TORONTO — Four steps from history.
It wasn’t all that long ago that the Dodgers were being labeled as a new-age, more-expensive version of the Atlanta Braves of the 1990s, gathering division titles but only one championship for a decade of regular-season dominance.
“It takes awhile to change narratives sometimes,” third baseman Max Muncy said when reminded of that.
This one has definitely changed. With four wins over the Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series that begins on Friday night, the Dodgers would become the first team since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees to win back-to-back championships, winners of three World Series in the past six years – and a modern-day dynasty?
“For the Dodgers, I think it just kind of puts us on a Mount Rushmore of sports organizations,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “There’s been a lot of franchises that have done a lot of great things. Right now in this point in time, we’re just fortunate to be a part of a great organization.”
Roberts said he brought up the unique opportunity to win back-to-back titles and what it would mean “I think on the first day of spring training and haven’t talked about it since.” There’s no place for talking history during a weekend series in July.
“I don’t think those are things that players really care about or talk about. I think that’s for talking heads on TV or whatever you guys call yourselves – writers,” pitcher Clayton Kershaw said of any dynasty talk. “It’s just – who cares? When this year’s over, there will be another champion. So this year is all that matters to us. We want to win this year’s World Series. The team is going to be a little different next year so maybe it’s not as important to some guys as others. But all that matters to us right now is winning this Series. After 10, 15 years we can all look back on that. But for now, just try to win tomorrow and keep doing it.
“It’s not really a hot-button issue for players. … It’s just hard to think about it in those terms when you’re playing and you’re actually in it. It’s just not what we do.”
If they can do it, Muncy would become one of five players to participate in all three of the Dodgers’ World Series victories during this run – along with utility man Kiké Hernandez, reliever Blake Treinen, catcher Will Smith and shortstop Mookie Betts (a four-time champion including his Boston Red Sox win in 2018). Kershaw did not play in last year’s postseason due to foot and knee injuries that eventually required surgery in November.
Muncy has done the math – and the reading – on dynasties.
“They say in order to be a dynasty you have to win three titles in a time span – they say it’s within a decade, I think,” Muncy said, pausing to define who exactly “they” are.
“They say – your people, the sportswriters – it’s three in a decade. They say that’s a dynasty. My answer to that is you get into baseball to win a World Series – at least you should be in it to win a World Series. That should be the reason you’re playing this game. We’ve had that opportunity for 13 years. We’ve had the opportunity to advance. That on its own is a dynasty.”
By that definition, the Dodgers’ only competition for a 21st-century dynasty are the San Francisco Giants (winners in 2010, 2012 and 2014 with deep troughs in between) and the Boston Red Sox (winners in 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018 – after an 86-year trough). The Houston Astros made four World Series in a six-year span but only won twice (2017 and 2022).
“I don’t think what we did last year has any bearing on this year. There’s a lot of guys in that room that weren’t a part of last year’s team,” Roberts said. “We want to win this year. We want to win for the 2025 team and let people talk about all that other stuff afterward.”
But history – or the opportunity to make it – has been in the air around this team all season.
“We had it present throughout the year too,” infielder Miguel Rojas acknowledged. “There were some moments during the season where someone sent a text message in our group (text) that said, ‘We got a really good opportunity to do something really big. Not just for us, but for the city, and for the organization, for baseball.’
“I think that’s one of the things that kept us going and motivated. It wasn’t really a good opportunity when we were looking at that two months ago. But now, it’s here. We have it in front of us. We’re gonna give it everything we have.”
First baseman Freddie Freeman recalled Roberts talking about the potential to make history and “how special it would be to do something that hasn’t been done in 25 years” by winning back-to-back championships.
“Obviously that’s just to get everyone fired up and excited about spring training,” Freeman said. “But then as you go through the season, and you’re just trying to play better than we were, you kind of lose like – you’re not really thinking about that.
“But then as obviously, we get to the playoffs, and you get into the playoffs, and you advance and advance, and then you have the opportunity to do something that hasn’t been done in 25 years, the dynasty question has come up. … It’s pretty amazing. To win titles, if we win this one, three in six years for the Dodgers, I mean you’re looking at the Yankees, the Giants in the early 2010s with three in five years. Just winning one is hard. So dynasty? I think if you can get three in the matter of five or six years, I guess you could say it is one. But I think the sustained winning the Dodgers have done for so long, and then just cemented with some championships, yeah, I guess you can call this – if we do do it – a modern-day dynasty.”
In the victorious clubhouse after last year’s World Series win at Yankee Stadium, two-way star Shohei Ohtani sought out Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and excitedly told him “Let’s do this nine more times” – the length of his remaining contract with the Dodgers. Those expectations might be only slightly inflated for this Dodgers era.
“Once your team signs somebody for – signs Shohei, and then you sign (pitcher) Yoshi (Yamamoto), and then you sign (pitcher) Roki (Sasaki). You go get guys. I mean, that kind of lets you know where the team is,” Betts said. “We want to win. We want to win a lot now. And so knowing that and understanding that, you can kind of look up and know that the window you’re in is really important, and you really need to win now.
“We understand that, but we also understand that in order to do that, you have to take it one day at a time. You gotta just win one at a time, one at a time. Then eventually, you look up at the end of that window and you’ve taken care of business.”