It took one World Series win for the Blue Jays to give Rob Manfred nightmares

The warning signs were there, for those who were willing to look. Sure, the Los Angeles Dodgers had swept their way into their second straight World Series. But their sensational starting pitching in the NLCS had masked some very real holes on this roster, most notably a frighteningly thin bullpen. These Toronto Blue Jays were not the Milwaukee Brewers, a rare combination of league-best contact ability with legitimate pop up and down the lineup. They had home-field advantage, plus the better regular-season record. If you removed the names and the narratives, why wouldn't this be a competitive World Series?

And yet, in the run up to Game 1, nobody wanted to hear it. The media saw names like "Addison Barger" and "Ernie Clement" and shrugged. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts seemed more concerned with trying to send a statement to the rest of the league: "Let's get four more wins and really ruin baseball."

It felt like the story had already been written before a pitch had been thrown. The Dodgers, after two straight monster offseasons and a record payroll, could not be stopped — not by Toronto or anyone else. They were too rich, too talented to compete with, and the only solution was for Rob Manfred to step in and save the sport.

But on Friday night, the only thing that needed saving was the Dodgers' pitching staff. The Jays weathered an early storm, erasing a 2-0 lead while slowly but surely wearing out L.A. ace Blake Snell. And then, in the sixth inning, the dam finally broke: Toronto chased Snell from the game and promptly beat the brakes off of the Dodger bullpen, with an Addison Barger grand slam putting the exclamation point on a six-run frame.

All of a sudden, the superteam didn't seem so super anymore. It seemed like ... well, just a team. And all those arguments about how baseball's spending was out of control and the Dodgers had broken the sport seemed like sour grapes from owners who didn't feel like doing what the Blue Jays had done: trying to compete.

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The Blue Jays proved they're Rob Manfred's worst nightmare in World Series-opening rout

Sure, this series has only just begun. It's entirely possible the Dodgers will come back on Saturday in Game 2 with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound and roll to a win. Heck, they might even win four straight and become MLB's first repeat champion since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees. They are pretty good, in case you hadn't heard.

But Game 1 felt like anything but a fluke. The Blue Jays played their game, their way, battling Snell to a draw before unleashing their particular brand of offensive hell on a series of underqualified relievers Roberts was forced to turn to because he doesn't currently have any better options. There were no weird bounces or out-of-nowhere performances; this win looked like 94 others Toronto put up during the regular season.

Which should be enough to put the lie to any suggestion that MLB has been irreparably damaged by the Dodgers' spending spree in recent years. Instead of throwing their hands up and crying poor like some of their peers, the Blue Jays just went to work; rather than trading Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette to cut costs after 2024's last-place finish, they went right back to work, spending significant money over the winter — including a cool $500 million for Vladdy — and doing everything they could to field a competitive team this year.

Los Angeles isn't some boogeyman. They're a baseball team, and no matter how much money you spend, this game has a way of zigging when you expect it to zag. The best roster money can buy has still resulted in a bullpen that has Roki Sasaki and exactly zero other trustworthy arms. The Dodgers are very good, but it's ridiculous to pretend that they're unbeatable. You just have to, y'know, try, to view your team less like a real estate investment with some reacreation attached and more like a baseball team.

Toronto has consistently done just that. This team has top-10 payrolls on a regular basis, and they rarely have the stomach for the sort of slash-and-burn rebuild that's become all too common of late. Manfred wanted the Dodgers to roll to another title. He wants everyone to believe his bosses' line that there's no other choice, that poor, helpless owners need to have the playing field leveled in order to have an honest chance. The Blue Jays don't care about any of that, though. They're here to bang, and they're here to win. They're off to a pretty good start, and every other team around the league should be taking notes.