Yankees-Dodgers position-by-position breakdown

The internet is rife with “Los Angeles vs. New York” content. Do you go for palm trees or pizza? Do you side with steady sunshine and bountiful beach days or seasonal variety and the magic of snowfall on the Rockefeller Center tree? Do you prefer swimming pools and movie stars or city streets and … movie stars? Do you like traffic or traffic?

Well, the beauty of this year’s World Series matchup is we get to put all those worn-out discussions to the side and make “L.A. vs. NYC” strictly a debate about baseball.

So as we wait out the interminable hours before Game 1 of Dodgers vs. Yankees on Friday night at Dodger Stadium, let’s look at these two baseball behemoths side by side and see which club has the edge at each position in this much-anticipated Fall Classic clash.

(By the way, I personally prefer pizza in any scenario, but I promise I won’t let that impact any outcomes here.)

Catcher
If we’re grading by October facial hair, then Yankees rookie Austin Wells’ sweet ‘stache gets the nod over the clean-shaven Will Smith by the 2,450 miles from New York to L.A.

But if we’re going by baseball performance, it’s much closer.

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Wells had a season that will earn him a lot of Rookie of the Year love, grading out fourth in Fielding Run Value among catchers (min. 500 innings) with a +13 mark and contributing a solid 103 OPS+ (3% better than MLB average). But his September and postseason struggles (.091 average, .349 OPS) necessitated a move to the eight hole for Game 4 of the ALCS (when, of course, he homered). Smith didn’t grade out as well defensively, but he significantly improved his performance throwing out opposing runners, with an NL-best 33% caught-stealing rate. And though he struggled in the second half, Smith's 116 OPS+ was fifth-best among catcher qualifiers, he’s gone deep a couple times in October and he has more experience on this stage.

Advantage: Dodgers

First base
Freddie Freeman is playing on one ankle; Anthony Rizzo is playing with two fractured fingers. So it’s really difficult to know what to project or expect from these two proven October veterans.

But Rizzo came back for the ALCS and showed he can still put together elite at-bats and find the outfield grass with an impressive 6-for-14 showing. The likely Hall of Famer Freeman, meanwhile, has gutted out some big hits in this postseason, but he's 7-for-32 overall and was hobbled enough to sit out two games in the NLCS. We probably don’t want to see what’s going on under all that ankle wrap.

Advantage: Yankees

Second base
Both the Yankees’ Gleyber Torres and the Dodgers’ Gavin Lux cranked up their contributions in the second half -- Torres with a .292/.361/.419 slash line; Lux with .304/.390/.508 marks. They grade out similarly on the defensive side.

But Torres has been a big igniter in October, getting on base from the leadoff spot at a .400 clip while also providing some power in the form of a homer and two doubles. Lux has a .592 OPS in October, defers to either Kiké Hernández or Chris Taylor (depending on the outfield alignment) against lefties and is nursing a hip flexor issue. Hernández morphs into a different player in this tournament, with 15 career postseason homers, but he’s not the everyday guy here. So Torres gets the nod.

Advantage: Yankees

Shortstop
New Jersey native Anthony Volpe attended the Yankees’ 2009 World Series parade as a young fan, and his strong .310 average and .459 OBP in this postseason is evidence of him settling in, settling down and punching the ball the other way.

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But in an unsettled shortstop situation in which Mookie Betts moved back to right field and Miguel Rojas is banged up (he needs surgery for a sports hernia), utilityman and midseason trade acquisition Tommy Edman has seized the moment for the Dodgers. He was the NLCS MVP and even assumed the cleanup spot in this loaded lineup with an 11-for-27 showing, a homer and three doubles. The sample size is small, but, in the absence of a clear edge, we’re going to ride the wave with this one.

Advantage: Dodgers

Third base
Injuries limited him to 73 games, but Max Muncy returned with a flourish and finished the regular season with a 141 OPS+ and 15 homers in 293 plate appearances. He’s carried that into another productive October, belting three homers and a double in the first two rounds. The Dodgers can also use Hernández here, and we already mentioned his postseason prominence that only beefs up what the Dodgers can get from the hot corner.

The Yankees’ Jazz Chisholm Jr., meanwhile, took up third base for the first time after a midseason trade from the Marlins and instantly took on a starring role for the offense. Under the hood, though, he’s had essentially the same hard-hit and pull tendencies he was putting up in a league-average season in Miami, and he’s 5-for-34 in October.

Advantage: Dodgers

Left field
Teoscar Hernández was an underrated acquisition on a one-year deal within the Dodgers’ $1.2 billion winter, and no one will be sleeping on him after he put up a 137 OPS+, 33 homers, 32 doubles and 99 RBIs. He’s homered twice more in the postseason and has the edge on the Yankees’ Alex Verdugo, who had a .647 OPS in the regular season and has a .544 OPS in October.

Advantage: Dodgers

Center field
Andy Pages is young and talented, and he had a huge Game 5 in the NLCS (3-for-4 with two homers), and we’ve already covered what Kiké Hernández is capable of in October. We’re also all well aware that Aaron Judge has been more pitchable in this and previous postseasons.

But Judge did that thing where he hits the ball over the wall twice in the ALCS and did it 58 times in the regular season (while putting up the best OPS+ by a right-handed hitter in the modern era in the AL/NL). By our math, that’s 60 homers, which is an awful lot of homers.

Advantage: Yankees

Right field
See, this is why we have a love/hate relationship with these position-by-position pieces. Love the debate, hate that we have to choose and really hate that we’re going to get hate mail no matter who we pick.

But the battle must go on.

In this corner, Juan Soto, who just hit the go-ahead homer in the ALCS clincher to further pad his free-agent profile after slashing .288/.419/.569 with a career-best 41 homers in the regular season. He turns 26 on Friday, and he’s already amassed 36.4 career Wins Above Replacement, per Baseball Reference.

And in this corner, Mookie Betts, who gamely took on shortstop earlier this season before shifting back to his Gold Glove position in right and slashing .289/.372/.491 along the way. He had everybody talking about his “October struggles” for like one day earlier this month, only to post a 1.063 OPS with four homers in the NLDS and NLCS.

Betts will likely be a Hall of Famer and is a two-time World Series champion, and his defense is by far the best in this matchup. Soto already has one ring and is on a Hall of Fame trajectory of his own. My editors won’t let me declare a push, because we need to put somebody’s picture in the graphic. It looks much nicer than a blank space.

I’m going to take Soto because of that look in his eye and the way he pounded his chest after breaking everybody’s heart at Progressive Field on Saturday. He looks like a man on a mission to not only win it all but earn himself something like eleventy billion dollars in the process. I know that’s not enough to satiate Mookie’s many fans (of which I am one), but in life we must make choices and live with them. Nothing personal, Mookie.

Advantage: Yankees

Designated hitter
Giancarlo Stanton hit game-changing blasts on back-to-back days in the ALCS, won MVP for the series, passed Babe Ruth in career postseason homers (16) and has a 1.019 career postseason OPS. He’s totally locked in right now, and it’s a beautiful thing to behold. And oh by the way, he’s a California kid who has 10 homers and 26 RBIs in 25 games at Dodger Stadium, where he also won 2022 All-Star Game MVP honors.

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But if I took Stanton over Shohei Ohtani -- especially after taking Soto over Betts -- I would be thrown into baseball jail and forced to wear pinstriped prison garb. And anyway, it’s not like Ohtani isn’t living up to his end of the bargain. The “What’s wrong with Ohtani?” dialogue just because MLB’s first 50-50 guy went a few days without hitting a homer and was 0-fer with the bases empty for a little while was cute, but he very quickly self-corrected, is back to banging out hits on the regular and is an incredible 18-for-his-past-23 with runners in scoring position.

Advantage: Dodgers

Starting pitching
The Dodgers have Clayton Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow, Tony Gonsolin, Gavin Stone and Dustin May … on the shelf. That’s why they’ve had to bullpen their way through multiple October games -- hardly what one would expect from a team with a $300 million-plus payroll. A midseason trade for Jack Flaherty was a saving grace, though he was roughed up in two of his three postseason starts against the Padres and Mets. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who missed much of the year with a shoulder issue, has settled down after struggling in Game 1 of the NLDS and Walker Buehler appears to be figuring out how to succeed without the same fastball he had prior to Tommy John surgery. Still, this group is thin.

The Yankees, on the other hand, have the Series’ top ace in Gerrit Cole, and Carlos Rodón seems to have learned how to temper his emotions in October and be something closer to the guy the Yankees signed as a free agent. Clarke Schmidt followed up a breakout year with two decent road starts in Kansas City in Cleveland. Luis Gil is walk-prone but had a rousing first full season that could result in a top-three finish in AL Rookie of the Year voting.

Advantage: Yankees

Bullpen
It’s hard to know what to expect here, because it’s entirely possible both of these units run out of gas. Bullpens have been used to an extreme both with these and the other teams in October.

But the Dodgers and Yankees have both benefited from new looks down the stretch, with the Dodgers dealing for Michael Kopech and the Yankees enjoying a breakout performance from once-struggling starter Luke Weaver. The Yanks have gotten a 2.56 ERA in 38 2/3 innings from their bullpen, which held opponents to a .609 OPS over their first two postseason series. The Dodgers’ relief ERA is a little higher (2.94) but in more innings (49) and against superior offensive opponents in the Padres and Mets as opposed to the Royals and Guardians. Actually, the Dodgers’ top six relievers (Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips, Anthony Banda, Daniel Hudson, Kopech and Alex Vesia) have a 0.84 ERA and .450 opponent OPS in this postseason.

It's close, and the Dodgers’ group could be tested by another bullpen game, but L.A.’s relief corps is the deeper of the two.

Advantage: Dodgers

Prediction
This is the 12th time these clubs have met in the World Series. That’s the most common matchup in postseason history, and it’s had a pretty common outcome, with the Yankees winning eight of the prior 11. What does that mean now? Absolutely nothing!

In the 2024 regular season, the Dodgers beat the Yankees twice in three meetings at Yankee Stadium. What does that mean now? Absolutely nothing!

All that matters now is which staff can contain an opposing offense capable of controlling the zone (the Yankees and Dodgers ranked 1-2 in walks this season) and then making pitchers pay. And in that regard, it would appear the Yankees have the upper hand in terms of getting these games started off right.

But the Dodgers’ baserunning (they have 11 steals in 11 postseason games) is better than the Yankees'. Their defense is better than the Yankees'. Their performance this postseason with runners in scoring position (311/.372/.594 slash) has been much better than the Yankees' (.181/.308/.319). Los Angeles also had a more difficult road through October.

All of these things are going to work in the Dodgers’ favor as they turn the historical tables and win their first full-season World Series since 1988.

It's going to take a while, though.

Dodgers in seven.