The two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers have once again punched their ticket to the postseason, joining the Brewers on the National League side of the bracket. They clinched a berth by virtue of a victory over the Reds Monday night, 4-1. It marked their 91st win of the season.
This isn't a surprise. The Dodgers came into the season as the favorites to win the World Series (and they still are). They have the top payroll in baseball. They have three different former MVP winners and we'll get to the pitching staff in a second. They have now made the playoffs for 14 straight seasons, tying the Braves' all-time record (1991-2005). When the Dodgers clinch the NL West, it'll be their 13th title in the last 14 years. The one time they didn't win the NL West in that span was 2021, when they won 106 games and then beat the 107-win Giants in the playoffs. In this run, they've won five NL pennants and three World Series.
There might be some debate as to whether these Dodgers are a dynasty with back-to-back titles and three in six years, but a World Series title this season would 100% cement them as a dynasty with a threepeat and four rings in seven years. No team has pulled off a threepeat since the 1998-2000 Yankees and only three other groups in history have pulled it off (two other Yankees dynasties and the 1972-74 Athletics).
The Dodgers still have a shot at a first-round bye, though they might not be the No. 1 seed. It doesn't much matter. They won the World Series from the No. 1 overall seed in 2024 and took the crown in 2025 as the three seed in the NL and having to play in the Wild Card Series. They've also been swept in the NLDS as the one seed.
Other than "they are loaded," here's why the Dodgers can threepeat:
1. The stable of aces
The rotation in 2024 wasn't in great shape, but last season, the Dodgers lined everything up with four frontline starting pitchers and rode them to the title: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani. Injuries have complicated matters at different points this season, but a midseason trade for a two-time Cy Young winner and recent returns have set them up again. No, Ohtani likely won't be part of the group as it looks like he won't pitch again this season. Understatement alert: His replacement is quite capable.
- Yamamoto was the World Series MVP last season and is 13-8 with a 2.62 ERA in 172 innings this season. Between the regular season and playoffs last year, he worked 211 innings. He's fine to go deep into October.
- Tarik Skubal won the AL Cy Young in both 2024 and 2025 for the Tigers. He has six games of playoff experience and a 2.04 career ERA in those outings. He missed some time earlier this season and only has 146 ⅔ innings of work. He has a 2.52 ERA since joining the Dodgers. He's an ace for the playoffs.
- Injury has limited Snell this season to only 37 ⅔ innings in seven starts. Since returning from the IL, he has a 1.04 ERA with 46 strikeouts. That's ace-like, no?
- Glasnow has dealt with injury as well, holding him to just 11 starts thus far. In four starts since his return, he has a 4.91 ERA in 22 innings. If there's one of these guys who doesn't look like an ace, it's him, but he'd be the No. 1 starter on several playoff teams and he had a 1.69 ERA in 21 ⅓ playoff innings last season.
Even taking Ohtani off the table here, no team in baseball can measure up to the Dodgers' rotation.
2. Loaded lineup ... even with an Ohtani concern
The Dodgers sit in the top five in runs, average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage in baseball. Former MVPs Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts are past their Hall of Fame-caliber primes, but Freeman is still awfully productive and Betts has heated up in recent weeks; he's looked like his old self for almost a month now. Kyle Tucker is having a lost season, but he's been a top-five MVP finisher before and he's only 29 years old, which means he could flip the proverbial switch at any moment (he's homered in three of his last five games right now). Like Betts, Teoscar Hernández has gotten scorching hot in recent weeks. Max Muncy is having an All-Star season and players like Will Smith, Andy Pages (working back from a hand injury) and Tommy Edman are unfairly reduced to also-rans with this group.
And there's the centerpiece. Ohtani is on the injured list due to lingering knee and biceps injuries, but manager Dave Roberts said when he landed on the IL that his superstar would still be playing if it were the postseason. What really makes the Dodgers the force we saw last October is a fully functional Ohtani atop the order. They could honestly win the World Series without him, but it's much tougher. If he gets himself right over these last few weeks of the regular season, watch out.
3. This is their real season
Just making the playoffs isn't good enough for the Dodgers. They do that every year. Now, maybe that this creates extra pressure on them, but after winning the last two titles, anything else is gravy and there's a comfort in knowing that this isn't anything new. There are no nerves. They are used to this.
"The easy answer is to say it sucks," Betts said last year when I asked about the pressure. "But honestly, it's a blessing. There are 750 ballplayers and I'm pretty sure all 750 would want to be in the same shoes, knowing that you're the favorites to win the World Series pretty much every year. Hardly anybody can say that. So it's a blessing that we lean into. Yeah, it does suck to know that if we don't win, everybody considers us a failure and obviously that's not fair because there's no possible way we could win the World Series every year. That doesn't even logically make sense, so it kind of is what it is and it's outside perception -- outside pressure put on us."
Two years ago, we could've pointed out that the Dodgers were known more than anything for their playoff failures outside of the weird 2020 season. After taking the last two World Series, however, that label has more than been shaken and the Dodgers have embraced the whole "ruining baseball" thing and made it their own.
Will a third consecutive World Series title ruin baseball? Unlikely. But the Dodgers are aiming to find out.
