Analysis: Every Dodgers Player From the 2025 World Series, Ranked

2. Will Smith (34.04% cWPA)

Smith's contribution to the series was almost entirely lifted up by his home run in the 11th inning of Game 7 — the fourth-most impactful World Series play of all-time by cWPA.

Smith had a good-but-not-spectacular series at the plate otherwise, but that might have been enough to make him the MVP choice in another year. He caught every inning after missing most of September with a fracture in his hand. He batted second when Mookie Betts failed to hit his own weight. If the Dodgers' Game 6 starter didn't have to double as their Game 7 closer, we're still buzzing about "Gibby meet Smitty" to give his home run the proper historical context.

3. Will Klein (19.41% cWPA)

Klein was the winning pitcher in Game 3, his final appearance of the series. Left off the NLCS roster, Klein might not have made the World Series roster if not for Alex Vesia's absence. He threw an unprecedented (for him, at least) four scoreless innings to finish off the Dodgers' 18-inning home victory, then took the rest of the week off. Thanks to cWPA, we can weigh the contribution of Klein's unexpected mini-marathon against others who appeared in all seven games.

There's also this: the governor of his home state of Indiana gave Klein a shoutout on Twitter.

4. Miguel Rojas (13.52% cWPA)

Talk about your unlikely heroes. Rojas made a clutch defensive play to end Game 6 — his first game in the starting lineup — but was 0-for-6 in the World Series until his single against Max Scherzer in the fifth inning of Game 7. (I'll note here that cWPA doesn't account for a player's contributions via defense or baserunning — only pitching and hitting — so Rojas' bare-handed throwout of Addison Barger in Game 6 didn't help him.)

Rojas ranks fourth on this list, of course, because of his game-tying home run against Jeff Hoffman in the ninth inning of Game 7. It was his first homer off a right-handed pitcher all season. The 36-year-old previously had one home run in 53 career postseason at-bats. Rojas was playing through an injury to his ribs and wasn't expected to do much even before he got hurt. Yet by Sunday, Vogue was writing about his choice of necklace. Amazing.

5. Max Muncy (12.74% cWPA)

Already, this list is beginning to tell a story. Klein, Rojas, and Muncy didn't have a good series so much as they came up big exactly when the Dodgers needed them to (and did little before or after).

Muncy hit two solo home runs in seven games, none bigger than his moonshot off Trey Yesavage in the eighth inning of Game 7. He also caught Andres Gimenez's 97-mph line drive in the eighth inning from close range — a ball more likely to result in brain damage or an RBI than an out.

6. Tyler Glasnow (11.52% cWPA)

Glasnow's Game 3 start was forgettable, not merely because the game ended after midnight, but because he needed 85 pitches to get through the first 4.2 innings. In the ninth inning of Game 6, Glasnow threw three pitches to two batters and was credited with a three-out save. His Game 7 relief appearance (2.1 innings, one run) began by retiring Bo Bichette and ended with a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. groundout.

In total, Glasnow pitched seven innings and got some important outs — roughly what the Dodgers needed of him, albeit in a way few imagined at the outset.

7. Justin Wrobleski (10.98% cWPA)

Somewhat quietly, Wrobleski stepped into the Alex Vesia role and performed about as well as Vesia could have. He faced five batters above the minimum across his four appearances, but didn't allow a run in five innings.

Wrobleski's 2.93 FIP in the regular season suggested he was up to the task, yet he wasn't Roberts' first (or even second) choice to fill the role asked of him in the World Series. He'll be remembered for jawing with Gimenez in Game 7, but Wrobleski was the rare Dodger whose solid World Series performance extended beyond a signature moment.

8. Clayton Kershaw (6.20% cWPA)

The future Hall of Famer threw exactly eight pitches in the series — all to Nathan Lukes in Game 3, the last an 89-mph slider that resulted in an inning-ending groundout. Because it came in the 12th inning with the bases loaded, that out loomed large.

Kershaw's only appearance in the series was brief, memorable and, according to cWPA, accounted for one of the most valuable performances on either team. Credit Tommy Edman with an assist (literally and figuratively).

9. Edgardo Henriquez (2.88% cWPA)

Because Henriquez's two shutout innings (the 13th and 14th) in Game 3 were sandwiched between Kershaw and Klein, you're forgiven for overlooking his main contribution to the World Series. Henriquez also faced three batters in Game 5, but did not record an out.

10. Emmet Sheehan (2.62% cWPA)

On a per-inning basis, Sheehan was one of the Dodgers' best starting pitchers in the regular season, full stop. Yet in his first four postseason appearances, Sheehan allowed seven runs in 3.2 innings. He turned things around just enough to pitch 2.2 scoreless innings in Game 3, and record three more outs in Game 7. Somehow, none of the seven runners he allowed between those two games scored.

11. Teoscar Hernández (-0.81% cWPA)

Hernández had a good enough series at the plate (7 for 29, home run) and deserves extra credit for jumpstarting this outfield relay in the 10th inning of Game 3.

In Game 5, Hernández was the only Dodger with multiple hits against Trey Yesavage. He was also responsible for misplaying a Daulton Varsho hit into a triple in the same game — the Teoscar Hernández experience in a nutshell.

12. Shohei Ohtani (-0.03% cWPA)

Ohtani's 18.69% cWPA as a hitter and -18.72% as a pitcher tells the story of his World Series. He was the Dodgers' only logical choice to start Game 7 because it kept his bat in the lineup for 11 innings, but Roberts was fortunate Ohtani pitched into the third. In Game 4, Ohtani kept the score close for six innings but took the loss because his teammates stopped hitting.

And yet, it was hard to fault Ohtani for not doing more in the series. He reached base a record nine times in Game 3, less than 24 hours before he pitched into the seventh inning of Game 4. His .333/.500/.778 slash line in the series came in spite of — not because of — the number of hittable pitches he saw.

For a team short on trustworthy pitchers, each of Ohtani's innings on the mound was valuable if unspectacular. It was probably the best two-way performance in a World Series since Dizzy Dean in 1934.

13. Roki Sasaki (-1.58% cWPA)

Was this the most deceptive 0.00 ERA in a World Series ever? Sasaki allowed six runners to reach base in 2.2 innings, yet none of them scored because Roberts got Sasaki out of Game 6 just in time, and the runners he bequeathed to Glasnow did not score.

It's at least partly because of Sasaki that Yamamoto — and Snell, and Glasnow — were forced to finish Game 7. The rookie's inability to maintain his early-October dominance into November quite nearly cost the Dodgers the series but, as this list winds down, Sasaki will find plenty of company in that department.

14. Jack Dreyer (-2.56% cWPA)

Dreyer threw five pitches to three batters in the eighth inning of Game 3. One reached on an error, another reached on a hit, and Sasaki got the final two outs of the inning to preserve a 5-5 tie. Dreyer also mopped up the final two innings of the Dodgers' loss in Game 4. By then, Roberts had shrunk his circle of trust to Wrobleski, Sasaki, and the four starters who remained starters into the postseason.

The Dodgers somehow won Games 6 and 7 with only those six pitchers, though Dreyer was briefly warming up to relieve Yamamoto in the 11th inning of Game 7 (along with Sasaki and Kershaw). Dreyer finished the postseason with four scoreless appearances in all — a quietly excellent month, even if it was entirely in low-leverage situations.

15. Anthony Banda (-3.02% cWPA)

Coming into the World Series, Banda had a sterling postseason track record (10.2 IP, 14 strikeouts, 0.84 ERA). The Jays clobbered their former teammate for six hits (including two homers) in three innings across four games.

Considering Banda made 74 appearances coming into the World Series — a career-high, and the most of any Dodgers pitcher — it's understandable he would look gassed. Still, his struggles really accentuated how much Vesia was missed.

16. Blake Snell (-8.5% cWPA)

Snell was the losing pitcher in Games 1 and 5 of the series. It's not a stretch to say that Yamamoto bailed him out by dominating each of the following games. Nor will anyone overlook Snell's scoreless 1.1 innings late in Game 7 to send the game to extra innings. (With an assist to Andy Pages; more on him in a bit.)

17. Mookie Betts (-9.4% cWPA)

Betts had the big hit in Game 6, a two-run single in the third inning that gave the Dodgers the lead for good. He also started the double play that ended the World Series — a fitting end to a standout season at shortstop that quite nearly ended with a Gold Glove Award.

But for most of the series, arguably the biggest question hanging over the Dodgers was, "what happened to Mookie Betts' bat?" It didn't show up until Game 6, and he did little to move the needle on offense in Game 7 (0 for 3, two walks). As much as anyone, Betts got to answer a very different set of questions after the series because the Dodgers won.

18. Alex Call (-10.13% cWPA)

Roberts said after Game 4 that he was considering replacing Pages in the lineup with either Call or Rojas. He went with Call, who was 0 for 2 with a walk and a strikeout in Game 5. The journeyman outfielder never left the bench in Games 6 or 7.

19. Blake Treinen (-10.73% cWPA)

Treinen's rocky outings in Games 3 and 4 were brief — but so harmful to the Dodgers' chances of winning the series, only four players had a worse series by cWPA. The Dodgers owe him $11 million next year.

20. Freddie Freeman (-13.55% cWPA)

Like Betts, Freeman had one huge moment at the plate (his home run in the 18th inning of Game 3) and otherwise had a forgettable series. Take away the home run, and Freeman hit .178 with one extra-base hit in 28 at-bats.

In a way, this speaks to the Dodgers' depth. A year ago, Freeman was the clear-cut choice for World Series MVP. This time he took a back seat to nearly everyone on the team — and the Dodgers still won the championship.

21. Tommy Edman (-21.59% cWPA)

Edman's bad ankle offered a built-in excuse for anything he didn't do in the World Series. The 2024 NLCS MVP was effectively forced into action by virtue of Rojas and Kim's limitations. Edman went 4 for 28 with two doubles in the series, which is reflected in his cWPA. Few will remember that, however. His outstanding defense in Game 3 (see here, here and here) allowed the Dodgers to win that game in 18 innings.

22. Kiké Hernádez (-27.44% cWPA)

Like Edman, Hernández's main contributions to the World Series came on defense. His double play catch-and-throw to end Game 6 was the 10th-most impactful play in the series by cWPA — and the most important play in the series that didn't take place in Game 7.

Look carefully at the double by Barger that got lodged in the bottom of the fence in the ninth inning of Game 6: Hernández threw his arms up before center fielder Justin Dean did the same, setting in motion one of the series' critical plays. That doesn't show up in any stat (even cWPA), so the Dodgers will weather his 5-for-28 batting line with 15(!) strikeouts in the series.

23. Andy Pages (-32.3% cWPA)

Pages' leaping catch in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 atoned for a miserable postseason. He was only in the game as a defensive replacement for Edman, who would have had trouble making the catch on a bum ankle. After going 1 for 16 (single, no walks, and curiously no strikeouts), Pages found a way to make a positive impact after all.

Almost to a man, the same held true for every Dodger who took the field in the World Series. Roberts did the opposite of empty his bench; he pressed the right buttons by limiting the number of buttons he could press. Pages was one. Yamamoto was another in Game 7. Rojas. Kershaw. Klein. Wrobleski in place of Vesia. Each was the right player for the moment, but we — and maybe they, and maybe their manager — didn't know it for sure until the moment had passed.