Whose legacies are on the line in this World Series?

The 2024 World Series features a level of star power that we haven't seen in quite some time. Over the next week, some of baseball's biggest names could craft their own legends in real time. Here are nine characters in this year's Fall Classic who have the most to gain - and lose - in terms of their legacies with the Yankees, Dodgers, and in baseball at large.

9. Freddie Freeman

How big a role Freeman will play in this series remains to be seen; he's battling through a severe ankle sprain that's clearly made it difficult for him to produce at his usual level. Still, the Dodgers don't get this far without Freeman, now the sport's active leader in hits, doubles, RBIs, and runs scored. Everything he's accomplished has already put him on a clear Hall of Fame path - and perhaps into the inner circle of all-time first basemen. A second World Series title would only burnish his glowing resume.

8. Yoshinobu Yamamoto

Yamamoto's injury-plagued rookie season provided plenty of flashes of how great he is and how great he can be. As he leads a decimated Dodgers rotation into the World Series, he's got a chance to properly introduce himself to the majors. He's risen to the occasion before: Around this time last year, Yamamoto saved the Orix Buffaloes' season with a 14-strikeout masterpiece in Game 6 of the Japan Series. Obviously, he won't throw a complete game in the World Series, but L.A. desperately needs that kind of performance from him, even in a shorter outing. The Dodgers have a tradition of pitching excellence, especially in the playoffs. Two great starts against the Yankees would make him a franchise legend forever.

7. Juan Soto

Soto's a generational talent who's already earned his place among the great modern hitters, and we know he shows up in October. Now try this on for size: A World Series win this year would give Soto, who turns 26 on Friday, rings with multiple teams before his 27th birthday. He's a week or so away from cementing his place in baseball lore forever - not to mention pushing his next gigantic paycheck into a whole different stratosphere. Not bad for a guy who's really only a year or so into his prime.

6. Mookie Betts

A Dodgers win would give Betts three World Series titles in the last seven seasons. That's quite an accomplishment in the era of expanded playoffs. His production has mostly put the narrative about his October struggles to bed, and he'll be a key component of the Dodgers' attack against New York. Betts' legacy as one of the best all-around players of his generation is fairly secure already, but a World Series performance to remember would bump him up a few notches.

5. Gerrit Cole

Cole grew up dreaming of pitching the Yankees to a World Series title. Now he's got his chance. He's won a Cy Young, but like everyone who plays for this franchise, his ultimate success in pinstripes will be defined by World Series success. Although he's had some great playoff starts in his career, including in the Fall Classic, he's also authored his share of clunkers. Pitching his team to a title in the era of bullpens would help vault him into a new category of ace.

4. Giancarlo Stanton

Stanton was quietly crafting one heck of an October legend with the Yankees even before winning ALCS MVP. Now he's got an opportunity to top that in the World Series, which would do a lot more to improve the way he's perceived. Adding a ring to a resume that already includes an NL MVP and two home-run titles - and that may go on to feature 500 homers - would play well with Hall of Fame voters down the road. Stanton's Yankees tenure, while good in general, hasn't lived up to the overall expectations that came with his contract and acquisition on the heels of his MVP season. One memorable World Series performance in pinstripes permanently flips that narrative.

3. Aaron Boone and Dave Roberts

Two embattled managers whose jobs were once in serious jeopardy are meeting in the World Series. Boone's .584 winning percentage is second-highest among active managers - trailing only Roberts - and he's never posted a losing record, but his critics get louder with each season as his Yankees teams fail to finish the job in October. Roberts' accomplishments to date put him on a Hall of Fame trajectory: The Dodgers made the playoffs in each of his first nine seasons while winning four pennants. But his one ring came in the shortened 2020 season, a fact that's not lost on those who bring up his other playoff shortcomings. The pressure on both skippers in this series is huge, and the loser will likely face even more questions from their harshest critics.

2. Shohei Ohtani

This was what the baseball world was dreaming of while watching Ohtani dominate in the World Baseball Classic. After authoring a historic regular season that'll make him the second player to win an MVP in both leagues, his first playoff run culminates in his World Series debut. So much is expected of Ohtani here, both on the heels of his outstanding NLCS performance and because he seems to thrive when the lights are brightest. Ohtani's also trying to join a select group of players who've won both a World Series in the U.S. and a Japan Series in NPB (Yamamoto can also enter this club). For all of his groundbreaking two-way play, this series - where he's only available as a designated hitter - stands as the defining moment of Ohtani's career. It also gives him a chance to go out on top to close what's arguably the greatest all-around offensive season ever.

1. Aaron Judge

Judge's Yankees career thus far will get him into Monument Park no matter what happens in this series. But a ring - the central tenet of true Yankees immortality - is glaringly absent from his otherwise brilliant resume. The Bombers' homegrown superstar has a shot to end the second-longest title drought in franchise history, a feat that would cement his place alongside Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Berra, Jeter, and Rivera in the upper echelon of Yankees icons. A monster series, or even a couple of career-defining moments, will erase talk of his October disappearing acts forever. This is what the Yankees had in mind when they named Judge captain. Now it's up to him to execute and bring title No. 28 to the Bronx.