The Dodgers Are Chasing Something That Has Not Been Done in 70 Years

The last time a baseball team won three consecutive World Series titles, Harry Truman was in the White House and the team doing it was playing in pinstripes. That 1949 to 1953 Yankees run, five straight, is the last time any franchise pulled off what the Los Angeles Dodgers are now attempting. Today is MLB Opening Day 2026. The chase starts now. ## What the 2025 Dodgers Actually Did Before you understand what is being attempted, you need to respect what was already accomplished. The Dodgers defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in seven games to win the 2025 World Series, becoming the first team to repeat as champions since the 1998 to 2000 New York Yankees, who won three straight. That 2025 championship is the one that resets the context. Two rings in two years transforms a roster from great to legitimately historic. Freddie Freeman, the 2024 World Series MVP, is back at first base at $27 million this year. Shohei Ohtani, whose 10-year, $700 million contract pays him $70 million in base salary in 2026, is the most valuable player in baseball by contract and almost certainly by performance. The pitching staff adds Roki Sasaki alongside Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow. Kyle Tucker arrived in the offseason on a $240 million deal. This is not a team hoping to compete. This is a team that has been architecturally designed to make three-peats possible. ## The Roster Math on Opening Day The 2026 Opening Day 26-man roster runs 13 pitchers and 13 position players, leveraging Ohtani's two-way status to carry an extra arm without sacrificing a bat. Mookie Betts is back in right field. Will Smith and Dalton Rushing split catching duties. Teoscar Hernández anchors the outfield. Alex Freeland, the rookie infielder, earned a spot out of camp. The list of who is NOT available is meaningful: Blake Snell and Tommy Edman both begin the season on the injured list. Two quality players unavailable on Opening Day is a real subtraction, not a minor footnote. The Dodgers will need both back and healthy before October conversation becomes serious. PECOTA projects Los Angeles with a 20.8% chance of winning the 2026 World Series, the highest odds in baseball. That sounds impressive until you realize it also means a nearly 80% chance they do not. One injury to Ohtani or Yamamoto changes that number dramatically. ## What Nobody Tells You About 3-Peat Attempts Every team that has tried to win three straight in the modern era has had the same problem: the league adjusts to you. By year three, opposing front offices have studied your pitching tendencies, your hitter approach zones, your leverage bullpen usage. The 2000 Yankees had a worse regular season than the 1998 and 1999 teams. The 2016 Golden State Warriors, attempting a three-peat after 73 wins, lost to Cleveland in six games. The Dodgers' answer to that adjustment risk is the same it has always been: depth and payroll. You cannot fully scout a roster where eight different arms can close a playoff game and your two-way DH handles both ends of the battery. Dave Roberts has managed back-to-back championships. The organizational infrastructure from the front office down to the analytics department is the most sophisticated in the sport. ## March 26, 2026 MLB is back today. Every team starts 0 to 0. The math is the same for everyone. But only one team is writing its name into conversations about the greatest sustained runs in baseball history. The 1949 to 1953 Yankees went five straight. The current Dodgers are trying to make it three. The gap between those numbers, between what has been done and what is being attempted, is exactly where this season lives. If Ohtani stays healthy and Yamamoto and Glasnow give them 60 quality starts between them, this roster is built for October. If the IL eats into the core before the trade deadline, the window cracks but does not close. The safest prediction: Dodgers win the NL West by 8 or more games and the real test begins in the LDS.