LOS ANGELES – Put aside, for a moment, the star power that could illuminate all of SoCal and the five boroughs. The decisive players in this World Series may reside just off the red carpet, closer to the margins of their rosters.
It would certainly be poetic for the first World Series since 1981 pitting the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers to be decided by any of the many former MVPs and future Hall of Famers. But both teams are so tightly matched that the difference will likely reside deeper down the roster.
With that, here are five difference makers to watch as Game 1 gets underway Friday night at Dodger Stadium:
Luke Weaver, Yankees
It has been a startling turnabout both for the Yankees and their once-maligned bullpen, which faced the ire of fans as closer Clay Holmes struggled through a brutal second half.
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Who knew the elixir would be a 183-pound journeyman asked to pitch the ninth inning for a franchise with near-maniacal championship aspirations?
Yet Luke Weaver, who has generally embraced “wiry” as his middle name, took to the closer role with stunning confidence, saving the Yankees’ first four playoff wins and pitching two scoreless innings to win their ALCS clincher in 10 innings at Cleveland.
He has allowed just eight baserunners in 10 postseason innings, striking out 12, and the Yankee bullpen has pitched to a 2.56 ERA in nine postseason games.
Bullpens are built from the back forward, and the Yankees have learned to take their cue from their moderately goofy new closer.
“He’s quirky, he’s confident, he’s always cracking jokes and never taking things too seriously,” says Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt of Weaver, whose sense of humor tends to be as dry as a nice Chablis.
It’s a good mentality for a ninth-inning guy, who certainly wore the “failed starter” label in his early years with St. Louis and Arizona. But after landing with the Yankees following a handful of waiver wire moves, he impressed enough in a brief 2023 look to earn a contract this season.
Now, he’s learned to make the most of what he has on a given night, whether that’s a live fastball or a devastating changeup that has become his out pitch this postseason.
“Every day brings a different demand of, ‘What do I have?’” he says. “That’s something I’ve had to learn throughout this season.
“Now, if it don’t work, I ain’t throwing it. There are moments in a game where you don’t want to go to a pitch because something (bad) might happen.”
Such as the game-tying two-run homer he gave up to Jhonkensy Noel in the ninth inning of ALCS Game 4. Yet the good has far outweighed the bad this October. The Yankees are confident that will continue to be the case, both for Weaver and arms like Holmes who fell deftly into roles as October dawned.
“It means the world to have guys who have made adjustments,” says Schmidt. “It’s great to have guys pitching at the highest level right now. They’re at the top of their game.”
Gleyber Torres, Yankees
He’s the other pending free agent at the top of the Yankees’ lineup. Yet in this run to the World Series, Gleyber Torres has been their greatest offensive contributor.
Even if he’s somehow easier to forget in the shadow of Aaron Judge and Juan Soto these days.
Torres was an All-Star at 21 and earned a second consecutive honor in 2019. Yet his career has been marked by inconsistency in years since – up until the second half of this season.
A .231 average and .654 OPS in the first half gave way to .293 and .780 marks in the second half, the prelude to a postseason in which it’s been impossible to keep Torres off base. By August, he’d regained the leadoff spot he lost in that slow first half and now, Torres has a .400 OBP in the playoffs, reaching base 18 times in nine games and creating traffic in front of sluggers Juan Soto and Aaron Judge.
“I always felt like this is a guy in the prime of his career that’s always hit,” says Yankees manager Aaron Boone. “Like water’s going to find its level. He’ll get there in the long 162-game season.
“He has absolutely been a catalyst for us and one of the big reasons why we’re sitting here right now.”
Torres, who turns 28 in December, has also nicely rebuilt his free agent profile. While Soto’s free agency will take precedence, Torres presents an interesting case for the Yankees to mull. And while relieved he galvanized his walk year with a second-half surge, Torres would love to stay a Yankee, too – perhaps with a championship ring in tow.
“I don’t see those guys as teammates,” he says. “I see those guys as family, the entire organization.”
Kiké Hernandez, Dodgers
Maybe his exuberance can’t last over 162 games. Perhaps his restless nature, his propensity to gas up his teammates via text message, his willingness to drop f-bombs on national television simply don’t play as well in a six-month grind.
Maybe Kiké Hernandez is simply built for the postseason.
Oh, the Dodgers have always appreciated what the 5-11, 195-pound multi-position dynamo has brought to the club. Any player who can man shortstop and center field with equal aplomb brings immense value. Yet Hernandez is a lifetime .238 hitter, with a 92 career adjusted OPS a decent tick below league average.
But come October, he’s a monster.
He’s been in nine of these postseasons and has almost always performed. Hernandez has belted 15 postseason home runs, putting him in a rent district reserved for the likes of Aaron Judge, and his .356 career postseason OBP and .889 OPS are built over 81 playoff games.
A deep sample, and that’s before his star turns are even considered.
The three-homer game to clinch the 2017 pennant at Wrigley Field. The solo homer to tie Game 7 of the 2020 NLCS, preserving the Dodgers’ run to a World Series title.
And this month, hitting a go-ahead homer to start the Dodgers’ Game 5 clinching party against San Diego in the NLDS.
Hernandez ascribes his postseason success to a concept that’s more Tony Robbins than Tony Gwynn: “The power of the mind,” he says.
Armchair sports psychology might suggest that regular season challenges plant doubt in Hernandez’s mind, an imposter syndrome of sorts. Yet come the playoffs, Hernandez’s achievements have provided enough reassurance that yes, he is that dude.
“The mind likes to question more than it likes to believe,” says Hernandez. “Even when you’re doing good things and start paying attention to what people are saying, you can ask yourself whether it was luck. But when you have a moment, and then you have another moment and another moment, eventually you’ll start believing it.
“Power of the mind.”
Simple enough.
Hernandez has been doing this for nearly a decade. He detoured to Boston for most of three seasons – slugging five home runs in their lone postseason run, of course – and, at 33, remains irrepressible.
“One thing I’ve always done and always will do,” he says, “is be myself.”
Come October, he’s the very best version of that.
Evan Phillips, Dodgers
He can see the finish line from here. But Evan Phillips knows the Dodgers may be compromised in their effort to reach it.
The Dodgers’ bullpen has been fantastic this postseason, salvaging their season with an epic eight-reliever relay to shut out San Diego and stave off elimination in Game 4 of the NLDS. Phillips was credited with the victory that game, part of a virtually perfect postseason for him: 6 2/3 innings, no runs given up, five outings of more than one inning.
Yet Phillips acknowledges the Dodgers might have been “playing with fire a little bit” with how far they’ve extended him and the bullpen so far.
On the other hand, that’s life for a reliever in the postseason – with four more wins they need to capture.
“It’s a long season. Soreness, fatigue – we’re all kind of going through our individual battles, some worse than others. We’re all doing everything we can to be as 100% as we can be,” says Phillips.
Unfortunately for Phillips, he will not be a part of the effort. Friday morning, the Dodgers released their World Series roster and Phillips was not included, after he exited their Game 6 NLCS victory one inning sooner than they’d scripted.
Instead, the Dodgers welcome back right-hander Brusdar Graterol, who missed a month with a shoulder injury, and top lefty Alex Vesia, who sat out the NLCS with an oblique injury.
That only adds intrigue and some bit of doubt to whether they can pull this off against the powerful Yankees. The Dodgers have a talented front three of their rotation – Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler – yet Yamamoto and Buehler have battled injury this season.
And beyond Flaherty’s seven-inning gem in Game 1 of the NLCS, they’ve left lots of outs on the table, with two five-inning starts, two three inning starts and a 4 1/3-inning outing.
Combined with the two bullpen games the relievers have turned in, it’s a lot.
“That’s something our entire bullpen has taken a lot of pride in – becoming an option in any situation,” says Phillips. “That’s what’s special about this group – we’re doing whatever it takes to win. We’re prepared to do the exact same thing this series.
“That’s something that’s truly day to day – a read and react situation where the coaching staff will do their preparation and communicate to us what’s expected.
“But frankly, it’s the playoffs and now it’s the World Series – we’re going to be ready to go from pitch one.”
Phillips is one of the Dodgers’ great reclamation stories, sticking in L.A. after he was waived by Tampa Bay and Baltimore. He’s saved 42 games over the past two seasons, but the bullpen hit a midseason wall of sorts.
They were reinvigorated by midseason acquisitions of Flaherty and reliever Michael Kopech that galvanized the staff. Now, they’ll try to find four more wins, and in Phillips’ case, that means trying to stay perfect.
“He’s been the best. He’s been able to live up to any moment,” Kopech says of Phillips. “He’s made himself a real centerpiece of this bullpen here with the Dodgers and to see how he goes about his business along with guys like Daniel Hudson, Alex Vesia and Blake Treinen – it’s a true group of professionals down there.
“And for everybody to take the ball with vigor and be able to do what they need to do makes it easy for the next guy up. Which is what I’ve felt since I’ve got here.”
Now, they’ll have to grind toward four more wins without him.
Tommy Edman, Dodgers
It’s pretty weird getting traded, weirder still to a team filled with superstars, and downright awkward when you’re injured at the time. But that’s the spot Tommy Edman found himself in when he and Kopech were shipped to L.A. in a three-team deal at the trade deadline.
Edman, recovering from wrist surgery, was left behind with a handful of rehabbing players when the Dodgers went on the road.
“We were here, at Dodger Stadium at 11:30 in the morning, nobody in the stands, three or four players working to get back,” remembers shortstop Miguel Rojas, still slowed by an adductor injury. “It’s one of the things nobody really sees because this big moment is about what we’re doing right now. But I don’t forget the stuff we have to go through. Making him feel like part of the organization, talking about the way we do things here. I was happy I could help and make him feel comfortable right away.
“Because he’s a big part of what we’re doing right now.”
Edman comes into this World Series already flush with hardware: He tied a franchise record with 13 RBIs in winning NLCS MVP honors, banging out 11 hits in the six games.
It was an unlikely scenario: The 5-11, 193-pound Edman batting cleanup in the powerful Dodgers lineup – and cleaning up.
“We’ve got so many good hitters throughout the lineup, it seems like somebody’s always on base,” says Edman. “And I try to do the same thing, too: Make sure I’m on base for the great hitters after me.”
With Rojas and first baseman Freddie Freeman set to return for the World Series, Edman will assume whatever role the roster machinations create. In a sense, he’s stepped into the fungible roles filled so ably, sometimes, explosively, by Hernandez and Cody Bellinger and Chris Taylor on past Dodger teams.
Rojas isn’t surprised. When he was a Marlin and Edman a Cardinal, he saw plenty of Edman as they shared a spring training complex in Florida. Now, he’s admiring him up close, in the biggest of games.
“I saw the way he can play different positions and help the team and be a team-first guy,” says Rojas. “Always playing whatever he feels he needs for the team to be better.
“He’s a perfect guy to be on our team, because he fits right in. He don’t care about any attention. He just wants to play and help the team.”