The Los Angeles Dodgers have been world champions for less than 12 hours, but they’re already favored to be in the exact same place a year from now.

BetMGM has released its odds for the 2025 World Series champion Thursday morning, and the Dodgers lead the field at +400 to win it all and become the first champions to repeat the World Series since the New York Yankees in 2000.

Behind the Dodgers are a familiar list of teams, many of which were seen in the early rounds of this year’s playoffs. The Yankees are tied with the Atlanta Braves for second at +800, and the Baltimore Orioles and Philadelphia Phillies are third at +1100.

The Dodgers could be even better next year

As dominant as the Dodgers have been in the postseason, they entered October with a huge headwind in the form of injuries in their rotation. They beat the San Diego Padres, New York Mets and Yankees, all 2025 contenders, with just three usable starting pitchers.

Things could be a little different next season, barring a similar series of terrible injuries. While Game 1 starter Jack Flaherty and Game 3 starter Walker Buehler are both pending free agents, Yoshinobu Yamamoto returns, as do Gavin Stone, Tyler Glasnow and, most tempting of all, the pitching side of Shohei Ohtani.

That makes four rotation spots already solidified for the Dodgers, with the potential returns of Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and Bobby Miller all waiting in the wings after losing seasons in 2024. Clayton Kershaw also holds a player option for 2025 and has announced his intention to return.

Any of the players above could suffer more injuries in 2025, but it’s hard not to view 2024 as a worst-case scenario in which the Dodgers more than survived. They lost more than one pitching rotation and still came away with a trophy, and now they could add even more pitchers to the mix this offseason.

What could the Dodgers do this offseason?

The Dodgers are already well prepared for 2025, but that doesn’t mean their offseason to-do list is empty.

In addition to the starting pitching situation above, Los Angeles’ pending free agents include outfielder Teoscar Hernández, top reliever Blake Treinen, trusted reliever Daniel Hudson, shortstop Miguel Rojas and utility Kiké Hernández.

Re-signing first Hernández will be the biggest priority, unless the Dodgers think they can do better. It would be difficult to do so, given that Hernández has been a consistent mid-range stick who has come out on top on several occasions, but this was reported earlier this week that the Dodgers were kicking the tires on a bid for Yankees star Juan Soto.

We don’t need to think too long about how outrageous it would be for the Dodgers to sign Ohtani to a $700 million contract, win a World Series, and then sign Soto to a similar mega-contract. But the possibility exists.

Meanwhile, Treinen and Hudson were both important arms for the Dodgers this season, but the fact that the team found relievers out of nowhere diminishes the chances of the team spending big on the bullpen this winter .

Shortstop will also be needed if Rojas and other Hernández leave, although the ability to park Tommy Edman or Mookie Betts at that position means the Dodgers could instead look for outfield help, depending on the situation. market development. Either way, they probably need a few more position players.

And then there is Roki Sasaki.

Could the Dodgers sign Roki Sasaki?

Roki Sasaki is a 22-year-old Japanese right-hander who has established himself as one of the most promising pitchers in baseball history over the past few years. He throws 100 mph with regularity, he makes two devastating secondary pitches and he threw a perfect game 19 strikeouts in 2022.

Sasaki could very well be assigned to the MLB this offseason, although that’s not a certainty. His team, the Chiba Lotte Marines, wouldn’t want him, so it would be a question of whether he is able to get enough leverage to force an assignment. If he is named, every baseball team will be interested. After all, how often can you land a potential superstar pitcher that you don’t really have to pay for six years?

Because he is under 25, Sasaki would be subject to international bonuses as a free agent, rather than commanding a mega-contract like Yamamoto’s last offseason. It’s the same thing Ohtani did before the 2018 season, when each interested team had to explain to the player why they were the best situation for him, without money as an incentive.

The Dodgers are normally willing to struggle financially, but they have a lot to offer Sasaki beyond that. They already have two Japanese stars, Ohtani and Yamamoto, to ease the transition and take some pressure off Sasaki, with the largest Japanese population in any MLB market and enormous cultural cachet in his home country.

And now they can promise not only a perennial contender, but also a World Series championship team. The Dodgers have long emerged as major contenders, if not favorites, if Sasaki were named, but they could be in a particularly good position this offseason.