LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers’ embarrassment of riches is such that a second wave of signings beyond the team’s top superstars is fueling the club’s foremost World Series success so far.
As the World Series against the Blue Jays shifts to Dodger Stadium for Games 3–5 this week, the Dodgers will continue to be led by Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman, each former Most Valuable Players and owners of the Nos. 2, 5, and 37 player deals in MLB history.
Another wave of talent on the Dodgers roster, however, is playing a critical role. The group includes players who were also signed to major deals as the club built up a luxury-tax payroll of $416.9 million, the highest in MLB history. Among the key contributors:
- Starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The Japanese flamethrower threw a complete-game win in Game 2 on Saturday in Toronto, his second straight such feat this postseason, to even up the World Series with the Blue Jays at a game each. Yamamoto signed a 12-year, $325 million deal with the Dodgers before the 2024 season, the largest ever awarded to a pitcher. After flashing his brilliance more occasionally these past two seasons, he became on Saturday the first pitcher since Don Larsen’s perfect game in 1956 to end a World Series contest by retiring the final 20 batters.
- Starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow. Acquired after the 2023 season in a trade with the Rays, the righthander will start Game 3 on Monday at Dodger Stadium. Following that trade, he signed a five-year, $136.5 million contract with the Dodgers. Because of significant deferrals in Ohtani’s and Betts’s deals, Glasnow is actually the highest-paid Dodgers player in 2025.
- Catcher Will Smith. One of the longest-tenured players on the Dodgers roster behind legendary pitcher Clayton Kershaw, Smith signed a 10-year, $140 million pact before the 2024 season designed to keep him in Los Angeles for the rest of his career. Smith led the Dodgers’ offense in Game 2, homering and driving in three runs, while also guiding Yamamoto’s exploits from behind the plate. Smith was also one of the lone bright spots for Los Angeles in a blowout Game 1 win for Toronto, driving in another run.
“He’s really got a flat-line heartbeat, and in the postseason, that’s what you need,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts of Smith.
Those performances contrast sharply against Ohtani, who is hitting just .224 this postseason with 19 strikeouts, even with his historic three-homer outburst in Game 4 in the National League Championship Series against the Brewers. Ohtani will make his first World Series start on the mound Tuesday for Game 4.
Toronto’s Glue Guys
Similarly, the Blue Jays are also powered heavily by the bottom-of-the-lineup players such as center fielder Daulton Varsho, third baseman Ernie Clement, and right fielder Myles Straw.
Those contributors have lengthened the lineup considerably well beyond star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who signed a $500 million extension with Toronto back in the spring, the third-largest deal in MLB history, or top-of-the-lineup force George Springer. Varsho, Clement, and Straw, however, combined to earn less than $17 million this season—less than six different Dodgers.
“We said we wanted to be a very diversified offense and know which club to take out of your bag in any situation,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider, using a golf metaphor to help explain his roster. “We surrounded [our key players] with guys that do make contact, the bottom of the order, the glue guys. I think giving pitching staffs different looks, being able to score in multiple ways, is big for us, not waiting around for a three-run homer.”
