Dodgers new bullpen hero has fans wondering where he's been all along

October is the season for unlikely heroes in baseball. It’s when the sport’s long, methodical rhythm gives way to chaos – when the smallest moments, strangest breaks and most overlooked players can suddenly define legacies. The postseason is built to create drama, and that drama has a way of finding the players you’d least expect.

In Game 3 of the World Series, that player was Los Angeles Dodgers relief pitcher Will Klein.

Klein, a 25-year-old right-hander, entered the 2025 season as a relative unknown. He was selected by the Kansas City Royals in the fifth round of the 2020 MLB Draft and landed with the Athletics via trade last year. The Athletics designated him for assignment and then traded him to the Seattle Mariners in January, and Seattle flipped him to the Dodgers in June.

With Los Angeles, Klein appeared in 14 regular-season games, posting a 2.35 ERA over 15 1/3 innings. He wasn't even on the Dodgers' postseason roster for the first three rounds, barely making the cut for the World Series roster with Alex Vesia taking a leave of absence from the team due to a personal matter.

In Monday's Game 3 against the Toronto Blue Jays, which lasted 18 innings, Klein came in as essentially the “last man out” in the bullpen. He pitched four scoreless innings, allowed only one hit, struck out five batters and threw 72 pitches – the longest outing of his Major League career. Freddie Freeman will be remembered as the one who hit the walk-off home run for the Dodgers in the bottom of the 18th, but Klein was the unlikely hero who made sure they got there in the first place.

Klein's performance came at a time when the Dodgers’ bullpen had been a weakness (and that's putting it lightly), and their options were stretched. Klein stepping up helped turn a major bullpen concern into one of the biggest wins of their postseason.

Will Klein became a World Series hero when Dodgers bullpen needed him the most

Klein was originally a low-leverage reliever, someone who might get an inning or two in the regular season. But when the high-leverage pitchers either faltered or were unavailable in Game 3, the Dodgers gave him his shot – and he delivered.

“I started to feel it,” Klein said (via AJ Cassavell of MLB.com). “There were times when you're starting to feel down and you feel your legs aren't there or your arm's not there. And you’ve just got to be like, ‘Well, who else is going to come save me, you know?’”

Klein wasn't a guy spoiled for high-leverage innings all year. He was in the background, bouncing around organizations, working his way up. But when the Dodgers needed someone to step up in a marathon game, he did. That matters. The bullpen problems didn’t vanish overnight, but Klein’s performance turned one of the team’s weakest links into a moment of triumph. And in the postseason, sometimes one moment is everything.

October belongs to the unlikely heroes because baseball, at its core, is a game of moments. Over 162 games, luck evens out. In October, it doesn’t. And that’s when legends who were once footnotes get written into history forever.

Now, with a Game 7 ahead of us and the Dodgers' pitching staff still seeking answers ... will we see Klein one more time?