The noise the New York Yankees made in Game 4 to avoid the sweep in the World Series was just that — noise. The Los Angeles Dodgers were the best team in baseball for all of 2024, and they were the best team through October, winning their eighth World Series in Wednesday night’s Game 5.
“We’re going to celebrate this for a long time, because it is just hard to do in this game – to win championships,” said World Series MVP Freddie Freeman. “With this group of guys, we get to have a parade finally for L.A.”
With 98 regular season wins, baseball’s first 50/50 player in Shohei Ohtani, and an 11-5 record in the postseason, it sounds like it was easy for the Dodgers. But this team used 17 different starting pitchers in 2024, and the projected rotation in March saw only Tyler Glasnow and Gavin Stone start as many as 20 games. By the time the postseason rolled around, neither of those two players were active.
This was a great team, with great performances from its former league MVPs. Ohtani is going to win the National League MVP for this season when it is announced by Major League Baseball on November 21. Betts missed significant time in the regular season, but he led the Dodgers with 16 postseason RBI, and Freeman won his World Series MVP on the strength of four home runs and 12 RBI.
The end to the season is especially gratifying for Freeman. He missed eight games in the middle of the summer to be with his son Max, who was battling Guillain-Barré syndrome. Then he hurt his ankle in late September and struggled to stay on the field. Max is working his way to a full recovery, Freddie’s ankle held up, and for the second time in four years, he is a World Series champion.
This was a great team, but it also required the best job of Dave Roberts’ nine seasons as the Dodgers manager. It required impactful moves at the trade deadline – Game 1 and Game 5 starter Jack Flaherty and NLCS MVP Tommy Edman came to L.A. in July. And it required a five-run comeback win to clinch the series at Yankee Stadium. Of the 234 teams that have trailed in the World Series by at least five runs, only seven have come back to win.
Dodgers 2025 World Series Favorites
Freddie Freeman is 35, Mookie Betts is 32, and Shohei Ohtani is 30. But all of them are under contract, and at least in the case of Ohtani, he is expected to be an even bigger asset for the Dodgers in 2025. L.A.’s biggest problem was their starting rotation this season, and Ohtani will be pitching again next year. In 86 career starts, he has an ERA of 3.01 with 11.4 strikeouts per nine innings. National League Cy Young favorite Chris Sale had an ERA of 2.38 while averaging 11.4 strikeouts per nine innings.
Walker Buehler, who recorded his first career save in Game 5 of the World Series, will also begin the season healthy. This year, he was recovering from Tommy John surgery, and was limited to just 16 starts.
With the team they have, and the money they are willing to spend in the off-season to get even better, the Dodgers are +400 betting favorites to win the 2025 World Series.
Yankees 2025 Outlook
The Yankees are the second betting favorite to win the 2025 World Series at +700, but their future is far more volatile than L.A.’s. The Yankees face the possible loss of outfielder Juan Soto to free agency, as well as infielder Gleyber Torres. New York is the favorite to re-sign Soto, with odds of +275. But behind them at +450 are the Dodgers. The New York Mets are +500 and the Philadelphia Phillies are +900.
The Yankees also have some clear deficiencies throughout their lineup. They are great at hitting home runs (1st in Major League Baseball in 2024), but they ranked 25th in fielding percentage, and they had the seventh-most errors in 2024. It was two errors in the fifth inning that led to five unearned runs for the Dodgers, allowing them to come back from the five-run deficit.
New York ranked 14th in quality starts, they were 10th in blown saves, and 24th in stolen bases. They also have the Baltimore Orioles nipping at their heels in the American League East.
Other World Series Favorites
Sitting behind the Dodgers and Yankees with the best odds for a 2025 World Series win are the Atlanta Braves at +750. The Philadelphia Phillies are +1000, those Orioles are +1100, and the Houston Astros are +1300.
National League Championship Series participant the New York Mets are +1400, and the San Diego Padres, who lost to the Dodgers in the Division Series, are +1500. The Cleveland Guardians, who lost to the Yankees in the American League Championship Series, are down the board at +2800. The Kansas City Royals, losers to the Yankees in the Division Series, are +4000.
With over 25 years of experience as a distinguished sports writer for renowned platforms such as Fox Sports and ESPN, Kyle Garlett is a sports betting specialist who has been at the forefront of documenting the global surge in sports betting and online gaming. Based in Denver, Colorado, Kyle hosts an NFL betting YouTube show and podcast. Kyle also has two sports books published by HarperCollins.
Kyle graduated the Azusa Pacific University in 1996 with a B.A. Degree in Communication and Journalism.
