Yankees, Dodgers Build 2024 World Series Rosters By Leaning On Spending, Prospect Trades

Image credit: (Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES — There is no one, singular way to build a championship roster.

Some teams, like the 2002 Angels, 2015 Royals and 2022 Astros, drafted and signed waves of top amateur talent, developed those players as they matured from prospects into big leaguers and won World Series with largely homegrown cores.

Others, such as the 2001 Diamondbacks, 2004 Red Sox and 2023 Rangers, used their prospects primarily as trade capital and flexed their financial muscle in free agency en route to building World Series-winning clubs.

Whether it’s the Dodgers or the Yankees, whichever team wins the World Series this year will decidedly fall into the latter category.

Both the Dodgers and Yankees only have six homegrown players on their World Series rosters this year. Whoever wins will tie last year’s Rangers for having the fewest homegrown players of any champion since the 2005 White Sox, who had four.

While building a talented homegrown core is the stated goal of every club, the alternate route of using them primarily as trade capital has yielded positive results both this year and last as far as winning the World Series.

“Over the last six, seven, eight years, we’ve been as aggressive as anyone making buy side trades,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “And when you do that, you trade away some talent in your system.”

*Player originally acquired via trade and re-signed as free agent

While both the Yankees and Dodgers annually have two of the highest payrolls in MLB, the lack of homegrown talent on their rosters is actually a departure from their previous World Series teams.

When the Dodgers won the 2020 World Series, a full 50% (14 of 28) of the players on their roster were homegrown, including foundational stars Corey Seager, Cody Bellinger, Clayton Kershaw, Joc Pederson, Walker Buehler, Julio Urias and Kenley Jansen.

When the Yankees won their World Series in 2009, just under half of their roster (12 of 25 players) were homegrown, including key cogs Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Robinson Cano, Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada.

In each case, both teams built homegrown cores as their foundation and used their financial might to complete their roster with high-priced free agents and trade acquisitions.

This time around is the opposite. While each team has homegrown products playing major roles (Aaron Judge, Anthony Volpe for the Yankees, Buehler and Will Smith for the Dodgers) the vast majority of their top talent was brought in from the outside.

“It’s something that we pour a lot of energy into and take a lot of pride in, being able to integrate different people,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Whether it’s star players from other organizations, trade deadline guys, waiver guys that you pick up, guys coming up for the first time from the minor leagues, our room does a great job of making those guys feel comfortable.”

Naturally, this method has been more costly. The Yankees had an Opening Day payroll of $303 million according to USA Today, second highest in MLB. The Dodgers had an Opening Day payroll of $249 million, third in MLB, and last offseason signed Shohei Ohtani to a 10-year, $700 million contract, the largest deal in North American professional sports history.

However, the massive expenditures aren’t a product of the Dodgers and Yankees doing poorly in the draft and player development and having to spend in order to make up for it.

Rather, it represents a shift to using their prospects and young big leaguers as trade capital more frequently than their predecessors.

The Yankees have 12 players on their World Series roster that were acquired via trade, including Juan Soto, Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Rizzo and Jazz Chisholm. To acquire them, they traded away 22 players, most of whom were prospects.

The Dodgers have 11 players on their World Series roster who were acquired via trade, including Mookie Betts, Jack Flaherty, Michael Kopech, Kiké Hernandez and Tommy Edman. The cost was 18 players, most of whom were prospects as well.

In each case, none of the players traded away caused any regrets. While some of those players still have their careers ahead of them and could eventually make the Dodgers or Yankees regret trading them one day, so far, every trade has worked out just fine for the World Series participants.

“We’re not afraid to make mistakes,” Friedman said. “We make plenty of them, but collectively learn from them. And it’s something that we are very mindful.”

In the Dodgers’ case, injuries have certainly played a role in the lack of homegrown talent on their roster. Kershaw, Bobby Miller and Gavin Stone are all out with injuries and otherwise would have boosted the Dodgers’ homegrown total. At the same time, injured pitchers Tyler Glasnow (trade) and Evan Phillips (waiver claim) would also be on the roster if they were healthy, potentially bumping off some of the homegrown role players.

The Yankees certainly don’t have the same quantity of homegrown players, but they more than make up for it in quality. Judge, the Yankees’ 2013 first-round pick, is arguably the best player in the game and inarguably the best homegrown player on any team.

“He’s the best,” Boone said. “He really is. For being one of the faces of the sport and the best player in the sport, his teammates love him. And he’s so approachable, and he’s easy to be around and he makes the last guy on the roster feel important. That’s just a credit to the person he is. He’s as good as I’ve seen at that.”

Whether the downturn in homegrown talent in the World Series is an anomaly or the start of a trend remains to be seen. To win a World Series costs money, regardless of whether a team is homegrown or not.

What is clear is both the Dodgers and Yankees made smart decisions to get here. They spent their massive resources wisely, correctly chose which prospects to keep and which to trade and made critical moves at the right time that put them over the top.

Now, they’re in position to be crowned World Champions.

“We have worked very hard at the art of how to balance the now and the future to put us in position to have a chance to win a World Series every year,” Friedman said. “That’s our goal, and that is our focus obviously right now and in each year.”