The hulking, billion-dollar behemoth better known as the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodgers were heavily favored to repeat at the beginning of 2025 but stumbled through the regular season due to several injuries and a shaky bullpen. But L.A. is firing on all cylinders in October. The Dodgers are 9-1 in the playoffs. Their starting rotation, consisting of aces Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and some guy named Shohei Ohtani, tore through the 97-win Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS, posting a 0.63 ERA in 28 2/3 innings.
Snell faced the minimum and allowed only one hit in Game 1, Yamamoto threw a complete game in Game 2, Glasnow scattered three hits across 5 2/3 innings in Game 3 — but they all paled to what Ohtani did in Game 4: six-plus shutout innings, 10 strikeouts and three towering solo home runs, the second of which sailed entirely over the right-field bleachers at Dodger Stadium.