As the 2016 season approaches, I will be taking a look at the 10 teams with the best odds of winning the World Series and examining three reasons why each team may ultimately hoist the trophy. Today’s team:

Royals (16/1 odds to win World Series): Reaching the World Series in three consecutive seasons is hard, but not impossible. A team has reached the World Series in three or more straight seasons 18 times (the 1988-’90 A’s being the most recent) throughout the history of Major League Baseball. If the Royals are able to win another American League pennant, they will certainly be worthy of the dynasty talk that will accompany their run. Of course, for the Royals to reach another World Series, a lot has to go right. But the good news is the Royals also have a lot of factors working in their favor.

Why not?: The Royals are clearly the team to beat in the AL. Kansas City has won 184 regular seasons games (an average of 92 per year) over the past two seasons, so it’s not as if their success has been a fluke. As stated above, reaching another World Series will be tough, but the Royals are the defending champions and until that changes, they deserve to be mentioned in any postseason discussion.

Lack of roster turnover: Resigning Alex Gordon was huge. Sometimes when a team wins a title, they have a lot of questions to answer in free agency as players want to get paid and therefore leave for greener pastures. However, this was not the case with the Royals. Kansas City is bringing back the bulk of its team as it looks for another ring. While this is obviously important for the simple fact that this group won together last year and is capable of winning again, it is also significant because several of the Royals starters are homegrown. The Royals have a very tight-knit group because their players have been together from their time in the Minor Leagues. Kansas City has a clubhouse chemistry that’s not easy to match and it’s a direct result of all the homegrown talent.

Bullpen: The bullpen has played a huge role in the Royals success over the past two seasons and it likely will be a factor in 2016 as well. Many teams have recently tried to imitate the Royals ‘pen – by stockpiling flamethrowers for the late innings – but even if the approach is more common now than it was a couple years ago, that doesn’t make it any less effective. The Royals’ relievers posted a 3.30 ERA in 2014 (10th-best in baseball) and a 2.72 ERA (second best in baseball) in 2015. The AL Central has improved in 2016, but if the back end of the Royals’ ‘pen is just as dominant as it has been, the Royals will be in good shape once again.