The embers of the Los Angeles Dodgers' second straight parade still glow on Figueroa Street, drifting skyward with the echoes of a city drunk on baseball glory. You want dynasties? Tinseltown's class of 2025 just offered up their finest chapter yet: back-to-back World Series crowns, a Game 7 saga for the ages on enemy territory in Toronto, and -- perhaps most remarkable -- a roster that willed itself over every jagged obstacle fate hurled its way.
But before we even shepherd the confetti sweepers off the concourse, oddsmakers -- no surprise -- are already shading the Dodgers as prohibitive favorites to carve a three-peat. It's a daunting bit of history. And across the league, the powerhouses, the upstarts, even the tragic heroes have already turned the page, plotting their next assault on the MLB's summit. Here are the three heavyweights the bookies are currently installing as the teams to beat next year.
It's easy to speak in superlatives, but what we watched the Dodgers produce in October was an exercise in resourcefulness, grit, and the sheer gravitational pull of a franchise hellbent on never tasting mediocrity again. The numbers: a 93-69 regular season -- good enough to take a fourth straight NL West crown to Dodger Stadium -- but they bled in the dog days. During a torrid midsummer swoon, L.A. managed just a .235 team average, churning out the sixth-fewest runs in MLB from July into mid-August.
Panic? Some clubs would fold. The Dodgers recalibrated. The postseason: surgical. They eviscerated the Reds and Brewers -- the latter being the team that racked up the most wins in the entire league throughout the regular season -- in sweeps, dispatched the Phillies in four, then withstood everything Toronto could muster in a World Series for the ages.
Shohei Ohtani became a World Series folk hero -- pitching, slugging, thundering through Game 7 like it was scripted for him. Freddie Freeman's bat -- a .869 OPS with 24 bombs in the regular season, but, more than that, a study in sublime, steady leadership. Still, even as champagne sprayed and the city roared, front office boss Andrew Friedman and skipper Dave Roberts immediately got back to work.
Max Muncy's $10M retained, Alex Vesia's arm kept in the fold. Munetaka Murakami is circled as a third-base target, Cody Bellinger is rumored for a reunion, and a bullpen overhaul is well underway. Clay Kershaw's likely Hall-of-Fame farewell leaves a spiritual crater, but if superstar free agent Kyle Tucker arrives as rumored, online betting sites will be vindicated in the lofty billing they have placed on the back-to-back champions' shoulders.
One can bet on MLB at Bovada, and the popular bookies list the Dodgers as the +325 favorite to complete the vaunted threepeat. Should the offseason unfold as expected, it would take a brave punter to bet against them.
If Hollywood writes scripts, the Bronx prefers operas -- epic, loud, and usually tragic. The Yankees' 2025 ledger reads like one of Shakespeare's darker acts: a thunderous 42-25 start, a 17-game division lead, and then -- disaster. They cratered, bleeding out to a 29-48 finish, surrendering the AL East, and limped into the Wild Card only to be swiftly ejected by Toronto in four.
Aaron Judge provided the thunderclap moments -- a ninth-inning, series-rescuing blast here, a rally there -- but the pitching deck collapsed. Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt both vanished to injury, and Marcus Stroman was a postseason memory before August. The youth movement, so promising a year before, regressed under the microscope.
Yet optimism isn't in short supply if you look beneath the war wounds. The financial muscle is real (a projected $250M+ payroll with flexibility after 2025's $319M). Cody Bellinger headlines the rumor mill as a versatile power piece to pair with reigning MVP Judge and Trent Grisham. Infield thunder is sought from Japan, while Devin Williams' name is whispered as the bullpen remedy. The rotation -- thin outside of Max Fried and Carlos Rodón -- must be reinforced, and Ben Rice's emergence at first could answer some defensive prayers.
As always, expectation stalks the Yankees, with the bookies installing them as the +700 second favorite. The long wait to add to their record haul of 27 Commissioner's Trophies has now stretched into a 17th year, and anything less than a deep postseason run will result in the disgruntled voices growing louder in the Bronx, no matter the free agency outlay.
There's nowhere that expectation hangs heavier than in Philadelphia -- especially when the calendar turns to fall. The 2025 script was, in one sense, exhilarating: a gallop to 96 wins, the NL East clinched by mid-September, and a historic, eight-homer pummeling of the Marlins to boot. Kyle Schwarber hung 56 homers and 132 RBI on the league like a neon sign. Cristopher Sánchez was a revelation: 13-5, 2.57 ERA as staff anchor.
And then: October. The ghosts returned. Knocked out in the NLDS by -- you guessed it -- the Dodgers, undone by bullpen walks, a gaffe by Orion Kerkering, and some pointed needling from Dave Dombrowski about "elite" postseason play. Remind you of anything? Maybe it's just Phillies baseball, aching to shake history's weight.
This winter is a battlefield: Schwarber and Ranger Suárez eschew $22M qualifying offers for richer pastures. J.T. Realmuto and Harrison Bader (free agents) force Dombrowski's hand. The front office's intent is bold; Schwarber is considered an "absolute must," and the shrewd acquisition of Walker Buehler (13.2 IP, 1 ER post-Boston) offers hope for October's pressure cookers.
The bullpen needs a tourniquet, outfield speed must be acquired, and every fan in Philly wonders if the word "curse" still applies. Yet with a $250M+ budget, a tantalizing youth-pipeline led by Aidan Miller, and the enduring charisma of Bryce Harper, hope courses through Citizens Bank Park. If the Phillies convert pain into purpose, they could deliver the city a championship story for the ages at odds of +1100.