Throughout the offseason the CBS Sports MLB experts will bring you a weekly Batting Around roundtable, breaking down pretty much anything. The latest news, a historical question, thoughts about the future of baseball, all sorts of stuff. This week we’re going to tackle the Dodgers and whether this year’s World Series title makes them a dynasty.
Are the Dodgers a dynasty?
R.J. Anderson: If they aren’t, then it’s time to retire the concept because I don’t see many, if any, teams clearing the bar anymore. This isn’t the 1950s; the playoffs are too bloated and tricky to expect any club to do much better than what the Dodgers have done over the last 13 seasons. We’re talking about three World Series titles; five pen…
Throughout the offseason the CBS Sports MLB experts will bring you a weekly Batting Around roundtable, breaking down pretty much anything. The latest news, a historical question, thoughts about the future of baseball, all sorts of stuff. This week we’re going to tackle the Dodgers and whether this year’s World Series title makes them a dynasty.
Are the Dodgers a dynasty?
R.J. Anderson: If they aren’t, then it’s time to retire the concept because I don’t see many, if any, teams clearing the bar anymore. This isn’t the 1950s; the playoffs are too bloated and tricky to expect any club to do much better than what the Dodgers have done over the last 13 seasons. We’re talking about three World Series titles; five pennants; 12 division titles; 90-plus win pace each year. They’re not done, either.
Matt Snyder: My initial thought was that a dynasty has to have at least three championships within a small period of time and I was reluctant to loop in 2020 since there were three titles between that and 2024. But really, that’s not too big of a gap. This is three championships in six seasons with two of them being back-to-back titles. If we figure what a juggernaut the Dodgers have been in the regular season for so long and point out that they’ve won five pennants in the last nine seasons, I think the answer is pretty clear that, yes, this is a dynasty.
Dayn Perry: I think the standard has to be different for MLB relative to other leagues. It’s just too hard to make it through all the rounds of the postseason, with that baseball-style randomness baked in. So, yes, the Dodgers are a dynasty, and honestly I would still consider them one regardless of how Game 7 played out. Regular-season achievements impress me more than deep playoff runs, but the Dodgers have both going for them. Their last decade has been something to behold. They’re an obvious dynasty.
Mike Axisa: I’m a bit of a stickler with this stuff. I don’t think winning pennants outside the championship years extends a dynasty (is the Yankees’ dynasty 1996-2000 or 1998-2003?) nor do I think regular-season success matters. A dynasty is about winning titles, period. I would say three titles in six years is on the lower end of what I would call a dynasty, but winning back-to-back titles helps, plus there’s a good amount of overlap between the 2020 and 2025 Dodgers. They had six players appear in both in the 2020 and 2025 World Series: Mookie Betts, Enrique Hernández, Clayton Kershaw, Max Muncy, Will Smith, and Blake Treinen. So yes, the Dodgers are a dynasty.