If one were to ask the marketing people at Major League Baseball for a Fall Classic dream scenario, this would be it. The game’s two biggest superstars. The country’s two largest media markets. And each league’s best team. Dodgers–Yankees will be a heavyweight battle.
The sport’s postseason under the new wild card format has been defined by big upsets, and Cinderella runs to the World Series, be it the Phillies in 2022 or the Diamondbacks and Rangers last year. This time around, the Cinderellas are at home. The two favorites will do battle in a must-see matchup.
Their two paths couldn’t have been more different. The Dodgers played six blowouts in their championship series — no game closer than four runs. The Yankees only needed five games, but all of them were within three runs.
Bring on the most anticipated World Series in recent memory. First pitch is on Friday at 8:08 p.m. ET. Here are the lessons we learned from the League Championship Series round about what transpired, and about what could come next.
The bullpens could decide the World Series
The Yankees’ series victory over the Guardians offered two gifts for Yankee fans:
- The club’s first World Series appearance since 2009.
- It reminded everyone just how otherworldly Yankees closer Mariano Rivera was during his career.
Cleveland’s Emmanuel Clase was the best closer on earth in 2024. He finished the regular season with a 0.61 ERA and 47 saves in 74 appearances. His WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) was just 0.659, and he permitted just two homers in 74 ⅓ innings.
But then came this postseason, and Clase allowed eight runs in seven appearances across two series. He gave up more homers in 14 innings — three, including two in Game 3 of the ALCS — than Rivera did in 141 career innings in the postseason.
OK, it’s incredibly unfair to compare anyone to Rivera. But that is the point. Rivera also allowed just 11 earned runs in 96 appearances in his postseason career, three more than Clase yielded this month. Statistically speaking, Rivera never had a single regular season as dominant as Clase’s 2024. But he finished his career with a 0.70 ERA in 141 postseason innings. Nobody has ever been that good when it really counts.
The Yankees’ bullpen, of course, wasn’t perfect in the ALCS, either. It allowed the Guardians to win an epic Game 3 after Clase gave up homers to Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. But the Guardians’ bullpen wobbles might have been the difference in the series.
The Guardians had one of the best bullpens in history during the regular season. But the thing about relievers: they’re incredibly volatile and unpredictable, whether it’s the postseason or the next season.
The Cleveland relievers could not keep up the dominance against the Yankees, and it burned them.
Considering the way bullpens are used in 2024, here is a fairly safe prediction: When the 2024 World Series is over, the club with the best bullpen ERA is likely to be world champion.
The Yankees’ Juan Soto is walking into free agency in style
The Yankees and Dodgers, in case you haven’t heard, boast two of the top payrolls in the game. And while we’re talking about money, Juan Soto is going to make a lot of it. Like maybe half a billion before taxes.
Not bad for an outfielder who will turn 26 on Friday — on the opening day of the World Series.
Yes, 26.
Soto has a career slash line of .285/.421/.532 in seven seasons. He has 201 career homers and a World Series ring, won in 2019 with the Washington Nationals. He has been worth 36.1 WAR, according to Baseball-Reference, which is more than Alex Gordon, Jayson Werth and Shin-Soo Choo, to name three All-Star outfielders.
And after his heroics in Game 5 against the Guardians — a three-run blast that had purists salivating over his ability to spoil pitches against Cleveland’s Hunter Gaddis — Soto is on the verge of heading into free agency with a second championship.
It’s probably not worth playing the “Wait, is he actually underrated?!” game with Soto. He’s widely considered one of the best young hitters in the history of the sport, a modern-day Ted Williams. Still, maybe he’s been so good that he’s still somehow underappreciated?
Consider his postseason numbers after hitting three home runs against the Guardians in the ALCS: Soto is slashing .278/.371/.535 with 10 homers in 168 plate appearances in the playoffs. And if you’re not a Washington Nationals fan, you may have forgotten this: He hit .333/.438/.741 with three homers against the Astros in the 2019 World Series.
Good luck getting this guy out in clutch situations.
Good luck trying to sign him in the offseason.
Depleted Dodgers leaned on their unexpected pitching depth
One by one, the Dodgers pitchers went down. Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Alex Vesia, River Ryan and Gavin Stone to injury. Bobby Miller and James Paxton to ineffectiveness.
The billion-dollar offseason gave way to a postseason that looked bleak. A team at its thinnest at the worst possible time. Staring down the loaded Padres, they found a way. Facing the miracle Mets, they did so again.
Depth is a buzzword in professional sports. But Los Angeles’ lack of it seemingly presented a massive problem for them. Over the last two weeks, however, the players remaining have proven themselves more than capable. Be it Tommy Edman, the NLCS MVP, or Walker Buehler, whose terrible season didn’t carry over into his series-turning Game 3 start.
This is not the roster that Los Angeles thought would carry them to the World Series way back in March. At times it was a Scotch-tape effort, requiring 60 players to maneuver through 162 games.
Even in the NLCS, Freddie Freeman’s ankle made him a shell of his normal self. Teoscar Hernandez started 0-of-18 at the plate, and Will Smith looked lost. Still, the Dodgers scored 46 runs over six games.
Everyone lauded the Dodgers’ offseason, and for good reason. They believed they’d built a team made for the moment that they’re currently in. It’s taken all those players, and evidently, many more than they ever could have imagined.
Can Freddie Freeman get back on the field for the World Series?
The Dodgers are back in the World Series. But will they have the services of first baseman Freeman, one of the best hitters in the sport?
Freeman, who has been playing with a sprained ankle, began Game 6 of the NLCS on the bench after going 1-for-15 with four strikeouts in Games 2, 3 and 5. (He also sat out Game 4.)
The Dodgers managed fine without Freeman in Games 4 and 6, winning both. Max Muncy moved over to first base, and manager Dave Roberts shuffled the lineup around him. That’s the kind of depth they possess. But how will they handle Freeman against the Yankees?
Freeman originally sprained his ankle on Sept. 26. The Dodgers medical staff told him that his injury usually required around four-to-six weeks of recovery. But he returned to action in just eight days.
Freeman now has four days to rest before Game 1 at Dodger Stadium. Four days is also not four weeks.
In his only World Series appearance, Freeman hit .318 (7-for-22) with two homers for the Atlanta Braves in their series victory over the Astros in 2021.
(Top photo of Soto: Luke Hales / Getty Images)
