Yankees, Dodgers to square off in World Series: 5 storylines to watch

For the first time in 43 years, two of baseball’s bluebloods are squaring off in the World Series.

The Los Angeles Dodgers made it official Sunday night, defeating the New York Mets, 10-5, to secure the franchise’s 25th National League pennant. The victory secured a date in the Fall Classic with the recently crowned champions of the American League, the New York Yankees.

Despite consistently ranking as the game’s top spenders and featuring rosters assembled by front offices known for being on the cutting edge, these star-studded teams have not met in the World Series since 1981. Here are five storylines to watch ahead of the best-of-seven series, which begins on Friday in Los Angeles.

1. Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge share the game’s grandest stage — finally

Fair or not, one of the knocks on baseball has been its perceived inability to market its top stars. But as the other sports have proven, one of the best ways to harness that star power is to get it on the biggest stage. Finally, it will happen with Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani making their respective World Series debuts against one another.

Ohtani, the presumptive MVP of the National League, is coming off another historic season. Sidelined from pitching because of an elbow injury, Ohtani had some time on his hands, which he used to emerge as a terror on the bases. Ohtani became the first big leaguer to hit 50 homers and swipe 50 bases in a single season. He did so in his first year after leaving the moribund Los Angeles Angels for a megadeal with the Dodgers, where his postseason prospects rose significantly.

Judge, the presumptive MVP of the American League, led all of baseball in homers (58), RBIs (144), walks (133), on-base percentage (.458), slugging (.701) and OPS (1.159). Despite dealing with injuries at various points in his career, Judge has long been one of the sport’s top sluggers, though his evolution as an elite overall hitter has become more evident. Judge debuted in 2016 and the Yankees have made the playoffs in all but two seasons during his time in pinstripes. But this is the first time he’s been part of a pennant winner.

2. Two maligned managers … might actually be very good at what they do

Neither the Yankees’ Aaron Boone nor the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts will ever be favorites to win popularity contests on social media. And despite weathering a few storms to pilot their respective clubs to the pennant, neither is likely to win manager of the year, an award for which tepid expectations are typically a prerequisite (and which don’t apply in places like Los Angeles and New York). Yet, Roberts’ .627 winning percentage ranks first among active managers (minimum 315 games) while ranking in the top five all time, according to Baseball-Reference. Boone’s .584 winning percentage ranks second behind only Roberts among active managers and is good for the top 15 of all time.

Roberts has deftly managed the Dodgers despite a starting rotation crushed by injuries, and Boone has weathered various tempests, including the reshuffling of a bullpen that required a late-season demotion of struggling closer Clay Holmes.

Aaron Boone, like his counterpart Dave Roberts, has a chance to quiet a few critics in the Fall Classic. (Jason Miller / Getty Images)

The Yankees and Dodgers finished with the highest winning percentages in their respective leagues. Of course, baseball’s postseason is often defined by upsets, and not since 2013 has the World Series featured a matchup of each league’s top team.

3. Get ready for a lot of power and patience

It’s a logical strategy that only the best teams reliably execute: When you swing at the right pitches, you’ll have a better chance to hit home runs.

The Yankees and Dodgers seek out — and pay handsomely for — players who do this well, which means that we’ll see lots of deep counts and deep drives if both lineups are sharp. The Yankees led the majors in walks and homers, and the Dodgers led the NL in both categories, too. Thankfully — for the sake of action — the teams achieve this without an abundance of strikeouts, the third so-called “true outcome.”

While six players in the series fanned at least 140 times this season (Judge, Anthony Volpe, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Giancarlo Stanton, Ohtani and Teoscar Hernández), the Dodgers ranked 19th and the Yankees 20th overall in strikeouts.

4. The Juan Soto Showcase

The World Series begins Friday, which is Juan Soto’s 26th birthday. He was already heading into what should be a lucrative winter, thanks to his relative youth and elite skills in the batter’s box. The Yankees traded for Soto at the Winter Meetings and watched him piece together one of the best platform seasons since the advent of free agency. His October heroics should only add to his bank account.

Last month, The Athletic’s contract guru Tim Britton projected that Soto’s free-agent deal could span 14 years and reach a value of $560 million. Perhaps the Yankees pay that price, or the Mets, or any other of the sport’s most well-heeled franchises. But Soto has already emphasized in the postseason that he may be worth every penny.

5.  This time, money talks. Is that good for baseball?

When the Yankees eliminated the Guardians on Saturday night, the last three clubs standing — the Dodgers, Yankees and Mets — were also one-two-three in payroll when the season began. It’s true, of course, that money does not mean everything — in life or in the high-variance, short-series world of the MLB postseason. But this year, at least, it has meant a lot.

The Dodgers and Yankees, of course, have long been among the game’s highest spenders. And both clubs rode that spending to the best records in their respective leagues.

So get ready for lots of conversation about baseball’s financial structure and business model. Critics will point to the vast payroll disparity between the biggest-market clubs and the smallest (the Yankees spent more than $300 million this year, while the bottom 20 teams in payroll failed to crack $200 million).

Supporters, or at least, non-critics, will note that baseball has not had a repeat champion in more than two decades, and despite their mammoth spending, the Yankees and Dodgers have combined for just one World Series championship — same as the Kansas City Royals — in the last 14 seasons. The Yankees have not won it all since 2009. And despite the 2020 title, the Dodgers have not won a full-season title since 1988.

One could also argue that the creation of a third wild card in each league — and an additional Wild Card Series round — has created even more variance in the system, which in theory harms the best teams on paper.

Of course, there’s also a reason Mets owner Steve Cohen once talked about becoming an East Coast version of the Dodgers. He was comparing the clubs’ financial might. But he was also speaking of the Dodgers’ reputation as one of the smartest front offices in baseball. When you combine $300 million payrolls with shrewd decision-making, it’s a tough formula to beat.

— The Athletic’s Rustin Dodd contributed to this story.

(Top photo of Shohei Ohtani from Game 6 of the NLCS: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)