Every October, the top five teams from each conference battle each other for the chance to play in the World Series. We rarely make it through a whole postseason without some kind of legendary moment, and I’m sure the next five years won’t be any different. There are thirty teams, but only one gets to hoist the Commissioner’s Trophy at the end of each season. Here’s who I think will play in the coveted World Series and who will be crowned champions over the next five years.
2021
Dodgers defeat White Sox in 6 games
The Dodgers are easily the most talented team in baseball. They haven’t gotten nearly the amount of production that they hoped for out of many of their star players, but are still easily in the playoff picture. They are due for some improvement in the second half of the season and should cruise through a weak NL and get to battle the winner of a much more competitive American League. I believe it’ll be the White Sox that make it through, they’ll be getting back numerous key players that went down with injury towards the end of the season. They’ve still managed to put together the best record in the AL with the injury bug decimating their roster. I could see the Astros and four AL East teams (you know the four I mean) putting up a good fight, but the Sox are going to be too much. I do think the Dodgers handle them in the World Series, but it’ll be a great and hard-fought series throughout. The White Sox are a promising young team, and this could be the start of an excellent dynasty.
2022
White Sox defeat Padres in 7 games
The White Sox will be motivated by their World Series defeat in 2021 and win over 100 games with their full roster intact in 2022. They’ll cruise through and stave off teams like the Blue Jays and Astros on their way to another World Series appearance. The Padres will have to battle through a crowded NL West and take down the Mets and Braves as well, but they’ll push through and make it to the World Series with Fernando Tatis Jr. leading the way. This will be a heated series between two young and talented rosters. There are bound to be some key strikeouts and plenty of moonshots from both of these balanced teams. In the end, I think the White Sox will be too determined to avenge their loss from 2021 and come up clutch in game seven. This will be a legendary series if it comes true.
2023
Blue Jays defeat Braves in 5 games
This will be a matchup between two elite teams that got knocked out in the playoffs in 2022. I think they’ll both have to fight off the teams that appeared in the 2022 World Series from making a repeat appearance, and I think they’ll succeed. The Blue Jays will be lead by their AL MVP Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, and an improved pitching staff all the way into the postseason and to the World Series. They will have to get through a tough Angels team, the White Sox, and numerous teams in their own division. The Braves will be lead by an aging Freddie Freeman at the end of his prime and their NL MVP Ronald Acuña. Atlanta will have to take down the Padres and Mets, both of who will give them a close run, but the Braves will eventually make it to the World Series. It will be a legendary series of two heavyweight offenses battling it out on the biggest stage. I predict a barrage of home runs and high-scoring games. I think the Blue Jays will be too much, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, and Cavan Biggio will get to celebrate their first World Series win with their fathers in attendance.
2024
Padres defeat Blue Jays in 6 games
The legends of Fernando Tatis and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will be at their peak in this season, and it will be a storybook ending when they meet in the World Series. The Padres will have to take down a Braves team looking to bounce back, as well as the Cardinals and Mets on their way to the World Series. The Blue Jays will get plenty of battles from teams looking to dethrone them, the biggest battle being against the Angels, but no one will be able to take them down. Tatis and Guerrero will finally meet on the big stage and deliver an unbelievable series. Neither pitching staff will be able to hold the opposing team down, so we will be in for some shootouts and close, back and forth games. Fernando Tatis and Manny Machado will play the best baseball of their careers and take down the reigning champions in six games. They will finally bring a title back to San Diego and cement themselves as Hall-Of-Famers after this crazy series.
2025
Angels defeat Padres in 7 games
The Angels are nearing the end of the prime Mike Trout era and Shohei Ohtani is still giving everything he has as a two-way player, but after being beaten by the Blue Jays in the 2024 ALCS, it seems as though we’ll never see a Mike Trout World Series appearance. He instead proves that he has one more elite season left in the tank, and Shohei Ohtani has his best season since his MVP-winning 2021 campaign and they manage to take down the Blue Jays in the ALCS and prevent them from making a third straight World Series appearance. The Padres, on the other hand, are still going strong. They’ve added plenty of free agents and surrounded their stars with plenty of talent as their dynasty continues to grow. They fight off the Mets, who once again come up just short, and make it their third World Series in the past four years, a true powerhouse. The Angels will go down in this series early but battle back after a great Shohei Ohtani start on the mound, and some long home runs off of his bat and the bat of Michael Nelson Trout. They push the series to game 7 and win an absolute dogfight with all of America rooting for them. Mike Trout will hit the go-ahead home run and win World Series MVP, finally becoming a champion. The greatest player of our generation and his Japanese superstar teammate will make the lovable loser Angels into champions by taking down the most dynamic team of the 2020 decade.