Ranking Every Potential 2024 World Series Matchup Ahead of MLB Divisional Round
Following the New York Mets' dramatic ninth-inning comeback in Thursday night's winner-take-all showdown with the Milwaukee Brewers, the 2024 Major League Baseball postseason field has already been whittled down to just eight teams.
That means there are 16 possible World Series matchups still in play.
So let's rank 'em in order of how awesome they would be.
Several of those potential pairings would be absolutely incredible.
Others, eh...not so much.
We've divided the possibilities into seven tiers, ranging from "It would be tough to convince any neutral fans to watch that one" to "Please, I would give a kidney for that dream pairing."
The "Nobody Wants This" Tier
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16. Detroit Tigers vs. San Diego Padres
15. Kansas City Royals vs. San Diego Padres
With all due respect to these three very good teams, the TV ratings for these matchups would likely be even worse than last year's Texas-Arizona ad revenue nightmare.
Sure, you and I know about Detroit's unbelievable run over the past two months, how great San Diego's Michael King and Jackson Merrill have been for longer than that, and the intriguing dynamic of Kansas City signing Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha away from the Padres this past winter.
And we would *enjoy* either matchup, as we did last year's World Series.
But even the exploding star power of Bobby Witt Jr. or Tarik Skubal wouldn't be enough to move the national needle for a showdown between teams from these smaller markets.
(Note: Cleveland is every bit as small a market as Detroit and Kansas City, but having the longest championship drought in the sport gives their possible matchups a sizable boost.)
The "This Is Better...But Still Not Great" Tier
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14. Kansas City Royals vs. New York Mets
13. Detroit Tigers vs. Philadelphia Phillies
12. Kansas City Royals vs. Philadelphia Phillies
Royals-Mets at least has a rematch factor in play, as they met (no pun intended) back in 2015. Beyond Lindor vs. Witt in a battle of soon-to-be MVP runners-up, though, there's just something missing that makes this by far the least intriguing of the possible series involving the Mets.
Tigers-Phillies is also lacking something. It would be interesting if Matt Vierling or Kody Clemens played a key role in the series after they were involved in a trade two winters ago. Also, I'll take as many Skubal vs. Wheeler matchups as possible, please and thank you. But Phillies-Tigers would be about as exciting as Phillies-Rays was 16 years ago. (Hopefully, with fewer weather postponements.)
Royals-Phillies would be a rematch of the 1980 World Series and also a battle between the two cities the Athletics used to play in before their 57-year stay in Oakland. In less ancient history, though, it would be arguably the best pitching matchup possible. Wheeler, Sánchez, and Nola against Ragans, Lugo and Wacha have the potential to be amazing—provided you prefer 2-1 duels to 10-9 slugfests.
The "David vs. Goliath" Tier
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11. Kansas City Royals vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
10. Detroit Tigers vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
9. Cleveland Guardians vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
Per USA Today, the Cleveland Guardians had the third-lowest Opening Day payroll at $93.3 million. The Detroit Tigers were a bit ahead of that at $103.8 million. The Kansas City Royals were still bottom 10 in the majors at $115.3 million.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers spent $1.3 billion this past offseason on signing/extending four players—Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Will Smith—in the process of putting together a top-five Opening Day payroll for a 12th consecutive year.
And save for that Dodgers-Rays World Series in 2020, it's been a hot minute since we last had a David vs. Goliath matchup pitting a top-three OD payroll against a bottom-10 OD payroll.
Cleveland-Chicago in 2016 was close, but the Cubs' OD payroll didn't tick up into the top five until a couple of years later. (Plus, they were dealing with that 108-year curse, anyway, and didn't feel like a juggernaut.)
You need to go back to 2007 for Red Sox (No. 2 OD payroll) vs. Rockies (No. 25) for the last time a 162-game season ended with such a World Series. And, well, Goliath pounded David to a pulp in that one with Boston winning in a sweep.
Before that, though, the Marlins (No. 25) over the Yankees (No. 1) in the 2003 World Series was a massive upset, and maybe one of these AL Central penny-pinchers could pull off a similar stunner over the spending limit-less Dodgers.
Goodness knows all the neutral fans would be pulling for the Guardians/Royals/Tigers.
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The "Ending the Longest Championship Drought" Tier
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8. Cleveland Guardians vs. Philadelphia Phillies
7. Cleveland Guardians vs. San Diego Padres
6. Cleveland Guardians vs. New York Mets
The previous tier was put in ascending order of how wide the divide would be in Opening Day payrolls, which is why the Guardians landed at the top.
As luck would have it, that means Cleveland occupies four consecutive spots in the rankings, as any series involving the team with the longest active World Series drought (75 years) would be pretty cool.
Without question, though, the most intriguing matchup for the Guardians would be the Mets, as Cleveland's trading Francisco Lindor to New York was at least symbolically the beginning of Steve Cohen leaving no stone unturned (and no dollars unspent) in trying to turn that franchise around.
Cleveland vs. San Diego would also be interesting in the spirit of World Series droughts.
It has been three-quarters of a century since Cleveland last won one, but at least it does have two wins in franchise history. The Padres (established in 1969) are one of five active franchises that have never won it all, and perhaps they can follow in the Rangers' footsteps from yesteryear by ending that eternal sadness.
Guardians-Phillies feels like a perfectly middle-of-the-road World Series, but it could be wildly entertaining, full of games where Philadelphia jumps out to an early lead by virtue of its superior rotation but repeatedly has to keep the Guardians from making a comeback while Cleveland's elite bullpen just refuses to allow the Phillies to tack on insurance runs.
The "Red Hot No. 6 Seeds" Tier
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5. Detroit Tigers vs. New York Mets
At the end of play on June 2, the New York Mets were 24-35; an unmitigated disaster that seemed destined to trade away Pete Alonso ahead of the deadline. They had around an 11 percent chance of making the postseason, and even that seemed generous.
A month later, the Detroit Tigers were 38-47; an even more improbable postseason team that ultimately did trade away all of its impending free agents. By August 10, they had a 0.5 percent chance of crashing the playoffs—the same odds as flipping heads on a coin eight times in a row.
But New York has the best record in baseball dating back to June 3 (65-38), while Detroit has been the top dog since August 11 (31-13). Both are surging into the postseason by a narrow margin.
Long story short, these ain't your average No. 6 seeds.
The Tigers and Mets have been playing like the two best teams in baseball for quite some time, feeling like a pair of runaway freight trains on a collision course, even though neither one will have home-field advantage at any point in the postseason before this possible pairing—where 89-win New York would have that edge over 86-win Detroit.
From a ratings perspective, this one may not do very well. However, it has the potential to be an extremely entertaining World Series.
The "Big Ratings" Tier
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4. New York Yankees vs. Philadelphia Phillies
3. New York Yankees vs. New York Mets
2. New York Yankees vs. San Diego Padres
The worst-kept secret heading into the ALDS is that Major League Baseball is desperately rooting for the Yankees to end their 15-year pennant drought.
Because while it's awesome that the Royals went straight from a 106-loss train wreck to the postseason—and while it'd be fun to see what a Bobby Witt Jr. or Tarik Skubal can do on the grand stage of a World Series—there's no question that Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and the New York Yankees would draw way more eyeballs than any of the AL Central teams would in a World Series.
Now, our goal here wasn't to rank the possible World Series matchups in order of theoretical TV ratings. We're just aiming for the most entertaining and compelling pairings.
In this case, though, those just so happen to be one and the same.
As far as the order of NL opponents is concerned, the Phillies are definitely at the bottom of the list.
That's not because it would be a bad matchup by any means. A rematch of the 2009 World Series would be quite entertaining, even in the eyes of this Washington Nationals fan who might need a stiff drink while watching Juan Soto battle Bryce Harper and Trea Turner for all the marbles.
It's because it can't quite hold a candle to the Subway Series or the possible intrigue of Juan Soto taking on Michael King, Kyle Higashioka, and the Padres in what may have been the greatest win-win trade in MLB history.
The "Dream Matchup" Tier
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1. New York Yankees vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
You would think that the AL MVP and NL MVP meet in the World Series on a somewhat regular basis, right?
Not every year, of course, but maybe once per decade?
Well, in the past 35 years, it has only happened once, when Buster Posey and the San Francisco Giants swept Miguel Cabrera and the Detroit Tigers in the 2012 World Series.
But what a dream it would be to have it happen again this year.
Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani were already the two most popular players in all of baseball. The former's free agency watch during the 2022-23 offseason almost broke the internet, while the latter's journey to a $700M contract the following winter was even more of a constant narrative.
(Long live 'Arson Judge' to the Giants and that Ohtani-less private jet to Toronto.)
It has already been great for baseball that both of them had historically great seasons en route to No. 1 seeds and what will surely be additional MVP trophies for each.
But now we're getting greedy.
We want Judge (and Juan Soto and Gerrit Cole) vs. Ohtani (and Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman) in a World Series showdown between the two biggest sports franchises.
It's been a long time since we had a "Cancel all of your plans on those seven days in late October to be sure you're watching every game of it" type of World Series, but Yankees-Dodgers would fit the bill.
And if we do get that matchup, remember that the Nielsen ratings everyone loves to reference only count U.S. television-equipped households. Have to believe with Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto involved, it would be the most internationally watched World Series of all time.
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