What We Discovered From Los Angeles Dodgers World Collection Victory

Due to the best World Collection-clinching comeback in historical past Wednesday night time, the Los Angeles Dodgers had been capable of spend Friday celebrating as an alternative of getting ready for a pressure-packed Recreation 6 towards the New York Yankees. 

As baseball’s winter begins, right here’s 4 takeaways from the Dodgers’ eighth title.

1. The Dodgers are the most effective group in baseball.

And this could be the case even when the Yankees received the World Collection. The Dodgers have made the playoffs 12 straight years, a span wherein they’ve received 1,129 common season video games as a entrance workplace run by former Tampa Bay Rays normal supervisor Andrew Friedman has constructed a crew that’s remarkably deep past its Hollywood-worthy superstars. 

The Dodgers’ 26-man World Collection roster consists of big-ticket free brokers Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who shall be paid greater than $1.1 BILLION {dollars} by the membership, in addition to Mookie Betts, who signed a 12-year extension value $365 million shortly after the Crimson Sox misplaced their minds in 2020 and dealt him to Los Angeles in alternate for a bundle that included Alex Verdugo, who made the final out of the World Collection.

However the World Collection roster additionally featured eight different gamers acquired by way of commerce, seven gamers signed to smaller free agent offers (together with Max Muncy, obtained as a minor league free agent in 2017 following two middling seasons with the Oakland Athletics) 5 gamers drafted by the crew throughout the first 5 rounds.

The July offers for Jack Flaherty (who threw a team-high 22 innings within the postseason), Michael Kopech (a 3.00 ERA in 9 layoff innings) and Tommy Edman (the NLCS MVP) additionally paid October dividends. 

In different phrases: Probably the most scary factor about these powerhouse Dodgers is that they’re not only a byproduct of an limitless payroll.

2. However a dynasty could also be unimaginable within the days of the expanded postseason.

That is simply the Dodgers’ second title within the final 12 years, so no person must remind them of the randomness of a event that’s turning into baseball’s model of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The 1998-2000 Yankees had been the final crew to win at the least two straight championships.

 Whereas the Dodgers dominated the New York groups within the ultimate two rounds, their playoff run was at risk of ending within the NLDS for a 3rd straight season when the Dodgers fell behind the Padres two video games to at least one with a bullpen sport looming in Recreation 4. The narrative can be a lot completely different at the moment if San Diego received another sport.

“It’s onerous to win a championship no matter what your crew is like,” supervisor Dave Roberts stated following Recreation 5. “There’s a cause why there hasn’t been a repeat champion because the Yankees did it. It clearly speaks to the issue — the playoff format, all that stuff.”

3. Roberts is on a Corridor of Fame monitor.

With the aforementioned limitless payroll creating sky-high expectations and the function of Friedman’s workers in establishing analytically pleasant sport plans, Roberts’ job is a thankless one wherein he’s the simplest man guilty if issues go mistaken and the final individual to get credit score for the Dodgers’ success.

However Roberts is one title away from changing into a Corridor of Fame lock — each Corridor-eligible supervisor with three championships has earned enshrinement — and proved greater than worthy of Cooperstown consideration in October. 

He preserved the Dodgers’ bullpen by punting the 2 losses to the Mets within the NLCS and displayed his means to handle on the fly in Wednesday night time’s World Collection clincher. When Flaherty was chased after recording simply 4 outs, Roberts used his excessive leverage guys to maintain them sharp for a possible Recreation 6 earlier than he ramped up the urgency after the Dodgers tied the sport towards the Dangerous Information Bears Yankees within the fifth inning.

Blake Treinen tossed 2 2/3 innings — his longest outing since 2016 — to earn the win earlier than Walker Buehler, a two-time Tommy John survivor headed totally free company, recorded his first huge league save with an ideal ninth and made it way more seemingly that Roberts will sometime be part of Betts, Freeman and Ohtani in Cooperstown.

4. In terms of roster building, the Yankees may study a factor or two from the Dodgers.

Whereas Friedman builds a powerhouse across the Dodgers’ big-name gamers. Brian Cashman has constructed a top-heavy crew that grows very skinny very quick behind the Corridor of Fame-track trio of Aaron Choose, Juan Soto and Gerrit Cole. 

Gamers not named Choose or Soto batted .233 with 138 homers and 882 RBIs this season. And whereas the Yankees had been capable of simply make the playoffs regardless of the first-half absence of Cole, their non-Cole starters posted a 5.73 ERA within the postseason, together with an 11.90 mark within the World Collection. 

The ceiling for these Cashman-constructed groups has develop into clear for the Yankees, who’ve received eight postseason collection since 2017 — seven towards AL Central foes and one towards the Oakland Athletics. They’ve been eradicated by the eventual World Collection champions 4 occasions and by the AL pennant winner two different occasions in that span. That ceiling grows so much shorter if Cashman isn’t capable of re-sign Soto and prolong Cole, who can decide out of the ultimate 4 years of his deal.