The Los Angeles Dodgers' reputation as playoff chokers has been tabled due to their 2024 World Series victory. Boston Red Sox fans, despite not being friendly with Dodgers Nation, were happy to see it since it came at the New York Yankees' expense.
A few years before the Dodgers started fueling outrage with their exorbitant payroll, the Red Sox beat them in the World Series. The 2024 Fall Classic win was LA's first since 2020 (but no one really counts that one, so we'll say since 1988,) and it gave the team all kinds of confidence.
It is justified, however. The Dodgers' rotation is deep, with Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Dustin May in the mix. They bolstered their bullpen with Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates, and the power bats of Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández are not to be messed with. But ESPN insider Buster Olney believes the Red Sox might.
In a piece from March 19, Olney claimed the Red Sox are one of the six teams that could possibly beat the Dodgers in the 2025 World Series.
“In the end, however, an AL team will have a seven-game series to take down the Dodgers, and we submit that the revamped Boston Red Sox are uniquely qualified to get this done. The Yankees’ injuries have pulled them back to the pack of teams in their league, and it’s the Red Sox who will take down the AL East and then the AL pennant,” Olney wrote.
Buster Olney believes Red Sox may be 'uniquely qualified' to beat Dodgers in World Series
The injuries to Gerrit Cole and Giancarlo Stanton have rendered the Yankees much more beatable in 2025. Olney also cited the Red Sox's offseason improvements as another big contributor to his expectation that they'll dominate in the AL East — Garrett Crochet, the lefty ace with elite strikeout stuff, recent playoff hero Walker Buehler, and two-time World Series champion Alex Bregman bring experience and attitude the roster previously lacked.
Like the Dodgers (and unlike the Yankees,) the Sox have depth to go around. It's a miracle LA made it through last postseason with the number of starting pitcher injuries it combatted, but its bullpen depth was the savior. Boston also has an excess of pitching depth, although its options have less experience than the Dodgers'. The Sox have Richard Fitts, Quinn Priester, Cooper Criswell, Hunter Dobbins, Michael Fulmer, Kutter Crawford, and eventually, Patrick Sandoval in line to join the rotation, if necessary.
Olney may be right that the Red Sox can take on the Dodgers in the postseason, but a lot will have to go right for that to be the case. The Yankees and Orioles are still two of the better teams in the AL, and the Sox have plenty of wild cards on their team — Crochet is only in his second year as a starter, Buehler hasn't been the same pitcher since he got Tommy John surgery, and Boston's top prospects may not thrive in their first year in the big leagues. The Red Sox may well have the stuff to beat the Dodgers in the postseason if they make it that far in the first place, but we'll have to wait and see.