Ranking World Series champs since 2000: 5-1
Not every World Series champion is created equally. While the marathon, 162-game schedule often gives a great idea as to which club is truly the best, the postseason is more of a crapshoot - all it takes is for a lesser team to get hot at the right time. With baseball on hiatus, theScore's editors broke down the last 20 years of champions and ranked them according to regular-season records, playoff dominance, and historical significance.
5. Boston Red Sox, 2018
Record: 108-54
World Series: 4-1 vs. LAD
The 2018 Red Sox were a juggernaut in every sense.
The deep and talented squad steamrolled its way to a franchise-record 108 wins, the most for any MLB team in 17 years. Boston owned the league's best all-around offense, leading the majors in every slash-line category and scoring 876 runs. The lineup was anchored by AL MVP Mookie Betts, who posted a 30-30 season, and Hank Aaron Award winner J.D. Martinez, who belted 43 home runs.
Chris Sale led the way on the mound, posting a 2.11 ERA and 1.98 FIP in 27 starts. Former Cy Young winner David Price produced a brilliant comeback season and shed his October choker label for good in the World Series. Midseason pickup Nathan Eovaldi starred down the stretch, and Craig Kimbrel locked the door by saving 42 games.
Their dominant regular season was merely the beginning. The Red Sox lost just three times in the playoffs, dispatching two other 100-win teams - the Yankees and Astros - in four and five games, respectively, before beating the Dodgers in five to win the World Series.
Questions will certainly be raised about this team. MLB found the Red Sox to have illegally stolen signs, but replay coordinator J.T. Watkins was the only member of the organization who was punished. The league's investigation concluded the team didn't cheat during the 2018 playoffs and its sign-stealing was "far more limited" than what the Astros did in 2017.
The Red Sox fall down this list due in large part to the scandal, but their legacy shouldn't be tainted quite like the Astros'. From top to bottom, this Boston squad was one of the greatest to take the field. Few teams ever managed to make it look that easy.
4. Anaheim Angels, 2002
Record: 99-63
World Series: 4-3 vs. SF
With 99 regular-season wins, the 2002 Angels defy the notion that wild-card teams somehow don't belong with the other postseason qualifiers. Were it not for the 103-win Athletics, the Angels would have claimed the AL West. They also would have won three other divisions (AL Central, NL Central, NL West).
A rough 11-14 stretch between March and April may have been all that prevented Anaheim from winning its division outright.
The offense, as a whole, wasn't powerful - it ranked 21st with 152 home runs, and Troy Glaus and Garret Anderson combined for 59 of them - but found a way to score 851 runs in the regular season. And no team made more consistent contact than the Angels, who led MLB in batting average (.282) and strikeout percentage (12.7%). An AL-best 3.69 team ERA (led by Jarrod Washburn, veteran Kevin Appier, rookie John Lackey, and closer Troy Percival) combined with the pesky offense to produce a stunning plus-207 run differential.
Anaheim flipped a switch in the postseason and turned into an even greater powerhouse. The 2002 Angels hold the MLB record for postseason hits (182) and runs scored (101). They cruised past the Yankees in the ALDS and thumped the Twins in the ALCS before tight-roping past the Giants in an epic, seven-game World Series showdown, withstanding Barry Bonds in the process. Glaus was named World Series MVP, hitting .344/.420/.770 with seven home runs in the postseason.
3. Boston Red Sox, 2004
Record: 98-64
World Series: 4-0 vs. STL
It took a very special Red Sox club to break the Curse of the Bambino and end the franchise's 86-year championship drought.
The team was littered with legends in their primes, including Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, and Curt Schilling. Boston rolled past St. Louis in the Fall Classic by outscoring the Cardinals 24-12 in a four-game sweep. Ramirez was named World Series MVP after slashing .412/.500/.588.
Closer Keith Foulke was lights-out coming out of the bullpen. The right-hander appeared in all four games and struck out eight hitters across five innings.
The Red Sox wouldn't have reached the World Series had it not been for their historic ALCS comeback against the rival New York Yankees. Boston became the first and only MLB team to win a best-of-seven playoff series after losing the first three contests.
2. New York Yankees, 2009
Record: 103-59
World Series: 4-2 vs. PHI
The Yankees won the 27th title in their illustrious history after overcoming the defending champion Philadelphia Phillies. It marks New York's only World Series triumph in the last 19 seasons.
The championship was the last of five that the vaunted Core Four (Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, and Andy Pettitte) won together. Japanese slugger Hideki Matsui picked up MVP honors in the Fall Classic after clubbing three home runs with eight RBIs and an eye-popping 2.027 OPS in six games. The club also featured All-Stars Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira and three-time AL MVP Alex Rodriguez. New York's dynamic offense led the majors in runs, homers, RBIs, and offensive WAR during the regular season, according to FanGraphs.
Starting pitching wasn't considered a strength, as the rotation had the ninth-best WAR in baseball heading into the postseason. However, a group led by Pettitte, CC Sabathia, and A.J. Burnett did enough to support a powerhouse lineup that overwhelmed opposing hurlers.
1. Chicago Cubs, 2016
Record: 103-58
World Series: 4-3 vs. CLE
It took 108 years, but the Cubs finally ended the league's longest championship drought by winning it all in 2016.
An impressive starting lineup anchored by Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo formed one of MLB's top offenses. Jon Lester, Jake Arrieta, and Kyle Hendricks led baseball's best rotation. And Jason Heyward, for all the talk surrounding his offensive struggles, teamed with Rizzo and Addison Russell to solidify one of the game's finest defenses.
After posting the majors' best regular-season record and reaching 100 wins for the first time since 1935, Chicago showed no signs of slowing down in series victories over the Giants and Dodgers. But it was during one of the most extraordinary and dramatic World Series of all time that the Cubs really stood out.
Having trailed the series 3-1 to the Indians, Chicago became the first team since 1985 to come back from that deficit and win a Fall Classic.
The Cubs' finest work came during Game 7 in Cleveland when they rallied behind a speech from Heyward during a late-inning rain delay and wrote themselves into the history books as one of the sport's greatest teams.