The reigning champions of the 2024-25 MLB season have taken the crown for the second consecutive year, taking the World Series title, and shattering the dreams of the Toronto Blue Jays in an electrifying, yet suspenseful game 7 that went 11 innings. The Dodgers are the first team in 25 years to win the championship back-to-back, as well as the first franchise in history to have three Japanese players rostered successfully winning the World Series. (Ohtani, Yamamoto, Sasaki)
At the heart of the diamond, Yoshinobu Yamamoto put on a remarkable performance delivering 96 total pitches which his teammates would agree that Yamamoto pitched one of the best games of his entire career. Despite having Bo Bichette crack a homer which brought Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer in with a statement stomp on home plate to score in the bottom of the 3rd inning, Yamamoto kept all other Blue Jays at bay from going yard.
By time the 8th inning rolled around, that is when the Dodgers brought out the lumber that completely shifted the momentum in their favor. Top of the 8th inning, Max Muncy homered to right field. Top of the 9th inning Miguel Rojas homered to left field. Top of the 11th inning, Will Smith decided to get jiggy with it and sent a homer to left field again which was the game winning homerun.
Will Smith ended another historical season on top and became the first player in history to have won the World Series 6 years in a row with 4 different teams (Dodgers, Braves, Astros, Rangers) and will now be his third with the LA Dodgers. Will has had a ton of fans watching him perform in the World Series over the years, but this time around there were 51 million viewers tuned in, which made this World Series the most watched game since 1991.
An astronomical amount of money is on the table involving a handful of key players, mainly the pitchers, which led the Dodgers to invest $1.3 million in order to maintain their spot as the World Series Champions.
Shohei Ohtani – $700,000,000
Yoshinobu Yamamoto – $325,000,000
Blake Snell – $182,000,000
Tyler Glasnow – $137,000,000
The investment for Shohei Ohtani has paid dividends for LA. The Dodgers have already recouped Ohtani’s contract, and now the value of the LA Dodgers organization has grown in value by $2,000,000,000 since all four pitchers have been signed. The lucrative deals that were set in place indubitably won the Dodgers two World Series titles, and will keep them at the forefront with the possibility of a third consecutive run for the 2025-26 World Series Championship.
Dante Robinson | Senior MLB Analyst for The NSR Network
