The Yankees won 103 games without Gerrit Cole and are now favorites to win it all, for the first time since 2009, with him. But if you are from New York, as I am, and you follow these matters, you know that there have been a lot of times in the past when the Yankees won the winter and were immediately declared champions before pitchers and catchers reported. You know the last time that happened? The winter before last, when they made the trade for Giancarlo Stanton and picked up the remainder of a contract almost as big as Cole’s.

But if the Yankees don’t win the World Series next year, one of the multiple titles owner Hal Steinbrenner says he expects them to win, who does?

Who is the ’20 version of the ’19 Nationals, who did something no other team might ever do again: Beat a 106-win team and a 108-win team on their way to winning it all. After being 19-31 in the regular season. After having lost Bryce Harper. Being asked to play five elimination games in October. Say it again: There have been a lot of improbable champions in baseball history. There has never been one more improbable than the Nationals, who came out of the pack and ended up beating everybody.

Not giving odds here. This isn’t the sports book at Caesars Palace. No particular order for the rest of the field. But if the Yankees don’t win the World Series, who might?

Dodgers: No team will be more motivated to win it all -- for the Dodgers it would be the first time in 32 years -- this season than they are. They still have bullpen issues. But they’re still loaded, even if Hyun-Jin Ryu leaves.

Astros: No one is sure what the sanctions might be from Commissioner Rob Manfred over what is allegedly the baseball version of Spygate. But even without Cole, the Astros are still loaded with talent -- and will come into next season with the kind of us-against-the-world mentality that Bill Belichick’s Patriots have always had. They need another starter. It’s silly to bet against Jeff Luhnow finding one somewhere. In many ways, the Astros may be as fascinating as the Yankees, not for all the right reasons.

Braves: They have thrilling young talent, they have pitching, and, man oh man, do they have something to prove after what the Cardinals did to them in their National League Division Series after the Braves had them two games to one and a late-game lead in Game 4. Then Yadier Molina got them in the 8th and again in the 10th, and when they got back to Atlanta for Game 5, you know how the roof caved in on the young, deep, talented Atlanta Braves: The Cardinals rolled them for 10 runs in the first inning.

Now it’s the Braves trying to come back from the kind of bad Game 5 loss that the Nationals knew all about before it was their time to show everybody they were different. They’ve added Cole Hamels this winter, already, Will Smith, Travis d'Arnaud. They have to think that if the Nationals can do it, so can the 2020 Braves.

Cardinals: They were back in the playoffs after a four-year absence, which in St. Louis, one of the capitals of the sport, felt like 40. And after they came back the way they did against the Braves, they had to think that maybe it was their time to win their third World Series in this century, and first since 2011. Or make it back to their first since 2013.

You know what happened against the Nationals.

“Maybe this year we’re the buzzsaw,” Stephen Strasburg famously said of the Nationals.

They were. But the Cardinals aren’t going anywhere. Tell me whether Marcell Ozuna is coming back to the Cards, and I’ll tell you if I think they can win.

Twins: I want to believe they can build on last year’s 100-win season, especially if they’re the ones who sign Ryu, or even Josh Donaldson. But then I think about the Yankees waiting for them in October ...

Brewers: I love the Brewers, love their manager, Craig Counsell, love Christian Yelich. They have spent the last couple of months thinking about the monster they turned loose when they blew their lead against the Nationals in the Wild Card Game. But they need another starter. And they could use somebody like Donaldson, too. They have made a bunch of moves of late and have trimmed some payroll in the process. Perhaps something big is brewing.

D-backs: The D-backs keep regrouping and retooling on the fly and continue to be a very tough out. They are run by the kind of smart baseball man, Mike Hazen, that the Nationals have in Mike Rizzo. They have a terrific manager in Torey Lovullo. They have traded away Paul Goldschmidt and Zack Greinke over the past couple of years. But they don’t go away. Their best player is now Ketel Marte, one of the best players in the sport not nearly enough people out of Phoenix know about.

Of course they now add Madison Bumgarner, one of the great big-game pitchers in the game for the Giants and still just 30 years old, to what was already a very solid starting rotation. The Dodgers will come into another season as the favorite to win another National League West title. Hazen and Lovullo and the D-backs seem to be conceding nothing by going after MadBum.

Mets: Don’t laugh. They’ve got a terrific starting rotation, led by Jacob deGrom. The kid at first base, Pete Alonso, hit 53 home runs.

If they can find some relief pitchers ... if they can find another bat ... maybe the Yankees will own their borough, but not the whole city.

I just don’t believe in the Cubs, at least as presently constituted, and actually think the White Sox might be a more fun team to watch in 2020. I’ve seen too many postseason failures from the Twins against the Yankees to believe in them. The Red Sox are a lot of things right now. A serious contender doesn’t appear to be one of them.

But there is one more team I think might have the best chance to be the ’19 Nationals:

The ’20 Nationals. You know who I think is going to win it all this season, especially if they get Donaldson and the Braves don’t?

Them.