ESPN.com · Sep 23, 2025
2025 MLB playoffs: Ranking teams by World Series pressure
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Which playoff team most needs to win the World Series?
This is a question we try to answer around this time every year. What builds the pressure to win right now? The answer is a little different for every team, and the force of that pressure changes with each passing season. Teams age. Free agents leave and arrive. Playoff disappointments pile up. Playoff absences chafe.
The more success a team has without winning it all, the more the pressure builds up. Not until it wins it all does that pressure finally release, resetting the valve, and fans of that team can relax. Only the Dodgers' faithful are in a state of pure release -- because L.A. won just last year.