{"id":237123,"date":"2025-10-24T14:36:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T14:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/237123\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T14:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T14:36:09","slug":"last-minute-storylines-before-world-series-game-1-plus-expos-documentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/237123\/","title":{"rendered":"Last-minute storylines before World Series Game 1, plus Expos documentary"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Windup Newsletter \u26be | This is The Athletic\u2019s MLB<\/a> newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive The Windup directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

The World Series (finally) starts tonight! Plus a new documentary about the Expos feels awfully familiar in 2025, and I would love to stop writing about the Angels, but they keep doing things. I\u2019m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Time: The World Series (finally) starts tonight!<\/p>\n

Here are a few last-minute storylines.<\/p>\n

Yes, the Dodgers are significant favorites. They have the\u00a0biggest star in the sport<\/a>\u00a0(and many other really big ones). But as for the idea that they\u2019re \u201cruining baseball,\u201d Jayson Stark\u00a0says that\u2019s simply not the case<\/a>. And it turns out that\u00a0most of you \u2026 agree? I think?<\/a><\/p>\n

And while the Blue Jays have found themselves coming in second to the Dodgers\u00a0a fair amount over the last few years<\/a>, well \u2026 they are in the World Series, after all. Eno Sarris dug into the numbers and and found that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been\u00a0swinging the bat harder<\/a>\u00a0this postseason \u2014\u00a0most of the team has, in fact \u2014 and it\u2019s paying off.<\/p>\n

Personnel-wise, it looks like Toronto will have Bo Bichette back from a knee sprain that has kept him out since Sept. 6. But he might not be limited to DH duties \u2014\u00a0he took grounders at second base this week and\u00a0could play there<\/a>, despite having never having done so in the big leagues.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Dodgers are down a reliever, and we\u2019re not sure for how long. Alex Vesia is\u00a0away from the team<\/a>\u00a0due to a \u201cdeeply personal family matter.\u201d Here\u2019s hoping for the best.<\/p>\n

Tonight:\u00a0For the Dodgers, it will be Blake Snell and his 0.86 postseason ERA vs.\u00a0rookie Trey Yesavage for the Blue Jays<\/a>\u00a0in Game 1 at 8 p.m. ET on FOX. (Stream on Fubo \u2014\u00a0try it for free<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

More World Series:<\/p>\n

Ken\u2019s Notebook: Notes, heading into Game 1<\/p>\n

Yesavage\u2019s rest schedule: His start on Game 1 will be only his fifth as a professional on four days rest, and only his second in the majors. His 23 other starts \u2014 in the majors, minors and postseason \u2014 have been on five days rest or more. Before deciding on their rotation, the Jays spoke with their medical staff and each pitcher individually. Pitching coach Pete Walker said the 22-year-old is recovering well between starts, and when the Jays asked him his best-case scenario, he said he would be ready for Game 1.<\/p>\n

Snell\u2019s new challenge: The only seasons in which Snell threw 180 or more innings were 2018 with Tampa Bay and 2023 with San Diego \u2014 his two Cy Young campaigns. Snell missed nearly four months this season with left shoulder inflammation. Now that he is healthy, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is challenging him to pitch deeper into games, and Snell is embracing that challenge. His eight-inning start against the Brewers in Game 1 of the NLCS was the second-longest of his career, behind only his no-hitter against Cincinnati in 2024.<\/p>\n

Mookie Betts\u2019 defense: Notoriously hard on himself, Betts describes this season as his most humbling and the one in which he has learned the most. But while his offensive numbers were the worst of his career, Betts deserves enormous credit for how smoothly he transitioned from right field to shortstop. Betts tied for the major-league lead in Defensive Runs Saved among shortstops and also rated highly in the Statcast metric, Outs Above Average. And he did at 32, an age when most shortstops are slowing down.<\/p>\n

Bichette\u2019s return: To understand why the Jays were so eager to activate Bichette, consider the words of Ernie Clement. \u201cIn a way he\u2019s been our heart and soul on the offensive side all year,\u201d Clement said. \u201cTo have almost 100 RBIs and not hit 20 homers, I don\u2019t think that happens very often. He had so many big hits in big spots with guys on base. Anytime you can add that back into the lineup it\u2019s really going to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch This: Who really killed the Expos?<\/p>\n

The last time a Canadian team played in the World Series, the 1993 Blue Jays weren\u2019t Canada\u2019s only team. The Montreal Expos were the country\u2019s elder statesmen, having come into existence in 1969 \u2014 eight years before the Blue Jays.<\/p>\n

So many great players began their career in Montreal: Gary Carter, Vladimir Guerrero (Sr.), Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, Larry Walker and Randy Johnson, just to name a few Hall of Famers. Pedro Martinez became a star there. Before the Expos arrived, the Montreal Royals were a Brooklyn Dodgers affiliate, the first team Jackie Robinson played for after signing with the franchise.<\/p>\n

With Toronto hosting Game 1 of the World Series in Toronto tonight, the timing couldn\u2019t be more perfect for Netflix\u2019s new documentary \u201cWho Killed the Montreal Expos<\/a>?\u201d<\/p>\n

The saviors-turned suspects include:<\/p>\n

Claude Brochu, who put together a collective of local investors to keep the team in Montreal in 1991. By 1994, the Expos had the best record in the league at 74-40 \u2026 until the strike scuttled the second half of the season. Citing $20 million in lost revenue, Brochu jettisoned John Wetteland, Ken Hill, Marquis Grissom and Larry Walker in early 1995. The Expos finished in last place in the division that year.
\nLucien Bouchard, Premier of Quebec, who wouldn\u2019t approve public funding for a stadium because things like schools, hospitals and infrastructure needed funding, and he insisted on taking care of those essentials rather than handing over a ballpark to a private entity. How dare he?
\nThen of course, there are Jeffrey Loria and his stepson David Samson. Loria initially infused the Expos with more cash, but tried to run the Expos like any other MLB team in a market where that wasn\u2019t entirely feasible. He ultimately bought out most of the local minority owners, then jumped ship, buying the Marlins in 2002 and leaving MLB to operate the club. It moved to Washington, D.C. in 2005.<\/p>\n

For much of the Expos\u2019 existence, they and their fans were a shining example of what a baseball team could mean to a community. But when the team was no longer able to provide the level of profit desired, it was taken from those fans who had made it a central part of their community.<\/p>\n

In the end, what killed baseball in Montreal was the same thing that killed it in Oakland last year: money.<\/p>\n

More Expos: Cody Stavenhagen spoke to the photographers who took\u00a0two now-iconic photos of Guerrero Jr.<\/a>\u00a0when he was just \u201cVlad\u2019s kid\u201d in Montreal.<\/p>\n

More Canadian father-son duos: Dan (TV) and Ben (radio) Shulman will be the\u00a0first father-son duo to call the World Series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Debacles: More Angels (sorry)<\/p>\n

Sorry to keep harping on the Angels (\u201charp\u201d pun noted but unintentional).<\/p>\n

But sheesh. Read\u00a0this exchange<\/a>\u00a0between Sam Blum and Angels GM Perry Minasian about reports of Yusei Kikuchi saying that the A\/C didn\u2019t work in the team\u2019s weight room \u2026 and then\u00a0check out the team\u2019s job posting<\/a>\u00a0from a few hours later. (Yes, an HVAC tech!)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s comical, but not as funny as it would be if it wasn\u2019t happening while more details emerge in the civil trial between the Angels and the family of Tyler Skaggs. The latest revelation: the team didn\u2019t even fire Eric Kay after Skaggs\u2019 death \u2014\u00a0he was allowed to resign voluntarily.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the most consequential detail, but it\u2019s not a good look \u2014\u00a0especially when compared to another situation preceding it:<\/p>\n

Graham asked Castro about an incident of alleged impairment involving an employee who was not Kay, and the strict and swift action that Angels HR took to investigate and punish that employee.<\/p>\n

In that instance, a 63-year-old longtime custodial worker was fired for drinking a White Claw, a hard seltzer, on her break. The worker told HR that her husband packed the drink, and that she was unaware it had alcohol. She also showed no signs of impairment, Castro acknowledged. Castro said the Angels found her story credible, but the decision came from above Castro to fire her.<\/p>\n

More Angels:<\/p>\n

Handshakes and High Fives<\/p>\n

On the pods:\u00a0Rates & Barrels<\/a> looks at some key World Series matchups here, and later today, they\u2019ll talk to beat writers Mitch Bannon and Fabian Ardaya.<\/p>\n

Most-clicked yesterday: Jim Bowden on\u00a0the 10 MLB stars most likely to be traded<\/a>\u00a0this offseason.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb Love The Windup? Check out\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Windup Newsletter \u26be | This is The Athletic\u2019s MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-237123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}