If you’re not all-in on Dodger Blue these days, you’re missing the greatest baseball circus since Steinbrenner’s Yankees ran roughshod at the turn of the millennium. Back-to-back World Series triumphs, firstly demolishing those aforementioned Pinstripes in 2024 before holding their nerve to fend off the scrappy Blue Jays in the fall, sealing the first championship repeat in a quarter of a century.
Layer onto that the 2020 bubble triumph against the Rays and its three crowns in six seasons. Toss in 12 National League West flags from 13 tries, plus five pennants in nine years, and you’ve got Andrew Friedman’s chess-master front office, Dave Roberts’ unflappable sideline presence, and a payroll that treats the luxury tax like pocket change, transforming Dodger Stadium into an impenetrable blue fortress. And it’s a fortress that online betting sites think will hold firm once again in 2026.
Three-Peat Hopes
The latest World Series odds for next season from the popular upstart betting site LuckyRebel have the Dodgers positioned as a +400 favorite to complete the three-peat. Should they live up to the lofty billing, they would become just the third team in history to achieve such a feat after the Yankees—who have three-peated on three occasions—and the 1970s Athletics. And just when you think they’ve peaked? Enter the 2026 offseason sizzle.
Free-agent outfield stud Kyle Tucker, the quiet killer with four All-Star nods and Gold Glove pop, is rumored to be on the brink of a move to Tinsel Town amid a sluggish market. It’s thought that the Cubs superstar is eyeing short-term security—say, four years loaded with opt-outs—and the Dodgers are lurking with intent, ready to pounce Friedman-style, without the long-term handcuffs.
Tucker would be a huge addition to an already superstar cast. But this empire didn’t sprout overnight; it’s been crafted from a series of seismic moments: Blockbuster trades, record inks, impossible slams—that flipped perennial bridesmaids into reigning terrors. But what were the four most crucial steps on the road to the Dodgers’ dynasty? Let’s take a look.
Mookie Betts Trade: The Gamble That Rewired Everything
February 10, 2020: In a three-team earthquake, the Dodgers raided Boston for 2018 American League MVP Mookie Betts, David Price, and cash, shipping Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs, and Connor Wong to Fenway Park, while snagging Brusdar Graterol from Minnesota. The Red Sox balked at Betts’ extension demands; Friedman pounced, penning a 12-year $365 million extension—a deferred-payment pioneer that unlocked future flexibility.
Zero warmup needed: Betts arrived and immediately blazed .292/.377/.558 with defensive wizardry in a 60-game debut season sprint, anchoring the first ring and healing scars from 2017-18 World Series gut punches. Dig deeper, and it’s clear to see why the addition was so important: the man became a positional Swiss Army knife (leading him all the way to shortstop amid fractures), a tireless tutor to both Gavin Lux and Andy Pages, as well as an all-around vibe curator with pranks and playlists.
Some dub it the trade of the decade, shining a spotlight on Friedman’s smarts. He has a supreme ability to snatch prime talent and, in turn, ignite the star-stacking spree. No Betts, no blueprint, no dynasty. Simple as that.
Shohei Ohtani Signing: Reality-Warping Two-Way Magic
December 9, 2023: Shohei Ohtani ditches Angels purgatory for a trip across Los Angeles, penning a 10-year, $700 million Dodgers stunner. Elbow rehab sidelined the Japanese sensation’s pitching in 2024, but he still authored a record-breaking 54 HR and 59 SB, with a .310/.398/.646 monster campaign. The following year? Yet another explosion.
Merch flew, attendance surged 20%, and the suitors lined up—Ohtani’s splitter-heat mix and leadoff/cleanup versatility terrorized opposition staffs. Blisters? Slumps? He’d steal second, laughing. Postseason .265/.405, eight home runs? Small-sample noise, massive aura payoff. This coup didn’t just elevate the Dodgers; it took them to another stratosphere.
Freddie Freeman’s Grand Slam
October 25, 2024, Game 1 of the World Series, bottom 10th: The Yankees clung to a 3-2 lead, but the Dodgers had the bases loaded. Step up an ankle-shredded Freddie Freeman—hobbling like a zombie. The slugger smoked Nestor Cortes’s slider out of the park for baseball’s first World Series walk-off grand slam, handing the Dodgers a scarcely believable victory, and he didn’t stop there.
Freeman homered in each of the first four games of that World Series en route to claiming the MVP award, capping with Game 5’s three-run prayer shot that erased a 5-0 Yankees lead for the 4-1 series clinch. But this was no fluke: it was Freeman’s Braves-bred October sorcery reborn in blue. Shrugging off Mookie’s fractured hand and Shohei’s shoulder scare, he extended a six-game WS homer streak back to Atlanta’s 2021 run. The “chokers” whispers were obliterated in one swing, and the Dodgers suddenly had that killer instinct.
2025 World Series Game 7: The Greatest Circus Cements Kings
November 1, 2025: Game 7 against the Toronto Blue Jays descends into glorious anarchy, and the Dodgers ultimately prevail 5-4 in 11 gruelling innings, a rollercoaster so wild that outlets crowned it baseball’s greatest game ever played. The Jays looked to be on the brink, clinging to a 4-3 lead in the ninth on home turf. But Miguel Rojas had other ideas, launching a clutch homer off closer Jeff Hoffman to level things up and force extra innings.
The tenth frame would drag scoreless before the eleventh was ignited by Mookie Betts drawing a walk, setting up Will Smith’s go-ahead two-run blast. The finale? Pure theater.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto plunked Alejandro Kirk on the wrist, loading the bases for Toronto. Enter Rojas again—he miraculously scooped up a chopper barehanded, before rifling the runner lunging home. Betts then sealed it, vacuuming a scorching liner into a game-ending 6-4-3 double play. First repeat since the 2000 Yankees, three titles in six years, and a dynasty becoming stronger than ever.
