Sports
Ohtani, Vlad … and then who? Player rankings and superlatives for the 2025 World Series
The Los Angeles Dodgers are the overwhelming favorites to win the 2025 World Series and become the first repeat champion in a quarter century.
That doesn’t mean they’ve cornered all the talent in this year’s Fall Classic.
In fact, the American League champion Toronto Blue Jays feature two of the top three players heading into the series and nearly half of our top 20.
Let’s dig into the stars — ranking the best of the series participants on how good I think they’ll be in this series and predicting who will take home some superlatives by the time the dust settles.
Top 20 players in the World Series
1. Shohei Ohtani, SP/DH, Dodgers
Ohtani put up a combined 9.4 WAR in the regular season and is a huge favorite to win the National League MVP again. Then, he one-upped himself with one of the greatest athletic performances of all time: six scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts and three home runs in the clinching game of the NL Championship Series.
2. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 1B, Blue Jays
Guerrero had a big regular season — 3.9 WAR despite the sixth-worst ball-in-play luck in the league — but has been white hot in the playoffs, leading postseason players in most major offensive categories.
3. George Springer, DH, Blue Jays
Springer led the Jays in WAR in the regular season, has been very good this postseason and his iconic ALCS Game 7 homer will live on.
4. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, SP, Dodgers
All four of the Dodgers’ starting pitchers are on a heater, but Yamamoto was the best of the group in the regular season by a lot and one of the top five pitchers in baseball.
5. Blake Snell, SP, Dodgers
Snell missed the first two-thirds of the season with shoulder inflammation but came back looking as good as ever. He might be on the best run of his career right now, with a 0.86 ERA in three playoff starts and the second-best underlying numbers (xFIP and xERA) in the playoffs among starters, behind Detroit’s Tarik Skubal.
6. Mookie Betts, SS, Dodgers
Betts, a clear future Hall of Famer, is 33 years old and has lost the standout power from his peak years but is still an impact player.
7. Freddie Freeman, 1B, Dodgers
One of the most consistently elite hitters of this era, Freeman just keeps performing — and he has a history of coming up large in the playoffs.
8. Alejandro Kirk, C, Blue Jays
Kirk was quietly the second-best all-around catcher in the league this year behind Seattle’s Cal Raleigh, but isn’t a huge star since his value is largely driven by on-base skills and pitch framing.
9. Max Muncy, 3B, Dodgers
Muncy is surprisingly solid as a baserunner and a defensive third baseman, and he’s always been a dangerous hitter.
10. Tyler Glasnow, SP, Dodgers
Glasnow’s walks crept up during the regular season and the playoffs, but he’s been missing bats as always and is inducing weak contact during his current hot streak.
11. Will Smith, C, Dodgers
Smith hasn’t been very good offensively in the playoffs but had the third-best WAR amongst catchers in the majors this season, behind only Raleigh and Kirk.
12. Ernie Clement, 2B/3B, Blue Jays
Clement posted a quietly solid 3.2 WAR this season, driven mostly by contact and defense, but has gone to another level in the postseason, hitting .429 with almost no ball-in-play luck, due to his 4% strikeout rate. He’s on a heater, but the Dodgers’ staff is the type to possibly end that streak.
13. Daulton Varsho, CF, Blue Jays
Varsho is above average at basically everything on the baseball field but isn’t truly elite at much. He missed time with shoulder and hamstring issues this year but was on track for a career-best 4-ish WAR season.
14. Kevin Gausman, SP, Blue Jays
Gausman posted the 10th-best pitcher WAR in baseball this season but has one of the lowest fastball velocities of pitchers in that range and has been hit around in the playoffs, though his career playoff performances are close to his regular season quality.
15. Tommy Edman, 2B, Dodgers
Edman is a good defender at almost any position but had the 12th-least lucky ball-in-play outcomes this regular season. That luck has turned around in the playoffs.
16. Trey Yesavage, SP, Blue Jays
Like Gausman, Yesavage’s splitter is his best secondary pitch, and he doesn’t have standout fastball velocity or breaking ball quality. That said, Yesavage’s splitter has been confounding hitters in his six career big league appearances, half of which have been in the playoffs.
17. Bo Bichette, SS, Blue Jays
It sounds like Bichette will be able to return to the Jays’ lineup for the World Series, but he’s been out the past six weeks with a knee injury and it’s hard to know what he’ll look like in the short term.
18. Addison Barger, RF, Blue Jays
Barger is usable defensively at a number of positions and broke out this year to be an above-average hitter, mostly due to his power.
19. Andy Pages, CF, Dodgers
Pages hasn’t been terrible at the plate this postseason, but he was a standout hitter (.272 average, 24 homers) and defender (plus-7 runs in 117 starts in center field) in the regular season, en route to 4.0 WAR.
20. Teoscar Hernandez, RF, Dodgers
Hernandez hit for power in the regular season (25 homers) but didn’t draw many walks or stand out defensively. This postseason, he’s been hitting for even more power on a rate basis, so he sneaks on this list.
Superlatives
Fastest pitch of the World Series will be thrown by: Roki Sasaki
Sasaki narrowly wins this matchup with the hardest-thrown pitch among these teams in the playoffs at 100.8 mph, and he’s fresher than Louis Varland (100.7 mph) and can go more max effort than Ohtani (100.3 mph).
Others in the mix: Ohtani
Best breaking pitch will be: Emmet Sheehan‘s slider
Sheehan’s slider was, per pitch thrown, the best pitch on the Dodgers’ staff this season. It doesn’t have a gaudy spin rate or crazy movement but he throws it hard and hitters can’t seem to track it.
Others in the mix: Yariel Rodriguez‘s slider, Braydon Fisher‘s slider, Brendon Little‘s curveball, Jack Dreyer‘s slider, Glasnow’s curveball, Shane Bieber‘s curveball
Best changeup/splitter will be: Yesavage’s splitter
Yesavage offers a unique combination of movement profile (his slider moves to his arm side), a very high arm slot, and short extension which brings his release even higher. Hitters haven’t seen something like this before, then add in a killer splitter (which he barely threw at East Carolina, where he was last season) and hitters don’t know what to do.
Others in the mix: Yamamoto’s splitter, Gausman’s splitter, Snell’s changeup
Most whiffs will be thrown by: Snell
Snell has been red-hot in the postseason (I explain why here) and should get two starts, but there’s a number of strong candidates for this.
Others in the mix: Yamamoto, Yesavage, Glasnow
Hardest hit ball in play will be hit by: Guerrero
The odds for this are as close to 50/50 as you can get. Guerrero (120.4) and Ohtani (120.0 mph) were second and third in max exit velo during the regular season behind Cincinnati’s Oneil Cruz (122.9). Ohtani has a slight edge in playoff max EV at 117.7 to Vlad’s 116.0. I’ll lean to Vlad because he’s been running hotter at the plate and thus will get a few more chances to smoke one at a gaudy number, but Ohtani will be facing a weaker pitching staff, so this is still a coin flip.
Also in the mix: Ohtani
Highest sprint speed will be recorded by: Clement
The other main candidates are part-time players who might get only some chances to open it up on the bases, but I expect Clement to be on base often in the series.
Others in the mix: Hyeseong Kim, Edman, Myles Straw
The batter who will record the most hits: Guerrero
Clement (second in postseason hits with 18) might be held back a bit by the quality of the Dodgers’ pitchers while Guerrero (first in postseason hits with 19) also makes a ton of contact but gets the margin for error of having huge power, too.
Others in the mix: Clement, Nathan Lukes, Betts, Freeman, Springer
Best defender will be: Kirk
If you consider framing to be a part of defensive value (you definitely should) and also factor in positional difficulty (I think you should), then Kirk is the answer. He’ll be impacting roughly half of the pitches in the series and he was the second-best framer in the league behind San Francisco’s Patrick Bailey this regular season.
Others in the mix: Clement, Edman, Betts
Sports
Police detain Michigan head football coach Sherrone Moore after firing, salacious details emerge: report
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Michigan Wolverines head football coach Sherrone Moore was reportedly detained by police in Saline, Michigan Wednesday, hours after the university announced he was fired for engaging in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.
The City of Saline Police Department told ESPN officers assisted in locating and detaining Moore, who was later turned over to the Pittsfield Township Police Department “for investigation into potential charges.”
Hours earlier, Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel wrote in a statement that “credible evidence was found that Coach Moore engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.”
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Michigan Wolverines head coach Sherrone Moore is shown on the sidelines during the first quarter against the Maryland Terrapins at SECU Stadium in College Park, Md, Nov. 22. (Tommy Gilligan/Imagn Images)
“The conduct constitutes a clear violation of University policy, and U-M maintains zero tolerance for such behavior,” Manuel added.
Following the news of the police investigation, the University of Michigan Athletic Department told Fox News Digital it “cannot comment on personnel matters” and had “nothing to share beyond the initial statement.”
The Saline Police Department referred inquiries to the Pittsfield Township Police Department, which did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for additional information.
Francis Xavier “Biff” Poggi was named the interim head coach and will be on the sidelines when Michigan takes on Texas in the Citrus Bowl on Dec. 31. Earlier this season, Poggi took over for Moore in two games as the head coach served a suspension for his role in a sign-stealing scandal.
Moore is married to his wife, Kelli. The two wed in 2015 and have three daughters together.
Michigan Wolverines head coach Sherrone Moore leads his team onto the field against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich, Nov. 29. (IMAGN)
He took over as the team’s head coach in 2024 when Jim Harbaugh left for the Los Angeles Chargers job. The Wolverines were 8-5 in his first season and won the ReliaQuest Bowl.
This season, the Wolverines improved to 9-3, but lost to the Ohio State Buckeyes.
2025 COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF, BOWL BUZZ: MICHIGAN FIRES HC SHERRONE MOORE
Moore has not yet commented on his dismissal.
Before he became head coach at Michigan, he was the team’s tight ends coach from 2018 to 2020 and three years as the offensive line coach from 2021-2023. He was the team’s offensive coordinator 2023 and served one game as a head coach when Harbaugh was suspended.
Michigan Wolverines head coach Sherrone Moore leaves the field following his team’s loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., Nov. 29. (IMAGN)
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He was a part of the coaching staff when the team won the national championship.
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The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday that would allow local and state law enforcement to disable drones during sporting events, which the NFL and other leagues have said are an increasing threat.
The House passed the Safer Skies Act as part of a larger defense bill by a vote of 312-112. It will now move to the Senate, which is expected to vote on it as early as next week.
The legislation comes as the U.S. prepares to host several major events, including the World Cup and the celebration of the country’s 250th birthday next summer.
“As our nation prepares to host the FIFA World Cup and the Summer Olympics, robust airspace security will help mitigate credible threats and keep Americans and global visitors safe as they enjoy these world-class sporting events,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told ESPN in a statement.
Currently, only a handful of major events such as the Super Bowl and the World Cup final have federal law enforcement on-site that can disable unauthorized drones. Nearly all other major sporting events, including World Cup matches along with thousands of NFL and MLB games, do not have officials on-site with the legal authorization to quickly remove a drone threat.
This bill would allow local and state law enforcement to receive the same training as federal agents and work on-site during large-scale sporting events.
“Over the next three years, the United States will host numerous major events that necessitated the expansion of these authorities to combat the emerging drone threats,” a White House official told ESPN. “The administration is committed to ensuring these world-class international events [are] safe and secure for all participants.”
In February, the NFL, NCAA, MLB and NASCAR endorsed a previous effort to give law enforcement officials drone-mitigation powers.
“For several years, the NCAA has expressed concern for the threat that unauthorized drones pose at NCAA championships and college sporting events,” said Tim Buckley, the NCAA’s senior vice president of external affairs, in a statement to ESPN at the time.
The NFL told ESPN that it has experienced more than 2,000 drone incursions in each of the past three seasons into the temporary restricted airspace around its stadiums, which the FAA defines as below 3,000 feet and within three nautical miles of a stadium from one hour before until one hour after a game.
In January, a wild-card game between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers was temporarily suspended when a drone flew over the bowl of M&T Bank Stadium. The NFL also paused the AFC Championship Game in January 2024 between the Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs after a drone entered the stadium’s restricted airspace.
Drones can be disabled a number of ways, according to Michael Robbins, president and CEO of the Association of Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International, a trade association that represents the drone industry. One way is to ask the operator to land it, or law enforcement can jam a drone’s radio frequency, grab it with a net, ram it with another drone or shoot it out of the sky, Robbins said.
Michigan fired coach Sherrone Moore for cause Wednesday after a university investigation that found “credible evidence” he was engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.
“This conduct constitutes a clear violation of University policy, and U-M maintains zero tolerance for such behavior,” athletic director Warde Manuel said in a statement Wednesday.
Biff Poggi was named interim coach. Michigan is slated to play Texas in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on Dec. 31.
The news ends Moore’s Michigan coaching career at 17-8, with his final game a 27-9 loss to Ohio State to conclude a 9-3 season. The 39-year-old had gone through two years of his five-year contract as the Wolverines’ head coach, and the school’s firing for cause means it isn’t planning to pay the nearly $12.3 million it would have owed him on his deal.
Moore was promoted to Michigan’s head coach in the wake of Jim Harbaugh’s departure for the NFL after Michigan’s 2023 national title.
Moore endured some off-field controversies before his firing, including a suspension in Week 3 and Week 4 of this season tied to the Connor Stalions illegal advanced scouting scheme.
Moore was set to serve an additional one-game suspension for the start of the 2026 season as well. He was also suspended for the season opener in 2023 as part of self-imposed penalties for breaking recruiting rules.
Moore was a successful offensive line coach and offensive coordinator before being promoted to head coach. He was a finalist for the Broyles Award in 2023, when he was the playcaller on Michigan’s national title team.
The firing puts Michigan in a difficult position of finding a coach in the wake of what’s been considered the most volatile coaching carousel in recent college football history. There’s already been a flurry of hires and extensions, which will complicate Michigan’s search.
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