MLB’s top two comeback teams faced off in the 2025 World Series. But has this style of play historically led to postseason success, or was this season an outlier?
Toronto Blue Jays fans will not soon forget the feeling of being two outs away from winning their first World Series in 32 years this past November. And they will definitely not forget the feeling when the Los Angeles Dodgers’ number 9 hitter, Miguel Rojas, hit an 11th inning home run in game seven shortly thereafter to crush that dream. It’s the same feeling Seattle Mariners fans are faced with when they recall George Springer’s ALCS comeback leading home run just weeks before that sent their World Series dreams packing too.
Comeback wins were the story of the 2025 MLB season. The World Series saw the top two comeback teams face off in the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers. But does this heart-racing, never-say-die style of play actually matter when it’s time for the postseason, or was this year an outlier?
As MLB teams look to construct their 2026 rosters, here is a look at whether being a successful comeback win team in the regular season has historically led to postseason success.
In baseball, a comeback is when a team is trailing by any amount of runs at any point in a game and must make a come from behind in order to win. A comeback win is achieved when they do just that.
Looking at the 2025 season, the Toronto Blue Jays led MLB in regular season comeback wins with 49. The Dodgers ranked second with 48. That means the Jays were trailing a game that they ended up winning 49 times. Of their 94 regular season wins, over 52 per cent were via the comeback, making that their signature style of play that fans grew to expect and oppositions learned to fear.
At face value, this style of play can be indicative of many features of a team.
“Partly it’s the skillsets of the players, where offensively this group is going to find a way to put pressure on the opposition,” says Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith. “Whether it’s fouling off pitches, having tough at bats against pitchers, or making contact to put pressure on fielders.”
The 2025 Blue Jays showcased just that, leading the league in batting average and fielding a lineup with elite contact hitters like Bo Bichette, Alejandro Kirk and Ernie Clement.
But it’s more than just the physical attributes of a team that lead to comeback win success.
MLB writer Keegan Matheson believes it takes a combination of things to achieve this style of play. “It’s the perfect mix of roster and manager, and success. You need all three of those things,” says Matheson.
Thriving in comeback situations means a complete buy-in from a team to never mentally check out of a game. It means a manager has cultivated a clubhouse where players believe they can get back into any game, the in-game decisions reflect that, and the roster trusts they can make the comeback happen every time.
But does playing this way directly translate to postseason success?
Since 2014, teams that ranked higher in the regular season comeback win rankings would more often than not clinch a postseason spot. But while it has often guaranteed a spot in the postseason, it has not directly indicated success beyond that.
Since 2014, the World Series winner has only ever once been atop the regular season comeback win rankings. That was the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2024.
Comeback Win Rankings vs. Postseason Result
In that same time frame, only four regular season comeback win leaders have even made World Series appearances. 2025 is the first time in that time frame that the two teams atop the comeback win rankings have faced off in the World Series at all.
Based on this information, comeback wins do not directly translate to postseason success, and this season was an outlier. Historically, this type of play may indicate higher chances of making the postseason, but does not mean a World Series title is on the way.
Matheson points to the elevated talent in the postseason as reasoning for this.
“Teams in the ALCS or the World Series typically have two or three or four closers,” he says. “It’s harder to come back against that than it is the Orioles in the middle of May.”
So, how do teams like the 2025 Blue Jays and Dodgers defy results from previous seasons to achieve their calibre of success through this style of play?
“I think it’s more lightning in a bottle,” says Nicholson-Smith. “It’s really hard to copy. I don’t even think the Blue Jays could necessarily succeed in replicating this year after year.”
The 2026 season will illustrate whether or not teams are aiming to replicate that approach. But after all, game seven of the World Series was won through a comeback and sent the 2025 comeback leaders home without the trophy.
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