After a long, pressure-packed month of October, the Fall Classic has arrived. The World Series begins on Friday, with the favored Los Angeles Dodgers taking on the Toronto Blue Jays. The two teams had far different paths through their respective postseasons, with the Dodgers losing just one game in three series played. The Blue Jays were beneficiaries of a Wild Card bye, and survived action-packed matchups against the rival New York Yankees and a seven-game series vs. the Seattle Mariners to win the AL pennant.
There are plenty of storylines to discuss before Friday, the most obvious of which is Shohei Ohtani. The two-way sensation nearly signed with Toronto just two winters ago, and despite reports he was on a flight to Canada, eventually inked a $700 million deal (deferred money included) with the Dodgers.
Ohtani has been everything Los Angeles could've asked for and more. He helped deliver a World Series in his first season, and had perhaps the greatest postseason performance in baseball history to win the pennant this year. He, along with fellow countrymen Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki, will be at the center of a series between financial behemoths (two of the top five payrolls in baseball) that can't get here soon enough.
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This week's panel includes Adam Weinrib, Chris Landers, Zach Rotman, Eric Cole and Robert Murray.
MLB World Series predictions
Who wins the Fall Classic and why?
Robert Murray: The Dodgers. Their pitching has been incredible, with Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitching deep into their outings against the Brewers. Then there is Shohei Ohtani, who had one of the best games in baseball history, and who is in a lineup with Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and other star players. My pick isn’t a slight against the Blue Jays. I love them. But I think the Dodgers are simply too good.
Eric Cole: The smart money is on the Dodgers, but I am going to go with Toronto. This is an L.A. team that has done poorly with breaks before and they haven’t played in a while. I also think that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is doing something special this postseason. I won’t be the least bit shocked if the Dodgers win this handily, but I will go with the underdog.
Chris Landers: Props to Eric, because while I really want to pull the trigger on a Jays upset here – and I certainly think they’re a livelier dog than most of the baseball world appears to be giving them credit for – in the end I just couldn’t do it. Toronto’s contact-oriented lineup should match up well to try and neutralize the Dodgers’ whiff-heavy rotation, but I just have way too many questions about the Blue Jays’ pitching in this series. They’re going to have to really hit to keep games close enough to get it to the L.A. bullpen in tight spots, and even then, it’s not like Toronto’s bullpen is foolproof either. Give me the Dodgers in six, although the Jays at least split the first two in Toronto.
Zach Rotman: Starting rotation? Advantage Dodgers. Lineup? Advantage Dodgers. Bullpen? Dare I say advantage Dodgers? I think the Blue Jays are so good. They’ve proven me wrong all year, and I wouldn’t be shocked to see them do it again. There’s a reason the Dodgers made easy work of the National League, though. I do expect this series to go six or even seven games, but with how dominant they’ve looked in October and the matchup advantages everywhere you look, I don’t know how you don’t pick the Dodgers to go back-to-back.
Adam Weinrib: The Toronto Blue Jays’ 49 regular-season comebacks were the most in MLB this season. Resilience defined them. Game 7 was stunning to Blue Jays fans who’ve been scarred by decades of October doldrums, but … it shouldn’t have been stunning to those who’ve studied this team all year. I do not think the Blue Jays will win this series, but I know they’ll put up a stronger fight than the Yankees did in a similar situation last fall. More heart. More ability under duress. And, yes, the innate ability to keep pressure on their opponent. I’m taking the Dodgers in seven, but we’re one Roki Sasaki meltdown in Ontario from that prediction flipping.
Pick a World Series MVP not named Shohei Ohtani or Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Robert Murray: Freddie Freeman. Look at what he did last World Series. Remember that walkoff grand slam in Game 1? I’ll never forget it. He steps up in the biggest moments and I can see him doing it again.
Eric Cole: I’ll stay on brand and say George Springer. He was the difference in the Seattle series and has a penchant for big moments in October. If the Blue Jays are going to pull an upset, he has to play a big role.
Chris Landers: When Blake Snell gets on a heater, there’s nothing quite like it in the entire sport. He’s on one right now, and he’ll get at least two starts in which to leave his mark on this series. If Ohtani looks mortal and none of the other stars of the Dodgers lineup have overwhelming slash lines, I think Snell could win it if he shoves in both of them.
Zach Rotman: In the 2022 offseason, Ross Atkins made a trade he’d come to regret, sending Teoscar Hernandez to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for Erik Swanson and pitching prospect Adam Macko. Hernandez didn’t have the best year in Seattle, but he moved on to the Dodgers afterward, and has been awesome since — particularly in the postseason. He has four home runs and 11 RBI in 10 games this October, and I predict he gets revenge against the Jays in the biggest series of his life.
Adam Weinrib: The current iteration of the Dodgers’ roster is full of October risers. Give me an off-the-board choice here with Max Muncy, who looked more spry at third base in the NLCS than I’ve ever seen him. Of course, that’s not what wins you World Series MVP; he’s homering twice, once in my aforementioned Game 7 to seal it and out-Springer Springer.
Dark horse World Series performer
Robert Murray: Tommy Edman. It kinda feels like he’s forgotten about in a way, yet he is on a six-game hitting streak in the postseason and has been a really nice performer for the Dodgers since coming over. He has been hitless in only one game for the team this entire playoff run. I just really like what he brings to the table.
Eric Cole: Trey Yesavage. Obviously he has gotten a lot of attention with his call-up, but the narrative has moved on to the stars and big bats. However, there is a world where Yesavage makes two starts in this series and those performances could easily make all the difference.
Chris Landers: Michael Conforto. (Sorry, just felt like Dodgers fans have been having things too easy this month.) More seriously, give me Jays outfielder Daulton Varsho. Toronto is going to need to bang away to have any chance in this series, and with Anthony Santander now on the shelf, a good portion of that responsibility is going to fall on Varsho as the Dodgers try to tip-toe around Vladdy and George Springer. There just aren’t a ton of other power sources in this lineup, especially if Bo Bichette shows some signs of rust coming back from that knee injury. If Varsho goes nuclear, the Jays might be in this thing 'til the bitter end.
Zach Rotman: I’m going to go with Louis Varland. The Blue Jays have played 11 postseason games and he’s appeared in 10 of them. He’s gone beyond an inning of work four times, including in each of his final three appearances. This Toronto bullpen is incredibly shaky, which is why John Schneider has felt the need to turn to Varland just about every day. I expect him to pitch at least five times in this series. If he can get three or four huge outs consistently without allowing home runs, the Jays might win the World Series. If he runs out of gas (which would be completely understandable), I don’t think Toronto has the pitching to make this series go beyond five or six games.
Adam Weinrib: Blue Jays outfielder Nathan Lukes hit .333 in each of the first two rounds of the playoffs while sandwiched between George Springer and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Ernie Clement deserves all the flowers possible for his pesky performance, but Lukes, a career Minor Leaguer, has earned a plum role in the order and has run with it.
Best storyline that doesn't involve Ohtani and a private jet
Robert Murray: Jeff Hoffman. He agreed to deals with the Atlanta Braves and Baltimore Orioles before landing in Toronto last winter, both of whom failed his physical. Both later tried signing him to different contracts, but he bet on himself, and then recorded the final three outs to send the Blue Jays to the World Series. That’s a really, really cool storyline and something that shouldn’t be lost here.
Eric Cole: I don’t know about “favorite”, but the fact that two of the biggest payrolls in all of baseball are about to take each other on is pretty eye-opening. The glass half full crowd will argue that more teams should spend on their teams and that is true. However, if you think the small-market clubs aren’t going to use this series as an argument for controls on payrolls, you are fooling yourself.
Chris Landers: I absolutely cannot wait to watch Roki Sasaki pitch in this series. That would be true even if he had no connection to the Jays whatsoever: The idea of watching a player as hyped as Sasaki was, who struggled as mightily as he did this summer only to resurrect himself as a flame-throwing reliever, now try to hold the Dodgers bullpen together with nothing but glue and some twine would be fascinating – especially considering this will be his first time on the sport’s biggest stage. Add in the fact that the Blue Jays were a finalist in the Sasaki sweepstakes last winter before he became another name on Toronto’s list of free-agent heartbreaks, and you’ve got a recipe for fireworks.
Zach Rotman: Freddie Freeman, much like Josh Naylor, is a Canadian first baseman who has had some unbelievable postseason moments in his career. Naylor was Seattle’s best player in the ALCS; can Freeman follow suit? If Freeman has a repeat of his 2024 World Series heroics, again, I have no idea how the Dodgers will lose. If the Jays are able to shut him down, though, perhaps they’ll find a way to steal this series away.
Adam Weinrib: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. gave a blunt “no” response this winter regarding whether the Blue Jays had approached his preferred extension price, unleashing a tidal wave of cheeky photos of Vladdy fraternizing with the Mets and photoshopped above the Green Monster with Rafael Devers and Juan Soto (quadruple mega LOL). Instead of devastating a nation, he and the team actually found reasonable terms to keep him home, and now he has the chance to put the country his father once led as an Expo on his back in pursuit of a championship. How cool is that?
The owners will use this World Series as lockout fodder. What's your magical solution to end this conversation, once and for all?
Robert Murray: The owners stop pressing for a salary cap. If they don’t … we might not have baseball in 2027.
Eric Cole: Establish a payroll floor and create a system in which deferrals are not a tool to circumvent the luxury tax. You can still defer contract payments, but the AAV of a deal should be based on the total value over the player's time on the roster. Then, increase the financial penalties by 10% for each year spent over the tax. If the owners insist on a salary cap, the MLBPA needs to hold the line and refuse, but some more penalties on the very top feels appropriate in exchange for having more spending in the bottom third of the league.
Chris Landers: I’m a hard no on a salary cap, but if the league insists on humoring its cheapest owners even more and further leveling the financial playing field, the compromise seems obvious: Stop giving teams so many years of control to start a player’s career. If Rob Manfred wants even stricter luxury tax penalties, then players should be allowed to hit free agency before they're at or nearing their 30th birthday – the age at which every team’s model tells them to stop investing and find somebody younger. Reshape the way rookie contracts work, and enforce financial transparency from all 30 teams, and we can at least have a conversation.
Zach Rotman: Robert nailed it. All a salary cap does is limit earning potential for players and limit how much owners will have to spend. The owners who don’t care about winning won’t go a penny above the floor, and those who do care about winning will still sign all of the star free agents. I like Eric’s solutions when it comes to adding a floor and penalizing owners who keep spending an obscene amount of money. Stricter penalties might result in less spending from teams like the Dodgers and Mets, and a floor would result in teams like the Pirates and Marlins spending money that they absolutely have and finally making the slightest effort to try and win.
Adam Weinrib: Robert said it all. Players will not entertain a salary cap. Owners shouldn’t, either. The NBA managed to address their dynastic disparity with a series of exceedingly difficult-to-understand financial restrictions like the second apron, and we haven’t had a repeat champion in the post-Golden State Warriors era in part because of it. MLB needs to produce a plethora of financial mumbo-jumbo that the average layperson will be completely unable to converse about, parrot endlessly or even comprehend. That’s how you know it’s going to work.
Free agents with the most to lose (and gain) in the World Series
Robert Murray: Bo Bichette, for sure. He said he’ll return for the World Series. How impactful can he be? How close to 100% will he be? He’s easily the biggest free agent-to-be in the World Series and his presence, quite frankly, could be the difference in the Blue Jays winning it all. He’s that important.
Eric Cole: I’ll say Max Muncy, but Bichette is a great answer. The Dodgers have a pretty cheap club option on him for next year, but he has had a lot of injuries and has had a few weird seasons. How he plays in the World Series could not only determine what decision the Dodgers make on that option, but also Muncy’s market if/when he hits free agency.
Chris Landers: Shane Bieber is a fascinating case. He’s got a $16 million player option for 2026, and whether he decides to pick that up or decline it might be decided over the next few days. Bieber is still just 30, not too far removed from being a Cy Young candidate, and he showed flashes of that pitcher in the regular season. But he’s struggled a bit in the postseason, and it’s fair to question what his market might look like this winter. Shove against the Dodgers, though, and those questions will suddenly disappear.
Zach Rotman: Bo Bichette is the easy answer, but in the interest of wanting to be different, I’ll go with Max Scherzer. He stepped up when seemingly the entire world doubted him in the ALCS. Can he do it again in the World Series against this absurd Dodgers lineup? If he can, and wants to return in 2026, he’ll almost certainly garner interest on the open market. If not, I’m not sure how much demand there will be for an injury-prone 41-year-old coming off a subpar regular season.
Adam Weinrib: Michael Conforto! (Sorry, Chris.) I think the way Bichette looks and the way he’s used will be massively important to the series’ outcome, but I’m not certain it’ll redefine the way he’s viewed. What about Bieber auditioning to be the Red Sox’s next Walker Buehler-esque signing after they scouted him extensively in 2025 and nearly obtained him both in the offseason and at the deadline? I do think Boston will end up with a true No. 2, but if they prioritize offense instead and cry poor after an Alex Bregman extension, Bieber-and-call-it-a-day would be kind of Breslow-y.
In memoriam: Brewers and Mariners. What will you remember most about the ride?
Robert Murray: Brewers: being pesky, always fighting to get on base and squeezing every ounce of talent out of their players. Pat Murphy did a tremendous job. He should be proud, even if the NLCS didn’t go how he wanted. Mariners: Gosh, Cal Raleigh is really good. He was disappointed and in tears after being eliminated from the ALCS. But that was as good of a season as we’ll ever see from a catcher.
Eric Cole: The Brewers’ Island of Misfit Toys roster was fun to watch especially given how much they relied on some really young players to get as far as they did. As for the Mariners, Cal Raleigh is the easy answer, but I will give some love to their rotation. They clearly faded in the ALCS, but the reason the Mariners blasted to the AL West title in the first place was because their young pitching staff was insane.
Chris Landers: The Mariners fell agonizingly short of their first-ever AL pennant, but no matter who actually wins the World Series this year, the electric atmosphere at T-Mobile Park is going to remain one of the most indelible images of the 2025 season. This is one of the best fan bases in baseball, and they finally got a team worthy of their passion. For Milwaukee, meanwhile, I’ll remember just how fun it was to watch a team that didn’t seem like it could hit its way out of a paper bag become the best team in the NL (in the regular season, at least) through sheer athleticism and breakneck pace.
Zach Rotman: I’ll remember the Brewers as a really good team that disappeared when the lights got bright. The payroll disparity did not give the Dodgers the NL Pennant — the Brewers playing poorly did. Their star position players did absolutely nothing all series, and that’s unacceptable. As for the Mariners, I’ll remember them in a bit more positive light. That fan base is awesome, Cal Raleigh is awesome and that rotation should have them competitive for years to come. Dan Wilson robbed them of a chance to end their pennant-less streak this season, but I wouldn’t be overly shocked to see them in the Fall Classic as soon as 2026 because of the outstanding core they have put together.
Adam Weinrib: I wish this weren’t the case, but I’ll remember the Brewers’ offense as historically incapable of hanging in the NLCS, followed by the team immediately leaking Freddy Peralta’s trade availability the second they were eliminated. I can feel the bile rising in my throat. The Mariners? They deserved better. The city deserved better. But the Bazardo decision was a 30th percentile choice at best, and when the going got tough, the Mariners defaulted to swinging from their heels far too often, while the Blue Jays dug in instead.
Show and tell: What did you write this week?
Chris Landers: I wrote about how money was not actually to blame for what happened to the Brewers in the NLCS.
Zach Rotman: Dan Wilson’s bullpen mismanagement cost the Mariners a chance to win their first-ever AL pennant. I wrote about what he did wrong, what he should’ve done differently and what MLB managers need to learn from his mistake.
Adam Weinrib: Silver Slugger content has hit the web this week! Stay tuned as FanSided exclusively reveals the winners on Nov. 6 and 7.
Robert Murray: I wrote about what Kurt Suzuki's hiring means for the Angels' future, and provided a free-agency preview in our early big board.