National Reporter Provides New Perspective on World Series or Bust Mentality for Dodgers

The Dodgers are after another title.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

The Los Angeles Dodgers are widely considered one of the few 'World Series or bust' teams in MLB this season. After spending over a billion dollars in the offseason to acquire top talent like Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Teoscar Hernández to a team that already had All-Stars like Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, and Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers are stacked with talent that they have invested a ton of money into.

It's of course obvious that the Dodgers are after another World Series, but MLB insider Buster Olney believes that winning the World Series this year isn't as important for the Dodgers as it is for the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies.

“I remember saying early in the year, I thought that there were three teams that were ‘must-win-the-World-Series’ this year," Olney told Dodgers Nation's Doug McKain. "One would be the Yankees, maybe the only year they have Juan Soto. Two would be the Phillies, who were the best team in baseball in the middle of last October and didn't finish off and win the World Series. Number three were the Dodgers. I've mentioned that to some executives, and they have said, ‘No, they're not.’ They're not absolutely must-win the World Series or bust in terms of how they're doing things because, unlike the Yankees, who we don't know what they're going to be in 2025, we know the Dodgers are going to be great. We know the Dodgers are probably going to be great in 2026 with the makeup of the roster, and Andrew (Friedman) has done a great job of managing the payroll. So, I don't think there's that absolute ‘gotta have it right now’ in the way that there is for the Yankees to upgrade the roster before this year's trade deadline.”

The pressure to win 'now or never' might not be the same for the Dodgers as it is for the Phillies or Yankees, but there is still a lot of pressure for the Dodgers to bring home another World Series.

On top of all the money they spent on the team and bringing in the league's best player, the Dodgers have choked in the postseason the past two years, losing to the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres. If the Dodgers don't at least advance to the NLCS, their efforts, spending, and play will be called into question again.