There is no question who is David and who is Goliath in the 2025 World Series.
Even though the upstart Toronto Blue Jays finished with one more regular-season win and thus possess home-field advantage in this Fall Classic, they enter as big underdogs to the loaded Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodgers boast four aces, three Cooperstown-bound hitters and the one and only Shohei Ohtani.
They have the most expensive team in MLB history.
They are the defending champions.
Just don’t tell that to the Blue Jays, who, too, have flexed their offensive might and repeatedly risen to the occasion throughout their October run.
“Every game is a challenge. Every series is a challenge,” said Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. “I know they have great players. So do we.”
It will all be decided on the field, beginning with Game 1 on Friday night at Toronto’s Rogers Centre.
Here is what to watch for in the 121st edition of the World Series.
SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE
In baseball’s equivalent of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, this World Series features the Dodgers’ dominant pitching against Toronto’s red-hot hitting.
The Dodgers are fresh off of an NLCS sweep in which they held the MLB-best Milwaukee Brewers to exactly one run in each of the four games.
Los Angeles’ rotation of Blake Snell (0.86 ERA), Yoshinobu Yamamoto (1.83 ERA), Tyler Glasnow (0.68 ERA) and Ohtani (2.25 ERA) has been the catalyst. In all but one of their 10 playoff games, the Dodgers have received at least 5.2 innings from their starter. They are 9-0 in those games.
Overall, Los Angeles is allowing just 2.8 runs per game in the playoffs.
But the Dodgers are yet to face an offense like that of the Blue Jays, who are averaging 6.5 runs per game and totaled 20 home runs and only 64 strikeouts through 11 playoff games.
Guerrero has the best average (.442), the most home runs (six) and the highest OPS (1.440) this postseason of anyone in the World Series, but he’s not doing it alone for Toronto.
Ernie Clement (1.063 OPS), George Springer (.930), Addison Barger (.889) and Dalton Varsho (.804) are all having strong postseasons, while All-Star shortstop Bo Bichette plans to return after missing the ALDS and ALCS with a knee injury.
The balance and platoon-ability of the Jays’ lineup should create an advantage if it can get a few cracks at the Los Angeles bullpen, which remains the Dodgers’ biggest weakness even with starter-by-trade Roki Sasaki excelling in the closer role.
ROOKIE RISING
The man tasked with setting the tone for Toronto is 22-year-old Trey Yesavage.
The rookie right-hander is the Blue Jays’ Game 1 starter in what will be only his seventh MLB appearance.
Yesavage, who began the season at Single-A, has been a revelation in the playoffs, striking out 22 in 15 innings over three starts.
He has a 4.20 ERA in the playoffs, but Yesavage’s disarmingly high release point and devastating splitter could prove tricky for Dodgers hitters facing the phenom for the first time.
Snell is set to start Game 1 for Los Angeles, followed by Yamamoto in Game 2.
Starting pitching is where the Dodgers have the clear edge, but beyond Yesavage, the Blue Jays’ staff is highly battle-tested.
Kevin Gausman (2-1, 2.00 ERA) pitched an inning in relief on Monday in the Blue Jays’ ALCS Game 7 win over Seattle but had started Game 1 in the Blue Jays’ previous two series.
Shane Bieber (4.38 ERA in three starts) and Max Scherzer (two earned runs in 5.2 innings in his only start) rounded out the ALCS rotation, though the 41-year-old Scherzer was left off of the ALDS roster as the Blue Jays deployed a bullpen game against the Yankees.
The Dodgers, conversely, were able to set their rotation after clinching the NLCS last Friday.
“I do see it as a positive in terms of being able to rest, both as a position player and as a pitcher,” Ohtani said. “We’ve had some off days, but we’ve played some very meaningful games that were very stressful. I think it’s going to be really important for us to be able to have that kind of game edge.”
SHO TIME
Whether you love or loathe the Dodgers, there is simply no denying Ohtani’s greatness.
He capped the NLCS with perhaps the most impressive single-game performance in playoff history, slugging three home runs as a hitter while hurling six shutout innings with 10 strikeouts as a pitcher in Game 4.
Now, Ohtani returns to a World Series stage where he struggled last year, though he was hampered by a shoulder injury that he suffered in Game 2 and that ultimately required surgery.
Ohtani finished 2-for-19 without a home run in last year’s World Series, and he didn’t pitch as he recovered from 2023 elbow surgery. It’s hard to imagine a similar stat line this year.
There’s also a major “what could have been” element to this World Series.
The Blue Jays heavily pursued Ohtani during his 2023 free agency — so much so that erroneous rumors claiming the slugger was on a flight to Toronto dominated headlines for a few hours.
Instead, Ohtani signed a significantly deferred 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers, while the Blue Jays later extended Guerrero on a 14-year, $500 million pact.
BASEBALL’S VILLAIN
There’s been no shortage of hand-wringing about the Dodgers’ unprecedented $350 million payroll; the spending sprees that brought them Ohtani, Yamamoto and Snell; their deferral of more than $1 billion owed to players; or how their superteam might be ruining baseball.
But nothing would elevate the Dodgers’ villain status more than winning another championship on top of all that.
After defeating the Yankees in five games in last year’s World Series, the Dodgers are trying to become the first MLB team to repeat as champions since the Yankees from 1998-2000.
Core players including Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Yamamoto were part of last year’s title team, but Snell and Sasaki were not, while Glasnow was injured for the entirety of the run.
“I don’t think what we did last year has any bearing on this year,” manager Dave Roberts said. “There’s a lot of guys in that room that weren’t a part of last year’s team. We want to win this year. We want to win for the 2025 team and let people talk about all that other stuff afterward.”
A championship would be the Dodgers’ third in six years, as they also won the neutral-site World Series after the COVID-shortened 2020 season.
It would be the Dodgers’ ninth championship overall.
“To get to where you want to go, you’ve got to beat the best. Whether it’s talent, payroll, whatever you want to call it, man, they’re a damn good team,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.
“They’ve got a Hall of Famers … [at the] top of their lineup. And they got really, really good starting pitching and really good relievers. So I truly think that the best two teams are left standing for a variety of different reasons, and I’ll never count my guys out of any series.”
O CANADA
The Blue Jays, meanwhile, are chasing a very different type of history.
They are back in the World Series for the first time since winning it all in 1993.
Back then, the Montreal Expos still existed. Now, the Blue Jays are Canada’s only team and carry the hopes of an entire nation on their shoulders.
“When you know you represent a country, you want to give everything you have for your country,” said Guerrero, a Canadian citizen who was born in Montreal during his father’s stint with Expos. “I mean, you feel proud of it. You feel very proud of it, and you want to continue.”
