The Major League Baseball season has come down to four teams competing for the sport’s ultimate prize. Those four teams also represent all sides of baseball’s payroll spectrum.

In the National League, you have the Los Angeles Dodgers, who entered the postseason with the highest active payroll of any MLB team at close to $266 million, squaring off against the Milwaukee Brewers, who rank 24th in active payroll at $37.7 million.

In the American League, the Toronto Blue Jays have the fourth-highest active payroll at just over $186 million facing the Seattle Mariners, ranking 18th at $61.4 million.

The Colorado Rockies, by the way, rank 17th at $58.1 million.

Those numbers show the 2025 postseason isn’t always about high salaries as much as creative roster construction. Twelve of the 14 teams with an active payroll of more than $100 million are sitting at home.

Previews and predictions

American League Championship Series — Seattle Mariners vs. Toronto Blue Jays

The top two seeds in the AL meet in what should be a fascinating ALCS. Second-seeded Seattle has never been in the World Series and survived a five-game instant classic with the Detroit Tigers to advance. Top-seeded Toronto ousted the New York Yankees in four games, pounding New York pitching for 23 runs in the first two games north of the border to gain the edge.

How they fared against the Rockies in 2025

Both Seattle and Toronto swept the Rockies in their three-game matchups.

Key question

Can Seattle’s pitching keep Toronto’s big bats in check? Toronto won the season series 4-2 and scored four or more runs in five of the eight games.

The Mariners, however, showed the strength of their pitching in the series against Detroit, posting a combined 3.29 ERA in the five games. Will that be enough to slow down the Blue Jays, who hit .338 in their series against the Yankees?

Key player to watch

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was ridiculous against the Yankees, logging a .529 batting average in 17 at-bats with three homers and nine RBI. The Toronto first baseman has been a Yankee-killer throughout his career, slashing .302/.367/.550 in 430 regular-season plate appearances and stepped that up this postseason.

Guerrero’s numbers come down slightly against the Mariners, slashing .255/.364/.394 in 162 plate appearances. While it’s an improvement, those numbers are anything but pedestrian, meaning the Mariners must keep him in check to slow down the Toronto offense.

National League Championship Series — Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Milwaukee Brewers

Top-seeded Milwaukee posted a perfect 6-0 record against the third-seeded Dodgers this season, with only one of the wins coming by more than two runs. Milwaukee has only been to the World Series once, losing to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1982. Los Angeles is the defending world champions, one of eight titles in franchise history.

How they fared against the Rockies in 2025

Milwaukee won the season series 4-2 over the Rockies while the Dodgers went 11-2 against their NL West rivals.

Key question

Can the Los Angeles bullpen pull it together? Dodgers relievers have been a concern in 2025, and that has continued in the postseason as well. The Los Angeles bullpen has a 5.75 ERA in 20.1 October innings.

Key player to watch

Milwaukee’s Jackson Chourio was impressive in the NLDS, posting a .389 average in 18 at-bats. That includes an 0-for-3 performance in Game 5 from the leadoff spot, something that will slow the Milwaukee offense if it happens in the NLCS.

World Series prediction — Dodgers vs. Blue Jays

Why this matchup: The Dodgers are like Thanos, inevitable. Even when the three former MVPs in their lineup (Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman) aren’t clicking, less-heralded players like Kiké Hernandez and Max Muncy (both of whom hit over .300 in the NLDS win over the Philadelphia Phillies) come through. The lineup is deep and, on paper, showing that the massive investment Los Angeles made in the roster is paying dividends at the right time.

On the other side, it feels like Seattle spent so much of its energy (and pitching) getting to the ALCS that Toronto could have an advantage with the extra rest and waiting for the Mariners to arrive in Canada for Games 1 and 2 to open the series. The Blue Jays have a chance to jump on Seattle early (in the same way they did the Yankees after the Boston Red Sox took them to the limit in the wild-card round) and that could be the death knell for Seattle’s World Series hopes.

Key fact

In this scenario, the Blue Jays (94-68 in the regular season) would have home-field advantage over the Dodgers (93-69) in the World Series. That might be a huge plus for the Blue Jays, who dropped two of three to Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium in August.

World Series prediction

Toronto tops the Dodgers at home in a tense Game 7, giving the franchise its first World Series win since 1993.