The Right Stuff – and Staff?

With the 2025 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays set to begin on Friday, October 24, at 5 PM PT at Rogers Center in downtown Toronto, opinions about Dodgers manager Dave Roberts‘ starting rotation against that of Blue Jays manager John Schneider‘s team are many – and varied. As such, the burning question is: Do the Dodgers have thr right stuff – and staff – to take the best-of-seven World Series over the Blue Jays?

Although we all know what they say about opinions (I’ll leave it at that), if – and that’s an enormous if – the Dodgers starting rotation performs as well as they did in their four-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2025 National League Championship Series, it is conceivable that the Dodgers could wrap up their second consecutive World Series title in Game-4 or Game-5 at Dodger Stadium on October 24 or 25.

We know that 32-year-old Dodgers left-hander Blake Snell will start Game-1 of the Fall Classic and 27-year-old right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto Game-2 for the Dodgers, with 32-year-old right-hander Tyler Glasnow and 31-year-old international superstar right-hander Shohei Ohtani the likely Game-3 and Game-4 starters respectively, although this has yet to be officially announced. As of this writing, Toronto has yet to announce their World Series starting rotation.

This is where that enormous if thing comes into play. This from MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince:

“The bullpen is definitely the Dodgers’ most vulnerable area, though that didn’t make a difference in an NLCS in which their relievers combined for two earned runs allowed in 7 1/3 innings. It helps, of course, that the L.A. starters are so consistently working deep into games. Should that change, then Dave Roberts’ relatively tiny circle of trust could become a big factor in how this Series shakes out.”

If these four can duplicate their NLCS performances on baseball’s grandest stage, the Dodgers could indeed clinch their second consecutive World Series title at Dodger Stadium – and wouldn’t that be the perfect send-off for 37-year-old retiring Dodgers left-hander and future first-ballot Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw?

Play Ball!

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