LOS ANGELES – Mark Walter stood in the post-game clubhouse Sunday night after the Dodgers’ victory in the National League Championship Series had sent them to a fourth World Series in the past eight years, surveying what all those checks he signs had wrought.
“Let’s be clear,” the Dodgers’ controlling owner and chairman said, a cigar in one hand and a smile on his face, when asked about the connection between payroll and playoff success. “Think about the fact that the MVP of the League Championship Series is someone we brought in during the season (Tommy Edman).
“I don’t really like to talk about money. It’s the work we put in, the analysis. … Obviously the stars stepped up. But so did everybody else.”
No one in Dodger blue is immune to the high expectations – “World Series or bust” – created by the investments made by Walter’s Guggenheim Group annually.
“Every single team when they get to spring training, they say, ‘Hey our goal is to win the World Series this year,’” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said. “We’re one of the few teams where that’s a realistic goal – every single year. There’s a lot of pressure. There’s a lot of expectations. Especially this year when you talk about some of the names we added. It definitely weighed heavily all year long.”
The Dodgers seemed to throw that weight off their shoulders with the win over the Mets and no one in that post-game clubhouse seemed to be enjoying the moment any more than Shohei Ohtani. After six years without coming near the postseason with the Angels, Ohtani “could have gone anywhere” as a free agent last winter, Walter said, but he chose to sign with the Dodgers because he believed they gave him the best chance to win a championship.
“I’m so happy we’ve been able to take him from never going to the playoffs to now going to the World Series,” Walter said Sunday.
When the Dodgers clinched a postseason berth in September, Ohtani had played in 865 games without reaching the postseason, the most among active players at the time. Ohtani acknowledged the passage from that status to qualifying for the World Series Sunday.
“I finally arrived at this stage,” Ohtani said through his interpreter.
“The goal was to get this far. And I also pictured myself getting this far with the contract that I’ve signed (deferring money so the Dodgers could build around him). And, again, just being able to play on this kind of stage with the team effort, and all the games were really hard. But I’m just glad that we’re at this stage right now.”
Ohtani’s first time on the postseason stage has been a roller-coaster ride. In the first game of the Division Series against the San Diego Padres, he had a three-run home run in his second at-bat and an RBI single in his third. But he went 2 for 17 against the Padres after that, an odd split building – he was 7 for his first 9 with runners on base during the postseason but 0 for 22 with no one on before leading off Game 4 of the NLCS with a home run at Citi Field.
Starting with that home run, Ohtani finished the NLCS by reaching base 10 times in the final three games – four singles, five walks and a home run.
“He’s a good hitter, but anybody is pitchable,” Yankees left-hander Carlos Rodón (their likely Game 2 starter) said this week. “I’m going to give him his credit – he’s a great hitter, he’s got tremendous power, he sees the ball well. He can drive the ball out of any ballpark. He can probably hit it out of any stadium – like, out of the stadium, not just over the fence.”
Presumptive AL MVP Aaron Judge had much the same assessment of his Dodgers’ counterpart.
“He hits for average, he hits for power, the speed,” Judge said of Ohtani. “Doing what he did this year with the 50 stolen bases (59) – it got talked about a lot, but I don’t think it got talked about enough. He’s an impressive, impressive athlete, the best player in the game.
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“We’ve had our battles throughout the regular season over the years when he was with the Angels, seeing him hit homers over my head. But getting a chance to play on the biggest stage and in the biggest moment, I think that’s going to be pretty cool to watch.”
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman called it more than “cool.”
“It’s incredible,” Friedman said. “The fact that this is the first October Shohei got to participate in that our Dodger fans get to see him up close and personal in the playoffs, fans all over the world having this opportunity, I think is incredibly special.
“It’s exactly what we talked about when we met with him in December and for this to come to fruition in Year One and the ultimate goal this close in sight, I think it’s really special for everyone.”