After a three-game set with the Angels out in Anaheim, the Yankees will hang around Southern California and make the 30ish mile trip up to Dodger Stadium. It will be a well-covered and star-studded three-game set between two of the very best teams in baseball. The Bombers’ team-wide 130 wRC+ as of Wednesday is the best in baseball, but the Dodgers and their stable of big names trail closely behind (125), so these games have plenty of potential to become shootouts between two potent lineups.
Of course, this offensive preview couldn’t really start anywhere other than LA’s designated hitter Shohei Ohtani. He became 2025’s first 20 home run hitter with a blast on Tuesday, and his 184 wRC+ is the fourth best in baseball. Any way you cut it, he’s among the very best baseball has to offer, and now has an extended and impressive track record of punishing opposing pitchers. Since the beginning of 2021, he trails only Judge in offensive prowess across baseball, and the matchup of reigning MVPs will be the headline of the series.
Interestingly enough, the aforementioned superstar hasn’t even been the best hitter on his team. Freddie Freeman and his .356/.426/.620 slash line continue to get it done at an elite rate in his age-35 campaign. Even with the first baseman missing some time earlier in the year, his bat is as potent as ever. In the coming decades he’ll be looked upon as one of this generation’s most dominant hitters, and he’s still at the top of his game in 2025.
Unlike the other former MVPs atop this lineup, it has actually been an uncharacteristically quiet start to the season for Mookie Betts. It’s been far from truly “bad,” but his 113 wRC+ as of Wednesday would be his worst in nearly a decade, and he’s currently posting career-lows in all three triple-slash numbers. Of course, he’s been an MVP-level player for the better part of a decade, and his peripherals look fine at the plate, not to mention the fact that he’s cut his strikeout rate to below 10 percent. Mookie will be just fine, particularly as he continues to distance himself from an ill-timed stomach virus that caused him to lose 15 pounds just before the season started in March.
As has been the case with many of the great Dodgers teams of late, beyond the stars, they make their money with quality depth players. Will Smith and Teoscar Hernández have been All-Star level players in 2025, and would be the best hitters on a lot of big league clubs. They shouldn’t even qualify as depth players, given their premium skillsets, but with the star power this lineup has at the top, that’s the role they inevitably slide into. Despite that, Hernández’s 150 wRC+ would be the best of his career, and Smith’s 175 mark is second among catchers (in a distant top tier with Cal Raleigh), and his .456 OBP is more than 50 points better than any other backstop.
This isn’t even to mention the mild Andy Pages breakout, and the continued solid play of last year’s NLCS MVP Tommy Edman. Both of these players have been getting plenty of at-bats for the Dodgers, rounding out what is an impressive lineup. Max Muncy is getting mostly full-time play still, despite his diminished power numbers so far in 2025, as is Michael Conforto. It’s a crowded dugout with the group mostly healthy, but the Yankees will also likely see Miguel Rojas, Enrique Hernández, and Hyeseong Kim at some point during the series.
The Dodgers boast a deep and talented lineup headed into their series with the Yankees, a characteristic that has stuck with them over the last decade or so of play. They are, of course, running into a Yankees squad that has been even better on the whole in 2025. It should make for a fun series, giving plenty for both sides to talk about in a matchup of first-place squads.