SportsCage MLB analyst Arash Madani does not believe there is a decisive favourite in the 2026 World Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers.
"Here's the amazing thing about baseball, if you fail 70 percent of the time, you're making half a billion dollars and you're going to the Hall of Fame. If you fail 77 percent of the time, you're riding the bus in the minors making 70 grand. In a best-of-seven series, all the stars have to come together," Madani said on the SportsCage.
"Everyone's written off the Blue Jays or a lot of people have written off the Blue Jays, especially south of the border. Man, it is a baseball series. These [Dodgers] have been off for a week. All bets are off right now."
The Dodgers won the World Series last year and finished the 2025 MLB regular season with a 93-69 win-loss record, securing the National League West Division. Los Angeles beat the Cincinnati Reds in an NL Wild Card Series 2-0, advanced to take on the Philadelphia Phillies and beat them 3-1 in the NLDS. In the NL Championship Series, the Dodgers swept the Milwaukee Brewers 4-0.
"I'm old enough to remember when the Los Angeles Dodgers, for much of the 2010s and a good chunk of the 2020s, were the team that could never win the World Series, they were the team that always came up short," Madani said.
"I don't know how many Octobers I was at Chavez Ravine for divisional series, championship series, World Series... George Springer and the Astros and their garbage cans came to town. Then Alex Cora and the Red Sox came to town, and the Washington Nationals in 2019 came to town."
Madani was referencing the Dodgers' losses in the 2017 World Series to the Houston Astros in seven games and the 2018 World Series to the Boston Red Sox in five games. Following an LA loss to the Red Sox, the Dodgers lost to the Washington Nationals in the 2019 NLDS in five games. LA would won in 2020, beating the Tampa Bay Rays in six games. The Dodgers won the World Series in 2024, when LA beat the New York Yankees in five games. The last time the Blue Jays won the World Series was in 1992 and 1993 back-to-back.
Meanwhile, Madani reflected on George Springer's clutch three-run home run in the seventh inning during game seven in the ALCS against the Seattle Mariners.
"He probably knocked José Bautista off the medal podium for the biggest home runs in franchise history," Madani said.
Madani wanted to talk about Springer because he made a bold statement about him on October 20 leading into game seven in the ALCS.
"They should sit George Springer tonight. He is an absolute liability with a bad knee, his swings have been a mess, they progressively got worse. I get Springer got you here, I get you're paying him, I get the loyalty thing, but you're trying to win a ball game. I would have put Myles Straw in right field, I would have made [Addison] Barger your DH, I would have led off with Ernie Clement," Madani said. "I don't think George Springer is going to give you a quality at-bat, and if he walks or gets hit or happens to get a piece of something, God help him run the bases."
Springer did not play against the Dodgers in the 2025 MLB regular season when Toronto was in Los Angeles for a three-game series at Dodger Stadium from August 8-10. He was recovering from a concussion after being his in the head with a pitch on July 28. LA won the series two games to one and outscored Toronto 18-7. The Jays lone win was a 5-4 victory when Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Barger and Clement hit solo home runs.
World Series Game 1 goes Friday at 8 p.m. ET inside Rogers Centre in downtown Toronto.
