The Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox will begin the 2018 World Series at Fenway Park on Tuesday night. Technically, it'll mark the first time the Dodgers and Red Sox have met in the Fall Classic. The Red Sox did play the Brooklyn Robins back in the 1916 World Series. But this will be the first literal matchup between the Dodgers and Red Sox. It may not be the last.
Repeat World Series matchups are rare for a reason. The last time one happened was back in the late '70s, when the Dodgers met the New York Yankees two consecutive falls. There's no telling if the Dodgers and/or Red Sox will reach the 2019 World Series, but there are reasons to think both sides are equipped to make another trip in the coming years.
Let's examine a few of those factors now.
Young lineups
When you're attempting to project a team, one of the first things you look for is young talent. The obvious reason is because young players are more likely to sustain or improve upon their performance than players past or in the late stages of their statistical primes. Beyond that, young talent tends to run cheaper, theoretically allowing a team to maximize its payroll.
You can cut a finer line by focusing on the lineups. Pitching is considered more volatile due to the injury risk. As such, it's hard to know whether that 23-year-old stud is bound for a myriad of All-Star Games or a career spoiled by injuries. So, what of these two lineups?
Both the Dodgers and Red Sox check in with lineups that are either of average age relative to the league or younger than the average age.
The Dodgers have 22-year-old Cody Bellinger, 26-year-olds Joc Pederson and Enrique Hernandez, and 27-year-olds Chris Taylor, Yasiel Puig, and Max Muncy -- and this isn't even including 24-year-old Corey Seager. The only long-term piece over 30 is Justin Turner.
The Red Sox are even younger. They have 21-year-old Rafael Devers, 23-year-old Andrew Benintendi, and 25-year-olds Xander Bogaerts and Mookie Betts. Put another way, the Red Sox had as many players under the age of 25 receive 300-plus plate appearances as teams like the Atlanta Braves and Tampa Bay Rays, who tend to receive more credit for their young talent.
Veterans and pitchers are important, too. There's a reason why the Texas Rangers, who led baseball with seven players younger than 25 getting 300-plus plate appearances, were a bad team. But both these teams have the young hitters in place to remain relevant heading forward.
Big payrolls
Having young talent is only part of the equation. You need to have the resources to keep those players around as they begin to grow more pricey -- or, at minimum, to surround them with talent. The Dodgers and Red Sox both have the right combination of variables to do just that.
The Red Sox have the highest payroll in baseball, dishing out more than $230 million this season. The Dodgers check in at third, with an $186 million payroll, per Baseball Prospectus. Boston's payroll is the highest in its history, and is the furthest from league average the franchise has ventured since at least 1997, the extent of BP's database. The Dodgers, incredibly, have reduced their payroll -- trimming nearly $100 million since 2015. Of course, that figure could bloat again this winter as their luxury-tax penalty resets.
Large markets
This is one of the driving factors behind those large payrolls -- that and having an understanding ownership and so on and so forth -- and that means we can keep it short by focusing on another aspect of having a huge fan base: the need to win consistently. Neither of these teams is going to hit reset before they need to, as the external forces are too great. Instead, both are likely to max out their rosters and chances of winning multiple World Series titles.
Clever, aggressive front offices
One last point working in favor of the Dodgers and Red Sox is that they have heady executives running the show. Andrew Friedman and Dave Dombrowski go about their business differently -- Friedman is considered more analytically inclined -- but both get results.
Friedman has unearthed gems like Taylor and Muncy in recent seasons. He's also done well to hold onto most of his top young players. (Imagine if the Dodgers had surrendered Walker Buehler or Bellinger in a trade a couple years back?) Dombrowski has traded a number of young players to land the likes of Chris Sale and Craig Kimbrel. Still, he's made a difference on the margins with nifty signings and acquisitions, be it Ryan Brasier or Steve Pearce. Each exec has shown an appetite for a blockbuster deal, too.
While neither is infallible, both are perhaps less likely to err -- and, perhaps, more able to course-correct after a mistake. There's a reason why they're considered two of the best in the game at what they do, after all.
Put those executives in charge of teams with a young core and the ability to spend money in markets with an emphasis on competing yearly, and yes -- it seems reasonable to think the Red Sox and Dodgers could meet again in another World Series within the next few years.
