The regular season is over and the expanded postseason begins Friday afternoon, so that means it’s once again time for us to make some World Series picks.
Sure, some of us (read: Martell) whiffed horribly on our preseason World Series predictions, but that’s part of the fun! Everyone else’s first World Series winner is still alive. The Yankees led the way in our midseason picks, but that was before a number of injuries and second-half slumps shattered their illusion of invulnerability.
Also, pour one out for Michael Shapiro, who is now working for the Houston Chronicle after a great five-year run as a Sports Illustrated MLB roundtable staple. He picked the Mets to win it all our the first two predictions, and reached by text Wednesday afternoon, Shap decided to triple down on his pick. “Let’s ride with Mets over Astros again, crazier things have happened!”
Finally, Claire Kuwana is making her SI predictions roundtable debut. Let’s see who she and the rest of our MLB staffers are picking to win the 2022 World Series.
Gary A. Vasquez/USA TODAY Sports
Tom Verducci
Prediction: Dodgers over Astros in seven games
MVP: Freddie Freeman
A bye through the first round and home field advantage throughout makes the deepest team in baseball hard to beat.
Freeman is slashing .340/.427/.538 against right-handed pitching, an important slash line against the right-handed-heavy Astros. He is hitting .389 with RISP, including only 18 strikeouts in 197 plate appearances. Be it April or October, Freeman is on the very short list of hitters you want up at the plate in key spots.
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Stephanie Apstein
Prediction: Dodgers over Astros in six games
MVP: Mookie Betts
Maybe I am guilty of dreaming of the story line that would be most tantalizing, but I do think these are clearly the two best teams, and I think in the end that will matter. I give the Dodgers the edge because they have almost no real weakness, and in a seven-game series, they will be almost impossible to beat.
Emma Baccellieri
Prediction: Astros over Braves in seven games
MVP: Yordan Álvarez
Yes, I think we get a rematch of last year's World Series—but this time, I'll pick the Astros to win it all. As deep as the Dodgers are, with as strong a season as they've had, I just find the Braves' stretch-run too compelling to pick against in the NL. This is fundamentally last year's championship-winning team, only better. (And younger … with more key pieces locked in for the long haul. … Get used to seeing them in these picks for a long time!) But if there’s one team that can really challenge them, it’s the Astros, who similarly look even more terrifying than they did in their run to the World Series in 2021. With this rotation heading into October at relatively full strength? I’m taking Houston.
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Claire Kuwana
Prediction: Braves over Astros in six games
MVP: Michael Harris
These Braves are better than last year’s team that won the World Series. Any team that can hit three home runs against Jacob deGrom and two against Max Scherzer in back-to-back must-win games deserves to be taken seriously. Over in the AL, Justin Verlander—39 years old and in his first season back from Tommy John surgery—is showing no signs of slowing down. His dominance atop the rotation and a strong lineup makes the Astros the favorite to win the pennant.
Betting: MLB World Series, AL Pennant, NL Pennant Odds
Will Laws
Prediction: Braves over Mariners in six games
MVP: Ronald Acuña Jr.
I had the Astros beating Atlanta at midseason, but that was before Seattle acquired Luis Castillo. The two AL West rivals haven’t met since the trade deadline, and I think Castillo leads the Mariners, who are playing with house money, and their sneakily fearsome roation to the World Series. But I have them running into the defending champs, who lead the majors in winning percentage (.703), runs per game (5.2) and bullpen ERA (2.72) since June 1, when Michael Harris and Spencer Strider were in the first week of their respective starting roles. Those adjustments have helped the Braves become an even better team than they were last year, and if Strider returns from his tweaked oblique in due time—admittedly a big if—I think we’ll see MLB’s first repeat champs since 2000, led by Acuña, their superstar who wasn’t around for last year’s run.
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Matt Martell
Prediction: Braves over Yankees in seven games
MVP: Dansby Swanson
I nearly picked the Cardinals to win it all, because this is the deepest team they’ve had in some time, and it certainly would be fitting for Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina to win another ring in their final season. But the Braves are just too good. They have a loaded lineup that features eight players with an OPS+ above 100 (league average). They have a deep starting rotation—Max Fried, Kyle Wright, Spencer Strider (if he returns healthy) and Charlie Morton—and a stable of relievers who are capable of pitching in the postseason. At some point, the Yankees will get past the Astros in the ALCS, right? That’ll be this year, but it’ll be too tough for New York to get through both Houston and Atlanta.
Brett Davis/USA TODAY Sports
Nick Selbe
Prediction: Dodgers over Astros in seven games
MVP: Mookie Betts
The 2017 rematch everybody wants to see. Though key players (and one team’s manager) have come and gone, there would be no love lost between these two sides, particularly among the fan bases. Houston has the pitching depth and firepower to make a return trip to the World Series, but the Dodgers have been a historically dominant team that could solidify themselves as one of the greatest in the game’s history. There’s no shortage of star power to choose from for MVP, so I’ll go with Betts to be the difference maker in what should be an instant classic of a matchup.
