The latest pitching sensation out of Japan appears bound for Major League Baseball in 2025.
The Chiba Lotte Marines announced that they have decided to begin the process of posting star pitcher Roki Sasaki, clearing the path for the hard-throwing 23-year-old to transfer from Nippon Professional Baseball to MLB. Sasaki will be subject to international amateur free-agent restrictions, making him available for all 30 teams to sign at a much more modest cost than he would go for on the open market.
Players who are posted under the age of 25 can only sign a minor-league deal from an MLB club’s international bonus pool money. Think more Shohei Ohtani, who was under the same limitations when he signed with the Angels for a paltry $2.3 million in December 2017, than Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who was 25 when he signed with the Dodgers for a record $325 million last offseason.
While Yamamoto was the more decorated and durable pitcher in NPB, Sasaki is younger, bigger and throws harder. The flamethrower has been on the international radar dating back to his high school days and gained further acclaim in April 2022, when he threw a 19-strikeout perfect game for the Marines at just 20 years old.
Sasaki can light up a radar gun. His fastball has clocked in over 102 mph in Japan and touched 101.9 at the World Baseball Classic, where he sat 100.5 mph and got a bevy of whiffs with his devastating splitter. He was teammates with Yamamoto and Ohtani when Samurai Japan won that 2023 tournament, and there is heavy speculation that he’ll team up with them again next year in Los Angeles. The Dodgers are among the clubs who have expressed interest in Sasaki for years.
But unlike the pursuit for Yamamoto, every team will be in the mix to acquire Sasaki, given the restrictions capping his earnings.
Orix received more than $50 million from Yamamoto’s posting fee last year. Chiba Lotte would likely have seen a similar return had the Marines waited another two years until Sasaki was 25. NPB teams control their players’ rights for nine seasons, after which they become free agents and are no longer subject to posting fees.
But Sasaki has long expressed his desire to pitch in the majors, and while that request wasn’t granted last year, his Japanese club now appears willing to satisfy its young star’s wishes, as it stated Saturday in a statement on X.
After throwing his perfect game two years ago, Sasaki followed that pristine performance with eight perfect innings. He finished 2022 with 173 strikeouts in 129.1 innings, then registered an even higher strikeout rate a year later, fanning 135 batters in 91 innings.
Over his four years in NPB, Sasaki tallied a 5.74 strikeout-to-walk ratio — more than a full strikeout higher than Yamamoto, whose 4.48 mark was still good enough to make him the highest-paid pitcher in MLB history. That stat demonstrates Sasaki’s ceiling. His durability presents the red flag.
While Yamamoto routinely crossed the 170-inning mark in Japan, Sasaki has never thrown even 130 innings in a season. Arm issues this year limited him to 111 innings and likely contributed to slightly diminished velocity and overall stuff. He was still plenty productive, but his 2.35 ERA, 1.04 WHIP and 4.03 K/BB all represented dips from the dazzling 1.78 ERA, 0.75 WHIP and 7.94 K/BB he posted the season prior.
Still, he is one of the most intriguing arms available this winter. All 30 clubs will have 45 days to negotiate with Sasaki after he is posted. Once he signs, he is subject to the same rules and team control as any other rookie player.
It is not yet clear if Sasaki will be posted before the 2024 signing period ends on Dec. 15 or when the 2025 signing period begins on Jan. 15. Whenever he does, he will slot in alongside Corbin Burnes, Blake Snell and Max Fried as one of the most desired pitchers on the market.
And unlike those other aces, he won’t break the bank.
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
Juan Soto was going to get a hefty payday, regardless. But surely his uptick in production this season in the Bronx will raise the already exorbitant cost for prospective buyers to secure his services.
For other players in this year’s free-agent class, a surprise breakout or resurgent year came at just the right time.
Below we rank the 11 players who increased their market value the most with their 2024 production, including reasons to be both excited (green light) and skeptical (red light) about their future output.
Green Light: It might feel strange to see him on this list. After all, he was already going to command more money than any free agent this offseason. But putting together the most productive offensive season of his career, and doing it in his first (lone?) season for the Yankees, added many, many millions to the total sum he is about to command. He always had an unrivaled eye at the plate, but his 41 homers and .569 slugging percentage both marked career highs for a full season (he had a ridiculous .351/.490/.695 slash line during the shortened 2020 season). He also hit the ball harder than ever before. By WAR, this was the most valuable season of his career. And, after turning 26 in October, he should just now be entering his prime.
Red Light: If we had to nitpick, it’d be defensively. It was a bit of a farce that Soto was a Gold Glove finalist, and the older he gets, the worse he’ll probably look out there defensively. But, c’mon, it’s Juan Soto. You can live with it.
Green Light: No one on this list had a more dramatic turnaround in a contract year than Profar, who finished a breakout season setting career highs in every slash line category as well as hits, homers, runs, RBIs and games played. The only qualified National League player with a higher on-base percentage than Profar was Shohei Ohtani. He had the fourth-highest year-over year jump in OBP and the sixth-highest year-over-year jump in slugging percentage in the majors. Coming off a season in which he hit nearly 20% below league average, he suddenly started chasing and whiffing less and hitting the ball significantly harder than ever before. He transformed himself into an All-Star, a decade after everyone expected. As surprising as the breakout was, everything under the hood suggested it wasn’t luck.
Red Light: The former top prospect never did anything like this in his first 10 big-league seasons. This career year came at 31 years old, in his second stop in San Diego after starting the previous year in Colorado and spending time in Texas and Oakland. With a revival that seemingly came out of nowhere, I’m not sure how any team can know with any certainty what to expect going forward. One thing is clear: Wherever he signs next, it won’t be for $1 million again.
Green Light: Another player who took advantage of a one-year deal, a clean bill of health and an updated repertoire had Severino finding his form again. In his first year making more than 20 starts since his 2018 All-Star season, the right-hander logged 31 outings with the Mets and cut his home run rate in half from where it was the previous year with the Yankees. The addition of a sweeper, which got 60 strikeouts, was particularly useful. While he’s no longer the guy sitting close to 98 mph with a strikeout rate hovering near 30% the way he was as an All-Star in his mid-20s, he demonstrated he can still be plenty effective sitting in the mid-90s. At 31, there’s no reason to think he can’t continue to produce.
Red Light: A year ago in the Bronx, Severino was 4-8 with a 6.65 ERA. By WAR, that made him a bottom-10 pitcher in baseball. The 2024 season represented a considerable leap forward, though he still isn’t missing bats the way he once did.
Green Light: In a healthy, resurgent 2024 season, Flaherty ditched his cutter, saw a slight uptick in velocity on his four-seamer, got more swings and misses on the pitch and looked like a completely different guy from where he was last year in St. Louis and (especially) Baltimore. He posted the highest chase rate of his career and a significantly elevated whiff rate. While he wasn’t as good in the second half in Los Angeles as he was in the first half in Detroit, his presence in the rotation was crucial in helping the Dodgers win a championship. Even if he’s more of a middle-of-the-rotation arm, he will be an enticing piece at 29.
Red Light: His velocity dipped down the stretch of the season, which he attributed to timing issues, then his production fluctuated with every October start, providing fodder for both believers and skeptics. When he saw a playoff opponent for the first time on extra rest, he usually dominated. When he saw that team for a second time on regular rest, he got torched. His injury history could also cause some trepidation.
Green Light: Any way you slice it, this was one of the best seasons of Manaea’s career. Take just the second half, after he made the switch to lower his arm slot à la Chris Sale, and his production was unlike anything he had ever done before. Manaea looked like an ace in his final 12 regular-season starts after making the change (10-2, 3.09 ERA, .538 opponents’ OPS) and was clearly the Mets’ top option in October.
Red Light: At 33, how much will teams trust his finish over his eight previous seasons, especially as teams get to adjust? It’s worth pointing out he had an extremely low BABIP after making the switch, which might be unsustainable. Still, even if it doesn’t continue to the same degree, his consistent production after the arm slot change can’t be ignored.
Green Light: Hernández didn’t get the offers he was hoping for last winter after a down year in Seattle. So he bet on himself, taking a one-year deal in Los Angeles in the hopes of playing for a winning team and resetting his market. Check, and check. In an All-Star season, Hernández popped a career-high 33 homers, won the Home Run Derby, then won a World Series as a vital cog in the Dodgers’ lineup. He has expressed a desire to return to Los Angeles, but wherever he goes, he can be confident he’ll be getting more than one year this time around.
Red Light: Swing and miss is part of his game, and he doesn’t offer a ton of value defensively. While he should get more multi-year offers, it might not be a particularly long deal for the 31 years old.
Green Light: Adames, who just turned 29, is about to get paid. The only reason he’s low on this list is because his value was already so well-established, but his offensive jump shouldn’t be overlooked. Adames set career highs in hits, homers, doubles, RBIs and stolen bases. If he were part of the free-agent class two years ago, he might get lost in the shuffle. This year, though, he’s far and away the best shortstop on the market. His 112 RBIs ranked fourth in the majors, and he was one of six players to log at least 30 homers, 30 doubles and 20 steals.
Red Light: A high whiff rate has contributed to a fluctuating batting average and on-base percentage the past few years, but his combination of defense and power have made him a top-10 shortstop over the past five years.
Green Light: Kikuchi made a tweak to his pitch usage after getting traded to Houston and became everything the Astros could’ve imagined. Upping his slider usage considerably, he posted the highest strikeout rate of his career down the stretch while lowering his ERA from 4.75 in 22 starts with the Blue Jays to 2.70 in 10 starts with the Astros. He finished the year with the eighth-best strikeout rate and 11th-best strikeout-to-walk ratio among all qualified MLB starters.
Red Light: He will turn 34 in June, and while his stuff misses a lot of bats, he also tends to give up a lot of hard contact. Will his next team get the version that looked like one of the best pitchers in baseball in the season’s second half or the one with a career 4.57 ERA?
Green Light: There’s a reason the Reds gave him the qualifying offer. Martinez is coming off the best season of his big-league career, one that featured better command than he had ever demonstrated before (his 3.2% walk rate was the best mark of his career and trailed only George Kirby and Bryan Woo for the lowest mark among pitchers with at least 100 innings). He excelled as both a starter and reliever. Utilizing everything in his six-pitch arsenal — including an elite changeup that’s responsible for most of his swing and miss — Martinez continues to get hitters to chase and has now posted an ERA under 3.50 in each of his three big-league seasons since resurrecting his career in Japan.
Red Light: He turned 34 in August, and it wasn’t until then that the Reds made him a permanent fixture in the rotation. His swingman abilities, however, should allow him to fit in well wherever he goes. It’s fair to question whether he can maintain the control he demonstrated in 2024, but his vast arsenal should allow him to continue keeping hitters off balance and limit hard contact even as his velocity dips.
Green Light: It was only three years ago that O’Neill finished eighth in MVP voting, and this year provided a reminder of what’s still in the tank when his body is cooperating. He hit 32% better than league average while zapping the power back into his bat. After slugging .392 in 2022 and .403 in 2023 in St. Louis, a healthier first season in Boston yielded a .511 slugging percentage. He finished the year with 31 homers, the highest walk rate of his career and 113 games played — his most since his breakout 2021 season.
Red Light: He is a bit of a baseball conundrum. One of the game’s most volatile talents, his career-best walk rate also came with an abysmal 33.6% strikeout rate. He can look like a top 10 offensive force one month and replacement level the next. He is no longer the Gold Glove outfielder he was a few years ago, but he’s only 29 and his power is still prodigious when he’s right. Can he stay healthy long enough to tap into it consistently?
Green Light: On a rate basis, Pederson quietly put together the best offensive season of his 11-year career. It was really similar to his 2022 All-Star season in San Francisco, except he reached base more often and punished offspeed pitches more regularly. It was also a massive step forward from his 2023 season. Pederson finished the year with the fourth-highest year-over-year jump in slugging percentage among all qualified batters. He was one of just 10 hitters to post an OPS over .900 in at least 400 plate appearances.
Red Light: His outfield days are probably behind him, and he doesn’t hit lefties. That will limit his suitors, but he demonstrated he can still be a massive offensive boost to a team in need of help against right-handed pitching with a DH spot open.
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
Baseball is just a game. Except on Friday afternoon at Chavez Ravine, 42,458 fans didn’t flock to Dodger Stadium to watch one.
They arrived with their kids, their friends, their parents and grandparents, many of whom once watched Fernando Valenzuela electrify a city and ignite a movement, for a party both four and 36 years in the making.
When the Dodgers won it all in 2020, the only fans their stadium welcomed came in the form of cardboard cutouts. The real ones were watching from their homes, confined by the limitations of a pandemic that forced the postseason to be played in a Texas bubble and denied the winners the parade they had always imagined.
Despite all the winning the Dodgers had done over the last few decades, including 11 straight trips to the postseason before this year, they hadn’t celebrated a full-season World Series championship since 1988.
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On Friday afternoon, on what would have been Valenzuela’s 64th birthday, a city erupted and a long-awaited parade began.
“It certainly made up for 2020,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Obviously there’s a lot of players in 2020 that didn’t get to appreciate and experience what we experienced, but this is for them, too.”
The Dodgers returned home from New York, where they had silenced the critics and naysayers who tried to claim the only championship they’d won in the last 30 years, a 60-game sprint, somehow didn’t count the same. They demonstrated they could win in an unprecedented sprint. This year, they displayed they could emerge from a rigorous marathon, too.
Baseball is just a game, but the tears that welled up in the eyes of Dodgers players when they finally got their parade suggested more.
The lengthy build-up to the occasion, Clayton Kershaw explained, might have made it “even sweeter.”
“I waited a long time for this,” Kershaw said. “I’m just so thankful to every single fan that came out, so thankful at how well they’ve treated me and my family for all these years. I mean, we’ve been through it. We’ve been through some stuff. To be able to see them as happy as they were, be able to celebrate with us, it means the world to me. It really does.”
Angelenos flooded the streets to mark the occasion, including hundreds of thousands on the Dodgers’ parade route, which started at City Hall, took the team through downtown Los Angeles and eventually ended at the place where they won 52 regular-season games this year, then clinched the NLDS and NLCS.
Roberts began October on the hot seat after a couple early playoff exits. He began November on a ceremony stage at Dodger Stadium, where he danced alongside Ice Cube, having expertly orchestrated his team to a championship.
“Today,” Roberts said, “was a good day.”
The way the Dodgers expressed their jubilation varied, as one by one some of the most prominent figures took the microphone.
Some, including Shohei Ohtani, spoke in their second language. The prized free-agent acquisition, after six years without a winning season to begin his career in Anaheim, addressed the crowd in English to express his appreciation after winning a World Series in year one with the Dodgers.
“This is so special,” he said. “I’m so honored to be here and be part of this team. Congratulations, Los Angeles. Thank you guys.”
Many kept it brief: “We’re world f—ing champions, motherf—er,” Walker Buehler said, two days after throwing the final pitch at Yankee Stadium.
Levity was a popular form of expression, including from another player who furthered his October legend.
“Ice Cube came out in Game 2, and with his performance we didn’t even need to play the game, we had already won it,” Kiké Hernández said. “Then we go to New York, and this guy, he used to be fat, he’s not fat anymore, his name is Joe. He came out and sang, and guess what, we didn’t even need to play because after that performance, we had already won.”
The addition of Betts sparked the Dodgers’ last championship season, but he had struggled through the past couple Octobers before breaking out again this postseason, slashing .290/.387/.565 with four homers and becoming the only active position player in the majors with three World Series rings.
“I’m trying to fill this hand up, LA,” said Betts, who signed a 12-year contract extension during the Dodgers’ 2020 World Series run.
Baseball is just a game, but for many Dodgers veterans, it also led to a cathartic release.
There was Freddie Freeman, who had battled not only ankle, finger and rib injuries but also personal distress throughout the season’s second half. His 3-year-old son, Max, persevered through a sudden, scary autoimmune illness that at one point rendered him temporarily unable to walk. When Freeman returned from the emergency family list in early August after Max began to improve, the Dodger Stadium crowd gave him a standing ovation that stuck with him as cheers rained down again Friday.
“You guys showed out for my family and I,’ Freeman said. “That was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had on the field. I was so touched. I did everything I could to get out on this field for you guys. And I’m glad I did.”
There was Teoscar Hernández, who joined the Dodgers on a one-year deal after his market didn’t materialize the way he expected last winter. He decided to go to Los Angeles for the chance to win, then provided a vital jolt to the Dodger lineup in a bounceback year. Hernández, who quickly became a quick fan favorite, as the cheers indicated Friday, got choked up as he grabbed the microphone and thanked the crowd.
The impending free agent also expressed hope to return next year as a Dodger, calling it “the priority.”
“I knew it was going to be good,” Teoscar Hernández said. “I knew a lot of things were about to happen in a good way, but this is way more than I expected.”
And then there was Kershaw, the embodiment of the franchise’s colossal highs and gut-wrenching lows of the past two decades.
“I didn’t have anything to do with this championship, but it feels like the best feeling in the world,” Kershaw said to a cheering crowd. “Dodger for life.”
The future Hall of Famer was unable to contribute down the stretch of the 2024 season after trying and failing to push multiple injuries. He will need two surgeries on Wednesday, one to address the left big toe and foot issues that forced him out for the year and another to fix the meniscus in his left knee.
That’s part of why it was so meaningful to him that Roberts and Kershaw’s teammates still beckoned him to the stage to say a few words in front of a fanbase that has lived and died with each pitch, with each grueling defeat and euphoric win, the same way he has for 17 years.
Next year, Kershaw plans to make it an 18th in a Dodger jersey, whether he picks up his player option or not.
The 2020 season championship brought him relief. This one induced only tears of happiness.
“Baseball is just a game, everybody says that,” Kershaw said. “But I don’t know, man. You look around and you see how much it means to so many different people. I think it might be baseball, but it means a lot to a lot of different people, and I’m no different.”
Dodgers vs. Yankees: MINI-MOVIE of 2024 World Series | MLB on FOX 🎥
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Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
The ground in the visiting clubhouse at Yankee Stadium had barely started drying up before the hot stove got cooking.
Free agency is here, and teams are already wheeling and dealing. On Thursday, the day after the World Series, the Braves traded Jorge Soler to the Angels. Over the next few days, teams will begin negotiating with their own free agents and tendering qualifying offers. On Monday afternoon, players can start signing with new clubs as unrestricted free agency begins.
While it might take a couple of months for the biggest pieces to start moving, now’s a good time to start looking at the talent available before the action takes place. Below are the top 30 players from the 2025 free-agent class.
Note: This list only includes free agents and players with opt-outs who seem likely to test the market. It does not include Roki Sasaki, the 23-year-old Japanese pitching standout who has expressed interest in pitching in the majors next season but has not yet been posted by his NPB team. Players with an asterisk below have an option for next season. Players’ ages in 2025 season are listed in parentheses.
I mean, was there any question? I guess there is one: How many hundreds of millions will it take? Five? Six? More? And seeing what he means to the Yankees’ lineup, how high are they willing to go to keep him in pinstripes? It’s not every day that a 26-year-old superstar becomes available, and he’ll be far and away the most desired free agent on the market.
Possible fits: Yankees, Mets, Giants, Dodgers, Nationals
If there’s one person who can’t be blamed for the Orioles’ October shortcomings, it’s Burnes. Even if his strikeout rate was down, he was still every bit the ace they traded for and went out on a high note with an eight-inning, one-run wild-card performance that should have been enough for his team to secure a win. His year-to-year consistency should make any pitching-needy team feel confident in him headlining a rotation.
Possible fits: Orioles, Dodgers, Mets, Giants, Red Sox
Snell didn’t get the type of multi-year offer many expected coming off his second Cy Young Award-winning campaign, but he didn’t sulk about it. Instead, the left-hander delivered again, posting an even higher strikeout rate than he had the previous year. After signing in late March, injuries limited him in the first half. But these were his numbers in 14 starts after an IL stint: 5-0, 1.23 ERA, 0.78 WHIP, 38.1 K%. He was the only pitcher in baseball to have a WHIP under 1.0 and strikeout rate above 33% during this span (minimum 10 starts), and he also tossed a no-hitter. Here’s assuming he’ll opt out and get offered something a little closer to what we expected last winter.
Possible fits: Giants, Dodgers, Mets, Braves, Rangers
4. Alex Bregman, 3B, Houston Astros (31)
It feels weird that Bregman could play somewhere other than Houston, where the two-time All-Star has been a fixture for nearly a decade. But there will be plenty of suitors for the veteran infielder who has hit 32% better than league average over his nine years in Houston (and has hit at least 13% better than league average every season). While Bregman chased more and walked significantly less than normal last season, he’s still an offensive difference-maker who hits for average, packs some pop, rarely whiffs or strikes out and plays elite defense.
Want the best shortstop on the market? Look no further. A major component of a surprise division winner in Milwaukee, I’m not sure enough people talked about how good Adames was this season. In a career year, Adames upped his launch angle, launched 32 homers, knocked in more runs than any shortstop in the majors and also swiped 21 bags while playing plus defense (even if it didn’t grade out as highly this year as it did the previous season).
Possible fits: Dodgers, Giants, Braves, Blue Jays, Tigers
6. Max Fried, SP, Atlanta Braves (31)
Forearm issues are never what you want to hear in a contract year, but Fried pushed through to make 29 starts and deliver his second All-Star season. About as steady as they come, the lefty doesn’t miss many bats, but he’ll consistently keep the ball on the ground and limit hard contact. He posted his highest ERA since 2019 this year, and yet it was still the 15th-best mark in the majors among qualified starters.
Possible fits: Red Sox, Giants, Mets, D-backs, Padres
The Polar Bear saved some of his best work for last. Will his late-season heroics be enough for Steve Cohen to pay up to keep him in Queens? A reunion might be the most likely scenario. Alonso has been durable, but as enticing as his 30-plus homers might be, his defensive deficiencies, rising strikeout rate and a batting average that has plummeted the past two years bring risk as he approaches his age-30 season.
Possible fits: Mets, Astros, Mariners, Yankees, Giants
Hernández never got the long-term offer last offseason that he expected after a down year in Seattle, so he decided to reset his market on a one-year flier in Los Angeles. The move is about to reward the Home Run Derby champ handsomely, whether it’s back in L.A., where he rebounded in an All-Star season as a key cog for the champs, or elsewhere. Considering what an additive presence he was to the Dodgers both on and off the field, and how much he enjoyed the winning environment, a return makes a lot of sense.
Possible fits: Dodgers, Phillies, Royals, Braves, Red Sox
Here are the hitters with more homers than Santander over the past three seasons: Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Schwarber, Pete Alonso, Matt Olson. That’s it. It’ll be interesting to see how similar the market is for Hernández and Santander, a fellow All-Star corner outfielder coming off a career-high 44-homer season. While Santander won’t provide much with his glove or his legs, he supplies a rare amount of power for someone who doesn’t strike out a ton.
Possible fits: Orioles, Blue Jays, D-backs, Reds, Royals
10. Christian Walker, 1B, Arizona Diamondbacks (34)
One of this year’s biggest All-Star snubs, Walker had an .838 OPS and 22 homers in the first half before his numbers dipped late after an oblique issue. Walker’s age will be a deterrent for teams, but he hasn’t demonstrated any signs of slowing down. He can still mash — this was his third straight season hitting more than 20% above league average — and is one of MLB’s best defenders at his position.
Possible fits: Astros, D-backs, Mariners, Yankees, Mets
11. Jack Flaherty, SP, Los Angeles Dodgers (29)
Flaherty’s career didn’t unfold the way many expected after he finished fourth in Cy Young voting as a 23-year-old in 2019, but a bounce-back season this year demonstrated what’s still left in the tank. A sensational first half in Detroit made him the best pitcher available at the deadline, and while he had a volatile second half and postseason stretch with his hometown Dodgers, he raised his stock considerably. The eight-year big leaguer just turned 29 and posted the best strikeout-to-walk ratio of his career.
Possible fits: Angels, Dodgers, Mets, Red Sox, Cubs
Just take a look at his Statcast page. The only blip is his walk rate, but this is the most electric reliever on the market, a left-hander any contender could use at the back end of the bullpen.
Possible fits: Padres, Orioles, Blue Jays, Rangers, D-backs
13. Nathan Eovaldi*, SP, Texas Rangers (35)
A vesting player option kicked in this year for Eovaldi when he tallied more than 300 innings over the past two years in Texas. At 34, he’s still plenty productive, and his history of postseason success should make him an attractive short-term add for a contender.
Possible fits: Rangers, Orioles, Mets, Braves, Red Sox
This one’s the closest call on the list in terms of whether or not he’ll opt out. Bellinger didn’t command the type of contract he might have expected last offseason coming off a year in which he produced an .881 OPS and finished 10th in MVP voting. A more pedestrian follow-up season leaves him with an interesting decision to make.
Possible fits: Cubs, Angels, Astros, Giants, Blue Jays
15. Gleyber Torres, 2B, New York Yankees (28)
This wasn’t the walk year Torres probably envisioned. But while his performance can fluctuate and his defense can confound at times, he’s still one of the most talented middle infielders on the market. He’ll also be just 28 when next year begins, and he flourished toward the end of 2024 after moving into the Yankees’ leadoff spot.
Possible fits: Mariners, Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Giants
16. Yusei Kikuchi, SP, Houston Astros (34)
The Astros caught a lot of flak for what they surrendered to get Kikuchi at the deadline. Then the former Blue Jay did nothing but reward his new team, going 5-1 with a 2.70 ERA and a 5.43 strikeout-to-walk ratio after making some prudent arsenal tweaks. He can be prone to hard contact, but 200-strikeout arms don’t grow on trees.
Possible fits: Astros, Twins, Brewers, Rangers, Nationals
17. Michael Wacha*, SP, Kansas City Royals (33)
He didn’t get the attention of rotation mates Seth Lugo and Cole Ragans, but Wacha’s changeup looked as good as ever as he quietly produced a 3.35 ERA and his lowest hard-hit rate since 2017. That’s now three straight years with a sub-3.40 ERA — and for three different teams. After pitching for six different teams over the past six years, he can decide if he wants to stick in Kansas City for $16 million in 2025 or explore other options.
Possible fits: Royals, Brewers, Cubs, Orioles, Guardians
It wasn’t that long ago when O’Neill finished eighth in MVP voting as a Gold Glove 26-year-old outfielder in St. Louis. Injuries diminished his production his final two years with the Cardinals, but a healthier season in Boston yielded huge power numbers again.
Possible fits: Red Sox, Phillies, Royals, Tigers, Reds
19. Jurickson Profar, OF, San Diego Padres (32)
The former top prospect, who never developed into what many scouts envisioned, put together a surprising career year at 31. How will teams weigh that late breakout compared to his first 10 seasons?
Possible fits: Padres, Royals, Reds, Pirates, Phillies
20. Sean Manaea, SP, New York Mets (33)
A lower arm slot turned him into a different kind of force down the stretch and the Mets’ top option in October.
Possible fits: Mets, Twins, Brewers, Rangers, Orioles
There might not be anyone who benefited more from October baseball than Buehler. After a forgettable return from a second Tommy John surgery, he turned back the clock and thrived in the postseason, as he tends to do. Even if he doesn’t replicate his old form during the regular season, the perennial playoff standout demonstrated again what a difference he can still make on the biggest stage for a team with World Series aspirations.
Tommy John surgery wiped out most of Bieber’s 2024 season, but because it took place in April, there should be a good chance he plays most of next season. If he can replicate the elevated whiff rate he achieved in his first two starts of 2024 before his elbow blew out, his next team will be getting a difference-maker. But, of course, there is risk.
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
NEW YORK — The Los Angeles Dodgers had heard the minimizing and belittling of their short-season championship in the hours and days and months and years since they dogpiled between the mound and home plate at Globe Life Field four seasons ago. They believed what they did in 2020 amid adverse circumstances and a Texas bubble might have been harder and required even more than the typical season. Every other team, after all, had the same chance they did.
And yet …
“You want the full season one, just to get that whole narrative out of the window,” Gavin Lux said. “I think it kind of bugs everybody a little bit that you don’t get the recognition that you deserve.”
For the past four years, it served as fuel, a little extra motivation to acquire the franchise’s first full-season World Series championship since 1988. The Dodgers had gone to the postseason 11 straight years before this one, with only one pandemic-shortened title to show for it. Many of the same characters from 2020 remained, craving a championship no one could question and a celebration that evaded them the last time they won in the middle of a pandemic.
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Thanks to seven relievers and the first five-run comeback in a World Series clincher Wednesday night in the Bronx, that parade they missed in 2020 will take place Friday in Los Angeles — on what would have been Fernando Valenzuela’s 64th birthday.
“I’m going to enjoy the heck out of this one,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I’m sure there’s no asterisk on this one.”
In a season defined by persistence, the Dodgers outlasted the Yankees in Game 5 of the World Series, battling back from an early five-run hole, falling behind again, then coming through with the go-ahead runs in the eighth inning of a 7-6 win that embodied their resilience en route to a second championship in five years.
“Now it’s two, baby, what are you gonna say about that?” Max Muncy said. “World Series champions. Get that Mickey Mouse s- out of your mouth. We got a full season. It’s here.”
At 1:18 a.m. in the Bronx, as Wednesday night bled into Thursday morning and the Dodgers’ eighth World Series championship celebration shifted from a champagne-soaked clubhouse onto a family-filled field at Yankee Stadium, a shirtless Walker Buehler, pants still drenched from the postgame libations, lifted up Will Smith’s 2-year-old daughter for a hug before embracing his catcher for the second time that night. The first, a couple of hours prior, came as more of a surprise.
Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior had not discussed Buehler pitching at all in the deciding Game 5 of the World Series. That Buehler, an October star again after a turbulent return from his second Tommy John surgery, nonetheless secured the final out of the 2024 season represented a fitting finish to a year that took a path they never could have imagined after their billion-dollar offseason splurge.
If the chance to celebrate with a parade wasn’t incentive enough, they would find plenty more sources of motivation as their juggernaut roster began to crumble piece by piece. Injuries tattered their rotation to the point that only one pitcher from their Opening Day rotation still remained upright by October. Of the three starters they entrusted to get them through the postseason, one, Jack Flaherty, didn’t arrive until the deadline and was chased after recording four outs in the final win of the World Series. Another, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, missed nearly three months with a shoulder injury. The third, Buehler, had an ERA over 5.00 in a season marred by inconsistent command and mechanics.
Even the star-studded offense had taken its hits. Shohei Ohtani, the prize of the offseason who finally got his long-awaited opportunity on the sport’s biggest stage, partially dislocated his shoulder during the World Series. Before that, Freddie Freeman suffered a late September ankle sprain that was supposed to keep him out for 4-6 weeks. Freeman’s father, Fred, had to drive him to Dodger Stadium every day for physical therapy because Freddie couldn’t use his injured right foot on the pedal.
“It was beyond what any human should do,” Freeman’s father said from the field at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday, where he celebrated with his son. “I don’t know any other person that could have done that. Maybe Shohei, what he’s been doing right now. Shohei’s a warrior, also.”
Both players pushed through, though Freeman did a lot more than just survive en route to being selected World Series MVP. He set a major-league record with home runs in six straight World Series games (dating back to his 2021 championship run with the Braves) after homering in each of the first four games of this year’s World Series. The streak ended in Game 5, but his production did not. Freeman delivered a two-run hit as part of the Dodgers’ five-run fifth to tie the game. A medley of Yankees errors and miscues opened the door. An opportunistic Dodgers club knocked it down.
“Get dealt a couple blows, come back from it,” Muncy said. “Get dealt some more blows, come back from it. This game was literally our season in a nutshell.”
Given their dearth of starting options, the Dodgers needed to rely on a cavalcade of relievers to persevere, as they had all October. Their postseason run included 22 more innings from their bullpen than from their starters.
“I’d be one to tell you there would never be a bullpenning team that won the World Series,” said Blake Treinen, who recorded seven outs on Wednesday, marking the first time in six years that he’d gone more than two innings in an outing. “I’m eating crow.”
So depleted of starting pitchers, and needing to keep their highest-leverage arms fresh, the Dodgers and manager Dave Roberts chose to punt on certain playoff games when his team got down in a bullpen game. Roberts would live to fight another day, saving his most trusted relievers for more positive game scripts, so the opponent wouldn’t get as many looks at them. The dangerous strategy ultimately triumphed. Maligned for his decision-making in postseasons past, Roberts navigated a treacherous road deftly.
“Doc,” Smith said, “pushed all the right buttons.”
The most important might have come two weeks before the playoffs, when the team’s mounting injuries seemed to be taking a toll on the club both physically and mentally. In mid-September, after the Dodgers learned All-Star Tyler Glasnow’s season was over, Roberts read the room and saw a team that looked demoralized. The Dodgers had just dropped two straight games in Atlanta, and the Padres were clawing into their division lead.
Roberts rarely calls for team meetings, but Teoscar Hernández said the timing of this one changed everything. The skipper told his players that he couldn’t believe in them more than they believed in themselves, and the change needed to begin that night.
Buehler responded by bouncing back from a five-run outing to hold the Braves to one earned run in six innings. It was one of 11 wins in the final 14 games of the regular season for a Dodgers team that would be playoff bound for a 12th straight year, and it set a tone for a team that would then rebound from a 2-1 deficit in the National League Division Series against the Padres. It was around that time when Roberts realized this group, which would run through the Mets and Yankees, was different from recent iterations.
“I believe in this team,” Roberts said before a do-or-die Game 5 of the NLDS, “more than any team I’ve had.”
After winning the 2020 World Series, the past three years didn’t go the way the Dodgers planned. In 2021, they couldn’t dig out of another 3-1 NLCS hole against Freeman’s Braves, who would go on to win the whole thing. In 2022, a historic team that won 111 games bowed out in the first round in a stunning upset against the upstart Padres. A year later came another shocking first-round shellacking at the hands of a division foe, this time with the Diamondbacks blitzing the Dodgers.
Getting swept yielded sweeping changes.
The Dodgers opened the bank to bring in the most talented player in the game. A third MVP atop the lineup could, ideally, help stabilize an offense that had recently sputtered in October. Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman was at his son’s soccer game on a Zoom call recruiting another player when he got the news that Ohtani was on board, ending an emotional roller-coaster for a Los Angeles franchise that had long coveted the two-way sensation.
That Ohtani, determined to be part of a winning organization for the first time in his unmatched six-year big-league career, decided to set up his contract in an extraordinary way, deferring most of the $700 million he was owed over the next 10 years, freed up the Dodgers to continue adding. They made fellow NPB standout Yoshinobu Yamamoto the highest-paid pitcher in baseball history with a contract that was $1 million more in total value than Gerrit Cole, the ace who took the mound for the Yankees on Wednesday in Game 5 of the World Series.
The Dodgers kept going, trading for and extending Glasnow and bringing in even more offensive firepower by adding Hernández on a one-year deal. They had formed what seemed to be an inexorable machine, one capable of exorcising their recent postseason failures and delivering their city the parade they never got.
But more work would be required from the Dodgers’ front office to acquire the pieces necessary to get them over the top.
In one of the most vital trade deadlines in franchise history, they acquired the best pitcher available on the market in Flaherty, the local Los Angeles product who did just enough for his hometown team in a volatile postseason to help his club survive. Just as importantly, they also swung a three-team deal for versatile defender Tommy Edman, who hadn’t played a game this year to that point as he rehabbed wrist and ankle injuries, and reliever Michael Kopech, who was languishing on the worst team in modern baseball history. Kopech would slot in among the bevy of relief arms Roberts would come to rely upon.
Amid the injuries, the Dodgers knew they still possessed talent. And as they clawed through the postseason, they learned more about their ability to overcome adversity. There was perhaps no better example than the player who threw the final pitch of the season.
Earlier in the day, Buehler told the Dodgers’ coaching staff and front office he’d be available in the bullpen.
“Like, yeah, Walk, that’s awesome,” Friedman said, shaking off the thought.
“Well, what if it gets wonky?” Buehler asked.
With Flaherty departing in the second inning, things got wonky.
The Dodgers had already deployed all those high-leverage arms they were saving, forcing Treinen to record seven outs as the bullpen options dwindled. From there, the Dodgers had a couple of options. They could turn to Daniel Hudson, who threw 20 pitches the night prior, one of which resulted in a grand slam, and had grinded through another grueling year that would end with the 15-year big leaguer declaring his retirement late Wednesday night.
Or, they could go to Buehler, who had already made his way to the bullpen. With the Dodgers leading by one run in the ninth, after he threw four scoreless innings in Game 3 of the NLCS and five scoreless innings in his lone start of the World Series just two days prior, Buehler, in what could have been his final act as a Dodger, emerged and added another spotless frame.
“What Walker did right there, he’s etched in Dodger royalty for the rest of his life,” Clayton Kershaw said.
“I can’t say enough about him,” Friedman added. “It shouldn’t be surprising. Time and time again, what he’s done in October cements his legacy as an all-time Dodger great.”
It was also a fitting microcosm of the Dodgers’ year of fortitude. After recording the final out of the 2024 season, Buehler raised his hands in the air with his palms to the sky, in a motion that was less “I can’t believe it” and more “What else would you expect?”
In a season that didn’t go the way Buehler hoped, he was still the October hero.
In a year and a game that didn’t go the way the Dodgers scripted, they were still victorious.
This time, four seasons after the previous title, a parade will mark the accomplishment. And there’s nothing anyone can say to diminish it.
“First one’s just as much as this, in my opinion, Smith said. “People can say whatever they want, but this is No. 2 for us, No. 2 for me. Hopefully, we get a few more.”
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
NEW YORK — Before a do-or-die Game 4 at Yankee Stadium, Jazz Chisholm thought about wearing Timberlands on the field for batting practice. They were gifted to the team by outfielder Alex Verdugo, who “just wanted to do something cool for the boys.”
For three games to start the World Series, a Yankees offense that had launched more homers and taken more free passes than any team in baseball looked like a shell of itself. At the time Freddie Freeman launched another go-ahead first-inning blast in Game 4, he had knocked in more runs during the series than the entire New York lineup.
The Yankees entered Tuesday night with a total of seven runs through three games and only four hits with runners in scoring position. They looked tight. Verdugo, whose ninth-inning homer the night before provided their only runs in Game 3, sought to loosen things up. Well, that, plus he “felt like Timberlands just feel like New York” and he “wanted to get the boys some steppin’ shoes.”
“Mine was more just give them that, give them something to lighten it up,” Verdugo said.
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Whether the gift helped at all, or the Yankees offense simply enjoyed seeing a Dodgers bullpen game featuring a parade of their lower-leverage arms, the group finally ignited in an 11-4 rout.
“The situation we were in, I think that we just kind of needed to say, ‘Screw it,’ and go after it and have fun because some guys may never come back to the World Series again,” catcher Austin Wells said. “So, enjoying the game, I think that allowed us to play a lot looser tonight.”
Anthony Volpe’s go-ahead grand slam, which finally gave Yankee Stadium a reason to erupt, didn’t hurt, either. Wells said he thought that hit allowed the rest of the lineup to take a deep breath.
It also forced Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to think long term. He essentially punted the rest of the way, the same way he did in Game 2 of the NLCS when the Mets jumped ahead early in a bullpen game, so as not to overwork the relievers he trusts the most or allow the opposition to see them in a game they were unlikely to take anyway. It worked then.
The danger of that decision on Tuesday is it helped a group of scuffling Yankees hitters to break out and gain confidence.
Wells, who was 4-for-43 to begin the postseason and was given the previous game off, followed three innings after Volpe’s blast with a home run. Then came a five-run barrage in the eighth, when Gleyber Torres put the game away with the Yankees’ third home run of the night.
A Yankees offense that had not scored more than three runs in a game during the series broke out with nine hits and six free passes against a medley of Dodgers relievers. The bottom of the lineup provided a spark, but eight of the nine players in the lineup reached base. Perhaps most encouragingly for the Yankees, Aaron Judge demonstrated some promising signs, reaching base four times and knocking in a run in his final at-bat of the game.
“Once he’s on base, I feel like everybody gets going,” Chisholm said.
The World Series had gone 11 straight years without a sweep. The Yankees awoke from their slumber to run that streak to 12. The 11-run fusillade was tied for the second-most ever by a club facing elimination in the World Series.
The offensive approach that got them to the World Series finally showed up to help them keep their season alive.
“Knowing that this was the last guaranteed day of baseball for the season, definitely didn’t want to take it for granted and wanted to enjoy the moment,” Wells said. “I think if you put too much pressure on it at this point, like, it’s just going to … you’re going to fail yourself, and you’re not going to enjoy the journey.”
That journey will now continue on Thursday, when the Yankees have to feel good about their chances of sending the series back to Los Angeles.
If they’re able to do that, they’ll make history in the process. The Yankees are the 25th team to face a 3-0 deficit in the World Series. Twenty-one of the previous 24 teams to face that margin were swept. The other three lost in Game 5.
But the other three didn’t have Gerrit Cole on the mound.
“Every time G goes out there, we feel we’re in a great spot,” Chisholm said. “He’s like the best pitcher in the world. You see him out there, you see confidence.”
Cole allowed just one run and only four baserunners in six innings to start the series. He departed with the lead in a game that ended with a walk-off grand slam off the bat of Freeman, who has made his mark in every game this series. Freeman followed those late-game heroics with a solo homer in Game 2, then quieted the Yankees’ crowd with a two-run shot that sapped the energy from the stadium in Game 3.
When Freeman did the exact same thing again in Game 4, setting a major-league record with a home run in his sixth straight World Series game, it looked like he might have delivered the dagger to the Yankees’ season.
This time, though, they answered back.
The 2004 Red Sox are the only MLB team to dig its way out of a 3-0 hole in a best-of-seven series, when it did so against the Yankees in the American League Championship Series.
But the Yankees, with three more games to play for their lives, aren’t thinking that far ahead. Anthony Rizzo, whose 2016 World Series champion Cubs emerged victorious from a 3-1 deficit in the World Series — where the Yankees find themselves now — knows the danger of that.
“It was all about just getting to Game 6,” Rizzo said. “We knew Game 5 was going to be really hard.”
If the offense that showed up Wednesday reveals itself again, especially with Cole on the mound, the Yankees have a real chance of extending the series. Even if they can’t wear Timberlands to batting practice.
“We’ve got to focus on, ‘Win another game,'” Judge said. “We’ll look up at the end of it and see what happens.”
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
NEW YORK — Walker Buehler wishes he could feel this way all the time.
He wishes the velocity and characteristics on his fastball, which guided his gem Monday night in the Bronx and moved the Dodgers to within one win of a World Series sweep, could have emerged earlier when he was searching for answers in a rocky transition back to the mound after his second Tommy John surgery.
He wishes the mechanics that finally came together, which helped him stretch his streak of postseason scoreless innings to 12 after his latest Fall Classic masterpiece, could have been there all year when his command was in disarray.
He wishes that extra boost of epinephrine, the one that comes from pitching and thriving in October, could be channeled the same way during the six months prior.
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But he can’t help it.
The postseason, and the World Series in particular, brings out a different version of him.
“I think, as kind of brutal as it is to say, it takes that adrenaline and stuff to kind of really get me going mentally,” Buehler said after quieting a crowd of 49,368 fans at Yankee Stadium in a 4-2 win. “I wish I would have felt that all year. I could tell you I’m excited to pitch every single game I’ve ever gone out there, but there is something different in the playoffs.”
After a forgettable start to Game 3 of the National League Division Series marred by defensive miscues, he tossed three scoreless innings in San Diego to end that outing. Then he tallied four scoreless innings in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series, riding his secondary pitches to more swings and misses than he had in any game since the 2021 season.
And on Monday, he kept the Yankees off the board for five innings. He has now allowed just one run in 18 innings over three career World Series starts.
“I think it’s just in his DNA,” Gavin Lux said. “Some guys have it like that.”
This time, it was Buehler’s fastball — the one that helped him rise to fame, the one that used to overpower opponents, the one that had suddenly lost its bite after his latest elbow procedure — guiding his success.
Hitters had annihilated his four-seamer as he tried to figure out how to pitch with the new version of his surgically-repaired arm. But he relied on it against a Yankees lineup that whiffed six times against the pitch and watched another nine go by for called strikes.
They did not record a hit against it.
“Kind of like it used to be,” Buehler said, “or a little bit closer.”
The Yankees did not have a hit at all against him until a Giancarlo Stanton double in the fourth inning. Stanton was thrown out at the plate by Teoscar Hernández trying to score from second on an Anthony Volpe single to left field, extinguishing the Yankees’ only real threat against Buehler, who was removed only because the lineup turned over a third time through.
Hernández wasn’t on the Dodgers when Buehler first developed his penchant for clutch performances, but he watched enough baseball to know what to expect from the starter when the calendar flipped to October.
“This is how it is, every time,” Hernández said. “He’s locked in, and just does that. He’s got three games in the World Series, all three games, he wins. It’s Walker.”
In what might have been his final showing before free agency, in a season diminished but not defined by inconsistency, Buehler again saved his best for the most important time of year.
He is the only Dodgers starter ever to throw five shutout innings while allowing two hits or fewer in a World Series game. And he has now done it twice.
“At least long term, for me, to get through the playoffs in the way that I have, it’s really encouraging for me personally because I know it’s in there, and I’ve just got to unlock it a little bit,” Buehler said. “But that feeling of, ‘there’s an organization relying on me today to win a playoff game,’ I think it’s kind of the weight that I like feeling and kind of gets me in a certain place mentally that it’s kind of hard to replicate.”
Buehler’s 2024 debut didn’t come until May. Knowing there might be some limitations this year coming off his second elbow reconstruction, he did not want to start and stop his season. He expressed a desire to be available in October, when the team would need him most.
He’s there now, performing to his capabilities once again, even if it took a winding path to reach this familiar finish.
“Second TJ takes guys a lot longer to figure out who they are,” Max Muncy said. “For him, the timing wasn’t there for a while. But his last couple games going into the postseason, he looked more like himself. Some guys live for the moment. He’s definitely one of those guys.”
There were often times during Buehler’s rehab when he didn’t want to look at the radar gun, knowing he’d be underwhelmed. His four-seamer averaged 95 mph this year, not the 96-97 he was throwing four years ago, but not far off from where he was at in 2021 and 2022. Still, it wasn’t missing bats. Opponents hit .342 against the pitch. They had nearly as many homers (eight) as strikeouts (nine) against it.
In a contract year, it made for an uncertain future. But Buehler was more concerned with getting right than looking ahead.
“Obviously, it’s my free-agent year and whatnot,” Buehler said this spring, “but at the end of the day, I just want to play and be good again.”
In the midst of the mediocrity, a hip issue this summer stunted his progress further. He had a 5.84 ERA before missing a month of the season. He spent part of that time at a private facility in Florida trying to find a way to get right again. His first few starts back were just as inauspicious.
But while the results weren’t there, Buehler began to find some consistency in his mechanics during an August bullpen session in St. Louis. He had a 4.44 ERA in September — hardly the Buehler of old, but enough to demonstrate to the Dodgers that he deserved a postseason role in their depleted rotation.
The way his regular season ended, with Buehler holding off the team that was chasing the Dodgers in the standings, there was a building block. The Dodgers won the division on Sept. 26 when he limited the high-powered Padres to one run in five innings.
The October stage, his baseball haven, beckoned.
“This,” Buehler said after his regular-season finale, “is what I live for.”
It’s where he thrived in 2018, when he began to develop his playoff reputation. Then, as a 23-year-old rookie, he was the pitcher the Dodgers called upon in a Game 163 tiebreaker to decide the division. He held the Rockies to one hit in 6.2 innings in a 5-2 win. Later that postseason, he bounced back from a rough start to October by allowing one run in Game 7 of the NLCS to send the Dodgers to the World Series, where he fired seven scoreless innings in his lone start.
Two years later, in the Dodgers’ 2020 championship run, Buehler kept the team’s season alive with six scoreless innings in a Game 6 win against Freddie Freeman’s Braves. He followed that up with 10 strikeouts in six innings of one-run ball against Tyler Glasnow’s Rays.
“He just always shoved,” Glasnow recalled. “The moment was never too big.”
Monday was just the latest example of his October prowess. After posting a 5.38 ERA in the 2024 regular season, Buehler has a 3.86 ERA this postseason.
When he takes the mound this time of year, you can throw his regular-season stats away.
“You just see that different look in his eyes,” Lux said. “He doesn’t care, man. This guy’s the most confident human being in the world.”
Buehler’s work this October, at the end of his most grueling season as a big leaguer, has been especially notable.
And while it might not fully erase his regular-season struggles in the minds of potential suitors, it demonstrates what still remains from the 30-year-old pitcher who was, just a few years ago, the Dodgers’ ace the last time they won a World Series.
Now, this version of Buehler epitomizes a Dodgers pitching staff that has risen far above expectations.
If the Yankees had one main advantage over the Dodgers entering the series, it was, seemingly, the depth of their rotation. But in Game 2, Yoshinobu Yamamoto outpitched Carlos Rodón. And in Game 3, the Dodgers knocked Clarke Schmidt out before Buehler had even given up a hit.
“When it’s going good, there’s not much else you’d rather do on this earth,” Buehler said.
Buehler has now thrown the second-most playoff starts of any player in his franchise’s illustrious history, behind only Clayton Kershaw. He has a 3.07 ERA in those 18 outings.
If Monday was his last as a Dodger, it was one hell of a parting gift.
“There’s no one I’d want more in a big game,” Muncy said, “than Walker Buehler.”
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
LOS ANGELES — When Yoshinobu Yamamoto joined the Dodgers last December, he made a strong declaration: He would stop admiring the players he looked up to and instead “strive to become the player that others want to become.”
Ten months later, manager Dave Roberts leisurely emerged from the dugout in the seventh inning Saturday night at Dodger Stadium and took the ball from Yamamoto, but not before shaking the 26-year-old’s hand and giving him a quick hug on the mound. In his first career World Series appearance, in the midst of his first big-league postseason, facing a Yankees lineup featuring the presumptive American League MVP and a pending free-agent superstar set to test the boundaries of every competitive owner’s pocketbooks, Yamamoto delivered the type of outing the Dodgers dreamed about when they made him baseball’s wealthiest pitcher last offseason.
“From pitch one, you knew he had his good stuff all night,” Freddie Freeman, the previous night’s hero, said after Los Angeles’ 4-2 Game 2 win. “Just an awesome first start in a World Series, everything we needed out of him. He delivered.”
Yamamoto had already dominated the Yankees once in New York, supplying seven scoreless innings in a performance many pointed to as a case study in his ability to handle the sport’s highest-pressure environments. Nearly five months later, three of which were spent rehabilitating a shoulder injury that might have stemmed from that overpowering outing, he did it again at home in the most consequential start of his career, moving the Dodgers two wins away from the ultimate prize by carving up a Yankees team that had once envisioned him wearing pinstripes.
A standing ovation from 52,725 fans, many chanting “Yo-shi,” awaited Yamamoto on his walk off the mound after allowing one run in 6.1 innings in his longest start since his tour de force in the Bronx.
Beyond the significance of the stage, there was one considerable difference Saturday compared to his previous start against the Yankees: This time, he had to face Juan Soto. If not for the Yankees lefty, Yamamoto would have held New York off the scoreboard again.
The only blemish on Yamamoto’s night came in the third inning, when Soto turned on an inside fastball on the sixth pitch of the at-bat for a solo shot. That was the only hit Yamamoto would surrender. He retired the next 11 batters he faced, which included striking out Aaron Judge a second time, before Roberts handed the game over to the Dodgers’ bullpen.
The outing was the first time Yamamoto had gone more than five innings since returning from his shoulder injury on Sept. 10, seven starts ago.
“Obviously, coming over to this league can be a big-time culture shock,” reliever Daniel Hudson said. “This country, this league, is completely different than what he was growing up in, playing over there, so everybody kind of figured there was kind of going to be some growing pains there. But he’s got elite stuff, he’s got a good head on his shoulders. … We were pretty pumped to get him back there at the end of the year.”
Last year in Japan, Yoshinobu Yamamoto built a reputation for bouncing back, most notably on the country’s biggest stage. He allowed seven runs in Game 1 of the Japan Series only to rebound with a 138-pitch, series-record 14-strikeout complete-game masterpiece.
In his first taste of the big-league postseason, it looked similar. He labored through three innings against San Diego in Game 1 of the National League Division Series, then helped the Dodgers vanquish their first-round demons with five scoreless innings in the deciding Game 5. Gavin Lux noted then that Yamamoto had “a little Walker Buehler in him,” referring to his big-game prowess.
In the most pivotal performance of his big-league career Saturday night, Yamamoto didn’t need a feeling-out process. There was no need for a rebound. He was nails all night, just as Dodgers vice president of player personnel Galen Carr, who scouted Yamamoto multiple times in Japan, predicted before the start.
“It’s hard to really put yourself in these guys’ shoes when they’re changing leagues, changing countries, changing cultures and everything about it is different — the ball, the mound, the schedule, the travel,” Carr said.
Yamamoto said he considers last year’s Japan Series experience as wholly different from his first major-league postseason, in large part because this is his first season in a new league. What Yamamoto and the people close to him believed, according to Carr, is that after an adjustment period, he would thrive.
After allowing five runs in three innings in his first playoff start, Yamamoto held the Padres scoreless his next time out. Then he struck out eight in his lone start of the NLCS versus the Mets before registering a nearly flawless World Series outing against one of the most patient and powerful lineups in the sport.
“Every time I pitch, the last three games, I become more comfortable,” Yamamoto said through a translator before Game 2 of the World Series.
This time, he triumphed in a different way against the Yankees. Back in June, he featured more of his slider than ever before. It was that pitch that helped guide his success in his lone start of the NLCS, too.
But he didn’t need it to flourish again in his sequel against the Yankees. His slider was responsible for only two of his 12 whiffs in Game 2 of the World Series. Yamamoto relied heavily on his four-seamer, which he commanded erratically early on before locking in the second time through the lineup, and a curveball that dropped in for six called strikes.
“He seems a little bit more in control trusting his stuff,” shortstop Miguel Rojas said. “Especially at the beginning of the year, he didn’t know the hitters, he didn’t know the league. But it’s not a surprise for me because I know the pedigree of this guy, where he’s coming from, what he did in Japan. I’m excited for him because games like this in the first year, when he comes to the United States, it’s going to give him a great boost of energy and confidence.”
A home run from NLCS MVP Tommy Edman gave Yamamoto an early lead. When Solo’s blast tied it up, the depth of the Dodgers’ lineup became apparent. Teoscar Hernández answered immediately with a two-run shot, followed by a solo homer from Freeman.
Both of Freeman’s blasts in this series have conjured memories of past Dodgers World Series winners.
His Game 1 launch was eerily similar to Kirk Gibson’s iconic 1988 Game 1 pinch-hit home run. On Saturday, Freeman’s latest feat hearkened back to the Dodgers’ 1981 Fall Classic triumph over the Yankees. That was the last time the Dodgers had hit back-to-back homers in a World Series game, courtesy of Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager.
Freeman didn’t get much sleep Friday night. He was tossing and turning, in part because all three of his kids were overtired and awake, in part because he had just deposited the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history. On Saturday, he received a quick boost of energy. Freeman received the first standing ovation of the night.
“Walking up to the plate, my first at-bat today, hard not to have a smile on the inside,” Freeman said.
The second went to Yamamoto, after his final pitch of the night. Roberts’ trip to the mound to remove him came at a leisurely pace.
In the bottom half of the frame, Roberts’ departure from the dugout was more hurried and concerned. The Dodgers took a commanding 2-0 lead in the series, but it might have come at a cost. Shohei Ohtani suffered a subluxation of his left shoulder when he was caught stealing in the seventh inning.
Roberts was encouraged by Ohtani’s strength and range of motion and at this point is expecting him to be in the lineup when the series shifts to New York, though he won’t know more until further scans are completed.
It makes the nearly flawless work from their other major offseason signing, the $325 million man, all the more important.
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
LOS ANGELES — It was a sprained ankle, not a banged-up knee or hamstring. It was 10 innings of gritting through pain, not an improbable pinch-hit appearance off the bench. It was a lift of the bat toward the sky and a roar on his trot around the bases, not a pump of the fist.
But 36 years after a hobbled Kirk Gibson made the impossible happen in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, Freddie Freeman authored the latest iconic World Series-opening blast for the Dodgers, delivering the first walk-off grand slam in the history of the Fall Classic and sending 52,394 fans into a frenzy.
“I love the history of this game,” Freeman said. “To be a part of it, it’s special. I’ve been playing this game a long time, and to come up in those moments, you dream about those moments, even when you’re 35 and have been in the league for 15 years. You want to be a part of those.”
Freeman joined Gibson and Joe Carter (1993) as the only players to ever hit a walk-off homer in the World Series with their team trailing.
As he strolled around the bases, having delivered the Dodgers a 6-3 Game 1 comeback victory against the Yankees, Freeman said he felt like he was floating. Teammate Max Muncy, who hit a walk-off homer in Game 3 of the 2018 World Series, is one of the few who understands the feeling.
“You black out in the moment,” Muncy said. “From a personal feeling, you don’t remember a lot of it. I’m going to remember this one a lot more than I remember mine.”
With the Dodgers trailing by a run, down to their final out in the bottom of the 10th, the Yankees intentionally walked Mookie Betts to load the bases and set up the lefty-lefty matchup.
On the mound was Nestor Cortes, who was added to the playoff roster after missing each of the Yankees’ first two playoff series with an elbow injury. At the plate was Freeman, whose right ankle sprain and bone bruise had produced a hindered version of the eight-time All-Star.
“You walk a first-ballot Hall of Famer,” Dodgers infielder Gavin Lux said, “to get to another first-ballot Hall of Famer.”
Freeman was unable to play in two of the Dodgers’ last three games of the National League Championship Series and held without an extra-base hit through his team’s first two postseason series. But the break before the World Series offered Freeman a needed reprieve.
Throughout the playoffs, each day produced uncertainty regarding Freeman’s availability. Occasionally, like at team breakfast before Game 4 of the NLDS and the off day before Game 6 of the NLCS, the Dodgers would make the call ahead of time to sit Freeman in his best interest. Often, though, manager Dave Roberts would not know until shortly before first pitch whether he could keep Freeman’s name in the lineup.
He began the playoffs 6-for-17 — all singles — before a 1-for-15 stretch. Over those eight games, he had scored just one run. In Game 1 of the NLCS, he crossed the plate and needed Betts to hold him up to stop his momentum. The more Freeman played, and the longer a series went, the more limiting his ankle became. The issue was starting to leak into his swing.
“Back then, a week or so ago, I could get through four, five innings before I was having trouble walking,” Freeman said. “In Game 5, it started happening pretty much right after my first at-bat. It was just progressing to making it really hard for me to get through the game.”
The Dodgers made the call to sit him for Game 6 of the NLCS with this scenario in mind. The week off meant six days that Freeman didn’t have to run, which is usually what causes his ankle to flare up. He still got treatment for 3-4 hours a day at the field. The time off helped. Three days ago, Freeman knew he was “100 percent” go. There was no question, in his mind, he would be in the starting lineup.
“They don’t make them like that guy anymore,” Lux said. “He’s gritty, he’s old school, he wants to be out there. If there’s kids out there that want an idol, that’s the guy you want to try to be like right there.”
Around that time, watching his swings, his teammates saw a different version of their All-Star first baseman.
“I mean, you know,” Kiké Hernández said. “You know your teammates. You know their swings. You know their mannerisms. He took BP a couple days ago and it didn’t look the way it looked a couple days prior.”
Hernández was not alone. Reliever Daniel Hudson was shagging balls in left field during batting practice with Chris Taylor when he noticed Freeman peppering line drives over shortstop and third base. Freeman was starting to look like himself again.
“CT looks at me and goes, ‘I think Freddie’s about to go off,'” Hudson recalled. “I was like, ‘Yeah, those are Freddie swings right there.'”
It was at that point that Freeman thought he unlocked a cue in his swing with hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc. It wasn’t necessarily any feats of strength or power that demonstrated it.
“It’s not about lifting or doing any of that,” Freeman said. “If my swing’s in the right spot and you’re hitting line drives and your swing is in a good spot, that’s where you create backspin. I can’t create the spin. If I do, I’m going to topspin and hook everything. When your swing is good and direct to the ball, that’s how you create the backspin.”
“He runs into power,” Van Scoyoc added. “When he’s on time, he catches it.”
On the first pitch from Cortes, he caught a 92.5 mph fastball on the inner half of the plate and made Dodger Stadium shake.
“Those are the scenarios you dream about, two outs, bases loaded in a World Series game,” Freeman said. “For it to actually happen and get a home run and walk it off to give us a 1-0 lead, that’s as good as it gets right there.”
After a dogpile with his teammates, Freeman ran behind home plate to celebrate the moment with his father, the man who has thrown him batting practice all his life.
“My swing is because of him,” Freeman said. “My approach is because of him. I am who I am because of him.”
Three months ago, his father was there to throw to him, too, in the midst of one of the most taxing moments of Freeman’s life. A turbulent second half of the season for Freeman began in late July, when his 3-year-old son Max became suddenly ill. The deterioration was rapid. By July 22, Max could no longer walk. The Freeman family eventually learned Max was suffering from Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare autoimmune condition. Freeman took 10 days away from the team to be with his son, who is now on the road to recovery and back walking again.
Two days before returning to the Dodgers, the Southern California native went to his former high school, El Modena, and hit on the field with his father. In his first at-bat back at Dodger Stadium on Aug. 5, he received a standing ovation from not only 48,178 fans but also the Phillies dugout.
“When I was gone the week and a half with my family, that first day I came back, that’s as special as it gets to make my family and I feel the love and the support,” Freeman said. “I tried to reciprocate it that night and thanking them and all this, but I think they appreciate this one a little bit more three months later.”
Tumultuous times off the field were met with hardships on it, when he fractured his finger in August. He decided to play through the pain. He bounced back from a slow start in September with a .316 average over his final 10 games of the regular season, only to sprain his ankle in the Dodgers’ division-clinching game against the Padres on Sept. 26 while trying to avoid a tag from Luis Arráez. It swelled up like a grapefruit, leaving him in a boot as the Dodgers celebrated. He was told it was a 4-6 week injury.
Ten days later, he was in the lineup for Game 1 of the NLDS, ankles taped up like a football player.
That night, he not only played but stole a base, as his manager and teammates held their breath. Freeman’s desire to play became a rallying force within the clubhouse of a team that was trying to move beyond the first-round exits of the previous two seasons.
“A lot of us are banged up,” Lux said, “so you see this guy can barely walk for a couple weeks get out there and still steal bases, run hard down the line, limping all over the place, it makes you want to get out there and play hard, too.”
For years, the World Series included a Taco Bell “Steal a Base, Steal a Taco” promotion.
Before Game 1, Freeman threatened to his teammates that he’d go for it.
“And we all told him, if you steal a base, we’re going to walk out on the field and take you off the field ourselves,” Muncy said. “Sure enough, he gets a triple.”
Freeman started the day legging out a three-bagger against Cole. He ended it trotting 90 feet further in a walk-off winner for the ages.
“Might be the greatest baseball moment I’ve ever witnessed,” Roberts said.
“For him to have that moment, with everything he’s been through,” Lux said, “you couldn’t be happier for the guy.”
Right as the grand slam left Freeman’s bat, Hudson looked up from the bullpen toward the banner that shows the exit velocity. It flashed 109. He knew the game was over.
Not long after, Hudson thought about Gibson’s blast.
“I was probably one of two people in here who was alive when it happened,” the 37-year-old reliever joked. “You see it on TV, the side-by-sides on social media as soon as it happens. It was a really special moment for all the fans here, for everybody, especially for Freddie. I know that meant a lot to him.”
At least for a few hours.
On Friday, Freeman got to the stadium at 10:30 a.m. to begin treatment.
On Saturday, he’ll do it again. Game 2 awaits.
“This trophy is what makes you go through the grind every day,” Freeman said. “When you step into spring training in February, your eyes are on that, to do everything you can. That’s what’s worth it for me.”
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
LOS ANGELES — Yankees–Dodgers is a World Series matchup made in history, so it’s fitting that Game 1 was an instant classic. Here are four takeaways from the Dodgers’ 6-3 win in 10 innings.
In a swing reminiscent of Kirk Gibson’s iconic blast in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, Freddie Freeman, unable to play in the last game of the NLCS due to his injured ankle, conjured memories of Gibson’s blast with a walk-off home run in the first game of the 2024 World Series.
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Freeman missed both Games 4 and 6 of the NLCS because the issues with his injured ankle, which he had dealt with all postseason, was starting to leak into his swing. In the days leading up to Game 1, however, he said there was no doubt he’d be in the lineup. He had just six hits this October, all singles, prior to Friday night.
He delivered his first extra-base hit of the postseason with a surprising triple off Gerrit Cole in the first, then saved the best for last. With the Dodgers down to their last out in the 10th inning, Freeman delivered the lasting blast in a Game 1 thriller with a grand slam off Nestor Cortes.
It was clear from Jack Flaherty’s first pitch, a 96.4 mph fastball out of the gate to Gleyber Torres, that this start would be different for the local kid pitching for his hometown team.
Coming off seven scoreless innings in Game 1 of the NLCS, Flaherty didn’t have it his last time out. The Mets tagged him for eight runs in three innings in Game 5. He walked four, didn’t record a strikeout, and perhaps most troublingly saw his fastball velocity descend to 91.4 mph, which he usually attributes to a timing issue.
With a week off to rest and figure out any mechanical tweaks needed, he figured it out.
At least, until another local product unloaded.
Friday night was setting up for a dream outing for Flaherty, who once dominated the fields of Sherman Oaks Little League. Through five innings, he had bested last year’s American League Cy Young winner, leading 1-0 while going toe-to-toe against Cole.
And then came one gigantic swing from a different Sherman Oaks legend.
Giancarlo Stanton, as he so often has at the stadium he used to attend growing up, authored his own homecoming party.
In 25 career regular-season games at Dodger Stadium, Stanton had a 1.086 OPS. He once hit a ball out of the stadium. Two years ago, he obliterated a 457-foot home run into the left-field pavilion, where he used to sit as a kid hoping to get balls thrown to him from any player roaming the outfield, to earn All-Star Game MVP honors.”
“That Cali air, man,” Stanton quipped before the start of the World Series. “Grew up with it.”
On Friday, there wasn’t any ballpark in the major leagues that would have contained his game-changing shot. Once again, he was the one sending a souvenir to a fan in left field when he tagged a Flaherty curveball 116.6 mph off the bat 412 feet into the sky for a go-ahead two-run shot. There was no doubt about it, as the Yankees slugger continued a torrid October stretch. He has now homered in four straight playoff games and leads all players this postseason with six.
3. With all the focus centered on two patient, powerful offenses, Game 1 was a pitchers’ duel
Flaherty’s fastball wouldn’t sit at 96 mph all night, but even somewhere between 93-94 mph would represent a marked improvement from where it was and plenty to give the Dodgers an opportunity against Cole.
More importantly, he commanded it well, which made his curveball — which got 12 swings and misses — all the more effective against a patient Yankees lineup until Stanton’s blast.
That was all the support Cole needed to depart with a lead after six innings.
It did not appear, from the start, that it would go that way.
Shohei Ohtani crushed the first pitch he saw from Cole 373 feet and 106 mph off the bat, but it died in center field. One batter later, Mookie Betts sent a deep drive that was tracked down at the warning track. Then came the unlikeliest of triples as Freeman, whose right ankle was too hurt to play on in the NLCS clincher, booked it around the bases with some assistance in left field from Alex Verdugo. The Dodgers couldn’t bring Freeman home, but it appeared they were seeing Cole well.
Then the Yankees veteran ace, in his 21st career playoff start, locked in.
Cole retired the next 11 Dodgers batters until another triple, this one off the bat of October sensation Kiké Hernández, who legged it to third after Juan Soto tried to make the catch instead of play the ball off the wall. A sacrifice fly from Will Smith plated the first run of the night. That’s all the Dodgers would scratch across against Cole. After allowing four free passes his last time out in the ALCS, he was not as forgiving against the hardest lineup he has faced this October. He has now allowed two runs or fewer in 14 of his 21 career postseason starts.
The defense behind him, however, continued to offer costly gifts to the opposition.
Cole departed with a lead after Stanton’s sixth-inning blast that lasted until the eighth inning, when Ohtani sent a changeup from Tommy Kahnle off the right-field wall. He should have been held to a double, but Torres misplayed Soto’s throw to second base, allowing Ohtani to take third. The Dodgers, who didn’t have a hit with a runner in scoring position until Freeman’s blast, didn’t need one to score their second run of the night on a game-tying sac fly by Betts.
Verdugo, however, would make up for his earlier gaffe with an incredible grab that sent him head-over-heels into the stands with a crucial play against Ohtani in the 10th to bring the Yankees within an out of victory.
4. Watch your fingers
Torres nearly won the game in the ninth inning with a two-out drive off Michael Kopech that reached the seats … with some help.
The ball was caught by a Dodgers fan, who reached over the wall to make the play. Upon review, fan interference was ruled and Torres returned to second base. The Dodgers then elected to walk Juan Soto, who had reached twice on the night, to get to Aaron Judge with Blake Treinen set to come in. The Dodgers’ decision paid off, as Treinen got an inning-ending popout from Judge, who finished 1-for-5 with three strikeouts.
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
