We have created a year-end team portfolio ranking for Major League Baseball. The exercise is to evaluate every team as if they were a portfolio of assets to determine which is most valuable. 

The only considerations are talent, age, contract situations and farm system with the goal being to eventually compete for and win the World Series. An older team already contending is more valued than a younger team with a ton of talent that may not get there, but the younger team with upside is a better bet than an older team that’s currently better but without the upside. 

There is no consideration given to the team location, history, manager, general manager or owner.

The MLB has an ever-changing landscape but this creation of a hierarchal ranking gives a look to how we would choose their collective situations at the end of 2015.

- Also see RealGM's Year-End Team Portfolio Rankings for the NBANFL and SoccerWe also welcome a submission of your personal list in the comments section.

30. Cincinnati Reds: The Reds, like the Brewers at 29, recognized that the collective strength of the three teams at the top of their division and decided this season that it was time to rebuild. The Reds have been trading away everything that wasn’t nailed to the floor and the trade rumors just keep on coming, with Brandon Phillips being the latest addition to the rumor mill. After coming close to a 100-loss season this year, and seeing how difficult it’s going to be to make a run at any shot at the postseason, it certainly makes sense that Cincinnati restocks the farm. - John Watson

29. Milwaukee Brewers: It wasn’t that long ago that it seemed like the Brewers were jockeying for NL Central dominance with the Cardinals and the Reds. Well, now the Pirates and Cubs are in the mix with the Cardinals and we find those other two teams here at the bottom of the list. For the Brewers, who haven’t made the playoffs since Prince Fielder left the team and are coming off a 94-loss season, it appears that they are attempting to shake things up with the hiring of ex-Astros assistant GM David Stearns as their new GM, hoping to replicate Houston’s turnaround from bottom dweller to perennial contender. The farm was not in a good way at the beginning of the 2015 season, but the Brewers did add some depth prior to the trade deadline and by the time Stearns took over things were already looking better for the future. The word out and about is that Stearns is still in dealing mode. - JW

28. Philadelphia Phillies: We all know the cautionary tale of the Phillies, who made the postseason five freaking seasons in a row, and went to back-to-back World Series, winning one. We know about the all-in trading away of the farm, the signing of veterans to far-too-long contracts, and the bizarre Cliff Lee trade and eventual re-signing. They were a laughing stock for the last couple of years, but now Ruben Amaro, Jr. is gone and suddenly the prospect pool is starting to fill up again. The Phillies are going to be a painful team to watch again next year, but they at least recognized that the situation wasn’t going to get any better and finally went into rebuild mode. It’s too early to say whether it will work out, but the farm situation improving is enough to bump them up from the last couple of spots off the list. - JW

27. Miami Marlins: Oh, Jeffrey Loria and the Miami Marlins, whatever will you do next? Probably trade away José Fernández and waste the team-friendly portion of Giancarlo Stanton’s contract before his opt-out. The Marlins are unpredictable and trying to figure out what they’re going to do next is a fool’s errand. For all we know, Stanton might start next year on a team with nothing but replacement level talent. For now though, they’ve still got Stanton and Fernandez, and some nice complementary players, especially in the outfield, just not a complete team. But with some of the best players in the game, you never know what can happen if they get just a little bit of help. - JW

26. Colorado Rockies: The Rockies have seemed to exist in a weird limbo for ages and haven’t made the playoffs since 2009, and have only made the playoffs three times since they began playing in 1993, each time as a Wild Card. While they’ve certainly developed some great position players, they’ve had little success in terms of cultivating pitchers. While the Denver altitude is oft cited as the culprit, the Rockies haven’t shown any ability to figure it out, even with over two decades to try. Further exacerbating things is that, despite rarely fielding a team that can act as more than a spoiler for other teams in the NL West, they haven’t gone full rebuild either in order to stock the prospect coffers. However, they did trade Troy Tulowitzki this season and they are currently getting a lot of trade rumor press, so we’ll see if they end up further down the list next year in order to try and climb their way out of the basement in the future. - JW

25. Oakland Athletics: Billy Beane has lived up to his reputation as a free-wheeling trader lately, dealing for 26 of the players on Oakland’s 40-man roster. Assuming Sonny Gray is the next big-name moved for young talent, the Athletics will take another step back in 2016. That means the window for Oakland to win a title will be all but closed until 2020 at the earliest. - Andrew Perna

24. Atlanta Braves: Just last offseason, the Braves would have been farther down this list. As the Braves have slowly been whittling away their roster of all effective players not named Freddie Freeman, the talk was all about how they were basically throwing in the towel and timing a rebuild to coincide with the opening of their new stadium. Well, the new stadium is going to be opening in 2017, and they’ve been massing up prospects. Unfortunately, they are still just prospects, so we’re going to have to wait and see what happens, but, with a little luck in the player development department, it looks like the Braves could be back in the postseason mix before too long. - JW

23. Baltimore Orioles: The Orioles are in trouble whether or not they end up re-signing Chris Davis. If they don’t, there will be a huge hole in their starting lineup. If they do, they’ll likely overpay for his power. Manny Machado is one of the best young players in the game, but Adam Jones, Matt Wieters and J.J. Hardy have all likely played their best baseball already. The starting rotation will be a liability going forward unless Kevin Gausman (25) and Dylan Bundy (23) fulfill their potential. The pair could very well do that, but it feels like we’ve been waiting forever for Bundy (especially) to put things together. - AP

22. Tampa Bay Rays: Tampa Bay may be entering a perfect window for a franchise such as themselves. Chris Archer is elite, but Jake Odorizzi, Drew Smyly, Alex Cobb (injury) and Matt Moore round out a rotation that could be dominant without national fanfare. If they pitch well, the Rays will be both competitive and in position to sell one or two of them off for a young, controllable hitter. Striking gold in a trade of that ilk is the only way they will earn contender status. - AP

21. Seattle Mariners: Seattle has a dangerous rotation with Felix Hernandez and Hisashi Iwakuma at the top and Taijuan Walker (23) a few maturation steps from joining them as a third potential shutdown pitcher. The question is how long can they rely on Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz? Jerry Dipoto fortified his new roster by signing Nori Aoki (34) and Chris Iannetta (32) to play left field and catcher, respectively. If Mike Zunino, Jesus Sucre or Steve Baron play well enough to steal at-bats from Iannetta in 2016, the Mariners will be much better off. - AP

20. San Diego Padres: It was only last year that the Padres were the talk of the MLB offseason, making bold moves and causing some people to wonder if new GM A.J. Preller was out of his mind during his first offseason with the franchise. Well, we know how the story ended, with the Padres largely out of contention early on in the year, and now there’s talk about whether Matt Kemp’s contract is movable or not. They’re stuck with some bad contracts, some from their trades last season, and the folks they traded away are looking pretty good right about now. It’s not that they couldn’t all of a sudden find themselves contending with some bounceback seasons and some other breaks, it’s just going to be tough with the NL West teams that are ahead of them on this list. - JW

19. Minnesota Twins: The Twins have a nice stable of arms at the Minor League level and a handful of potential stars in the lineup, which sounds much better than nearly a bottom-third ranking. The issue with Minnesota is that projecting how pitchers will transition to the Major Leagues is far from an inexact science. - AP 

18. Los Angeles Angels: Mike Trout makes everything seem much better than it is, but even a once-in-a-generation talent struggles to carry a 25-man roster. The starting rotation won’t get reinforcements from the farm system for a while. Nick Tropeano, Nate Smith and Kyle McGowin could make several starts in 2016, but it’ll take some seasoning before they become reliable. - AP

17. Chicago White Sox: Chicago has a surprisingly deep roster, sprinkled with young, unproven talent and aging, professional stars. A lefty-heavy rotation is headlined by Chris Sale and Carlos Rodon and the combination of Jose Abreu-Todd Frazier could be an issue for the rest of the AL Central for years to come. - AP

16. New York Yankees: The aging Yankees (sounds familiar, right?) got a tad younger when they traded for Starlin Castro, but a hamstrung payroll will force them to rely on Carlos Beltran (38) and Alex Rodriguez (40) in 2016. The rotation is younger, but not in much better shape. Luis Severino provides a tremendous amount of hope, but New York’s first-round pick in June (James Kaprielian) might be their best pitching prospect outside of the 21-year-old righty. There will be at least one more transitional year for the Yankees before the checkbook opens up once again and Brian Cashman can construct a more balanced roster. - AP

15. Arizona Diamondbacks: The Diamondbacks’ front office made a big splash in the free agent pitching market this offseason, offering Johnny Cueto a contract that was turned down and then signing the best available pitcher, Zack Greinke. Not content to stop there, they traded for Shelby Miller, but they gave up a 5-WAR player and 2015’s number one overall draft pick. While Arizona’s pitching staff is greatly improved, they gave up far too much in current (and future potential) talent to get Miller. That said, if we assume that the front three of pitching staff is as good as expected and that Goldschmidt and Pollock keep raking, Arizona might be able to sneak away with the NL West and as we know, anything can happen in the playoffs. - JW

14. Cleveland Indians: Cleveland projects to have two top-10 prospects from 2015 in their starting lineup next season and a young, depth rotation if they continue to rebuff trade offers for Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar. Cleveland lands in the middle of this list, but they could very easily become a contender if their staff catches fire. 

The front office must decide whether it’s smarter to hope Kluber, Carrasco and Salazar put together a Cy Young-caliber season in unison or if dealing one of them for offensive help would increase their chances at a deep playoff run. - AP 

13. Detroit Tigers: Only 15 of the players currently on Detroit’s 40-man roster are homegrown and they rely heavily on Ian Kinsler (33), Miguel Cabrera (32) and Victor Martinez (37), but they have a window to win in the next year or two. Justin Verlander has reinvented himself, Daniel Norris was considered one of baseball’s best prospects heading into 2015 and Jordan Zimmermann could bring the most bang for the buck among this winter’s free-agent pitchers.

With that said, Al Avila could easily accelerate a rebuild if Detroit struggles out of the gate. - AP

12. Texas Rangers: Dealing for Cole Hamels proved to be one of the best moves of 2015. The Rangers can pair the left-hander with Yu Darvish and rest assured that they’ll avoid lengthy losing streaks in the years to come. The offense carries a lot of age, but Jurickson Profar (injury) and Joey Gallo could be fixtures in the lineup by midseason. Sharing a division with the Astros means that one of the two will have to win a play-in game if they hope to make a World Series run. - AP

11. San Francisco Giants: The Giants surprised everyone this year when they signed Johnny Cueto, their first splashy free agent pitcher signing since Barry Zito, after they had already signed Jeff Samardzija. If everything in the rotation goes right, it’s going to be one of the scariest in baseball, but that’s a big if. The other big question for the Giants is what happens in left field and whether their position players can stay healthy this year, but hopefully the latter will correct itself since so many of the injuries last year were due to Giants players getting hit with baseballs. While San Francisco doesn’t have any highly rated prospects, they have the best homegrown infield in baseball already here and they’re together for at least three more years barring any trades. Of course, the even year is coming, so we should probably just bump ‘em up to the top of the list... - JW

10. Toronto Blue Jays: Toronto has the most dangerous heart-of-the-order in baseball, but Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Troy Tulowitzki are all over 30. In addition to declining production, age generally brings along more time on the disabled list. In truth, the Blue Jays will slide further down this list as each season passes. A.J. Jimenez (catcher) and Ezequiel Carrera (outfielder) are nice prospects, but there aren’t many arms-in-waiting and the rotation is already in trouble. - AP 

9. Pittsburgh Pirates: Returning to the brutal NL Central and the first of three teams from that division in the top 10, we have the Pirates. The Pirates have come back from decades of irrelevance to making the postseason for three years running. Now, thanks to the strength of the NL Central, they’ve had to settle for three straight Wild Card Games, but once you make it to the dance, anything can happen. Despite one of the lowest payrolls in all of MLB, the Pirates have been able to compete thanks to their phenomenal collection of homegrown talent, specifically their whole outfield of McCutchen, Polanco and Marte and their ace Gerrit Cole, and through shrewd trades. There’s always some luck involved, but the Pirates front office has been smart as well as lucky and the immediate future looks pretty bright there. - JW

8. Boston Red Sox: The Red Sox have struggled through a few rough seasons since winning it all in 2013, but there is a very good chance they’ll return to the Fall Classic towards the front end of David Price’s sparkling new contract. Unless Dave Dombrowski shakes up the roster further by dealing someone like Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts or Jackie Bradley, Jr. for more established talent, Boston has great roster balance. 

Price, along with the development of the trio mentioned above, is enough to get the Red Sox into the playoffs in the American League East. The trade for Craig Kimbrel and Major League production from young pitchers like Eduardo Rodriguez, Henry Owens and Brian Johnson might be enough to bring another championship to Boston. - AP

7. St. Louis Cardinals: With seemingly all of the Cardinals’ free agents departing to play for their division rivals in Chicago, things are looking a little iffy for the Cardinals. Then again, this is the same team that seems to lose key players every season and then repeatedly calls up relatively unheralded players from the minors who go on to outperform expectations. The real problem for St. Louis is the fact that their core is getting older, with Molina, Peralta, Holliday and Wainright all in their mid-30s. Injuries are starting to be a real concern and they have limited payroll with which to address any issues. Lance Lynn is already out for next season. Then again, they won over 100 games in 2015, with Wainright out all season and having to deal with injuries left and right. If they can avoid the injury bug or they keep pulling players out of a baseball cap, the Cardinals are always seemingly a threat to make the NL Central interesting. - JW

6. Washington Nationals: Like the Dodgers, the Nationals have been enjoying a run where they’ve been near the top of lists like these for a while. Unlike the teams sitting above them, it’s not particularly clear that the Nationals are going to continue to stay this high. They’ve lost some of their best players to free agency and others are coming soon. Last year was not kind to Washington, as injuries decimated their ranks and many of their young players took a step back and did not perform up to expectations. All that being said, the Nationals still have reigning MVP Bryce Harper and Max Scherzer and they still have a young core that can experience a bounceback season because, well, they are still young. Plus, they have reinforcements in the upper minors for some of their departing free agents, and they can hope for a less injury plagued season next year. While they may not be this high up a few years from now, they’ve still got a couple years where they’re a serious contender for a title with just a few breaks. - JW

5. Los Angeles Dodgers: After winning the NL West for three straight years but failing to advance to the NLCS for the second straight year, the Dodgers failed to re-sign Zack Greinke and it might look like they have some questions to figure out on the pitching side. Then again, they still have Clayton Kershaw, a full season of Alex Wood and Brandon McCarthy working on getting healthy by mid-season. If Hyun-Jin Ryu stays healthy and if super-prospect Julio Urias stays on track and shows up in the majors this year and doesn’t struggle, the rotation is already looking pretty solid. They have a deep farm, so there may still be a trade for pitching in the works. Even if there’s not, the Dodgers are still a big threat to win the NL West and they have a smart front office with a lot of money and a deep farm to work with, so they still sit up near the top. - JW

4. Kansas City Royals: It’s hard to believe a team coming off two World Series appearances in as many years and one title isn’t ranked higher, but red flags around the starting rotation will lead pundits to doubt the Royals for the second-straight spring. A high rate of contact and excellent defense have masked Kansas City’s mediocre-to-poor rotation lately, but they are likely to lose Alex Gordon to free agency and they’ve lost “aces” in James Shields and Johnny Cueto in back-to-back winters. 

Dayton Moore is the reason the Royals will continue to contend. They have a nice stable of arms in waiting — Miguel Almonte, Kyle Zimmer and Brian Flynn — and Ned Yost’s core group of players — Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer and Salvador Perez — are all under 28. - AP

3. New York Mets:Just as the Cubs are set up for long term success thanks a seriously young set of position players, the Mets are set up similarly thanks to their deep, young pitching rotation. Matt Harvey is the oldest of the young pitchers, and he won’t be a free agent for three more seasons. Then there’s Jacob DeGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz. Hopefully some of the position players in their farm system will pan out, as owner Fred Wilpon has done quite a bit (to say the least) to limit the Mets’ ability to sign the best available players in free agency. The fact of the matter is that the Mets’ pitching is so good that, barring injury, it may not even matter. - JW

2. Houston Astros: The Astros matured quicker than expected in 2015, but that doesn’t change much regarding their five-year window. While there are concerns that payroll could become an issue, Jeff Luhnow has assembled a lineup headlined by three young studs — Jose Altuve, George Springer and Carlos Correa. If Correa is as transcendent a player as he appears, Houston only needs to fortify the rotation behind Dallas Keuchel to pencil themselves into the playoff picture for the next several years. 

Luhnow has dealt from the farm system this offseason for depth at the Major League level, something more general managers should do. Houston’s high picks haven’t gone as planned in recent years, but Alex Bregman could become a star and gambles on Kyle Tucker and Daz Cameron could pay off in a few years when Altuve, Springer and Correa are either in the midst or just entering their primes. If the Kansas City Royals can make back-to-back World Series, why can’t the Astros? - AP

1. Chicago Cubs:While the Cubs may have missed their Back to the Future prophesied 2015 World Series appearance, it may not be too long before they finally return to the Fall Classic. They may have been swept out of the NLCS, but the Cubs have Rookie of the Year Kris Bryant, Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta, and rookies Kyle Schwarber and Addison Russell around for years. They bolstered their roster when they went and signed Ben Zobrist and Jason Heyward. There is still some work to do on the pitching front, but the Cubs are young and they have a lot of money to play with and a smart front office and there’s still a lot of talent in their farm system, despite all the youth already here and playing in the majors. Predicting who is going to win the World Series in a few years is a good way to make yourself look stupid, but the Cubs are built for success, in both the short and long term, so they snag the number one spot here. - JW

- Also see RealGM's Year-End Team Portfolio Rankings for the NBANFL and SoccerWe also welcome a submission of your personal list in the comments section.