Dodgers-Yankees World Series: State of the starting pitching, bullpens for both teams ahead of Game 1

The 2024 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees is nigh. These are two high-powered offenses with beat-up and/or inconsistent pitching staffs. One of the big themes of the 2024 playoffs has been how many late-inning surges we’ve seen from offenses against some of the best relievers in baseball. The Dodgers alone have seven starting pitchers on the injured list and the Yankees have dealt with plenty of pitching injuries themselves. 

As such, let’s take a look at the state of each pitching staff heading into the Fall Classic. Please note that everyone is going to have more than enough rest coming into the series, so this isn’t about who is up or down due to usage but instead a look at the health and performance leading into the World Series. 

Dodgers

The Dodgers have outslugged their opponents for most of the postseason, but they also had that 33-inning scoreless streak on the mound. Overall, they have a 4.36 ERA in 97 playoff innings. That math really makes you think about how bad they were outside of the scoreless streak.

Rotation: Jack Flaherty, Walker Buehler and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. 

Flaherty has been inconsistent with the Dodgers and we’ve seen it all in the playoffs. He was sub-par, totally dominant and then bad. Buehler had a terrible regular season but has mostly been good in the playoffs. He’s allowed seven runs in 14 innings, but six of those came in one inning in which he had awful batted-ball luck and defense behind him until he coughed up a big blast to Fernando Tatis Jr. Better fortune in that one inning and we’d be talking about how Buehler has pitched like a frontline starter in the postseason. Yamamoto was terrible in his first start of the playoffs, but outstanding in Game 5 of the NLDS against the Padres. He gave up two runs on four hits in 4 1/3 innings last time out, but also struck out eight. 

Basically, anything on the board here would make sense. These three could all be great or terrible or continue to be totally back-and-forth. 

Bullpen circle of trust: The top three here are Blake Treinen, Michael Kopech and Evan Phillips. While the Dodgers don’t really use a traditional closer, Treinen seems to have moved into that role at this point in the playoffs. Kopech has been used there, but also started the bullpen game in Game 6 of the NLCS. Phillips led the team in saves in the regular season, but he’s now a leverage guy in the mid-to-late innings.

Phillips and Treinen have been great in the playoffs. Kopech got in some trouble in the first inning in Game 6, but otherwise has been dominant. 

Daniel Hudson also fits here. He gave up a run in Game 6, but otherwise has been very good in October.

Relievers by and large haven’t been reliable in the playoffs, but the Dodgers have a pretty solid top four right here that hasn’t been hit overly hard. 

Possible X-factors? Alex Vesia and Brusdar Graterol might return from injury for the World Series roster. 

Vesia is a lefty who suffered an intercostal injury in the NLDS, causing him to miss the NLCS. He had a 1.76 ERA and 1.00 WHIP in the regular season before working three scoreless innings in the NLDS. Graterol is a righty who only managed 7 1/3 innings this season, but had a 1.20 ERA in 67 1/3 innings in 2023. If the Dodgers get healthy and fully functional work from these two, that is one loaded bullpen. 

Mop-up duty: Brent Honeywell could prove to be a valuable pitcher in the World Series simply by eating innings when the Dodgers don’t want to use anyone else. Look at the job he did in NLCS Game 5. In a blowout, Honeywell ended up wearing 4 2/3 innings worth of work. He gave up four runs on six hits, but that was less important than saving the rest of the Dodgers’ bullpen and putting them into position to win Game 6 with a well-rested and fully loaded relief corps. He also ate three innings in Game 2 with them behind. 

Then again, he might not even be on the roster. In addition to Vesia and/or Graterol, the Dodgers could also bring Joe Kelly and Michael Grove. Ryan Brasier and Anthony Banda will be in the mix while Edgardo Henríquez, Ben Casparius and Landon Knack are still around as well. 

Yankees

It felt like a chore much of the way, but the Yankees have actually pitched well in the playoffs. They have a staff ERA of 3.27 through nine playoff games after a 3.74 regular season. The bullpen has pitched to a 2.56 ERA in 38 2/3 innings, though they are walking too many with 20 free passes. Eventually that will come around to bite them. The Dodgers’ offense is a whole different animal than the Royals and Guardians. 

Rotation: 2023 Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole leads the charge here in front of Carlos Rodón, Clarke Schmidt and Luis Gil. 

First off, Cole is not the Cy Young version of himself. He battled injury in the spring and then inconsistency upon his return. He’s had two sub-par playoff starts wrapped around a great one, though he still only struck out four in seven innings in that start. He can gut himself into the middle innings, but thinking of him as an ace right now is aggressive. Rodón can throw like an ace in spurts and was good in his two ALCS starts, but there’s always the worry he’s going to fall apart without any notice. Schmidt looks like he’ll go 4-5 innings and allow two runs at this point. Gil was bad to finish the regular season and has only pitched once in the playoffs, giving up two runs on three hits in four innings.

There are question marks all over this group, but it is the more reliable rotation in terms of being able to throw five innings per game without getting shelled. 

Bullpen circle of trust: Luke Weaver is the closer while Clay Holmes has become a bit of a roaming “put out the fire” guy. Tommy Kahnle has pitched himself into a trusted late-inning position and Tim Hill is the top lefty. 

Weaver was nearly untouchable for weeks, but gave up a harmless homer in Game 2 of the ALCS and a definitely-not-harmless, game-tying home run in Game 3. He responded with two scoreless innings and the win in Game 5. He’s still stellar. 

After losing his closer job, Holmes strung together five scoreless outings to close the regular season and then six to start the playoffs. He gave up runs in each of his last two outings, though. The overwhelming majority of the time this season he’s been great, but there’s a magnifying glass on his performances at this point and any failure is likely to be a big one. Kahnle had a 2.41 ERA in the regular season and has seven scoreless innings in the playoffs, but he’s also issued six walks in October. That can’t continue. Hill has already appeared in seven of the Yankees’ nine playoff games and has a 1.59 ERA. He’s good but not dominant. 

Jake Cousins is on the periphery here. He can miss bats with the best of ’em, but he’s inconsistent. He’s coming off a Game 5 clincher in which he faced five batters with one walk and four strikeouts. 

Possible X-factor? Nestor Cortes looks like he could be back on the active roster for the World Series after a bout with an elbow injury. He won’t be in the rotation but he gives the Yankees a funky look out of the bullpen, especially as a lefty facing a team with Shohei Ohtani, Max Muncy and Freddie Freeman. Even without being fully stretched out, he’s built to handle multiple-inning duty if need be. 

Mop-up duty: Tim Mayza, Marcus Stroman and Mark Leiter Jr. are candidates to be replaced on the roster if Cortes is activated. Leiter ended up pitching in some big moments after his late activation in the ALCS and Mayza was used in one, too. The Yankees would prefer to not have to go back to either in important spots.

Stroman hasn’t pitched in game action since Sept. 25. If he’s still on the World Series roster, it would be for something like extra innings when most of the relievers have been used.