With confetti at your feet, a drink in your hand, and a smile of equal parts relief and elation on your face. Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy gave only a cursory thought to the question of the night.
If the Dodgers consolidated the dynasty?
“I think so,” he said.
Over the past six seasons, Muncy was one of six Dodgers players to appear in all three of their recent games. World Series championships. He became one of the faces of a team that reached historic heights throughout history.
But when it came to talking about the club's legacy, when he stood on the field after A Thrilling Ride to Dodgers Game 7 The 35-year-old veteran's mind was elsewhere on Saturday night in Toronto. The pride he felt came from another source.
“What I’m most proud of is the culture we’ve created,” he said. “I hope that’s what people talk about the most.”
This will not happen in public discourse, of course.
These Dodgers, with their star-studded roster, record $415 million payroll and long-standing reputation Big-spending villains who could ruin baseballhas only further fueled the debate about financial inequality in sports.
WITH Labor battle looms next yearthey will be turned into proxies – something critics will argue is a prime example of what's wrong with the only major professional sports league in North America without a hard salary cap.
Some of these concerns will be justified (the Dodgers are spending at a level MLB has never seen before and far outpacing most of their competitors). Others will be exaggerated (they also spend according to league rules and reinvest earnings back into their roster at a higher percentage than almost all other franchises).
However, the players themselves didn't care.
After all, money could give them the talent to win back-to-back World Series. But it took something more to help them get through and especially overcome the mental and physical challenges they faced in Saturday's Game 7.
“When you come to the Dodgers and put on a Dodgers uniform, it all comes down to, ‘How do you do what you need to do to win the game? How do you help a team win a game?” Muncy said, his raspy voice beginning to crack. “I seriously can't put into words how much it means to me that we created something so special that now everyone knows about.”
Dodgers second baseman Miguel Rojas (right) celebrates with Max Muncy after the team won Game 7 of the World Series.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Culture and camaraderie may be stereotypical traits that are easy to point to after any World Series championship, but they were nonetheless present in the Dodgers' quest to repeat this year.
Take the first big turning point of this postseason: cult “game with wheels” The Dodgers ran to defend the bunt in the ninth inning of Game 2 of the National League Division Series.
This maneuver was proposed and carried out Mookie Betts is a player the Dodgers signed for $365 million five years ago to be a Gold Glove right fielder, but who moved to shortstop this season out of need in the lineup full-time and has developed into a Gold Glove finalist.
Dollars may be the reason Betts is now playing in Los Angeles. But it was his tireless daily routine the infielder's ability and his ability to learn from and overcome early-season growing pains made this moment possible.
“I think his play at that level of shortstop is underrated,” president of baseball operations. Andrew Friedman said. “I don’t think people pay enough attention to how difficult it was.”
Winning the NLDS required another stellar talent to take on an unexpected new role.
When a budding Japanese phenomenon Rocky Sasaki By signing with the Dodgers this offseason, he added to outside concerns about their stockpile of talent. Sasaki, however, struggled as a starter, missed most of the year with a shoulder injury, and then had to make a decision before the playoffs. to move or not to the bullpen.
He agreed despite never having worked as a pitcher before in his professional career. And in the playoffs, he filled the team's gaping hole, as evidenced by three perfect serves he scored the decisive victory in Game 4 of the NLDS.
From left to right: Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Rocky Sasaki celebrate winning the World Series.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
“For Rocky to have success after the year he had,” Muncy said at the time, “it was very important to us.”
The National League Championship Series was the only time the Dodgers outright outscored an opponent in the playoffs, sweeping the superior Milwaukee Brewers due to the team's historic starting performances Blake Snell ($182 million signed last offseason) Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($365 million underwritten last winter) and Tyler Glasnow ($136.5 million acquisition) and then a Game 4 two-way record from Shohei Ohtani (the $700 million man who was at the center of the Dodgers spending horror).
The World Series, however, posed an unexpectedly strong challenge from the Toronto Blue Jays, who were heavy underdogs to the Dodgers despite having their own top-five payroll of $278 million.
The shine of the Dodgers' invincibility was shattered in the Fall Classic. Their composition was not simple. Only Yamamoto maintained his previous level of dominance in the rotation. The long-suspect bullpen has finally cracked. And in many aspects of the series (in which the Blue Jays outscored the Dodgers 34–26 and hit .269 against the Dodgers' .203 team average), the Dodgers looked second best.
“I mean, overall we didn't play very well,” Friedman said. “But it was at these big turning points that our guys really emerged… It reflects, I think, who they are, how they compete, how much they care about each other, how much they care about bringing a championship back to Los Angeles multiple years in a row.”
There was a third game in which the Dodgers took over. in an 18-inning marathon receiving unexpected support from a little-known pitcher Will Kleinwho was willing to sacrifice his arm in a grueling four-inning game despite spending most of that year in the minors.
There was Game 6 when the team survived a potential late-season jam in the ninth inning thanks to veteran defensive instincts. Kike Hernandez (an energetic October commit who started every playoff game after limited playing time in the regular season) and Miguel Rojas (who has become one of the team's emotional leaders since being acquired in a trade for a minor league prospect in 2023, despite also playing depth for much of the summer) flashed, sealing the win with a double play.
“That’s what makes us really tough,” Rojas said. “[We’re] competing every single day, and no matter the situation, I think that everyone [is able to] just forget about the past and focus on the present moment.”
Game 7 was a real test.
The Dodgers fell behind early, with Rogers Center shaking after Bo Bichette's three-run homer in the third inning. They couldn't rely on Ohtani, who looked toxic when he started the game as a reliever on short rest. Instead, they had to claw their way back, playing from behind until the ninth inning – when their season was two outs away from ending in failure.
“We just kept going and going and going,” Muncy said. “I’m just really proud of all the guys who don’t give up hope.”
It would be easy to do. After two grueling years filled with long postseason games, international season-opening travel and the daily pressure of spending heavily in the offseason, the club's tank seemed to be teetering on empty. After all, pure talent can only last so long.
“It's been a long road for the team, for the organization, for every player here,” Rojas said before Game 6. “It was really stressful and everyone was mentally tired.”
But this is where the Dodgers culture began, Muncy said.
“It's all about the team. It doesn't matter about yourself,” he said. “When you come off the field and there's a whole group of guys next to you, [the dugout] saying, “Hey, great inning. Let's break something together. Let's take the guy to base. Let’s try it,’ that means everything.”
In the end, the Dodgers created their most heroic moments when they needed them most.
With one out in the ninth, it was Rojas – who wasn't sure he would even play in Game 7 after aggravating an intercostal injury the night before – who tied the game with a miracle home run.
“When you play the right way, treat people the right way, be a teammate like Miguel, I think we said it there, the game does you credit,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “Just doing everything I can to help this team win.”
From there, the Dodgers (going to their fourth traditional starter of the night) called up Yamamoto, who did what no record signing could have predicted. throwing 2 ⅔ scoreless innings on zero rest after his start with 96 pitches in Game 6.
“I can’t put a price on it,” Friedman said.
“This will go down as one of the best championship performances in any sport,” added pitching coach Mark Pryor.
Will Smithone of the few homegrown talents on the mercenary team, got the win with a home run in the 11th.
“To me, he represents a lot of the success we've had, looking back,” Friedman said. “In terms of our search process, the development process of our players, how well they work together and then how he shows up and makes the impact that he has had at the Major League level.”
And, oddly enough, it was Betts who recorded the championship-winning strikeouts thanks to a double-play hit on a chopper.
“A perfect nod to what he's had an incredible season for what he's done at shortstop this year,” Friedman said.
All of this, Muncy proudly noted, illustrates what the Dodgers claim is the spirit of their team; these are the kind of intangible assets that will not appear on the balance sheet or payroll, even with all the money spent.
“This is what we created here,” Muncy said. “And that’s what I’m most proud of.”
“We kept going and persevered,” manager Dave Roberts – repeated. “And we're the last team standing.”
