Winning a ring isn't just about having the biggest payroll. Honestly, if it were, the Mets would have a jewelry store by now.
Baseball is weird. It’s a sport where a 100-win juggernaut can get smoked in three days by a Wild Card team that barely crawled into the postseason. We’ve seen a lot of that lately. From the Texas Rangers finally ending a 63-year drought to the Dodgers cementing a literal dynasty in 2025, the landscape of recent World Series champions has shifted from predictable powerhouses to a "who's hot in October" lottery.
People love to argue about which title counts more. Was the 2020 bubble ring "real"? Does the 2025 Dodgers repeat make them the best team of the century?
Let's get into the dirt.
The Dodgers Dynasty: 2024 and 2025
The Los Angeles Dodgers just did something no team has done since the 2000 Yankees. They repeated.
Winning back-to-back titles in the modern era is basically impossible. The playoffs are too long, the arms get too tired, and the variance is just too high. But the Dodgers, led by Dave Roberts, found a way to break the math.
In 2024, they took down the Yankees in a five-game series that felt like a heavyweight fight. People forget they were down 5-0 in the clinching Game 5 at Yankee Stadium. Most teams fold there. Instead, they clawed back to win 7-6. It was gritty. It was ugly. It was a championship.
Then came 2025.
The 2025 World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays was an absolute fever dream. We're talking about an 18-inning marathon in Game 3 that lasted nearly eight hours. Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off home run—his second consecutive year doing that in the Fall Classic.
The hero, though? Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
He didn't just pitch; he dominated. He took home the 2025 World Series MVP after recording three wins in a single series and posting a 1.02 ERA. In Game 7, he came out of the bullpen on zero rest to slam the door. The Dodgers won 5-4 in 11 innings, officially becoming the first NL team to repeat since the '76 Big Red Machine.
The Texas Rangers and the 2023 "Road Warrior" Run
Before the Dodgers took over the world, the Texas Rangers gave us one of the most improbable runs in history.
In 2023, Texas wasn't even supposed to be there. They lost the division on the final day of the season. They had to fly across the country to start the Wild Card round.
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Then they went 11-0 on the road.
That is not a typo. They literally did not lose a single game away from Arlington during the entire postseason. They dismantled the Arizona Diamondbacks in five games to win their first title in franchise history.
Corey Seager became a god in North Texas. He joined the likes of Reggie Jackson and Sandy Koufax as one of the few players to win two World Series MVP awards. Watching him hit was like watching a machine. He didn't care about the pressure. He just hit mistakes 450 feet.
Bruce Bochy, their manager, came out of retirement just to prove he’s still the best to ever do it. That was his fourth ring. The guy just knows how to manage a bullpen when the lights are brightest.
Recent World Series Champions: A Quick Look Back
If you're trying to keep track of the trophy trail, here is how the last few years shook out:
- 2025: Los Angeles Dodgers (Defeated Toronto Blue Jays, 4-3)
- 2024: Los Angeles Dodgers (Defeated New York Yankees, 4-1)
- 2023: Texas Rangers (Defeated Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-1)
- 2022: Houston Astros (Defeated Philadelphia Phillies, 4-2)
- 2021: Atlanta Braves (Defeated Houston Astros, 4-2)
- 2020: Los Angeles Dodgers (Defeated Tampa Bay Rays, 4-2)
The Houston Astros win in 2022 was sort of a "redemption" tour. Whether you like them or not, Dusty Baker finally getting his ring as a manager was a massive moment for the sport. They were elite from start to finish.
The 2021 Braves were another "how did they do that?" story. Ronald Acuña Jr. was out with a torn ACL. They were under .500 at the All-Star break. But Alex Anthopoulos rebuilt their entire outfield in one week, and Jorge Soler turned into a human highlight reel.
Why the Gap Between Regular Season and Playoffs is Growing
You’ve probably noticed that the best team in the regular season rarely wins anymore.
The Dodgers are the exception, not the rule. In 2023, the 100-win Braves and 100-win Orioles were both bounced immediately.
The current playoff format rewards momentum over consistency. When you have a best-of-three Wild Card series, one bad bounce or one cold night from your ace means your 162-game season is over. It’s brutal.
Fans of "old school" baseball hate it. They think the 162-game grind should matter more. But for MLB, the drama is a goldmine. The 2025 series between the Dodgers and Blue Jays had some of the highest ratings in a decade because every game felt like a coin flip.
What Really Happened with Shohei Ohtani?
You can't talk about recent World Series champions without mentioning the Ohtani effect.
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When Shohei signed with the Dodgers, everyone assumed it was an automatic ring. Turns out, they were right, but it wasn't easy. In the 2025 postseason, Ohtani was actually struggling at the plate for a stretch.
But his presence changed how teams pitched to everyone else. You can't walk Mookie Betts to get to Ohtani. You can't walk Ohtani to get to Freeman. It's a nightmare. Even when he wasn't hitting home runs, he was drawing four intentional walks in a single game (a World Series record in Game 3 of 2025).
He also threw six innings in Game 4 of the 2024 NLCS. Having a guy who can DH and then provide "emergency" elite pitching is a cheat code that no other champion in history has ever had.
Misconceptions About the "Shortened" 2020 Season
There's this annoying narrative that the Dodgers' 2020 win doesn't count.
Kinda ridiculous, right?
Every player from that era says the same thing: it was the hardest postseason ever. You were stuck in a bubble. You had no family there. There were no days off. The stress was through the roof. If anything, the 2020 Dodgers had to be more mentally tough than any team in a "normal" year. They had to beat the Rays in a neutral site where home-field advantage didn't exist.
How to Build a Champion in 2026 and Beyond
If you’re looking for a pattern in these recent winners, it’s not just spending. It’s depth.
The Rangers won because their "random" guys like Evan Carter and Josh Sborz stepped up. The Dodgers won in 2025 because Miguel Rojas—hardly a superstar—hit a game-tying home run in the 9th inning of Game 7.
To win now, you need:
- A dominant "bridge" in the bullpen. High-leverage relievers are more important than starters.
- Positional versatility. Players who can play three different spots so you can pinch-hit aggressively.
- Adrenaline. Sounds cheesy, but look at the 2025 Blue Jays. They almost won it all just on the back of Addison Barger and Ernie Clement getting hot at the right time.
The next few years look like a Dodgers-dominated world, but as the Rangers showed us, someone is always waiting in the weeds.
If you want to stay ahead of the curve on who might be the next champion, keep a close eye on the "middle-class" teams that trade for pitching depth at the deadline. That’s usually where the October magic starts. Check the latest injury reports for starting rotations before placing any futures bets, as depth is the only thing that survives the October grind.