The Los Angeles Dodgers have won the 2024 World Series. Coming into this season the Dodgers were the favorites to win due to a very busy offseason. The Dodgers spent over 1 billion dollars on free agency talent, bringing in the talent of Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez, and Yoshinobu Yamamato. Yamatao and Ohtani combined for over a billion dollars in their contracts. The Dodgers also traded for superstar Tyler Glasnow in that offseason and then gave him a 136.5 million dollar extension. This was a historic offseason for the Dodgers and now it has officially paid off. Also the Dodgers had a very busy trade deadline during the season. They added Tommy Edman, Michael Kopech, and Jack Flaherty who all played roles in the postseason.
The Dodgers beat the Yankees with ease in a five game series. The Dodgers took a 3-0 lead and then gave up a win, but came back to win game five for the series. The Dodgers had a lot of injuries leading up to this series especially on the pitching side. Sheehan, May, Glasnow, Stone, Gonsolin, and Kershaw were all out for the entire postseason. Also Ohtani didn't pitch at all either this season. This makes this run so much more special because the Dodgers pitching was amazing this postseason and even tied the record for consecutive scoreless innings with 33. This makes the Dodgers rotation a lot more scarier for next season when these guys come back healthy. Overall this pitching performance carried the Dodgers to the World Series and played well against the Yankees.
Moving on to the hitting side of things Freddie Freeman had a historic performance. Freeman won the World Series MVP for good reason. Freeman was the first player to hit a home run in the first 4 games for the World Series. Freeman finished with an OPS of 1.364, 4 home runs, and 12 RBI’s in just 5 games. Tommy Edman was their next best hitter with a .988 OPS and led the team in runs scored with 6.
For the Dodgers they finally get an official World Series. The Dodgers have been known to always choke in the playoffs, but not this year. A lot of fans also like to say the 2020 World Series doesn't count, just because of Covid. And to be fair to that point there were no fans, the season was very short, and many players opted out to play that season. So this World Series win solidifies the Dodgers post season presence now.
For the Yankees this could be worrisome, but overall I think this series is more of a positive for them. The Yankees had a great postseason, just not in the World Series. After the World Series we saw Gerrit Cole opt out of his contract this offseason. Cole is the best pitcher in this rotation and had an amazing World Series. There’s two ways to look at this one being panic. Cole had a great outing but lost in the World Series due to incredibly bad defense, which can be super frustrating for a pitcher. However I don't think Yankee fans should be panicking. The contract is structured if Cole were to opt out of his contract the Yankees have the option to pick him back up but they have to pay Cole an extra 36 million for another season on top of his contract. I think Cole wants to be a Yankee and he knows that they will give him the extra year. For Juan Soto this was close to the best case scenario for the Yankees. A World Series appearance is huge and hopefully it will lead to an extension with the Yankees. If Soto leaves I’m not sure how competitive this Yankees team is, he definitely carried them to the World Series and Judge did not help all that much. With the success Soto had in the regular season, and what he did in the postseason, I have no reason to believe that Soto will leave in free agency.
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