Dodgers v Blue Jays - five World Series talking points

Freddie Freeman (left) is gunning for a third World Series title after winning with the Braves in 2021 and Dodgers in 2024, while Vladimir Guerrero Jr's (right) father played for the Texas Rangers in the 2010 edition

If the 2024 World Series was billed as a clash of the titans, the 2025 edition begins in Toronto on Friday with one remaining titan looking to crush a new opponent.

The big-spending Los Angeles Dodgers have been a juggernaut of Major League Baseball in the past decade. After losing back-to-back World Series in 2017 and 2018, they triumphed in the Covid-shortened 2020 season, then overcame fellow behemoth, the New York Yankees, last year.

And they have powered through the National League play-offs, losing only one of their 10 postseason games while breezing past the Cincinnati Reds 2-0, overcoming the Philadelphia Phillies 3-1 and sweeping the Milwaukee Brewers 4-0.

Standing in their way are a rejuvenated Toronto Blue Jays team who vaulted over the Yankees and Boston Red Sox to win the American League East, before beating the Yankees again in the play-offs and coming from 2-0 and 3-2 down to pip the Seattle Mariners to the AL pennant.

But will the Dodgers become the first team to win successive World Series since the Yankees in 1998, 1999 and 2000?

Or will the Blue Jays - with home field advantage after winning one more regular season game than the Dodgers - claim their first title since they went back-to-back in 1992 and 1993?

Match-by-match schedule

Game 1 (in Toronto): Friday, 24 October

Game 2 (in Toronto): Saturday, 25 October

Game 3 (in LA): Monday, 27 October

Game 4 (in LA): Tuesday, 28 October

Game 5* (in LA): Wednesday, 29 October

Game 6* (in Toronto): Friday, 31 October

Game 7* (in Toronto): Saturday, 1 November

*if required. Matches start 20:00 Eastern Time (early next morning UK time)

Ohtani's time to truly shine?

Shohei Ohtani is the face of baseball right now, ensuring that this World Series will be as closely followed in Japan as it will be in North America.

The 31-year-old is a rare "two-way" player, operating at the elite level as both a pitcher and a hitter, in a sport where most players are guided to choose one discipline over the other while at college.

Moving across Los Angeles from the Angels to the Dodgers as a free agent for the 2024 season, he signed a $700m (£558m) contract - turning down the Blue Jays among other suitors.

While injury prevented him from pitching last year, he was unanimously voted as the National League's Most Valuable Player (MVP). Returning to the pitcher's mound in June, he posted impressive numbers again in 2025, including 55 home runs and 62 strikeouts, the first MLB player to pass 50 in both categories simultaneously.

And he rewrote the record books in the play-offs, hitting three home runs and striking out 10 batters in the World Series-clinching game, a performance hailed as one of the greatest in history.

A rare blemish came in last year's World Series where Ohtani only managed two hits from 19 at-bats, a disappointing personal showing in a winning team. But at his best, he looks unstoppable.

Springer's redemption story

Television loves a redemption story - and this one all started with a Sports Illustrated cover.

In June 2014, the US magazine Sports Illustrated made a bold front-page prediction that the struggling Houston Astros, in the midst of rebuilding their roster, would win the 2017 World Series.

The cover star they chose was rookie outfielder George Springer.

Three years later, the prophecy was fulfilled. Houston beat the Dodgers in the 2017 'Fall Classic', with Springer the MVP after hitting home runs in five of the seven games.

However, that success was later tarnished by an electronic sign-stealing scandal which left Springer, and other players involved, in the role of MLB's pantomime villains - particularly in the eyes of Dodgers fans after they also lost the 2018 World Series to a Boston Red Sox team who were themselves later found guilty of sign-stealing.

Springer left Houston for Toronto in 2021 via free agency, but despite turning 36 this year he posted his highest seasonal batting average of his career (.309) and remains a key man as the Blue Jays' leadoff hitter, crashing a three-run homer in the decisive AL Championship Series game seven to enshrine him as one of MLB's best postseason performers of all time.

While he will still be booed in LA, bringing a title to Toronto would cap a wonderful redemption arc.

What might a Dodgers repeat mean?

The Dodgers are hot favourites to win this series, not least because according to USA Today, their opening day payroll this season was $321m (£249m), dwarfing all but the New York Mets ($323m).

That figure would be even higher if Ohtani were not deferring all but $2m of his $70m annual salary - and that deferred $68m is more than the entire wage bill of the lowest team on that list, the Miami Marlins ($67m).

"Before the season started, they said the Dodgers are ruining baseball," bullish manager Dave Roberts said after they reached the World Series. "Let's get four more wins and really ruin baseball."

However, a comfortable Dodgers win might strengthen the case for a salary cap - something MLB does not have, unlike the rest of the 'Big Four' US sports (American football, basketball and ice hockey).

The players' union, naturally, bitterly opposes a cap. MLB and the team owners, naturally, would like one. Even the Yankees ownership have questioned how other teams can compete given the Dodgers' spending.

And with the current collective bargaining agreement between owners and players due to expire in December 2026, the two sides seem as far apart as ever.

Last time around, a rancorous three-month lockout delayed the start of the 2022 season, and there is already speculation over whether the start of the 2027 campaign could be affected by a lockout or even a strike.

Canada anticipates 'Vlad Jr v Freddie' duel

Founded as an expansion franchise to MLB in 1977, the Blue Jays have been a lone Canadian representative since the struggling Montreal Expos were bought by MLB and relocated to the US capital for 2005, becoming the Washington Nationals.

Though Canada still maintains seven teams in ice hockey's NHL, its last Stanley Cup title came in 1993 via the Montreal Canadiens, the same year that the Blue Jays last won the World Series.

Since then, the only Canadian 'Big Four' success was the Toronto Raptors' 2019 victory in basketball's NBA Finals.

The Blue Jays have a local Canadian hero leading the charge this time - first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr, who was born in Montreal while his Hall of Fame father Vladimir was playing for the Expos.

However, opposing him on first base for the Dodgers is Freddie Freeman, who holds dual Canadian-US citizenship as his parents hail from Ontario.

As well as playing for Canada in two World Baseball Classic events, Freeman won World Series titles with the Atlanta Braves (2021) and the Dodgers (2024), when he was named MVP.

And... the strange case of Buddy Kennedy

Kennedy is on his third different team of 2025, having started with the Phillies, moved to the Blue Jays, then to the Dodgers, and back to the Blue Jays

So, have you heard the one about the little-known infielder from Millville, New Jersey, who moved teams seven times in two years after being designated for assignment at every franchise he has signed for?

Yet, despite a measly .069 batting average in 2025, he is a guaranteed World Series champion, having played for both teams this year?

Meet Clifton Lewis 'Buddy' Kennedy.

Drafted out of high school by the Arizona Diamondbacks, he debuted in MLB in 2022, but by September 2023 he was on the move.

Passing rapidly through the systems of the Oakland A's, St Louis Cardinals and Detroit Tigers, often flitting betwen the minor leagues with occasional call-ups to the majors, he began 2025 with the Philadelphia Phillies, but was released in July.

Signing for the Blue Jays, he played only two games before moving to the injury-hit Dodgers in August. But after only one hit in 17 at-bats, he was let go again - and rejoined Toronto on a minor league contract.

Kennedy did not make the postseason roster, but is eligible to receive a World Series ring (clubs have discretion as to who gets one) whoever triumphs this week.