MLB Playoff Takeaways: World Series

Photo by Kevin Sousa from Imagn Images

What. A. Series.

Let’s just dive right in.

Dodgers defeat Blue Jays 4-3

The discussion about the Los Angeles Dodgers in the grand scheme of baseball is a nuanced one.

It’s not the Dodgers fault that the Braves didn’t want to pay Freddie Freeman, or that the Red Sox didn’t want to pay Mookie Betts, or that the Rays didn’t want to pay Tyler Glasnow.

That’s on the other owners for seeing profit margins as more important than a winning baseball team.

However, it is very annoying that all of those guys, as well as other free agents, keep picking the Dodgers.

And while that’s a huge part of the Dodgers success, and it may not be fair, it’s no different to the late 90’s-early 2000’s, New York Yankees, and the Yankees haven’t been anywhere near that dominance for a while now.

And there’s a big reason for that.

Sure, the Yankees had tons of money. They could get superstar talents like Roger Clemens and Tito Martinez.

But Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte, and Derek Jeter were all drafted or signed by the Yankees as young talents.

The Yankees had discovered and developed talented players, and then added superstars to go along with it.

Since then, that development has cratered compared to what it was, so the super signings don’t make as much of a difference.

And that brings us to the Dodgers.

They don’t have the exact home grown talent that the Yankees do, but they aren’t just their superstars, and that was shown all series long.

Game 3, the 18 inning classic, was won because of relief pitcher Will Klein’s excellent performance, as well as legend and future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw getting out of a bases loaded jam.

And game 7 was won thanks to Max Muncy, signed at a young age after the Athletics released him, hitting a home run in the 8th to cut the lead down to one.

Thanks to Miguel Rojas, signed years ago as a depth piece, hitting the game tying home run in the 9th inning and later gunning down the possible winning run at home in the bottom of the 9th.

Thanks to Andy Pages, signed by the Dodgers out of Cuba, making an incredible catch to keep the Dodgers season alive.

And thanks to Will Smith, drafted by the Dodgers out of college, hitting the game winning home run in the 11th.

Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Yoshinobu Yamamoto? They’re all amazing, they had great series, and they’re a huge reason for the Dodgers success, and everyone’s anger surrounding their success.

But they’re not the sole reason, and pretending that it is is unfair to the Dodgers who have done a great job finding support talent, and developing talent of their own, which is a huge factor in the fact that they’ve won their third World Series title this decade.

So congratulations to the Los Angeles Dodgers, commiseration's to the Toronto Blue Jays, and we’ll see where baseball goes in 2027 thanks to the Dodgers successfully “ruining baseball.”

I’m not sure where it goes from here, nor do I have any ideas of how to even the gap between the big spenders and those owners that refuse to spend, but whatever it is, I don’t think it’s going to make the Dodgers disappear.

Good organizations keep finding a way to win, and that’s what the Dodgers are.