dreams game against the Chicago White Sox. Chad Green and Jonathan Loaisiga are the most likely candidates.

Toronto Blue Jays: Like the Yankees, a Wild Card is within reach, but it won't be easy. Toronto has a +128 run differential, so we know they're capable of putting a lot of runs on the board. George Springer has a 1.159 OPS with 11 home runs over the second half of the season. Springer left Saturday's game with an apparent lower left leg injury, however. The Blue Jays also have an AL MVP candidate in Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who boasts the highest OPS in the league (1.025), so if the offense can continue to fire the way the pitching has (fifth-best ERA since the All-Star break) then Toronto could leap over the Yankees and Red Sox.

Chicago White Sox: It's not much of a race in this division. The White Sox have been one of the best teams in baseball all season. Injured players are also starting to return. Eloy Jimenez is back in the middle of the order and Luis Robert returned last week, giving Chicago another power bat in the middle of the lineup. The White Sox have three of the best pitchers in the American League in Carlos Rodon, Lucas Giolito and Lance Lynn, they fortified their bullpen with Craig Kimbrel and they have a dominant lineup. The best case scenario for the White Sox is a World Series.

Houston Astros: The Astros don't have any glaring weaknesses. They upgraded their bullpen at the trade deadline with Kendall Graveman and Rafael Montero, they have run-producers in the top two-thirds of the order, they're defensively sound and have the sixth-best starting pitching ERA in baseball. However, right-hander Jake Odorizzi has been a concern. He recently said his mechanics have been off since the All-Star break, causing him to throw a flat fastball. He bounced back in his last start, blanking the Rockies over five innings in a 5-0 win.

The Astros can go without a fifth starter in the postseason, but they'll need to hold off the A's to win the division first. The best case for the Astros is to get Odorizzi's mechanics fixed and get some production out of the bottom of the order.

Oakland A's: Catching up to the Astros won't be easy without Ramon Laureano, who received an 80-game suspension for performance-enhancing drugs. If Khris Davis can be the player he once was for Oakland (.240/.316/.495 with an .811 OPS in five seasons), then he should be able to help make up for Laureano's production. However, he's still in the minor leagues, and there are no guarantees he'll be productive at the big league level again.

The A's have a big series coming up at the end of the month, hosting the Yankees for four games. If they're going to hang on for a wild-card spot, it's a must-win.

The bottom line for all three of these teams is they have to win the division. One of them might end up stealing a wild-card spot from an NL West team, but it's a long shot. It's pretty simple: Win and they're in.  

Philadelphia Phillies: The bullpen has been the downfall for the Phillies for the last few years, and the team has lived and died with it this year as well. But right now it's the starting pitching that is keeping this NL East race close. Philadelphia is 7-3 over its last 10 games, Bryce Harper is playing like an MVP, and the bullpen is back in business, which puts them in a good position to battle the Mets and Braves for the division. 

Atlanta Braves: Finally, the Braves are over .500. It took a long time to get there, but once going over that .500 mark, they haven't looked back. I'm still not sure what to make of the Braves, who are without Ronald Acuna Jr. (knee) for the rest of the season and Freddie Freeman has been battling an upper respiratory infection.

Atlanta has a plus-61 run differential, so maybe this is when the record starts to reflect that. A soft schedule has given them a chance to make up some ground and go 8-2 over the last 10 games and tie for the division lead. The Braves need to keep this inspired play going to give themselves a chance to take advantage of a bad division.

New York Mets: Where to start with the Mets? They moved into first place May 7 and didn't fall out of that spot until last weekend, when they were swept by the Phillies. The Mets appeared to be in a free-fall before sweeping the Washington Nationals last week.

But Jacob deGrom is injured and out in Los Angeles getting a second opinion. Noah Syndergaard hasn't pitched all season, and his timetable remains murky. Francisco Lindor is still injured, and key trade-deadline acquisition Javier Baez, his temporary replacement at shortstop, hit the IL this weekend as well.

The club made some good moves at the trade deadline but probably should have done more to fortify the rotation. Being a first-place team in a bad division doesn't mean much unless there is a significant cushion, and there isn't right now. The best case for the Mets: deGrom returns, Syndergaard returns, Lindor returns and starts hitting the way he did in Cleveland, and the Mets win the NL East because they aren't going to earn a wild-card spot with the way the teams in the West are playing.

Milwaukee Brewers: An eight-game lead in the NL Central makes it (somewhat) safe to look beyond the regular season for the Brewers. The second-best rotation in baseball and a top-10 bullpen have Milwaukee primed for a deep run. Anything other than the NLCS would be a disappointment.

The reason I say it's only somewhat safe to look ahead: the IL. Adrian Houser, Keston Hiura and Jandel Gustave are on the IL, but Eric Lauer is nearing a return from COVID-19, and Josh Hader, Hunter Strickland and Jake Cousins are off the IL.

Cincinnati Reds: Much like the Braves, it's tough to know how to predict the rest of the season for the Reds. Selling off veterans at the trade deadline might have been better for the team in the long run, but the club was so close to a wild-card spot at the time that the front office might have felt it didn't have a choice.

And Cincinnati is still close, only 2.5 games back from San Diego. So, the best case for the Reds is probably just that: a wild-card spot. The Padres have also lost four straight. The key for the Reds is the offense. If they make the playoffs, it will be Nick Castellanos, Jesse Winker and a resurgent Joey Votto getting them there.

San Francisco Giants: The Giants are in control. With Kris Bryant added to the lineup, there is no doubt they can outslug their opponents. The Giants have hit more home runs than any other team in MLB without any player having hit more than 19, which shows how deep the San Francisco lineup is. The question is whether their starting pitching will hold up. But if it does, the division is San Francisco's to lose.

Los Angeles Dodgers: This is a team that is built to win pennants each season. The Dodgers aren't just contenders; they're perennial Goliaths built to crush the rest of the league. They then added Max Scherzer to the rotation in a deadline blockbuster that included shortstop Trea Turner. They also recently signed Cole Hamels, and when Danny Duffy is healthy, he'll be a boon to the starting staff as well. The pitching has to hold up for the Dodgers to catch their Bay Area rivals and avoid a winner-take-all wild-card scenario, but the Giants are way ahead of schedule on their rebuild, so here we are.

San Diego Padres: The Padres need a healthy Fernando Tatis Jr. to hold off the Reds and maybe even to hold off one of the NL East teams. Tatis could return as soon as Sunday and may end up in center field. The move from shortstop to the outfield brings up questions about diving catches and his shoulder, but it appears to be an option on the table. To further solidify their grasp on that second wild-card spot, the Padres also need more consistent starting pitching behind Yu Darvish.

Prospect rankings via MLB.com.