Historic spending helps Dodgers reach World Series
The Los Angeles Dodgers finished the 2024 regular season with the best record in Major League Baseball (MLB) at 98-64, and booked themselves a trip to the World Series after the most expensive spending spree in the team's history.
As of Dec. 22, 2023, 29 of the MLB's 30 teams had spent a total of $876 million during free agency. The Dodgers had spent $1.053 billion, making global headlines by signing Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani from the Angels to a 10 year, $700 million contract. Following the signing, the Dodgers shot up the power rankings and became heavy favorites to win the World Series in 2024. Many even tipped them to finish with the best record in MLB history. While they came up short of the record, their 98 wins and 64 losses earned the Dodgers the one seed going into the playoffs. Despite the team's success, fans weren’t ready to bask in these accomplishments just yet, including Javier Mata (’25).
"This season is a minor success as of right now, only because the Dodgers are the last one still standing from the National League West in the playoffs,” Mata said. “Including injuries, the standards that I had set for this team were met, but overall I wouldn't say they have succeeded. History was proven again in terms of injuries.”
To the neutrals this fan criticism may seem harsh, but the Dodgers road to the first seed didn’t come without its struggles. All of their big-money moves created a top-heavy lineup, and the combination of players who hit in the 6-9 positions produced less than a third of the team's home runs and RBIs as a result. Moreover, a barrage of injuries left their pitching staff depleted. Clayton Kershaw only managed 5 games, and rising stars like Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin missed the entire season. Even those who were brought in to compensate, like Tyler Glasnow and Gavin Stone, suffered season-ending injuries. These issues resulted in large patches of inconsistency for the Dodgers. Despite these rough patches, Ohtani was able to stand out as one of the league's top performers.
Art by Kayman Mangan
Though unable to pitch due to an elbow injury, Ohtani had the most productive offensive season of his career. With 54 home runs, 130 RBIs and a .310 batting average during the regular season, he is predicted to become National League MVP. Ohtani made history on Sept. 19, becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season, capping off his historic year. Isaac Kaiser (’27) considers Ohtani's season to be one of the best in the history of baseball.
“In my opinion [Ohtani] is the greatest player of all time, or at least in the past 100 years,” Kaiser said. “He’s a key factor of where we are right now, and he’s had a big impact setting the record with all the home runs. His 50/50 game is one of the greatest games of all time. Three home runs, 10 RBIs, six for six… I don’t think that record is getting broken - without steroids there’s just no way, nobody has that much power.”
The Dodgers’ reward for earning the 1st seed was a best-of-three series against the San Diego Padres, the team that beat them 3-1 in the NLDS two years prior. In game one, Ohtani continued his impressive run of form on the big stage, hitting a three-run home run in his first ever playoff game to lead the Dodgers to a 7-5 victory. The Padres stormed back to win games two and three, and the Dodgers saw themselves in the same deficit they faced two years prior. This time the Dodgers dug deep, winning both of the final games in shutout fashion to launch themselves into the next round. This stretch of games saw their injury-riddled pitching staff perform better than they had all season, tying the postseason record with 33 straight innings without allowing a run.
The next task at hand was a seven game series against the New York Mets, and the Dodgers continued to display their dominant pitching during a 9-0 victory in game one. A loss in game two saw the Dodgers come back to reality, but once again the setback added fuel to the fire. The Dodgers offense ignited, scoring 34 runs through the last four games to win the series 4-2. Consistent performances from the likes of Kiké Hernandez and midseason signing Tommy Edman, who ended up winning NLCS MVP, saw the back half of their lineup come alive at the perfect time. The Dodgers managed to break the all time record for the most runs in a series, with 46 scored across their six games against the Mets. Now, Los Angeles faces off with the other side of New York in a World Series matchup with the Yankees.
In game one of the World Series, Freddie Freeman stole the headlines with a walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning. The Dodgers overcame Ohtani’s injury scare to win 4-2 in game two, and a second successive 4-2 win for the Dodgers in game three saw them one win away from sweeping the series. In game four the Yankees finally found a spark, surging to an 11-4 victory. In game five the Yankees will be looking to build on their momentum, while the Dodgers are aiming to wake up on Halloween as World Series champions.