LOS ANGELES – Twelve months ago, on the same stage he found himself back atop Monday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, Clayton Kershaw was beckoned to the dais by his teammates and coaches.
His ailing body had not allowed him to contribute much to the team’s 2024 title run, but the Dodgers knew the future Hall of Famer deserved the moment, and the tears in his eyes displayed what it meant to him. So moved by the gesture, and the euphoria of winning his first full-season championship, Kershaw exclaimed to a fanbase that had lived and died with all of his spectacular successes and gut-wrenching failures over 17 seasons with the team that he was a “Dodger for life.”
One year later, Kershaw could not have written a better storybook ending to a legendary 18-year career.
Clayton Kershaw, a champion in 2024, once again in 2025. (Getty Images)
Forty-six days after Kershaw announced his impending retirement, 36 days after the end of a regular season in which the Dodgers needed their all-time strikeout leader more than they could have possibly imagined and seven days after the 37-year-old lefty navigated his club out of a bases-loaded jam by retiring the only batter he faced in the World Series, Kershaw was the last player with a microphone in his hand at the Dodgers’ second straight championship celebration Monday in Los Angeles.
“Last year, I said I was a Dodger for life,” Kershaw told the crowd. “Today, that’s true. And today, I get to say that I’m a champion for life. And that’s never going away.”
President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman has long discussed his intention of making this the golden era of Dodgers baseball.
With their second straight World Series title and third in the last six years cementing a dynasty, that era is here.
“I think, definitionally, it’s a dynasty,” Friedman said. “But that to me, in a lot of ways, kind of caps it, if you say, ‘OK, this is what it is.’ For me, it’s still evolving and growing, and we want to add to it, and we want to continue it and do everything we can to put it at a level where people after us have a hard time reaching.”
Shohei Ohtani soaks in the crowd at Dodger Stadium. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
In 2020, the Dodgers ended a 32-year championship drought. In 2024, another World Series win silenced the naysayers who tried to downplay the significance of their short-season title. Afterward, 42,468 fans packed Dodger Stadium to celebrate in a way they couldn’t after the COVID-shortened season.
The team’s recent history of success did not temper the city’s revelry this year, as evidenced by the 52,703 cheering fans in attendance Monday at Dodger Stadium, where the team’s parade route ended after double-decker buses navigated the players and coaches through the streets of downtown L.A.
“For it to match the experience we had last year was incredible,” Friedman said, “and it really is a fuel that will push us to do everything we can to do it again and three-peat.”
Thousands lined the streets in downtown L.A. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
That was the prevailing theme of Monday’s celebration.
“What’s better than two?” manager Dave Roberts exclaimed to the crowd, in a nod to his friend Pat Riley. “Three! Three-peat! Three-peat! Let’s go!”
One by one, the Dodgers’ players of prominence got their turn with the microphone. No one got a louder pop than World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who earned the admiration of a city by pitching on back-to-back days to earn wins in Game 6 and 7. After shouldering the weight of his team’s season, his MVP trophy was too heavy to lift. On Monday, though, he said his arm survived.
Yoshinobu Yamamato enjoying the championship vibes. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
On stage, Will Smith and Miguel Rojas, two of the other heroes of Game 7 in Toronto, shared a hug. Smith is a reminder of a record Dodgers payroll that energized the L.A. fanbase and agitated 29 others. Rojas, a 36-year-old part-time player near the end of his career, is an example of the depth required beyond the stars to finish off a World Series title.
“It’s about everybody in this organization doing what they need to do when their name is called,” said Rojas, who singled out a litany of players and plays that allowed the biggest moment of his career to eventually find him.
Others were more boisterous about the team’s latest success.
“My teammates have been pretty humble,” said Kiké Hernández. “But I think it’s time to talk that s—. Everybody’s been asking questions about a dynasty. How about three in six years? How about a back-to-back? Yes, we’re a mother-effin’ dynasty, baby.”
In the end, that can’t be questioned, even though it took more than most anticipated to get to this point. The Dodgers were not the juggernaut many envisioned. As injuries accumulated, their 93 wins were their fewest since 2018. Their offense was volatile. Their bullpen was abominable. Roberts navigated the team through its shortcomings, extracting everything he could from his starting pitchers to get the job done.
The Blue Jays outscored the Dodgers in the World Series and scored 33 more runs than them over the course of the postseason, despite playing in just one more game. They were two outs away from ending the Dodgers’ repeat bid.
But the Dodgers outlasted them.
And in the immediate aftermath of becoming the first back-to-back winners in 25 years, they’re already looking ahead.
Mookie Betts, who now has four World Series rings, said he’s ready to fill his hand up. Shohei Ohtani, who has won titles in each of his first two years with the Dodgers, told the crowd in English that he’s “ready to get another.”
Mookie Betts and Will Smith are gearing up to make more history in 2026.
Added Freddie Freeman: “Job in 2024, done. Job in 2025, done. Job in 2026, starts now.”
Freeman is still waiting for the team’s latest success to sink in. Last year, the 2024 World Series MVP said it took about a month for that to happen. In the meantime, all he can focus on is preparing for 2026, when the Dodgers will attempt to become the first team to three-peat since the Yankees from 1998-2000.
“That’s the thing, we’re not trying to do something that another team did,” Freeman said. “We’re just trying to win every single year. That’s why we do it. I’m gonna take probably three days off before working out again and getting ready for 2026. That’s what we do. We want to win. That’s why we play this game.”
Only one player on the championship stage won’t have to think about that grind again.
A World Series title in 2020 brought Kershaw relief. Another in 2024 brought him to tears. The latest sent the Dodgers’ all-time strikeout leader out on top, with his family next to him on the championship stage.
“It’s beyond words,” Kershaw said. “Today’s so special. I mean, you can’t really script it any better.”
(Photo by Jessie Alcheh/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on X at @RowanKavner.
