The Los Angeles Dodgers are the heavy favorites to win the 2025 World Series after adding a signifianct amount of talent in free agency to a roster that had the most wins in baseball and won the championship last season.
One of the biggest complaints from fans of other clubs is there is no point in playing out the 2025 season because of the feeling of inevitably that the Dodgers will repeat as World Series champions. But when looking at the last 24 years of MLB history, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
The nature of the sport and the playoffs lends itself very well to underdog stories, where pretty much any team that makes the postseason has at least a decent chance to win it all any given year as long as they get hot at the right time.
It is why there hasn’t been a repeat champion in MLB in the last 24 seasons, a trend which the Dodgers hope to buck in 2025.
The Dodgers gave themselves the best possible chance to avoid succumbing to the same fate as World Series champions past, but president and CEO Stan Kasten notes their odds are still not technically favorable.
“Because of the structure of the game, we’re still an underdog. Three-quarters of baseball have greater odds to win that we do, so we’re going to have to do it on the field,” Kasten recently said.
“Like every team does every year, no matter what the roster is. We look forward to that challenge. We like our chances, but we still have a way to go and we understand that. Nothing is automatic, especially in this sport. Especially not with the way our postseason is set up, where anything can happen.
“We’ve been on both sides of that crucible, and still we look forward to participating every year.”
From both a competitive and entertainment perspective, Kasten also refuted the claim that the Dodgers are bad for baseball. He also believes a team capable of evoking intense support from its own fanbase, while also drawing equally strong hatred from everyone else, can only help grow the popularity of baseball as a whole.
“I will tell them they have a three-quarters chance of winning a World Series, which is better than ours. Let’s not forget the structure of our game gives everyone a lot of opportunity every year to win,” Kasten said when asked what he would tell fans of teams in markets that don’t have same advantages as Dodgers.
“As far as what we do, all we can do in any market is the best we can and hope it works to the benefit of the rest of the teams.
“In our case I think it does. I think what we have done is good for baseball, both domestically and internationally, and ultimately that’s good for fans everywhere. Fans watch on TV, no matter what city they’re in. I worked in Atlanta but people followed us around the country. We had fans everywhere because of the super station.
“Dodgers have fans everywhere too. So in many, many cities, I can speak to Dodger fans in those cities who are pulling for us as well.”
Stan Kasten: Dodgers’ relationship with Japan ‘good’ for MLB
With Roki Sasaki, Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto on their roster, the Dodgers boast three of the biggest Japanese stars in all of baseball. The presence of Ohtani and Yamamoto helped the team set viewership records in Japan last year, as well as land significant sponsorship deals from notable Japanese companies.
Kasten explained that the Dodgers haven’t been the only ones benefiting with an increasingly tight-knit relationship with Japan, as the popularity of baseball has increased as well.
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