The era of dynastic runs in American professional sports may well be over. The NBA — whose finals tip off between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers — will crown its seventh champion in seven seasons. The NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs saw their dynasty take a hit with a 40-22 throttling at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl. In the NHL, the Florida Panthers have advanced to their third straight Stanley Cup Finals, but if the Edmonton Oilers get their revenge, their dynastic hopes will be thwarted for now. The MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers have the best shot, having won two titles in the last five seasons and owning the league’s most expensive and talented roster.
If these Dodgers can become the 120th team to win 100-plus regular-season games, it’ll be a boon to their dynastic legacy, although no guarantor of a World Series title. While Los Angeles has been relatively quiet in the first third of the MLB season, as injuries have decimated its pitching staff, it’s mostly on track, with a 36-23 record that trails the MLB-leading Detroit Tigers by just two and a half games. The Dodgers are still the only team with posted odds at DraftKings Sportsbook to win 100-plus regular season games, a pantheon occupied by only 119 teams (and, at -270, they’re still significant favorites to do so). Los Angeles is also a -115 favorite to finish with the league’s best record, with the Tigers and New York Yankees at +500, and a +280 favorite to win the title.
If they continue on their current trajectory, the Dodgers will fall just short, as they’re on track for 99 wins. It’s worth noting that Los Angeles also had a 36-23 record at this point last season, when it ultimately won 98 games, but was one game worse in its 100-win season in 2023. The Dodgers were 37-22 in 2022, when they went on to finish 111-51 — the best record since the 2001 Seattle Mariners — and 34-25 in their 106-56 2021 season. There’s plenty of reason for Los Angeles to believe.
Why the Dodgers Will Win 100 Games
The Dodgers have rendered the NL West uncompetitive, allowing them to go into cruise control after clinching the division title. They lost five of their final 12 games in 2023 and eight of their last 21 in 2022 after clinching the division. With the state of the division this season — the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants are both within three games of the Dodgers — Los Angeles might have to keep winning through late September in order to assure itself a first-round bye, not to mention claiming home-field advantage in the World Series. In 2021, when San Francisco pipped it to the division title, it went 22-7 after the start of September.
Plus, the Dodgers have typically gotten better in the summer. Temperatures and humidity rise, allowing the ball to go further, and Los Angeles has hit fly balls at the league’s highest rate in each of the last five seasons, so August’s heat, clear skies, and milder winds clearly benefit the team. August is also the only month where prevailing winds come from the southwest, matching Dodger Stadium’s orientation. It’s not a coincidence, then, that August has been Los Angeles’ best OPS month in three of the past five full seasons. Plus, while summer heat tends to benefit every team’s offense, the Dodgers’ pitching staff also posted its lowest OPS in August in three of the past five seasons, partially a function of the fact that they’ve given up fly balls at merely a league-average rate.
The summer also tends to put more butts in seats. Although month-to-month attendance figures aren’t readily available, more fans tend to do outdoor activities in the warmer and calmer weather, and according to a 2018 study by South Alabama professor Mitchell T. Woltring, both stadium attendance and stadium capacity correlated positively to a team’s winning percentage. Dodger Stadium is the MLB’s largest park and the last time it averaged less than 75% capacity — Woltring’s cutoff — was 2012. This season has also seen Los Angeles’ highest home attendance ever, so if that figure rises even further in the coming months, another summer charge would be unsurprising. There are other possible figures at play, such as the hypothesis that Angelenos — by extension, Dodgers players and fans — tend to be happiest in the summer, but academic studies have drawn mixed conclusions.
For the 2025 team, there are also health-specific factors. Mookie Betts suffered a serious illness prior to the start of the season, and his .742 OPS so far is by far the lowest figure of his career, but there are no major reasons for long-term concern, and he also tends to trend upwards in the summer. Shohei Ohtani will be back pitching at some point, and Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and Roki Sasaki have all resumed throwing regimens as they deal with long-term injuries. Kirby Yates and Michael Kopech are expected back later this month. Clayton Kershaw looked good in his most recent start, although any innings the 37-year-old can give the team at this stage in his career are a bonus.
The team’s personnel could also change, as Los Angeles remains an attractive free agent destination and the farm system is still ranked as among the best in the MLB. The Dodgers’ top prospect, Sasaki, has yet to scratch the surface of his potential, but their second-ranked prospect, Dalton Rushing, has posted a .273/.304/.455 slash line so far this season, and his barrel rate and chase rate would both rank in the MLB’s top quintile if he’d had enough plate appearances to qualify. Offseason signing Hyeseong Kim is slashing .413/.449/.587 in his 49 plate appearances after a solid career in his native South Korea. Sasaki, Rushing, and Kim should all get more opportunities in the latter half of the season, and Los Angeles’ second-tier prospects — Josue De Paula, Jackson Ferris, Alex Freeland, and Zyhir Hope — could be traded for win-now stars. Already, the Dodgers have been linked with Chicago White Sox outfielder Luis Robert Jr., and although the former All-Star is below the Mendoza Line this season, he could help defensively and against southpaws.
Finally, Los Angeles has the third-easiest remaining strength of schedule. While the Dodgers still have 13 games remaining against each of the Padres and Giants, they balance that out with 10 against the Colorado Rockies, who are off to the worst start of any team in MLB history. Seven of their 13 games against San Francisco and San Diego will come at home, as well as all four games against the New York Mets, all three against the Philadelphia Phillies, all three against the Houston Astros, all three against the Milwaukee Brewers, all three against the Minnesota Twins, and three of the six against the St. Louis Cardinals.
