MLB Gets Dream Matchup: Dodgers-Yanks in World Series

LOS ANGELES—Major League Baseball and its broadcast partners have exactly what they want in the upcoming World Series: the New York Yankees vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The biggest TV markets on the East Coast vs. the biggest on the West Coast.

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Aaron Judge vs. Shohei Ohtani, the game’s two biggest stars, both presumptive league MVPs, who will grace the Fall Classic for the first time.

“I really feel like we finally arrived, I finally arrived at this stage,” Ohtani said Sunday night at Dodger Stadium.

The clubs are the two top-priced teams, according to Sportico’s own most recent valuations. They are among the top revenue generators and biggest spenders.

To get to the best-of-seven World Series beginning Friday evening at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers eliminated the New York Mets, 10-5, in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series on Sunday, using an opener and six relievers. The Yankees had previously defeated Cleveland in Game 5 on Saturday night to wrap up the American League championship.

The Yankees are going to the World Series for the 41st time and have won 27 of them. The Dodgers have won it all six times. It’s the 12th time the Yanks will be facing the Dodgers in the World Series, but first since 1981. New York has won eight of the first 11 between the two teams.

Mark Walter and Guggenheim Baseball bought the Dodgers from Frank McCourt in 2012 for $2.15 billion. The club is worth $6.3 billion now, second in Major League Baseball behind the Yanks at $7.93 billion. The Mets team they beat is worth $2.91 billion.

“This feels great, but we still need four more wins,” Walter said on the field at Dodger Stadium after accepting the Warren Giles Trophy for winning the NL pennant.

The club’s value has increased by 20% just since 2023 when they generated a second-in-MLB $637 million in revenue, again just behind the Yankees, who earned $720 million.

Both teams spared little expense to get this far. The Dodgers spent $339.8 million on player payroll this season, second in MLB and about $11 million behind the top-spending Mets. The Yankees were third at $314.7 million.

In the offseason, LA spent $1.025 billion sign on free agents Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Ohtani for 10 years at $700 million with $680 million of it deferred, Yamamoto for 12 years at $325 million.

“The goal was to get this far,” Ohtani said. “And I also pictured myself getting this far with the contract that I signed. … All the games were really hard. But I’m just glad that we’re there now.”

Walter is content with the investment. “We’ve been a good team,” Walter said. “We’ve won four pennants in eight years, which is all you can hope for.”

Well, you can hope to win the World Series. The Dodgers lost to the Houston Astros in a seven-game 2017 World Series that was ultimately tainted by the Houston sign-stealing scandal. They dropped a five-game series in 2018 to the Boston Red Sox. When they finally won, it was in six games over the Tampa Bay Rays in the Globe Life Field bubble that concluded the COVID-shortened 60-game 2020 regular season.

The Dodgers celebrated the victory on a neutral field and weren’t able to have a parade in downtown Los Angeles because of health and safety restrictions.

If they defeat the Yankees, whose last World Series victory was in 2009, that wouldn’t be the case.

“We’d like to,” Walter said. “The fans definitely deserve it. We’ve always been knocking on the door, so it’s time.”

The last time the Dodgers celebrated winning a playoff series on their own Dodger Stadium turf before Sunday night was 1988, when they defeated the Mets in a seven-game NLCS.

Orel Hershiser defeated Ron Darling, 6-0, in Game 7. In the antithesis of Sunday night’s LA bullpen game, Hershiser pitched the full nine innings.

In these playoffs, the Dodger starters have averaged 3.4 innings over the first 12 games. Against the Yankees, it’s not going to get appreciably better.

The fact that the Dodgers eliminated the San Diego Padres and the Mets in their first two playoff rounds with only three viable starters—Yamamoto, Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler—is a testament to how well the bullpen has pitched.

Walter said he credited manager Dave Roberts for working through all the pitching and injury problems. Star first baseman Freddie Freeman, for instance, wasn’t in the lineup Sunday and has missed two of the past three games because of a high right ankle sprain.

Roberts has been at the helm for all four forays into the World Series under Walter’s watch. “Working the bullpen the way he has has been fantastic,” Walter said of Roberts. “He’s been great, but really, the whole team and the staff have been great. We’re super proud of them, but we have more work to do. We didn’t come here to win the pennant. We came here to win the World Series.”

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