The 2024 World Series might just be the red carpet edition: from Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts to Aaron Judge and Juan Soto. Heck, even Giancarlo Stanton is back, like John Travolta in "Pulp Fiction."
But we've all watched enough postseason baseball to know that it's not always the stars who will determine the winner of the Fall Classic. World Series MVPs over the past decade include Jeremy Pena, Jorge Soler and Steve Pearce. As much as we hope Ohtani and Judge step up now that they're finally on the biggest stage, the supporting characters will be just as important in deciding this matchup between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees. That's part of the beauty of baseball.
Let's look at some of the surprise stars this October and how they helped the Dodgers and Yankees get here.
Luke Weaver, Jake Cousins and Tim Hill, RPs, Yankees
Key moment: Combined for 4⅔ scoreless innings in the clinching Game 5 win over the Cleveland Guardians in the ALCS
How do you build the back end of a bullpen from scratch? Incredibly, here's how the Yankees did it:
• Since the end of the 2022 season, Weaver has been: put on waivers by the Kansas City Royals, signed by the Seattle Mariners, let go by the Mariners, signed with the Cincinnati Reds, released by the Reds, signed by the Mariners, selected by the Yankees off waivers from the Mariners, re-signed by the Yankees as a free agent. That seems like the standard definition of a journeyman right-hander.
• The Yankees acquired Cousins, who earlier in his career had been released and waived by the Washington Nationals and Milwaukee Brewers, from the Chicago White Sox for cash at the end of March.
• The Yankees signed Hill on June 20, after the White Sox released him.
Yes, to make things clear, the worst team in modern MLB history, with a bullpen that went 15-49 with a 4.75 ERA, had no use for two relievers now pitching high-leverage innings for a World Series team. Baseball is wonderful. Baseball makes no sense.
Weaver has been the big revelation of the three, moving to the bullpen full time for the first time in his career and slowly pitching his way from the back end of the pen at the start of the season to becoming the closer in September. Since Aug. 16, he has a 1.50 ERA and 40% strikeout rate while holding batters to a .150 average and .470 OPS.
What has been the big change for him? His velocity did pick up a bit as a reliever -- his four-seamer jumped from 94.0 mph last year to 95.7 in 2024 -- so that has helped, but he has also simplified his approach: He threw five pitches at least 10% of the time in 2023 but settled on his fastball, changeup and cutter as a reliever this year. The other key, which is maybe the biggest: When the Yankees signed Weaver in September 2023, Gerrit Cole suggested Weaver change the grip on his four-seamer. That has helped Weaver's command of the pitch -- batters hit .177 against it compared to .311 in 2023.
Weaver has pitched in eight of the nine Yankees postseason games -- getting more than three outs in five of those appearances -- so he probably needed the time off before the World Series more than anyone. The Guardians did hit homers off him in Games 2 and 3 of the ALCS, and he allowed 10 in the regular season, so he can be a little vulnerable to the home run.
Cousins has always had a good arm, but throwing strikes has been an issue. He threw his slider 65% of the time and held batters to a .154 average in the regular season. Manager Aaron Boone will look to use him against the right-handed part of the Dodgers' lineup. Hill, a ground ball specialist, was admittedly terrible with the White Sox -- he allowed 41 hits in 23 innings. Since signing with the Yankees, the veteran sidearmer has posted a 1.99 ERA and held batters to a .232 average, with lefties hitting .193 off him. It's not an exaggeration to suggest the Hill versus Ohtani matchups -- and we're going to see that on a regular basis -- could be a deciding factor in this series.
Tommy Edman, SS, Dodgers
Key moment: Homered and drove in four runs in the clinching Game 6 win over the New York Mets in the NLCS
Edman had a dominant NLCS, hitting .367 and driving in 11 runs while winning MVP honors -- even moving up to the cleanup spot for Games 4 and 6, a position he had batted in just twice in his career.
The 29-year-old utility man had yet to play with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2024 when the Dodgers acquired him at the trade deadline -- he had offseason wrist surgery and then his rehab was slowed by a sprained ankle. That trade now looks like an absolute steal: The Dodgers acquired Edman and reliever Michael Kopech from the White Sox in a three-team deal, giving up only third baseman Miguel Vargas (who hit .104 after the trade) and a couple of low-level prospects. Edman and Kopech also have another year of team control.
Edman is, of course, the perfect player for the Dodgers, an organization that loves versatility in its position players. He would probably be a Gold Glove second baseman if he played there every day, but he has moved back and forth with the Dodgers between center field and shortstop and took over as the regular shortstop in the postseason when Miguel Rojas was taken off the roster in the NLDS because of a groin injury.
A switch-hitter, he has been much better from the right side throughout his career -- .831 OPS versus .689 from the left side. That split has been even more pronounced in the small sample of 2024, but look for him to hit high in the lineup when Carlos Rodon starts for the Yankees, but lower when it's Gerrit Cole, Clarke Schmidt or Luis Gil.
Edman's fielding at shortstop could also play a key role. While he has shown good range, he has also had a couple of miscues (although he wasn't charged with any errors in the NLCS) and his arm is a little short for the position.
Gleyber Torres, 2B, Yankees
Key moment: Went 3-for-5 with two runs in Game 2 of the ALCS
Torres' tenure with the Yankees has been up and down, a mix of star-level play and frustration. He made the All-Star team as a 21-year-old rookie in 2018 and then again in 2019, when he mashed 38 home runs. He looked like a player the Yankees would be building around, along with Judge. Then came a couple of rough seasons, and while he has been solid the past three years, he never again reached the promise of his first two seasons. He heads into free agency after this season -- and let's just say, for most of 2024, Yankees fans were counting the days until that happened.
But one reason Soto has been so dangerous in the playoffs is that Torres has been getting on base in front of him in the leadoff spot, slashing .297/.400/.432 with seven walks in nine games. He hit a two-run homer in a 6-5 win over the Royals in the ALDS opener and scored five runs in the ALCS, driving in a key run off Emmanuel Clase in Game 4.
Is Torres' postseason walk rate -- 15.6%, up from 9.8% in the regular season -- a real thing, a product of more focus and patience, or more a result of the wildness of Royals and Guardians pitching? If it's a real thing and he keeps getting on base in front of Soto, Judge and Stanton, the Yankees' offense is much deeper than just that slugging trio.
Ben Casparius, RHP, Dodgers
Key moment: Picked up the win with 1⅓ scoreless innings in the NLCS Game 6 clincher
We know how much the Dodgers will rely on their bullpen -- they'll need a bullpen game at least once in this series, likely Game 4 -- and none of their starters (Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jack Flaherty, Walker Buehler) are expected to pitch particularly deep into games. (They've averaged just 4.6 innings per start across eight postseason starts.) So, that means a lot of bullpen innings. And even with all the time off before Game 1 on Friday, L.A. manager Dave Roberts can't rely solely on his proven high-leverage guys: Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips, Daniel Hudson, Kopech and Ryan Brasier. At some point, he'll likely need the back-end relievers to deliver some vital innings -- and that's where Casparius comes in.
Added to the playoff roster for the NLCS after Alex Vesia was injured against the San Diego Padres, Casparius delivered 4⅓ scoreless innings in the series, allowing just two hits with four punchouts. The rookie from UConn pitched just 8⅓ innings in the regular season across three appearances after making his debut on Aug. 31. A year ago, Casparius, the unheralded prospect on a team with several other high-ranking starting pitching prospects, had a 6.62 ERA in 18 games (13 starts) for Double-A Tulsa.
Originally a two-way player at North Carolina, he transferred back to his home state to focus on pitching his junior season and the Dodgers drafted him in the fifth round in 2021. It came together for him this season and he posted a 3.35 ERA across Double-A and Triple-A, striking out 106 batters in 88⅔ innings while allowing just 65 hits. Casparius, who has primarily been a starting pitcher but moved to the bullpen for now, works off a 95-mph four-seamer and slider, mixing in a curveball. His work against the Mets suggests he's moved up on Roberts' trust tree and could end up getting some high-leverage innings in the Fall Classic, especially earlier in games.
Max Muncy, 3B/1B, Dodgers
Key moment: Set a single-postseason record reaching base 12 consecutive times in the NLCS
Muncy is more of a household name as a two-time All-Star with four seasons of 35-plus home runs, but he's rarely mentioned as one of the Dodgers' stars -- especially in 2024, when he missed 80 games with an oblique strain. Still, he ended up with a pretty typical Max Muncy slash line: .232/.358/.494. He gets overlooked because he doesn't hit for a high average, but he combines walks and power to be an effective run producer.
His postseason career has been a mixed bag, however. His best year came in 2020, the year the Dodgers won it all, when he homered twice against the Atlanta Braves in the NLCS and drove in six runs against the Tampa Bay Rays in the World Series. He was locked in against the Mets, homering twice and reaching base 17 times in 27 plate appearances. A key reason the Dodgers scored an NLCS-record 46 runs -- despite Freddie Freeman missing two games and driving in just one run in the series -- was that Muncy was always on base.
He tends to run hot and cold, and he's much better against righties than southpaws, so New York manager Aaron Boone will have to consider his lefties out of the pen if Muncy is up in big moments -- Hill (although he's likely to be slated for Ohtani duty) or maybe Tim Mayza. Nestor Cortes expects to be on the Yankees' World Series roster (despite being diagnosed with a flexor strain just one month ago), which would give them another lefty. More than likely, however, Boone won't be able to get all the matchups he wants and Muncy will get to hit off righties more often than not.
After he set the on-base record in Game 4 of the NLCS, when asked if there's such a thing as being in the zone right now, he told ESPN, "It's hard to explain."
That might be the perfect summary of the postseason: It's hard to explain. All eyes will be on the superstars -- but let's see which of the unsung players step up to become October heroes.