The 2024 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees is nigh. These are two high-powered offenses with beat-up and/or inconsistent pitching staffs. One of the big themes of the 2024 playoffs has been how many late-inning surges we’ve seen from offenses against some of the best relievers in baseball. The Dodgers alone have seven starting pitchers on the injured list and the Yankees have dealt with plenty of pitching injuries themselves.
As such, let’s take a look at the state of each pitching staff heading into the Fall Classic. Please note that everyone is going to have more than enough rest coming into the series, so this isn’t about who is up or down due to usage but instead a look at the health and performance leading into the World Series.
Dodgers
The Dodgers have outslugged their opponents for most of the postseason, but they also had that 33-inning scoreless streak on the mound. Overall, they have a 4.36 ERA in 97 playoff innings. That math really makes you think about how bad they were outside of the scoreless streak.
Rotation: Jack Flaherty, Walker Buehler and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Flaherty has been inconsistent with the Dodgers and we’ve seen it all in the playoffs. He was sub-par, totally dominant and then bad. Buehler had a terrible regular season but has mostly been good in the playoffs. He’s allowed seven runs in 14 innings, but six of those came in one inning in which he had awful batted-ball luck and defense behind him until he coughed up a big blast to Fernando Tatis Jr. Better fortune in that one inning and we’d be talking about how Buehler has pitched like a frontline starter in the postseason. Yamamoto was terrible in his first start of the playoffs, but outstanding in Game 5 of the NLDS against the Padres. He gave up two runs on four hits in 4 1/3 innings last time out, but also struck out eight.
Basically, anything on the board here would make sense. These three could all be great or terrible or continue to be totally back-and-forth.
Bullpen circle of trust: The top three here are Blake Treinen, Michael Kopech and Evan Phillips. While the Dodgers don’t really use a traditional closer, Treinen seems to have moved into that role at this point in the playoffs. Kopech has been used there, but also started the bullpen game in Game 6 of the NLCS. Phillips led the team in saves in the regular season, but he’s now a leverage guy in the mid-to-late innings.
Phillips and Treinen have been great in the playoffs. Kopech got in some trouble in the first inning in Game 6, but otherwise has been dominant.
Daniel Hudson also fits here. He gave up a run in Game 6, but otherwise has been very good in October.
Relievers by and large haven’t been reliable in the playoffs, but the Dodgers have a pretty solid top four right here that hasn’t been hit overly hard.
Possible X-factors? Alex Vesia and Brusdar Graterol might return from injury for the World Series roster.
Vesia is a lefty who suffered an intercostal injury in the NLDS, causing him to miss the NLCS. He had a 1.76 ERA and 1.00 WHIP in the regular season before working three scoreless innings in the NLDS. Graterol is a righty who only managed 7 1/3 innings this season, but had a 1.20 ERA in 67 1/3 innings in 2023. If the Dodgers get healthy and fully functional work from these two, that is one loaded bullpen.
Mop-up duty: Brent Honeywell could prove to be a valuable pitcher in the World Series simply by eating innings when the Dodgers don’t want to use anyone else. Look at the job he did in NLCS Game 5. In a blowout, Honeywell ended up wearing 4 2/3 innings worth of work. He gave up four runs on six hits, but that was less important than saving the rest of the Dodgers’ bullpen and putting them into position to win Game 6 with a well-rested and fully loaded relief corps. He also ate three innings in Game 2 with them behind.
Then again, he might not even be on the roster. In addition to Vesia and/or Graterol, the Dodgers could also bring Joe Kelly and Michael Grove. Ryan Brasier and Anthony Banda will be in the mix while Edgardo Henríquez, Ben Casparius and Landon Knack are still around as well.
Yankees
It felt like a chore much of the way, but the Yankees have actually pitched well in the playoffs. They have a staff ERA of 3.27 through nine playoff games after a 3.74 regular season. The bullpen has pitched to a 2.56 ERA in 38 2/3 innings, though they are walking too many with 20 free passes. Eventually that will come around to bite them. The Dodgers’ offense is a whole different animal than the Royals and Guardians.
Rotation: 2023 Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole leads the charge here in front of Carlos Rodón, Clarke Schmidt and Luis Gil.
First off, Cole is not the Cy Young version of himself. He battled injury in the spring and then inconsistency upon his return. He’s had two sub-par playoff starts wrapped around a great one, though he still only struck out four in seven innings in that start. He can gut himself into the middle innings, but thinking of him as an ace right now is aggressive. Rodón can throw like an ace in spurts and was good in his two ALCS starts, but there’s always the worry he’s going to fall apart without any notice.
The current outlook for Schmidt suggests he may pitch around 4-5 innings and allow two runs. Gil, on the other hand, struggled towards the end of the regular season and has only pitched once in the playoffs, giving up two runs on three hits in four innings.
While there are uncertainties surrounding this pitching rotation, it is considered more dependable in terms of being able to pitch five innings per game without giving up too many runs.
In the bullpen, Luke Weaver serves as the closer, with Clay Holmes handling crucial situations. Tommy Kahnle has earned a trusted late-inning role, and Tim Hill is the top lefty option.
Weaver had a strong performance for a while but faltered in a couple of recent games. Holmes had a solid run of scoreless outings but also gave up runs in his last few appearances. Kahnle has been effective but needs to control his walks, and Hill has been reliable but not dominant.
Jake Cousins is a wild card with strikeout potential but inconsistency in his performances. Nestor Cortes could be a valuable addition to the bullpen, especially against lefty-heavy lineups.
In mop-up duty, Tim Mayza, Marcus Stroman, and Mark Leiter Jr. are potential candidates to be replaced on the roster if Cortes is activated. Stroman, in particular, has not seen game action in a while and may only be used in extra innings situations. following sentence:
The cat lazily stretched out in the sun.
The cat stretched out lazily in the sun.