It’s tough to end up in last place. It is not quite as tough, however, to get out of last place.

In any given year, usually less than half of the teams who finished in last place the season before will finish in last place the next year. Over the last half-decade, here is the number of teams who ended up stuck in last place just like they had been the year before.

2019: 3 (Orioles, Marlins, Padres)
2018: 2 (Orioles, Reds)
2017: 2 (A's, Reds)
2016: 2 (A's, Reds)
2015: 2 (Red Sox, Phillies)

Now, worst-to-first transitions are highly unlikely. The last team to do it was the 2016 Red Sox, who finished last in '15 and '14. (A year after winning the World Series, no less.) But getting out of last place? That’s not nearly as difficult. If trends hold, at least three, and probably more, of the six teams that finished last in 2019 (Baltimore, Detroit, Seattle, Miami, Pittsburgh and San Diego) won’t finish last in 2020.

But which ones? Let’s take a look at our Cellar Dwellers Hope for 2020 Power Rankings.

1. San Diego Padres
Put it this way: If San Diego, which has basically doubled its payroll in the last three years, finishes in last place again, with Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Tommy Pham and Chris Paddack, the old-school uniforms returning and everything else fans are excited about with this franchise, some heads are going to roll.

The Padres have generally been patient with general manager A.J. Preller and management since he took over in 2014, even though the team has yet to have a winning record under his leadership. That should change in 2020.

There is obviously a ton of talent here, and the Padres would seem to have an easy path to at least get out of last in the National League West. The Rockies appear to be in Nolan Arenado-related turmoil, and the Giants lost Madison Bumgarner and appear to be entering a period of rather radical transition. The Padres might not break the sport’s third-longest postseason drought (it has been since 2006 since they reached the playoffs), but moving up in the standings? They seem the safest bet on this list to move up in the standings, and definitely our best hope for a worst-to-first season.

2. Miami Marlins
The Marlins haven’t finished out of last place since the big Giancarlo Stanton/Marcell Ozuna/Christian Yelich purge two years ago, but there are starting to be signs of life from this franchise. The young rotation could be legitimately imposing, and the additions of Corey Dickerson and Jesús Aguilar could boost an offense that needed all the help it could get in 2019. There’s more talent coming in the next few years, and 2020 could be the year they make a small step forward and show glimpses of larger leaps for the years ahead.

While the NL East looks impressive again, the division always has a sort of boom-and-bust quality to it. If things go sideways on, say, the Phillies or the Mets, you can see the bottom falling out fast. The Marlins aren’t a postseason team yet. But they’re better than you think they are and could very well sneak up the standings in 2020.

3. Detroit Tigers
We should be clear here: There is no massive turnaround being predicted for the Tigers. This team lost 114 games last year with a poor offense that might actually be worse in 2020. But the rotation is legitimately decent, maybe even nearing MLB-average, which will get you a long way when you’re trying to improve on a 114-loss season. The main reason they’re a decent bet to move up in the American League Central standings? Kansas City, a team that lost 103 games last year.

Remember the old joke: When you and your friend are being chased by a bear, you don’t have to be faster than the bear, you just have to be faster than your friend. Detroit isn’t in the same ballpark as Minnesota, Cleveland or even Chicago. But to get out of last? The Tigers just need to beat the Royals.

4. Seattle Mariners
Here’s a fun fact about the Mariners: Even though they have the longest postseason-less streak in all of the four major North American professional sports, 2019 was the first time during that entire streak that they finished in fifth place in the AL West. That’s a bit of a cheat -- they finished fourth out of four teams seven times before MLB realignment, and it’s a fact that’s probably more annoying to Mariners fans than particularly inspiring, but hey, it’s still true.

Anyway, the Mariners have mostly traded away everyone there is to trade, save for maybe Kyle Seager, which means they have to sit and wait now for their young players to develop and mature. That’s going to take a while, which is why the Mariners aren’t favorites to pull themselves out of last this year in a division that has two teams that made the postseason last year (Astros and A's), a Mike Trout-Anthony Rendon combo on the Angels and a Rangers team with two top-10 starting pitchers (Mike Minor and Lance Lynn) and Corey Kluber now. But if the Rangers or Angels bottom out and the Mariners grow up faster than you think, they could at least have a chance.

5. Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pirates were a winning team -- a winning team making a Trade Deadline deal for Chris Archer, no less -- just two years ago. But the fall could last a while now. Archer hasn’t been able to get it together, their once-promising rotation is faltering and they might trade Starling Marte, their best player, at some point before July. And they’re in a competitive NL Central, where the Cardinals and Brewers are returning postseason teams, the Cubs are still the Cubs and the Reds are one of the most active teams in baseball this offseason.

6. Baltimore Orioles
The O’s look like a pretty easy bet to return to the AL East basement in 2020, which is yet another season that is meant to be a building block for some indeterminate date in the future. The Yankees, Red Sox and Rays are all still World Series contenders, and the Blue Jays are more likely to challenge one of those teams than fall behind Baltimore. The Orioles lost 108 games in 2019, which is bad, but still better than the 115 they lost in '18. Expect more progress in 2020, just not enough to move up in such a tough division.