The Athletic came out with its baseball power rankings covering the last 25 years a week or so ago, and guess who’s No. 1?
Yes, one Evil Empire has supplanted another. The Yankees are yesterday’s news, their back-to-back-to-back World Series championships in 1998-99-2000 no longer registering in that 25-year body of work as the calendar turned to 2026. Meanwhile, the Dodgers go into this season with an opportunity for their own three-peat … and really, who’s going to stop them?
Let’s face it: There are two baseball facts of life in Southern California these days. The Angels are playing from behind, and new manager Kurt Suzuki is living on the razor’s edge with a one-year contract to guide a team for whom expectations are modest at best.
The Dodgers, in contrast, are playing from way, way ahead: An intelligent front office, a manager in Dave Roberts who seems headed for the Hall of Fame (but still deals with all kinds of criticism from the public), a star-studded lineup and a commitment to a payroll that can accommodate such talent.
All of that – and a dominance in their division that has resulted in 12 NL West titles in 13 seasons, enables them to slow-play guys early in the season as necessary, reasoning that the most important games of the season take place in October and the start of November and that the chances are very good their team will be playing in them.
OK, you know where I’m going with this. And if you’ve followed This Space’s preseason forecasts for the past few years, it will sound familiar: Dodgers celebrating after the final game of the season.
Lately, it’s even happened. But for a good, long while I was hopeful those March predictions would be forgotten. For example, the wacky forecast of a Dodgers-Angels World Series in 2018. (One made it, and lost to the Red Sox. The other finished 80-82 and 23 games out of first place).
There was a forecast of Dodgers over Yankees in 2019, which didn’t work out. And another Dodgers-Angels prediction going into 2020’s COVID-forced Opening Day in July – maybe out of boredom, because while in the grips of a pandemic we had no idea whether baseball could even complete a season. (The sport did, and guess who won the World Series?)
In ’21 I had the Dodgers over the Yankees in six. Wrong. In ’22, I picked them over Houston in seven. (Revenge of the trash cans? Nope, and the Dodgers stumbled in San Diego in the first round.) In ’23, not only didn’t they beat the Yankees in six as forecast, they went out in the first round again to Arizona.
The Clash of the Evil Empires finally took place in ’24; I got the Dodgers World Series victory right, but I had them playing Baltimore (and the spring headline was: “This is the Dodgers’ year … or else.” Last year, I predicted that they’d beat Texas and former division rival Bruce Bochy. Instead it was Toronto, and one of the great Game 7s of our generation and possibly all time.
In 2026? The shot I’m calling right now has the Dodgers spoiling the Seattle Mariners’ first trip to the World Series. And I will add the expected disclaimer: If this prediction doesn’t pan out, hopefully you’ll look for this column online and instead be greeted with “404: This page could not be found.”
Yeah, I know. Off-target predictions live forever. I’m prepared for it.
But the point behind the above foolishness: These Dodgers, since the Guggenheim Baseball group took over from Frank McCourt on May 1, 2012, have been the model for the way every fan in every city wishes their favorite ballclub would operate, even if they grouse about the one that does so.
Yes, the ticket and parking and concession prices at Dodger Stadium have risen steeply over the years. This past week the club sold the naming rights for the field to Uniqlo, a Japanese clothing manufacturer – another example of how the Dodgers have leveraged Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki and established a business beachhead in Japan.
And the $8.35 billion deal with Time Warner (now Spectrum), shortly after Mark Walter’s group bought the team, turned out to be prescient. While other clubs are scrambling in the wake of a failing cable network, the Dodgers’ own TV situation has been relatively stable.
But this is the bottom line, as we’ve said repeatedly: This ownership invests its profits back into the product, whether it be player payroll, technology or player development. Not every team does. And a reminder, as a battle over a salary cap almost guarantees an ownership-mandated lockout following this season: Even if there were a cap, the Dodgers have enough advantages in other aspects of their organization that they would probably be dominant anyway.
So how is the path (maybe) going to look this year?
I’m not expecting it to involve the Angels, who finished last in the AL West last season at 72-90, 18 games out, and don’t look like a contender at this point. Angel fans, I’d be delighted to be wrong. I just don’t see it. Especially with the A’s actually spending money to make sure their nucleus is intact when they reach Southern Nevada, presumably in 2028, fourth place in the division would seem to be a heavy lift.
As for the Dodgers’ expectations, consider: They’ve won 100-plus games five times in their 13-season run of postseason appearances, and won the World Series in none of them. In their last two full-season championships they’ve won 98 and 93 regular-season games.
The fan base panicked last season when the Dodgers lost 13 of 18 in July and then seven of eight in late August and early September, when their relievers kept blowing leads and blowing games. And they were on the edge again when they fell behind in the World Series, losing Games 4 and 5 at home and hitting .200 (9 for 45) with runners in scoring position through the first five games … and won Game 7 even while going 1 for 11 that night in scoring position situations.
The lesson there should be never to predict, but here I go. (At least I don’t bet, so I guess that shows some restraint.)
This time the Dodgers will at least avoid the wild card round. They’ll eliminate the wild card New York Mets in the Division Series, knock off the Chicago Cubs – who will have eliminated the Phillies – in the NL Championship Series and beat the Mariners in six in the Fall Classic.
I’m not prepared to predict that they’ll clinch it at home. The Dodgers have won nine World Series in their history and finished off only one of them at home, the Sunday afternoon in 1963 that Sandy Koufax leaped off the mound after completing a sweep of the Yankees.
But I’ve already put myself on the firing line, haven’t I?
jalexander@scng.com