East Coast Evil Empire vs. West Coast Evil Empire
Position matchups between the 1998 Yankees and 2025 Dodgers
By Nick Schaefer, Guest Post
January 23, 2025
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The Hot Stove this offseason seems like it has been 75% Dodgers and 25% everyone else. With a recent barrage of signings, mostly by the Dodgers, Juan Soto’s departure from the Bronx to Queens seems like a different offseason. The 2024 champions are not resting on their laurels and continue to spend large amounts of money and have reportedly increased their luxury tax past $375 million—nearly $70 million more than the next closest team, the Phillies—to become the West Coast Evil Empire.
The Dodgers have added 6 of the top 40 free agents on The Athletic’s top player’s list, including two of the top three available starting pitchers, and the top reliever. There has been some chatter from baseball media and fans that the 2025 Dodgers are going to be unbeatable and possibly on par or better than the 1998 Yankees, which won 125 total games (114-48 in the regular season and 11-2 in the playoffs).
Before we anoint the Boys in Blue one of the best baseball teams of all time, let’s take a closer look at the hypothetically great 2025 Dodgers and perhaps the best modern baseball team, the 1998 Yankees.
Infield
· Catcher: Jorge Posada (NYY) vs. Will Smith (LAD): Edge Yankees
· First base: Tino Martinez (NYY) vs. Freddie Freeman (LAD): Edge Dodgers
· Second base: Chuck Knoblauch (NYY) vs. Hyeseong Kim (LAD): Edge Yankees
· Shortstop: Derek Jeter (NYY) vs. Mookie Betts (LAD): Edge Yankees
· Third Base: Scott Brosius (NYY) vs. Max Muncy (LAD): Edge Yankees
· Infield overall: Edge Yankees
A few close calls but ultimately the ’98 Yankees have the edge on the Dodgers. There are a few caveats, such as will Betts and Kim be regular starters in the middle of the diamond. Even if Betts mans shortstop on a regular basis, Jeter still comes out slightly ahead. Jeter at age 24 had one of his top seasons with a WAR of 7.5, while hitting .324, 19 homeruns, 30 stolen bases, and a .864 OPS. FanGraphs predicts Betts, who will be 32, to have a 6.0 WAR season while hitting .278, 29 homeruns, .862 OPS.
Posada also comes in slightly ahead of Smith behind the plate. Posada has the edge in a few areas including OBP and SLG, .350 to .337 and .475 to .439. Also, remember in 1998 Posada should have perhaps played more than his 111 games as he was sharing some of the catching duties with Joe Girardi.
Brosius outpaces Munch at the hot corner. With all the great players and names the Yankees had in the late ‘90s, sometimes people forget just how good Brosius was on that ’98 team. He had the third highest WAR on the team, only behind Jeter and Paul O’Neill, with a 5.3 (slightly ahead of Williams), and was named to his only career All-Star Game.
An easy one, is choosing Knoblauch over Kim. The former Twins’ star had a productive first year with the Bombers, producing a very good OBP, steals, and even some power with the second most homers of his career with 17. Kim is an unknown as he has played the last eight years in the Korea Baseball Organization, six of which for the Kiwoom Heroes.
As much as I appreciate Martinez (The Bam-Tino), I went in thinking it would Freeman over Martinez. It was much closer than I expected. Martinez had a great year for the Yankees hitting 28 homers, driving in 123 runs, with an .860 OPS while producing a 3.2 WAR during his age 30 season. Freeman, who could start to decline during what would be his age 35 season, is predicted by FanGraphs to hit 25 homers, drive in 96, with an .854 OPS while producing a 4.2 WAR. This could be flipped, but the edge goes to the current World Series MVP if he remains healthy.
Outfield
· Right Field: Paul O’Neill (NYY) vs. Teoscar Hernández (LAD): Edge Yankees
· Center Field: Bernie Williams (NYY) vs. Tommy Edman (LAD): Edge Yankees
· Left Field: Chad Curtis (NYY) vs. Michael Conforto (LAD): Edge Dodgers
· Outfield overall: Edge Yankees
The outfield is more clear cut than the infield. The Yankees have the edge in both right field and center field. O’Neill and Hernandez is a good battle, but ultimately The Warrior produced a better season in ’98 than what the 2024 Home Run Derby champion is expected to this upcoming season. O’Neill had perhaps the best season of his career in 1998, hitting .317 with 24 home runs and 116 RBIs, with a 5.8 WAR. While Hernandez is coming off a career year, his numbers are expected to take a little dip this upcoming season. FanGraphs estimates Hernandez to hit .257 with 30 home runs and 97 RBIs, with a 2.4 WAR. Additionally, O’Neill, a solid to good fielder, has the edge over Hernandez with the glove, who is considered to be a weak fielder.
Williams has a sizeable edge over Edman. Williams was great in 1998 and received multiple accolades, including being named an all-star, winning the batting title, receiving a gold glove, and finishing 7th in the MVP voting. Edman will be transitioning a different position and is expected to be the team’s starting center fielder.
Left field is where it gets a little tricky. It can probably go either way, but ultimately, I give the slight edge to Conforto over Curtis, since he brings more power. The lefty is estimated to hit around 20 homers this season. Still only 32 years old, and a few years recovered from injury, Conforto probably has a little more upside than Curtis. Curtis played in 151 games in ’98 while producing a 2.4 WAR.
Designated Hitter
· Darryl Strawberry (NYY) vs. Shohei Ohtani (LAD): Edge Dodgers
While the former Mets legend Darryl Strawberry produced a very good season for the Yankees, hitting 24 home runs in only 345 at-bats, slugging .542, the large edge goes to the Dodgers, with Shohei Ohtani. The Japanese slugger is coming off his third MVP award, where he hit 54 homers, stole 59 bases and produced an eye-popping 9.1 WAR. Ohtani’s greatness should continue and he is the front runner to win his fourth MVP award this season.
Bench
· Yankees vs. Dodgers: Edge Yankees
The ’98 Yankees were led by Hall of Famer Tim Raines. Although Raines didn’t steal many bases that season, only 8, he did provide a solid bat and good leadership off the bench. Joe Girardi, Luis Sojo, Chili Davis, and rookie sensation Shane Spencer produced when called upon. Spencer hit 10 home runs in 67 at bats in September, including three grand slams in a 10-day span.
The Dodgers bench is a mix of veterans and an up-and-coming player. Austin Barnes, Miguel Rojas, and Chris Taylor are all in their mid-30s while Andy Pages brings some youth and potential to the bench.
Starting Pitching
· Yankees vs. Dodgers: Edge Yankees
A healthy, and lives up to its potential, Dodgers rotation would likely edge the ‘98 Yankees here. The Dodgers have impressive depth that features 7 pitchers, 5 of which could be considered #2 or aces on a staff. Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Ohtani, and the latest Japanese sensation Roki Sasaki could all potentially lead the team’s rotation. Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May provide good depth. Ohtani will return to the mound after missing the entire season after his second Tommy John surgery.
But this isn’t MLB The Show, and it is likely the Dodgers rotation won’t be fully healthy.
Comparatively, the 98 Yankees had 3 hurlers pitch over 200 innings and two that finished in the top five in Cy Young voting. David Wells was 18-4 with a 3.49 ERA in 214 innings to finish third in the Cy Young voting while David Cone was 20-7 with a 3.55 ERA in 207 innings to finish fourth in the Cy Young voting. Andy Pettitte led the squad in innings with 216. The Yankees had 2 of their own international sensations, Orlando Hernández, El Duque, from Cuba and Hideki Irabu from Japan. Hernandez went 12-4 with a staff-leading 3.13 ERA during his rookie year while Irabu had his best season in pinstripes going 13-9 with a 4.06 ERA, more than good enough for a 5th starter. Overall the Yankees pitchers tossed 22 complete games, compared to the 2024 Dodgers who had just 1. The edge goes to the Yankees as of now, as we have to see if the Dodgers rotation stays healthy, and fulfills its potential.
Relief Pitching
· Yankees vs. Dodgers: Edge Dodgers
Even with the greatest relief pitcher of all-time Mariano Rivera, the Dodgers get the edge here. The ’98 Yankees had a good pen that also included Ramiro Mendoza, Mike Stanton, Jeff Nelson, Graeme Lloyd and Darren Holmes. Mendoza, Nelson, Lloyd, and Holmes all had strong years, while Stanton struggled with an ERA over 5.
The Dodgers relievers have the edge in strikeouts and depth. As great as Rivera was, he only had 36 K’s in 61 innings pitched. Compare that to the Dodgers newly signed closer, Tanner Scott who had 84 strikeouts in 72 innings. Scott is followed by other strikeout artists Michael Kopech, Blake Teinen, Evan Phillips, Alex Veisa, Anthony Banda, and Ryan Braiser. Look for the Dodgers to make additional moves in their bullpen.
Overall: 1998 Yankees vs. 2025 Dodgers
· 1998 Yankees vs. 2025 Dodgers: Edge 1998 Yankees
Each of these teams has multiple superstars, but the ’98 Yankees were a special group that fans expected to win almost every game. Although the Dodgers are predicted by FanGraphs to lead baseball with 98 wins (16 games short of the ’98 Yankees), I don’t trust their rotation to remain healthy and fully live up to expectations.
The Dodgers are chasing Yankees history in more than one way, trying to perhaps challenge the 125 wins (regular season and playoffs) and be the first team to repeat in 25 years (2000 Yankees),
But a different Yankees team, the one from 2025, can possible avenge their World Series loss in a rematch with the Dodgers, while preserving the ’98 Yankees as the best modern-day baseball team.
Thanks for reading the article. It always amazes me seeing the regular season winning percentage of the '98 team, .704. What an incredible season.
No one will defeat the 2025 Dodgers. Period. They were by far the best team last year and have gotten even better. The Mets will be better with Soto but not good enough to beat the Dodgers. The Yankees are worse than last season and will struggle mightily to score runs. I can see the Yankees barely making the playoffs with an early exit. And that’s if the rest of the AL East isn’t better. Otherwise the Yankees could even miss the playoffs. They will have too many auto outs in the lineup: Bellinger, Goldschmidt, Volpe, Wells, Jazz, basically everyone but Judge.
I think there is only a small chance that the Dodgers will win 114 regular season games. But I do think they are the favorites to have the best record in the NL. In the post-season, anything can happen. As I noted recently, but for one bad pitch in WS Game 1 and either the horrible inning or the 2-run 8th inning in Game 5, the Yankees would have gone back to LA up 3-2. LA has gotten better this off-season, and I don't think the Yankees have fully made up for the loss of Soto, but if they meet again in the World Series -- as I think is the most likely result -- the Yankees, even of…