Against all odds, the Los Angeles Dodgers looked very beatable throughout the entire 2025 regular season. But then the calendar flipped to October, and suddenly, the Dodgers are inevitable. They swept the Cincinnati Reds in the Wild Card series, easily took care of the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS and have taken a commanding 2-0 lead in the NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers. They haven't punched their ticket back to the Fall Classic yet, but they're awfully close to doing so.
Assuming they do, indeed, win the pennant, and then win the World Series, the Dodgers will have done something no team has done in recent memory: win back-to-back titles. It sounds crazy because fans love to say that MLB has no parity, but this list of back-to-back World Series winners goes to show that all this sport has is parity, particularly in recent years.
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Every MLB team that's won back-to-back World Series titles
Back-to-Back World Series-winning Teams | Years | Opponents faced |
|---|---|---|
New York Yankees | 1998-2000 | Padres, Braves, Mets |
Toronto Blue Jays | 1992-1993 | Braves, Phillies |
New York Yankees | 1977-1978 | Dodgers, Dodgers |
Cincinnati Reds | 1975-1976 | Red Sox, Yankees |
Oakland Athletics | 1972-1974 | Reds, Mets, Dodgers |
New York Yankees | 1961-1962 | Reds, Giants |
New York Yankees | 1949-1953 | Dodgers, Phillies, Giants, Dodgers, Dodgers |
New York Yankees | 1936-1939 | Giants, Giants, Cubs, Reds |
Philadelphia Athletics | 1929-1930 | Cubs, Cardinals |
New York Yankees | 1927-1928 | Pirates, Cardinals |
New York Giants | 1921-1922 | Yankees, Yankees |
Boston Red Sox | 1915-1916 | Phillies, Robins (Dodgers) |
Philadelphia Athletics | 1910-1911 | Cubs, Giants |
Chicago Cubs | 1907-1908 | Tigers, Tigers |
14 MLB teams have had the good fortune of winning back-to-back World Series titles, which might sound like a lot, but that's in a span of over 100 years. Not a single one of these teams has been able to repeat in a quarter century, and only four of those teams have been able to win more than two in a row.
The fact that we haven't had a repeat champion in 25 years is pretty jarring, and there are several reasons that explain why that's the case.
Why we haven't seen a repeat champion in 25 years
A large majority of these repeat champions came in seasons with easier postseason formats and fewer than 30 teams. This means that there wasn't nearly as much competition and teams didn't have to win nearly as many pressure-packed games to win a title. In the distant past, there were no playoffs; the World Series was the entire postseason.
With more teams to compete with and more rounds to play through, of course it's going to be tougher for teams to win on a consistent basis. A lot has to go right, and frankly, a lot has gone right for this Dodgers team specifically.
The Dodgers dealt with a myriad of injuries and struggles during the regular season to the point where the team everyone thought would "break baseball" failed to even secure a bye through the Wild Card round. They got healthier as the season progressed, and are now at their best at the perfect time. That is just fortunate; if the injuries had popped up in October, there's a good chance they wouldn't even be in the NLCS. They're even flawed now, but their bullpen hasn't had to be relied on so much because their starting pitching has been historically great.
There is still more work to be done, and it'll be interesting to see if they do, in fact, pull it off. While it feels like they're a near lock, they still have six more wins against elite competition to accrue.