As pitchers and catchers start to report for the 2020 season, let's quickly go back to the final day of the 2019 campaign. We saw the Astros lose Game 7 in Houston after Howie Kendrick's foul-pole shot became one of the most memorable home runs in World Series history. And for the first time in franchise history -- even including the Expos years -- the Washington Nationals were World Series champions.

But a lot has changed since the final out of the 2019 Fall Classic. The Nationals don't get to begin the rankings at the top, as people generally suggest to me every single year before the season starts. 2020 isn't 2019, folks.

As evidence for that, just look at the two participants from last year's World Series. Gerrit Cole left Houston for the Yankees. Anthony Rendon went from the world champs to the Angels. Off the field, the Astros went through one of the biggest scandals in recent memory and now have Dusty Baker as their manager. It's a drastically different baseball landscape.

With that in mind, we're going to reiterate that these rankings are for how the teams in baseball are currently constructed. For purposes of the rankings, I don't really care how last season ended up.

At the top, I have the Yankees, and it got me thinking: can we really call them the "Evil Empire" anymore? They haven't won the World Series since 2009. Since the last time the Yankees were even in the World Series ...

The Giants have won it three times.

The Red Sox won it twice.

The Cubs won one!

So did the Astros and Nationals.

The Royals won two pennants and a World Series.

Twelve different teams have won a pennant.

That's pretty remarkable, right? Go back to 2009 and imagine reading those bullet points. You'd be floored.

I have no doubt that despite this, the Yankees remain just as hated as almost any team (maybe the Astros and/or Red Sox have made up some ground, however).

Which means placing them at the top here is sure to ruffle some feathers. But hey, at least I didn't put the Astros at the top, right?

These rankings are for the start of spring training. There will be more transactions before Opening Day that these rankings don't account for. But please hold onto your good players, Cubs (Kris Bryant), Rockies (Nolan Arenado) and Indians (Francisco Lindor), so these rankings don't have too short of a shelf life.