Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman had historic seasons this year.
Betts drove in more runs than any leadoff hitter ever has. Freeman became the first first baseman in baseball history to have 200 hits, 20 or more home runs and 20 or more stolen bases in a season. They are the first 1-2 hitters to bat .300 and OPS higher than .975 in the same lineup.
Their MVP-level achievements go on from there.
Asked about the duo’s importance to the Dodgers, veteran Jason Heyward couldn’t even bring himself to imagine a lineup without them.
“If there’s no them right now then …” Heyward said, trailing off as the pained expression on his face completed the thought.
That was Heyward’s response in August. Now that October is here – do the Dodgers need Betts and Freeman to be the same load-bearing pillars in the postseason, carrying the team to a World Series?
“No, not necessarily,” utility man Chris Taylor said, before a slight smirk appeared on his face. “It’d be nice.”
It would also be a break from history.
Betts won the American League MVP award in 2018 but hit just .210 with one home run and four RBIs in 14 postseason games as the Boston Red Sox won the World Series championship. Role player Steve Pearce was the MVP of the World Series against the Dodgers.
In 2021, Freeman hit .304 with five home runs in 16 postseason games. But it was Jorge Soler who was voted the World Series MVP as the Atlanta Braves won the title.
That has been the norm in baseball’s postseason. Over the past 15 years, the World Series MVP has been someone who didn’t appear on a single ballot in voting for the regular-season MVP awards 11 times. Only two World Series MVPs in that time finished in the top 10 of regular-season MVP voting – Corey Seager in 2020 (he finished ninth) and David Ortiz in 2013 (10th).
You have to go all the way back to Mike Schmidt with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1980 to find a regular-season MVP who was also the World Series MVP. In the 42 years since, only one World Series MVP also received a first-place vote for regular-season MVP – Manny Ramirez in 2004 received one first-place vote.
(BBWAA voters for the regular-season awards must submit their ballots before the first playoff game.)
“I mean, things change for sure in October,” Betts said. “You don’t know who’s gonna carry (a team). There’s been World Series MVPs that, you know them, but you would never expect. So it’s definitely going to come from all of us. It’s probably going to be someone, not random, but someone who’s not on everybody’s radar. That’s the kind of person that usually carries. But if me and Freddie have to, I’m sure we’ll be up for the task.”
The Dodgers don’t have to rack their brains for long to find an example of the unexpected hero taking on a leading role in October. Eddie Rosario morphed into Ted Williams during the 2021 NL Championship Series, going 14 for 25 with three home runs and nine RBIs as the Braves eliminated the Dodgers in six games.
“I feel like the teams that win usually have guys that step up in a big way. But it’s not always the best player,” said Taylor who shared the 2017 NLCS MVP award with Justin Turner. “I don’t think it’s something you can really predict. I do think you need guys to get hot or really step up. It doesn’t necessarily have to be Mookie or Freddie. It could be.”
It won’t be – if opposing teams can help it. Unlike the regular season, postseason game plans are often designed to target one or two players with the intent of not letting that player(s) do damage.
“You can pitch around us,” Freeman acknowledged. “Say, one game you say, ‘We’re going to make Will Smith beat us tonight’ and stuff like that. And once he beats us, ‘Okay, let’s pick someone else.’ But if you pitch around us, that just turns the lineup around to us again for a fifth time. If you’re going to pitch around guys like me and Mookie and ‘We got out of the inning’ – well, me and Mookie are coming up again. It’s hard to do that over and over again.
“If you have two guys that don’t perform well and you don’t win, it’s not just those two guys. We have to have a collective group that does it as a whole, get the hits when we need to. But obviously once the playoffs start, the spotlight is going to go right to the top of the order. We’re all good with that. We’re fine with that. If we shoulder it all then maybe three through nine come through.”
If you “create a lineup deep enough” then opposing teams “can’t do that,” Muncy said.
“I think that’s where we feel really good with who we are this year,” he said. “This team reminds me a lot of who we were in ’20 where no matter what you did we had an answer for that. We had our guys. Seager was obviously who he was in the playoffs. Mookie was Mookie. But we had other guys to help them. That’s where I say it’s not going to live and die with Freddie and Mookie.”
These Dodgers are the first team in franchise history (and only the 27th team in MLB history) with four players who drove in 100 runs – Betts, Freeman, Muncy and J.D. Martinez each had more than 100 RBIs. Eight Dodgers hit at least 15 home runs this season.
“I mean, they can try to not let one guy beat them. If your team is more balanced, it’s harder to do that,” Taylor said. “If you’ve got guys like Will and J.D. behind those guys and they’re hitting, you can’t really just put them on base. I think a lot of that depends on how the rest of the team is performing.”
The combined efforts of all the Dodgers hitters produced 906 runs this season, second behind the Braves in MLB (and more than last year’s lineup). That number included an MLB-best 359 two-out RBIs – a postseason staple of the 2020 lineup Muncy uses as a comparison.
“I don’t think they have to carry us. But at the same time, I mean, they’re who they are for a reason,” Muncy said. “To simply say our playoff hopes live and die with them is not fair. But like I said, they are who they are for a reason. You bring them in for a reason. You pay them the money they get for a reason. But you would hope there are enough other guys in this clubhouse – which there are – that it doesn’t have to live and die with them.”
Muncy has been a valuable member of the supporting cast in postseaons past (10 home runs and 29 RBIs in 43 career postseason games). Martinez has finished strong with a .333 average, 1.050 OPS, eight home runs and 25 RBIs in 21 games since returning from the injured list in early September. The second-half decline of Smith, on the other hand, is worrisome (a .203 average since the end of August).
“Obviously Mookie and I have to play well. I wouldn’t necessarily say ‘carry (the team)’ because … we can win games when Mookie and I don’t play well,” Freeman said.
“Every team needs the everyday guys to play well consistently over the course of the year and obviously in the playoffs a lot of the spotlight comes on us. … For the playoffs, all the high-end players want to perform well. That’s what you want to do. If you have the mentality where you check your ego at the door and you do whatever you can to help that team win that game it doesn’t matter what your statistics are – as long as one teammate, you or another teammate, in the LCS and the World Series are MVPs because that means we win. That’s all I care about and I know Mookie is the same way.
“To carry (the team)? No, because you’ve got J.D. and Will and all these guys that are champions and All-Stars and Silver Sluggers. Our lineup is full of them. But ultimately, yes, you need Mookie and I to perform well because we’re at the top and we can get it going.”