From Rochester to the World Series: Tracking the Red Wings’ Impact on the 2025 World Series

Written by Josh Whetzel

The dust has officially settled on another baseball season with the Los Angeles Dodgers defeating the Toronto Blue Jays in a thrilling seven-game World Series. It seems like there are always Red Wings connections to any team that wins it all, and the 2025 Dodgers are certainly no exception.

Six former Red Wings players were on the Dodgers roster at some point during the 2025 season—although only two of them were a part of the Dodgers World Series roster (Alex Call and Anthony Banda).

Here are those players:

Anthony Banda: The well-traveled lefty struggled with the Wings in 2023 going 2-5 with a 7.58 ERA in 33 games pitched (10 starts). However, things have clicked for the Texan since joining the Dodgers early in the 2024 season. Banda has posted a 3.14 ERA over 119 games for LA the last two seasons becoming an oft-used southpaw for LA skipper Dave Roberts.

Alex Call: In parts of three seasons (2022-2024) with the Red Wings, Call hit .245 with 14 HR and a very good on-base percentage (.373) in 91 games. The outfielder was traded to the Dodgers at the deadline at the end of July this past season for two minor league pitchers—Eriq Swan and Sean Paul Linan—who are highly regarded. He played in all four rounds of the postseason for the Dodgers after batting .247 with a .333 OBP for the Dodgers in 38 games after the trade.

Julian Fernandez: This hard-throwing right-hander joined the Red Wings in mid-August after the Nationals claimed him off waivers from the Dodgers. He posted a 7.82 ERA for the Wings in 12 games before getting a late-season audition with Washington. Fernandez spent most of the season with LA’s Triple-A affiliate in Oklahoma City although he did pitch in one big league game for the Dodgers early in the campaign.

Ryan Loutus: Another hard-throwing righty whom the Nationals picked up on a waiver claim from the Dodgers, Loutus joined the Wings in June and compiled a 4.32 ERA. The 23 games Loutus pitched for Rochester were his most with any of the five teams he pitched for this season. During his brief time this year in the Dodgers organization he worked in seven games for their Triple-A affiliate Oklahoma City and two games for the big league club.

Eddie Rosario: The long-time big league outfielder played in just two games for the Dodgers this season…but it still counts! In 64 games for the Red Wings in 2015-2016, Rosario hit .290 with 10 home runs.

Jose Urena: This veteran righty not only pitched in two games for the Dodgers this season. He also pitched for Blue Jays…so no matter who won the Fall Classic, he was guaranteed a ring. In fact, the Dodgers and Jays were two of five teams Urena pitched for in 2025 to tie the single season MLB record. He started 15 games for the Red Wings in 2023 going 1-3 with a 6.31 ERA.

The Dodgers coaching staff also featured two former Red Wings:

Aaron Bates: The Dodgers co-hitting coach had a great season for the Red Wings in 2011 hitting .316 with 7 home runs, 23 doubles and a stellar .408 on-base percentage in 2011.

Danny Lehmann: The Texan has been a long-time lieutenant for Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and was in his third season as the Dodgers bench coach. He spent parts of four years as a terrific defensive catcher for the Wings hitting .229 with a .315 OBP in 91 games from 2010-2013. His name is starting to get mentioned frequently as a possible future Major League manager.

The Dodgers 6-5 win in 18 innings Game Three of the World Series tied the record for the longest World Series game by innings. That is still 15 innings shy of the 33 inning loss the Red Wings suffered in Pawtucket in 1981….the famous Longest Game in Baseball History. How else did the two games compare? The Longest Game lasted a whopping 8 hours and 25 minutes vs. 6 hours and 39 minutes for the World Series game before Freddie Freeman ended things with a home run. There were 882 pitches thrown at McCoy Stadium in 1981 between the Wings and the PawSox while a mere 609 pitches were tossed in the World Series game. The Dodgers and Jays combined to use 19 pitchers in 18 innings while “only” 14 pitchers worked in the 33 inning game in 1981. However, in this day and age of so many strikeouts, there were WAY more strikeouts in the 33 inning marathon in 1981. The Wings and Sox batters combined to fan 60 times in 33 innings while the Dodgers and Jays only punched out 29 times in 18 innings.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has now won back-to-back World Series and three World Series in the last six seasons. Remarkably, 23 of the 121 World Series winners all-time have been managed by someone who either played or managed the Buffalo Bisons. The Rochester list isn’t too shabby either, however. A whopping 19 World Series have been won by managers who either played or managed Rochester.

Here is the list of former Rochester players and/or managers to win a World Series as a Major League skipper with the years they won the Fall Classic in parentheses:

• Walter Alston (1955, 1959, 1963, 1965)

• Bill McKechnie (1925, 1940)

• Billy Southworth (1942, 1944)

• Danny Murtaugh (1960, 1971)

• Tom Kelly (1987, 1991)

• George Stallings (1914)

• Eddie Dyer (1946)

• Johnny Keane (1964)

• Red Schoendienst (1967)

• Earl Weaver (1970)

• Joe Altobelli (1983)

• Davey Johnson (1986)

George Stallings also managed Buffalo so 41 of the 121 World Series champs - almost 34% -- have been managed by someone who either played or managed Buffalo or Rochester. Although his team didn’t win it all, congratulations are again in order for Rochester’s own Ernie Clement. The Brighton High School grad enjoyed an incredible postseason for the Blue Jays wracking up an all-time postseason record 30 hits. His .411 postseason batting average even bettered his lifetime batting average against his hometown team. Clement has battered the Red Wings over the years hitting .397 with a 1.057 OPS in 19 games against the Red Wings.