New ESPN list confirms Dodgers live rent-free in every other team’s head

At last year's DodgerFest, Mookie Betts said, "Every game [against us] is gonna be the other team's World Series." It was a potentially dangerous thing to say, as it raised the stakes for the Dodgers more than anyone else, but no one proved him wrong.

Players for other teams, especially those in the NL West, were constantly asked how they were going to fare against the Dodgers after they signed Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Teoscar Hernandez.

It's no different this year; if anything, it's a lot worse. The likes of Manny Machado and Kevin Ginkel have already been asked to weigh in on the Padres' and Diamondbacks' chances this year, and beat writers from across the league are propping up their team's accomplishments based on what they do against the Dodgers. White Sox prospect Shane Smith made news when he pitched three innings against LA in a spring training game and struck out five.

A recent ESPN article from Alden Gonzalez asks if the Dodgers are "MLB's villains or its gold standard," and another chose six teams who could take down the Dodgers in 2025, listing the Diamondbacks, Braves, Orioles, Phillies, Padres, and Red Sox.

ESPN's list of six teams who could beat the Dodgers in 2025 proves everyone is worried about LA

This didn't happen in 2023, after the Rangers beat the Diamondbacks to win the World Series. If anything, most expected the Rangers to regress a bit and still struggle against the Astros to win the AL West in 2024. Sure enough, Texas ended the season under .500 and Houston won the division once again.

Of course, the Rangers didn't have the kind of offseason the Dodgers did following their World Series win, and didn't have as much star power to propel them to the Fall Classic in the first place. Still, this solidifies the fact that even if other teams don't want to think about the Dodgers and barely have to, they're going to be forced to, and that's probably because national outlets are obsessed with inserting the Dodgers into every conversation with every other team.

Maybe they're the villains and the gold standard; it's possible to be both. The Dodgers, for their part, just seem interested in playing well, and after a commanding performance in the Tokyo Series, it's clear they're ready to live up to all the hype.