Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees Set to Make History in Showdown of MVPs

The stars shined bright when the Los Angeles Dodgers faced the New York Yankees in the World Series last fall, but that was only the beginning.

The Dodgers had three MVP winners in their lineup for the Fall Classic, adding Shohei Ohtani to Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. The Yankees, meanwhile, had Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.

Ohtani, Betts and Freeman now have Los Angeles sitting atop the NL West one-third of the way through the 2025 campaign, while Judge has joined forces with two new former MVP winners to carry New York to first place in the AL East. With Stanton still on the injured list, Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt have cemented themselves as staples in the lineup.

As a result, the World Series rematch this weekend will be one for the record books.

According to MLB.com's Sarah Langs, Ohtani, Betts and Freeman facing Judge, Bellinger and Goldschmidt will mark the first game in MLB history in which both teams have had three former MVPs in their batting order. The next closest occurrence came in 2023, when Judge, Stanton and Josh Donaldson faced Betts, Freeman and Clayton Kershaw, but Kershaw was pitching instead of batting.