Rowan Kavner, Author at WeTeachSports

October 24, 2025

World Series Boo Birds? Ohtani, Sasaki, Springer Shouldn’t Expect Warm Welcomes

On the surface, there may not appear to be much simmering animosity between the Dodgers and Blue Jays. The World Series contenders reside in different leagues and countries more than 2,000 miles apart and lack the postseason history of last year’s Fall Classic foes.

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Dig a little deeper, though, and it’s not hard to find the bad blood in individual cases, considering some of the players’ infamous ties to the opposition.

Even those with a positive connection to the opposing city know better than to expect a warm reception.

“I’m not so sure the Canadian fans, the Blue Jays fans, will be cheering for me this time around,” said Freddie Freeman, who represented Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic. “But it is special. Both my parents were born and raised in Canada, especially the province of Ontario — my mom is from the Toronto area, dad from Windsor — so it is special.”

Rob Manfred on Vlad Jr. following his father’s footsteps, Ohtani hype, Blue Jays’ clubhouse party

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Freeman’s mother passed away from melanoma when he was 10, and he said every time he goes to Toronto, he feels a little closer to her.

“So, I’m looking forward to it,” Freeman said. “I’m excited. Every time I go there, I always get this little envelope in my locker, and it’s always like pictures of, like, a third cousin that has found photos in their garage and they bring them to me. So, I love going back to Toronto.”

Freeman might be among the few to receive a smattering of cheers on the road.

For most, though, jeers should be expected.

And for these players in particular, don’t be surprised to hear the boos crescendo.

Honorable mention — Max Scherzer, Starting Pitcher, Blue Jays

Max Scherzer’s time in L.A. didn’t exactly end well. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images) –> <!–>

In 2021, the Dodgers were coming off their first World Series title in 32 years and needed a boost in the rotation as they attempted their repeat bid.

At the deadline, they added Scherzer and Trea Turner in a blockbuster move with the Nationals. Scherzer received a curtain call in his first start for the Dodgers, a 10-strikeout effort against the Astros, and pitched brilliantly down the stretch, going 7-0 with a 1.98 ERA in 11 regular season starts for the Dodgers after the trade.

However, the relationship started better than it ended. After another 10-strikeout performance in Game 3 of the NLDS against the Giants, Scherzer told the Dodgers he could pitch in relief in the deciding Game 5, referencing his bullpen work two postseasons prior as an example of his capabilities. On just two days of rest, he fired a scoreless inning to earn the save and send the Dodgers to the NLCS.

But the added workload caught up to him.

Three days later, Scherzer went just 4.1 innings in a Game 2 loss to the Braves and said his “arm was dead.” He was supposed to start in Game 6 but was scratched, forcing Walker Buehler to start on short rest. Buehler struggled through four innings, and the Dodgers were sent home, ending the relationship between Scherzer and the Dodgers which began so harmoniously on a bitter note. A month later, he signed a three-year, $130 million deal with the Mets.

3) Roki Sasaki, Starting Pitcher, Los Angeles Dodgers

L.A. or Toronto? Roki Sasaki ultimately chose the West Coast. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) –> <!–>

The weather, the location, the club success, and the Japanese luminaries who are already on the roster. There are reasons why the Dodgers and Padres tend to be among the most desirable for star Japanese talents moving stateside. So it wasn’t particularly shocking when those NL West rivals were among the three finalists for Sasaki, the most coveted amateur free agent on the market last winter.

The third team in the mix came as more of a surprise.

Sasaki also had the Blue Jays on his list and was serious enough about all three spots that he visited each of them.

“Toronto appealed to him,” Sasaki’s agent, Joel Wolfe, told me in January, shortly after Sasaki made his decision. “In the final days when he was in Japan trying to make a decision what his next steps would be, he was trying to decide what was the best way to make a good decision. And Roki decided that the best way was to go visit fewer teams but spend more time in those cities.

“And it was actually a very smart decision in my opinion, even though it made for some very unpleasant phone calls, which was that he would go spend several days in each spot and experience the city, experience the team, see what a normal workday might feel like because he’s never been here and do that rather than go bouncing around to, say, five or six different cities and try and make a decision based on a very short period of time.”

Toronto prepared for its final push by adding $2 million in international bonus pool space, taking on the contract of outfielder Myles Straw from the Guardians in the process, in the hours prior to Sasaki’s decision.

Ultimately, though, Sasaki made the choice most expected from the jump, becoming the latest Japanese sensation to join the Dodgers and break Toronto’s hearts in the process.

For most of the year, it did not appear Sasaki would be a factor in October as he struggled as a starter early in the year. Now, though, he has developed into the Dodgers’ top ninth-inning option this postseason and will be featured prominently in the Dodgers’ bullpen. Interestingly, Straw, who has played a part-time role for the Blue Jays in each of their first two series, could also have a chance to make an impact.

2) Shohei Ohtani, Starting Pitcher/Designated Hitter, Los Angeles Dodgers

Head to Toronto or stay in L.A.? Shohei Ohtani had a big decision back in 2023. (Photo by Mark Blinch/Getty Images) –> <!–>

By now, we all remember the day well.

Ohtani announced his decision on his own accord on Dec. 9, 2023, with a simple “LA” logo on his Instagram page that belied the chaos of the turbulent 24 hours prior and left a country heartbroken.

For Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, it was an “emotional roller-coaster” that took years off his life. For Blue Jays fans, it was eager anticipation that turned into tantalizing agony.

Erroneous reports emerged that Ohtani had picked his next team … and was on a plane to Toronto. A flight-tracking adventure ensued. Only, it was not Ohtani who emerged from the private jet that departed from Southern California and landed in Toronto. Instead, it was Canadian businessman and “Shark Tank” judge Robert Herjavec. Ohtani was never on that plane.

Still, the saga, and coming so close, only made the pain for Blue Jays fans worse. They surely won’t forget that as the reigning (and likely soon-to-be) National League MVP serves in a two-way role in the World Series.

“I hope he brought his hat, the Blue Jays hat that he took from us in our meeting, I hope he brought it back finally,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider quipped Thursday. “And the jacket for [his dog] Decoy, you know, it’s like, give us our stuff back already. But, he’s a great player.

“But that aside, I think that we have a great team and just an unbelievable cast of characters and players. I think things worked out the way they’re meant to work out.”

1) George Springer, Designated Hitter/Outfielder, Toronto Blue Jays

George Springer will definitely hear the jeers in Los Angeles. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images) –> <!–>

While Ohtani and Sasaki are likely to get the loudest jeers in Toronto, there’s no question which Blue Jays player will receive the biggest boos in Los Angeles.

Eight years after the Astros’ tainted World Series victory against the Dodgers, a seven-game battle in which Springer launched five home runs, the disdain lingers.

Every time a prominent member of that 2017 Houston team returns to L.A., Dodger fans let them have it. They felt cheated out of a championship and wronged that none of the players involved in Houston’s illegal sign-stealing scandal were punished.

Even after winning two World Series titles since then, time has not fully healed that wound.

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 X at @RowanKavner.

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Link to Original Article - on Fox Sports

October 22, 2025

Dodgers Dynasty? Another World Series Title Would Cement It.

Considering their sustained success, you might already consider these Dodgers a dynasty. They’ve made the playoffs 13 straight seasons, won their division 12 of the last 13 years, captured World Series titles in two of the last five seasons and are about to play in the Fall Classic for the fifth time in nine years.

But on the precipice of making history, Kiké Hernández isn’t ready to make that declaration just yet.

At least, not until the Dodgers finish what they set out to do this spring after walloping the Yankees in five games in last year’s World Series and returning a group with even more talent.

“You don’t really talk about dynasties when teams lose the World Series,” Hernández said in the aftermath of sweeping the Brewers last Friday. “To do that, we’ve got to win it. If we do win it, and we go back-to-back like I think we can, we can potentially talk about a dynasty.”

No Major League Baseball team has repeated as a champion since the 1998-2000 Yankees took home hardware in three straight seasons.

The Dodgers, on paper, looked capable of breaking that drought after another offseason of exorbitant spending that restocked their already stacked roster. They entered this year as the favorites to win it all again after adding the top starting pitcher on the market in Blake Snell, the top reliever on the market in Tanner Scott (in addition to Kirby Yates) and the most sought-after international free agent in Roki Sasaki, among a litany of moves. They also brought back Teoscar Hernandez, Kiké Hernández and Blake Treinen, key cogs from last year’s run.

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Back in February, manager Dave Roberts laid out the potential history ahead for the group and how special it would be to accomplish something that hadn’t been done in 25 years.

“I brought it up I think on the first day of spring training,” Roberts said, “and haven’t talked about it since. I think it’s one of those added pressures that I don’t think I want to take on, that I don’t think our players need to take on.”

Especially with the way the unexpected slog of a summer unfolded in Los Angeles.

The Dodgers, a team many expected to challenge for the all-time wins record, went 25-27 in July and August, at one point losing their grasp on the NL West lead in the process. They were 35-30 after the break. Injuries decimated their rotation. Their bullpen was in shambles. Scott, Yates and Treinen all had ERAs well north of 4.00. Mookie Betts was mired in his worst offensive season. Teoscar Hernández regressed from last season’s bounceback. After starting the season 8-0, the Dodgers were 70-64 over their next 134 games. It was a team that at times looked disinterested in the marathon, despite always recognizing the potential.

(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) <!–>

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Sometimes, they would address those possibilities in their group chat. In the low points, it served as motivation. “We got a really good opportunity to do something really big,” Miguel Rojas recalled one text reading. “Not just for us, but for the city, and for the organization, for baseball.”

Even if Roberts didn’t address the history again, the players knew the expectation.

“Our goal is to win the World Series,” said Max Muncy. “That’s what we expect. Anything less than that is a failure. For us, showing up to spring this year it was, ‘Hey, we need to repeat.’ It wasn’t like we wanted to repeat. It was like, ‘Hey, we need to repeat.’ Obviously, the season went the way it went. It’s a long season. It’s a lot of games. We dealt with a lot. But we always knew what we had in the clubhouse. We always knew what we had on the field. Now, you’re starting to see it.”

It took a late-season surge — during which they won 15 of their final 20 games, shortly after Roberts held a team meeting in Baltimore in an attempt to strike some positivity into a scuffling group — for the Dodgers to get to 93 wins.

Through it all, they expressed confidence that they still had the pieces to get where they envisioned. They ultimately held off the Padres to win the NL West by three games, despite compiling their lowest win total over a full season since 2018.

“We talked about it in September when there were a lot of questions about whether us winning 93 games was a disappointment,” said president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. “Our strong feeling was that we were going to be going into October with the most talented team we’ve ever had.”

It has played out that way.

(Photo by Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images) <!–>

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The Dodgers entered the postseason hot, sparked by a return to form from Betts and a return to health across the roster, particularly in a rotation that has been the best in baseball since getting whole again in August.

In October, they’ve trampled every foe in their way, looking every bit the juggernaut everyone expected to see back in February. The Dodgers have now won 24 of their last 30 games dating back to Sept. 7, including a 9-1 mark in the playoffs, as they get set to see the Blue Jays in the World Series.

“I think as a group, when you go through what we’ve gone through, especially coming down from behind against San Diego last year — that series, it was only five games, but it felt like a 162-game season — you get this feeling of like, ‘Nothing can go wrong. We’re not losing,’” said Kiké Hernández. “Yoshinobu [Yamamoto] had a great quote before his last start, ‘Losing is not an option.’ That’s sort of similar to the mentality we have as a group.”

That mentality has brought them back to the sport’s biggest stage. They’re the first World Series champion to return to the Fall Classic the following season since the 2008-09 Phillies.

With that, the “dynasty” conversation has resurfaced.

While some players define it by the number of titles won, others focus more on a team’s ability to contend year after year, which the Dodgers have done better than almost any franchise ever.

“I’m not going to base it on how many championships you’re going to win,” Rojas told me. “I base it on how consistent you are getting to this point. But I feel like it doesn’t matter. Right now, all we want to do is win the World Series. That’s the only good result we’re going to get after this year.”

“I think just because I’m in it, I know how hard it is, I don’t really think about dynasties,” Betts said. “I don’t really know what it consists of. But I guess if you’re thinking about going to the postseason, obviously having a chance to win the World Series year after year, I guess that would qualify as some type of dynasty. But I don’t know what it takes to call it that. So I’m just going to enjoy being in whatever mode we are now.”

The Dodgers’ 13 consecutive trips to the postseason are tied with the 1995-07 Yankees and trail only the 1991-05 Braves (14 straight) for the longest streak in MLB history. Those Braves teams only won one World Series title during that stretch. The Dodgers, meanwhile, have a chance to win their second straight and third in six seasons, a feat Roberts said would put them on the “Mt. Rushmore of sports organizations.”

“Just winning one is hard,” said Freddie Freeman. “So dynasty, I think if you can get three in five or six years, I guess you could say it is one. But I think it’s the sustained winning that the Dodgers have done for so long and then to cement it with some championships, yeah, I guess you could call this — if we do do it — a modern-day dynasty.”

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There have been other dynastic runs from teams over the last quarter century. The Astros won two World Series and made two others from 2017-22. The Giants won the World Series three times over a five-year span in the early 2010s, though they missed the playoffs in the other two seasons during that stretch. The Red Sox won two World Series in a four-year span from 2004-07.

But none of those teams repeated as champions, and none of them experienced the perpetual success of these Dodgers, who now find themselves back where they expected to be — at the sport’s pinnacle, with a chance to cement their dynasty status.

“The legacy, dynasty talk, a lot of that is — I feel is — meant for other people that aren’t playing, and let them have those debates,” Roberts said. “It’s our job to put those topics on the table, and we have the opportunity to do that.”

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