The highly anticipated 2024 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees is set to kick off tonight at 8:08 pm on FOX. The Yankees, unquestionably the most popular and most successful franchise in Major League Baseball, are making their first World Series appearance since 2009 and the Dodgers have been the most well-run organization in all of baseball for over a decade now.
The two teams also have a ton of stars at their disposal as well — you could make the argument that there will be at least five future Hall-of-Famers facing off in this World Series for at least the next four games. Assuming both teams show up to play with their A-game, this figures to be an extremely exciting series if it does end up living up to the hype.
For now, let’s put the hype aside and try to figure out who’s going to win this thing. We’ve already got an in-depth preview of this World Series that breaks down what each team is about by each position. You should definitely check it out if you haven’t already since it’s really the perfect primer so you won’t be in shock when it comes to what either one of these teams will have going on during the Fall Classic.
With that being said, I still think that it’s a good idea to go a little bit deeper in order to get a closer grasp on what each team will have to offer heading into this World Series. On paper, this is shaping up to be an extremely fascinating matchup. Both teams are essentially in the same neighborhood when it comes to team wRC+ — the Dodgers finished the season as the MLB leader in that particular category with a wRC+ of 118. With that being said, the Yankees ended up as the American League leaders and second place in baseball overall with a team wRC+ of 117. It’s not particularly shocking to see this since both teams have their fair share of big boppers and have kept that up through the Postseason as well.
What makes this series really fascinating will be how the pitching fares. When you compare the two teams’ pitching staffs according to ERA-, FIP- and xFIP-, they’re surprisingly even. The Yankees staff finished with a collective ERA- of 93, FIP- of 96 and a perfectly average xFIP- of 100. Meanwhile, the much-maligned Dodgers staff wasn’t too far behind, as they finished with a 97 ERA-, a 101 FIP- and a 100 xFIP-. The difference lies in who was carrying those numbers, though. New York has the clear edge when it comes to their starting pitching but Los Angeles has the upper hand when it comes to relief pitching in this series. It’s a very interesting contrast of strengths and weaknesses for these two clubs — especially when it comes to their pitching,
Speaking of strengths and weaknesses, this is where I figured that it would be best to ask a couple of writers who I figure know these two teams like the back of their hands. Of course, I’m talking about Pinstripe Alley managing editor Andrew Mearns and True Blue LA managing editor Eric Stephen. Both of them were nice enough to oblige me when I asked a very simple question: What do you think is your team’s singular biggest strength and weakness?
Here’s what Eric had to say about what he feels has been the strength for the Dodgers here in 2024.
Eric Stephen on the Dodgers’ singular best strength:
Their offense is their best strength (narrowly over the bullpen), even if Freddie Freeman isn’t at 100%. Since Max Muncy returned from the injured list and Tommy Edman was activated in mid-August, they’ve had basically a complete, fully-functional lineup from top to bottom.
Tommy Edman has also been activated in more ways than one, as he ended up being the one to take home the NLCS MVP hardware — which is very impressive when you look at all the superstars on this team.
With that being said, the Yankees themselves have a ton of star power and he feels that that’ll be the key factor for them as far as their strength goes heading into this World Series.
Andrew Mearns on the Yankees’ singular best strength:
The Yankees’ biggest strength is their pure star power. Cream rises to the top, and the Yankees’ best also happens to be right there among the league’s best. Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton just showed what happens when two of the Yankees’ most dangerous hitters are playing at the peak of their abilities, and the Guardians didn’t have an answer. Gerrit Cole has taken control of past playoff series by himself from a starting pitching perspective too, and Carlos Rodón smoothly set the pace in his ALCS opener.
Oh, and if Aaron Judge really gets going … well, he can singlehandedly drag teams across the finish line too, like he did when New York was falling apart in the second half of the 2022 regular season. The Astros have demonstrated that it is possible to hold enough of the stars at bay while also subduing the supporting cast to beat this generation of Yankees in October (albeit teams without Soto), but it’s going to be a tall task for the Dodgers. Cleveland had an incredible bullpen and the Yankees’ best players eventually got to them, too.
Emmanuel Clase can probably tell anybody first hand what this New York lineup can do to even the best relievers that baseball has to offer. This could also be what helps put the Yankees on top of the baseball mountain for the first time since 2009 since LA’s rotation is going to have a whale of a task on their hands when it comes to stopping the likes of Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.
It’ll be an especially rough task since the Dodgers have been having issues with their rotation all season and as it turns out, this will probably be their biggest weakness coming into this World Series.
Eric Stephen explains what LA’s biggest weakness is:
The rotation is the biggest worry spot, and not just they only have three starters. Jack Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Walker Buehler are hit or miss right now. Even though Buehler and Yamamoto did very well in their starts against the Mets, they combined for one out in the fifth inning. They are asking a lot out of a deep and excellent bullpen. But so far it’s worked.
Again, I mentioned earlier that the bullpen has certainly been carrying the load for Los Angeles so far. It’s to the point where the Dodgers getting early leads in this series may be crucial for them since they may be better equipped to hold on to those leads. It’s a tough task for any team at this point with the way New York’s top sluggers are swinging the bat but if there was ever a time to live up to the moment, it’s now.
Speaking of living up to the moment, that’s been an issue for some of the Yankees players outside of their dynamic and gigantic duo. Andrew mentioned that some of the newcomers to October baseball haven’t exactly been hitting the ground running in this new territory,
Andrew Mearns explains what New York’s biggest weakness is:
The Yankees’ biggest weakness is that the playoff newcomers haven’t really shown their mettle yet. The one notable exception is Anthony Volpe, who has been reaching base more often than even Soto, and that’s not nothing. However, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Austin Wells have looked lost at the plate, meaning that the door is currently open for the Dodgers to pitch around the elite to take their chances on them instead (or perhaps Three-Finger Rizzo and the generally disappointing Alex Verdugo).
Also, Clarke Schmidt and Luis Gil were fine in their starts, but the Yankees’ advantage in the back of the rotation (as in they actually have a fourth starter) probably shouldn’t be overstated too much. For Gil in particular, the top hitters should be able to wait him out since he walks so many.
As a result of this input, I’m really starting to get the feeling that this series might be decided by who has the most quality in their depth. If this is a series that goes long and ends up with neither team’s superstars going into superhero mode in order to save the day for their respective club, we could see someone on the margins ending up becoming an unexpected World Series hero. Really, it would be the most baseball thing imaginable for this series filled with All-Stars and future Hall-of-Famers to be decided by someone who bats seventh or eighth in any respective lineup.
With that being said, both of these teams are indeed very deep and it’s hard to find any glaring weaknesses here — there’s a reason why both of these teams ended up with the best regular season record in their respective leagues, after all. Still, this is October and in October, pitching matters. While the Yankees may have the edge when it comes to their rotation, the Dodgers have been able to get away with leaning on their bullpen here in October and that might be the edge for Los Angeles. If this comes down to a situation where it’s all hands on deck as far as pitching is concerned, that might be where the Dodgers have their edge so that’s why I’ll go with Dodgers in 7.
If this series does go seven games, you’ll probably see Commissioner of Baseball Rob Manfred skipping around the trophy presentation stage like certain billionaires like to do nowadays. It’d be hard to blame him, as a long and competitive series with exciting games would be a boon to Major League Baseball and great for the sport in general. That’s a dream scenario for a lot of neutral fans (assuming you’re not going into this from the perspective of being a pure hater (which is still fun!)) and it’s certainly fun to dream, right? Let’s enjoy this World Series, y’all.
