Key players who could decide the 2024 World Series

In baseball, no single player can win or lose a championship: This is not the NBA. Each roster spot is its own cog, each match is just one man against another man – you can’t hit a six-run home run. We remind you that neither Ted Williams nor Barry Bonds won a World Series.

But one player can still make a big difference in a series – and it’s not always the guys who are the headliners. We all know the Dodgers need Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts to perform, and the same goes for the Yankees with Aaron Judge and Juan Soto. But it is that other guysthose who don’t appear in every game promo, who will be the players on whom this series depends.

Here’s a look at four players on each team who could prove to be the most important in this series. We have divided them into four categories.

Dodgers: 1B Freddie Freeman
There’s probably no one on any of these teams who appreciates this free time between series more than Freeman. The 2020 NL MVP clearly hasn’t been himself since spraining his right ankle on September 26, and for good reason: It’s an injury that typically takes about four weeks to heal. He is 7-for-32 this postseason with no extra-base hits, although he does have a very scary stolen base.

Obviously having one of the best hitters in baseball in the lineup and healthy would be a big deal, especially against the Yankees, who don’t exactly boast left-handed starters and aren’t exactly stacked with left-handed monsters in their bullpen. But more than that: it feels easy incorrect Not seeing a player of Freeman’s caliber at his best and healthiest with all those stars. Hold that thing up, Freddie: we all want to see you again.

Yankees: DH Giancarlo Stanton
Stanton is pretty awesome! It is perhaps understandable that this has been somewhat forgotten in recent years. He’s struggled with injuries since coming to the Bronx from Miami, and as big and visible as he is, this is still New York City. There’s a lot going on, and when you’re not on the field, people will be focusing their attention elsewhere – perhaps most notably on Judge and Soto.

But Stanton has always been a terrific postseason hitter, and when healthy, he’s as fearsome as anyone in baseball. So combine “health” with “October” and you have a monster. Stanton is a bit one-dimensional at this point in his career, but what a dimension it is: He only had four hits in the ALCS, but all of them were home runs, and every single one of them was crucial. He’s not a superstar on the level of Soto and Judge, no more, but he can hit the ball just as far and hard as either of them. When he hits behind them, he gets plenty of opportunities to kick off. How much he exploits her can make or break the entire series.

Dodgers: RHP Walker Buehler
There are also big question marks with Jack Flaherty and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but there is no more intriguing pitcher for the Dodgers right now than Buehler. The two-time All-Star has had an absolutely miserable season and is only in the rotation because the Dodgers have no other options thanks to an avalanche of pitching injuries. It appeared the postseason would be similar for Buehler after he gave up six runs against the Padres in the NLDS without recording a single strikeout.

The Dodgers had no choice but to send him back for NLCS Game 3 against the Mets… and he was truly great. He pitched just four innings but struck out six, allowed just three hits and held the Mets scoreless. The Dodgers might want a few more innings from him in this series, but all in all, Buehler picked a great time for his best start to the year. The Dodgers would love a few more of these.

Yankees: RHP Luis Gil
You may not remember it, but during the first two months of this season, when Gerrit Cole was injured and the Yankees struggled for pitching, there was no better story in the Bronx than Luis Gil. In May, he was 6-0 with a 0.70 ERA and appeared to be a candidate for the AL Rookie of the Year Award. Gil then endured a rough June, but still: He established himself as a key rotation piece, someone the Yankees generally could count on more than the typical rookie.

But then came injuries, as you might expect from a guy who has thrown 155 2/3 innings this year, including the postseason (his previous high was 96, back in Single-A in 2019). Gil didn’t pitch for three weeks after his final regular-season start, and in his only postseason appearance so far, in ALCS Game 4, he managed just four innings against the Guardians. With Cole and Carlos Rodón, the Yankees have a significant top-of-the-rotation advantage over the Dodgers. If Gil can give them something similar to what he looked like in May, the Dodgers will contend.

Dodgers: LHP Anthony Banda
There may not be a more important hitter in this series than Soto, especially late in games. The best way to accomplish this is to have a handle on a wipeout lefty. The Dodgers have one of them in Banda, who has given up just one run in six postseason appearances and held left-handed batters to a .218/.282/.269 line during the regular season. The problem is that they only have Banda – at least if Alex Vesia is out with an intercostal muscle injury.

That means Banda may find himself almost exclusively in charge of Soto in this series, going up against him in the biggest moments. However, you may remember that there is now a three-batsman minimum, meaning he may also take on judge duty. One thing seems clear: We’re going to see a massive late-inning slugfest in this series, pitting Banda against Soto. We may see several.

Yankees: RHP Luke Weaver
In the final month of the season and the first week of the postseason, it looked like the Yankees had stumbled into their next Mariano Rivera. After the team struggled with the narrow margin all year, it was Weaver, of all people, who solidified things. This was a guy who hadn’t recorded a single save in his nine-year career before September 6th and was still a year away from being released by the Reds. But suddenly he was one shutdown closer and even pitched multiple innings! Forget Mariano Rivera – that guy was Andrew Miller too!

Then came the ALCS. Weaver gave up one run in one inning in Game 2, but that was just the canary in the coal mine for what Cleveland’s Jhonkensy Noel would do to him in Game 3, hitting a game-winning two-run pitch. Weaver recovered to throw two scoreless innings (and get the win) in the ALCS matchup, but we now see that he is indeed mortal. Can the Yankees continue to use him the way they’ve been using him for the last month? What do they do when they can’t?

Dodgers: SS Tommy Edman
It should be said: The NLCS MVP has a much more difficult task in this series. Edman is a far better hitter swinging from the right side of the plate than the left; He put up MVP numbers in the NLCS largely because he had to face too many lefties. The Yankees don’t have nearly as many – just Rodón, Nestor Cortes (who has a chance of making the roster) and a few scattered relievers. It’s fair to say you’ll only see him cleaning up against Rodón.

But Edman is still exactly what the Dodgers needed when they acquired him from the Cardinals at the trade deadline: a versatile defender (crucial given shortstop Miguel Rojas’ injury) and a smart, smart, talented player who can fits in wherever you need it and does what needs to be done. He just had a streak that will ensure Dodgers fans will love him forever. Another would make him a legend.

Yankees: 3B Jazz Chisholm Jr.
Chisholm was one of the luckiest stories for the Yankees after arriving from Miami before the trade deadline, manning third base, having several clutch late-game hits and hitting 11 home runs in 46 games. (His 24 this season is a career high.) For the first time in a few years, he looked like the All-Star and video game cover man we once knew.

But in the postseason, Chisholm has largely disappeared. So far he is 5 of 34 (.147), and when you add in his previous October experiences with the Marlins in 2020 and 2023, he is now 6 of 45 (.133) with an OPS of .449. Chisholm is incredibly talented and is the kind of big personality who should thrive in both the pinstripes and the postseason. The Yankees would love for him to start.