The Los Angeles Dodgers have kicked off the 2025 MLB season with a statement. At 5-0 and boasting a +14 run differential, the reigning World Series champions are already reminding everyone why they’re the class of baseball. Only the New York Yankees, with a +20 run differential, have been better statistically in the early going—but it was the Dodgers who convincingly defeated them in five games during last year’s Fall Classic.
Alex Rodriguez, who knows a thing or two about dominant teams, weighed in on the early-season narrative. When asked if the Yankees are the favorites, he responded, “Yeah. And you know how hard it is to repeat, you know what I mean? I think the Dodgers can make an argument. They’re head and shoulders, the class of baseball right now.”
And it’s hard to disagree. The Dodgers have retained their core, including two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani and 2024 World Series MVP Freddie Freeman. Add to that the arrival of Japanese pitching sensation Roki Sasaki, and the Dodgers look even more loaded than they were last October.
The franchise has become a powerhouse in every sense. Two World Series titles in the last five years, 12 consecutive postseason appearances, and back-to-back World Series trips in 2017 and 2018 speak to their consistency. They’re just two playoff berths away from tying the Braves’ record of 14 straight postseason appearances.
Financially, the Dodgers are operating on a different level. With a league-high $330 million payroll—$42 million more than the Yankees—they’re leveraging their financial muscle in a way that mirrors the Yankees’ dominance in the late ’90s and early 2000s.
“They might be the first team in professional sports that can do a billion dollars of gross revenue,” Rodriguez said. “Those revenues are translated to deploying great resources on the field and they have it all going. When you think about the Dodgers, it’s a trifecta. Between business and business operations, player development and drafting, what they do in free agency and then what they do in the community, it’s pretty phenomenal to see what they’re doing.”
Rodriguez, who was a centerpiece of the Yankees during their big-spending heyday, admits that this version of the Dodgers might even surpass what his old teams accomplished. “Yeah, you never thought that the Yankees can even have a comp. But you can make an argument that they’re kind of looking up to the Dodgers now from that trifecta point of view.”
The Yankees, meanwhile, are trying to weather a wave of early-season injuries, including a season-ending one to ace Gerrit Cole. Rodriguez still believes they can contend, but the path goes through Los Angeles. Until the Yankees—or anyone else—prove otherwise, the Dodgers remain the gold standard in Major League Baseball.
