World Series Predictions: Stats, Insights and Picks for the Blue Jays-Dodgers Fall Classic ...Middle East

Our MLB writers offer their opinions on some of the things they think are important heading into the Fall Classic, and reveal their World Series picks.

With 64.1 innings on their register, Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitchers have thrown 12 more frames than any other team’s starters this month.

And in that ample time on the mound, they have allowed 12 total runs. That’s a 1.40 ERA. Among postseason teams with at least 60 innings by starters, only the 1983 Baltimore Orioles have done better, with a 1.31 ERA.Meanwhile, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had as many hits in the first game of the Toronto Blue Jays’ playoff run (three) as he had in the first six playoff games of his career. All six of those games were losses, with the Jays scoring more than two runs just once.

In those six games, he struck out five times; in his 11 games of the 2025 postseason, he’s struck out just three times, and the Jays have scored more than two runs nine times.

It’s LA’s remarkably impressive throwback rotation versus Vlady, George Springer and Co. It’s Ohtani vs. the World Series record books. It’s a team in the middle of a dynasty vs. a team making its first appearance in the Fall Classic since 1993.

It’s the Dodgers vs. the Blue Jays.

MLB writers Zach Crizer and Ryan Fagan break down some of the things they’d think are important before revealing their World Series picks.

One Thing I Really Want to See in the World Series

BLUE JAYS: Guerrero Jr. batting in high leverage. The superstar who signed on to stay in Toronto is delivering this October: crowd pops in the Rogers Centre, silence everywhere else, and some jabs in the Bronx.

He’s batting an absurd .442/.510/.930 in this postseason, and the Toronto crowd whips that park into a frenzy like few other baseball venues you’ll ever see. It will only be more memorable in the city’s first Fall Classic since the early ’90s.

Only three MLB clubs have had two players with 17+ hits through the team’s first 10 postseason games in one year: – 1979 Pirates: Willie Stargell 17, Phil Garner 17– 1993 Blue Jays: Devon White 19, Paul Molitor 17 – 2025 @BlueJays: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 18, Ernie Clement 17. pic.twitter.com/cNZiCnul8C

– ZC

DODGERS: I want to see Shohei Ohtani pitch in relief, for a couple of reasons. The first one is this: The only way Ohtani comes trotting out from the bullpen to face the Jays is if this is a long World Series, and what’s better than a long, drama-filled World Series?

The Dodgers haven’t officially announced their full rotation – beyond Blake Snell starting Game 1 and Yoshinobu Yamamoto starting Game 2 – but it makes sense that Ohtani would follow Tyler Glasnow and get the start in Game 4, same as how it played out in the NLCS.

In that case, he wouldn’t realistically be available to pitch in relief until Game 7. And how cool would it be to see Ohtani out there in high-leverage situations facing, oh, I dunno, Vlad Guerrero? Those are the October matchups we dream about. So, yeah.

– RF

Zero Production So Far, Big Impact on the Series

DODGERS: Will Smith, LA’s catcher, posted his most impressive season with the bat, but he has been playing through a not-fully-recovered fractured hand this month. He might be the single biggest beneficiary of the NLCS sweep.

It shouldn’t shock anyone if he manages a big swing or two in this series, just when the pitcher thinks they might be able to take a breath.

– ZCBLUE JAYS: Yeah, I kinda get the easy one here. Bo Bichette hasn’t played since Sept. 9 as he’s tried to work his way back from a knee injury, but he’s expected to be part of Toronto’s roster for the World Series. Bichette was one of baseball’s best bounce-back stories in 2025, after a dismal 2024 season in which he looked like a shell of his former self.

He was back in 2025, though, posting a 132 OPS+ with 18 homers, 94 RBIs and 44 doubles in 139 games. How the Jays get him back in the mix remains to be seen – DH? Playing shortstop gingerly? – but they’ll need his pop and plate discipline (he had a career-low 14.5 strikeout percentage this year) in the lineup. 

– RF

They Can’t Win Without …

DODGERS: There’s just so much depth on this roster that it’s hard to point to one person in particular. Remember how Ohtani’s bat went silent in the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles still cruised through the round?

By default, let’s go with this: The Dodgers can’t win without the rotation’s run of old-school inning-eating performances continuing. Over the past decade or so, we’ve seen teams have success by trotting out closer-esque relievers starting in the fifth and sixth innings. Well, the Dodgers don’t really have that luxury, so they’ve asked the starters to work deep into games.

That’s hidden the cracks in the flawed bullpen, and that needs to continue.

– RFBLUE JAYS: The Trey Yesavage coming-out party continuing. The massive 22-year-old starter, who did a speed run of the minor leagues this year, has two strong playoff starts and one clunker on his very short track record. Toronto needs a couple more outings to at least be good enough.

Joined by Kevin Gausman (34 years old), Shane Bieber (in his first season back from Tommy John) and Max Scherzer (he’s 41, you may have heard), Yesavage shouldn’t be expected to go super deep into games, but a total breakdown could endanger Toronto’s chances.

The bullpen results beyond closer Jeff Hoffman and fireman Louis Varland have been subpar, and manager John Schneider’s trust in that group has looked correspondingly limited. So Yesavage – he of the high arm angle, devastating splitter and six total big-league appearances – is a crucial cog in this machine.

No pressure, kid. 

– ZC

Weakness They’re Desperate to Hide

DODGERS: Look, everyone knows it’s the beleaguered bullpen. 

So far, they have managed to hide! The shorter series early in the playoffs allowed Dave Roberts to use would-be starters in key moments, and the NLCS didn’t go long enough to truly test their mettle. The top three are clearly impromptu fire-breathing closer Roki Sasaki, lefty Alex Vesia and once-great setup man Blake Treinen. That trio has pitched in seven games each, and only Sasaki has inspired confidence. 

Any outs required of Treinen – 6.27 ERA in the second half, 7.36 ERA in the postseason – will be sphincter-tightening experiences for Dodgers fans. And he’s one of the guys Roberts is using. The Blue Jays, in all likelihood, will force the Dodgers to get outs with some combination of Emmet Sheehan, Anthony Banda and Jack Dreyer at some juncture.

Will they be able to do it?

– ZCBLUE JAYS: Not to play copycat, but the Jays are in a similar situation. Closer Jeff Hoffman had his share of struggles in the regular season – a 4.37 ERA/4.90 FIP – but he’s been incredible so far in October, racking up 12 strikeouts in 7.1 innings, with a 1.23 ERA and only three hits allowed.

Louis Varland has gotten plenty of big outs, too. But you saw how manager John Schneider handled Game 7 of the ALCS, when the Jays ran Kevin Gausman out for the seventh inning and Chris Bassitt for the eighth. Those two combined to make 63 starts and one relief appearance during the regular season.

– RF

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Under-the-Radar Stat That Matters

DODGERS: Much has been made about the Dodgers’ pen, and for good reason. Without Sasaki, who knows how LA would have managed to get key outs in the late innings?

So in a series like this, against a Blue Jays lineup like this – especially with Bichette back – here’s a number that matters: 0.00 ERA. Anthony Banda and Jack Dreyer have combined to make five appearances during the postseason, and they’ve yet to allow a run, earned or otherwise. In fact, they’ve only allowed one hit and three walks in the 4.1 innings.  

We probably won’t see either of these relievers in the eighth or ninth inning, but folks, the ability to come in and work clean middle innings matters in October. All postseason, the Jays have tacked on runs in the middle innings after chasing the starting pitcher, and for the Dodgers, the task of stopping that from happening will probably fall to these two. 

Dreyer, a rookie, averaged nearly a strikeout per inning and allowed only four homers in 76.1 innings this year. Banda, a veteran journeyman reliever – the Dodgers are his eighth big-league team – has found a home in the LA bullpen, especially in the postseason. His career playoff ERA now stands at a stellar 0.84, after he was a stalwart in the team’s run to the 2024 World Series title. 

– RFBLUE JAYS: The Blue Jays swing aggressively at strikes. In the regular season, their 66.6% zone-swing rate was top-five in MLB, and in the playoffs, they have amped it up to 71.2% (second behind the Mariners).

Why does that matter? In the obvious strength vs. strength matchup of this World Series – Toronto offense vs. Los Angeles pitching – that presents a new twist. 

The Dodgers’ vaunted starters feasted on patience from the Milwaukee Brewers. They’ll get something entirely different from the Blue Jays. Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto love to work the edges of the zone, collecting called strikes and hesitant chase swings, and accepting some deeper counts. This Toronto offense does not do hesitant; Guerrero Jr., Alejandro Kirk, Nathan Lukes and the reportedly returning Bichette are all aggressive hitters who consistently make contact.

They might force the Dodgers to change the plan, or else.

– ZC

World Series Predictions

ZACH: Going back to back is hard. That’s why no one has done it since the New York Yankees back in the early 2000s.

It’s hard to even begin describing how much has changed since then. Moneyball hadn’t quite been published yet. Only four teams from each league made the postseason at the time, and now six do. The average fastball velocity was … oh right, we don’t even know.

The current Dodgers assembled their core very differently from the Derek Jeter Yankees, but their staying power and monolithic significance in their era may indeed rival those Bronx Bombers. 

Ultimately, this is a bet that the challenge of navigating (or outslugging) the Dodgers lineup – Ohtani, Betts, Freeman and on and on – proves too tall a task. The Blue Jays will mount a real challenge and take a couple of games. But the offensive firepower on hand in Dodger blue is too good and too experienced, and they will stake a claim as an all-time power.

Dodgers in 6

RYAN: I texted a buddy of mine who’s from Toronto and is a die-hard fan of all Toronto sports. I asked him to give me a reason to believe the Jays will win the World Series, and the best he could come up with is that the Jays are 2-0 all time in the World Series. He jokingly added that Freddie Freeman played for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic, so maybe he’ll take it easy on Canada’s MLB team. 

Really, though, it’s just hard to see any team surviving that relentlessly demoralizing Dodgers rotation. They all throw strikes, they all have jaw-dropping movement and they all can work deep into games.

It’s just really hard to put crooked numbers on the scoreboard multiple days in a row. 

Dodgers in 5

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World Series Predictions: Stats, Insights and Picks for the Blue Jays-Dodgers Fall Classic Opta Analyst.

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