The San Francisco Giants have fallen behind the Los Angeles Dodgers over the past decade, and the race between the division rivals hasn’t been particularly close.

The Dodgers have made the postseason in each of the past 13 seasons, winning five pennants and two World Series titles. They might make that three titles this week as they go up against the Toronto Blue Jays. The Giants last won a World Series in 2014, and have made the postseason just twice since amid numbing mediocrity.

In part, Los Angeles maintains its success by shelling out for baseball’s top payroll, including Shohei Ohtani, who makes games at Dodger Stadium a global tourist attraction and winning standard practice. The Dodgers aren’t just ahead of the curve, they’re reshaping it while the Giants – and baseball – look for ways to keep up.

As tall a task as toppling the Dodgers might seem – let alone the rest of the National League West – the Giants should take inspiration from the other World Series team. The two organizations rarely cross paths as they’re in opposite leagues on opposite sides of North America, but there are parallels to draw upon as well as lessons to be learned when it comes to Toronto. The Blue Jays have quietly positioned themselves as a franchise that does everything right. The Giants have the resources to follow suit.

First, in spending. Though the Dodgers get all the attention for their free-agent acquisitions, becoming a destination employer for players such as Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Blake Snell, Toronto is also unafraid to write a hefty check to fill its roster with talent.

The Giants and Blue Jays are often mentioned together as also-rans in their pursuit of big free agents, including Ohtani. Coming in second is often ridiculed, but risks distracting from what Toronto has actually achieved, as former A’s ace and current Blue Jay Chris Bassitt articulated during World Series media day.

“If they’re second place, they’re second place out of 30 teams. I guarantee you there’s 20 other organizations that wish they were going after the mega stars,” he told reporters earlier this week. “Just because they’re not getting three, four or five guys, I think it’s ridiculous (to criticize). You got Kevin Gausman, got (Jose) Berrios, you got Bo (Bichette) here, you got Vladdy (Guerrero Jr.) here, you got George Springer here. So like to sit here and just be like, three, four guys don’t come and you’re supposed to feel bad for that? I think it’s a big discredit to how many, like really good players they got here.”

While the free agency pool can be a light on elite talent as more teams lock their stars into long-term extensions early on, the Blue Jays roster is full of impactful pick-ups including pitchers Kevin Gausman, Max Scherzer, Bassitt, Eric Lauer and Jeff Hoffman, outfielder George Springer and infielder Ernie Clement.

By most estimates publicly available, the Blue Jays’ payroll is in baseball’s top five largest. The Giants’ payroll sits somewhere in the middle of the 30 MLB teams, but they haven’t shown any fear to spend, as they committed hefty money to employ Rafael Devers, Willy Adames, Matt Chapman and Jung Hoo Lee. The Blue Jays may be the bigger spenders now, but the Giants have always been in on the top free agents. President of baseball operations Buster Posey made clear when the season ended that ownership would spend what’s necessary to compete.

One difference between the Giants’ and Blue Jays’ spending is player development success. While some of Toronto’s success is owed its free agent investments, it’s also a function of having homegrown star players in Guerrero and, to a lesser extent, Bichette – and then paying to keep them. Guerrero is a fan favorite who isn’t going anywhere anytime soon after he signed a 14-year, $500 million contract to stay.

Though the Giants developed Logan Webb and have signed their ace to a long-term extension through 2028, they haven’t had a homegrown star of that caliber since they drafted Posey in 2008. While there’s hope Bryce Eldridge can reach that level, San Francisco’s inability to grow its own stars or a crop of coveted prospects and young big leaguers has limited the team’s ability to contend effectively by amassing talent any way they can.

Both the Dodgers and Blue Jays are spending actual dollars, but an important factor in their team-building is that they have also been ready to flip promising young players for key additions. The Dodgers wielded their touted farm system to trade for Mookie Betts in 2020. In Toronto, Berrios, outfielder Daulton Varsho and starter Shane Bieber were acquired in trades for top prospects.

Posey got the Giants back into that aspect of roster construction when he swung a trade that included sending pitching prospect Kyle Harrison and first-rounder James Tibbs III to Boston for Devers after he had already signed a 10-year, $313.5 million contract extension in 2023. Given their challenges in getting top free agents to choose them, this is another way the Giants can build a contender, by accumulating talent in the farm system and being able to deal from that depth to add ready-now MLB stars.

Spending aside, analytical advantages are also what separates the Dodgers and Blue Jays. When the Giants visited Toronto after the All-Star break, a few of San Francisco’s coaches pointed out that the Blue Jays are notably prepared to face opposing pitchers – one posited that their vigilance was a method to survive playing the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox in their hyper-competitive division.

That observation is at the forefront during this postseason. The Blue Jays stuck it to Snell in the first game of the World Series, scoring five runs on eight hits with three walks in a comfortable win. They swung and missed for strike three just four times and walked three times out of 32 two-strike counts.

Toronto as a team rarely strikes out, putting the ball in play more than any other team in baseball. As MLB statistician Mike Petriello wrote, the Blue Jays’ quality of contact improved as the season progressed as the result of a collective uptick in bat speed that bumped them from a 71.1 mph average to 72.2 once the final month of the season began.

Posey-led teams of the dynasty years operated like the Blue Jays now, helped by Hunter Pence, Freddy Sanchez and Marco Scutaro, contact guys picked up in trades. The 2025 Giants, in comparison, put the ball in play far less frequently (419 times less than Toronto, and below league average) despite Posey’s goal to bring back an offense that puts the ball in play.

Their cumulative bat speed stayed consistently low (71 mph) throughout the year despite adding Devers. That kind of statistic is dependent on personnel – Wilmer Flores doesn’t have a fast bat speed, and he still made an impact during their best stretches – but the analytical observation comes into play when determining which teams are getting the most out of their players.

Posey has been decisive in his first year at the helm, aware that changes need to be made throughout the organization to get them back on the postseason stage. It is yet to be seen if Posey’s vision makes them a better organization at developing talent to keep or trade for upgrades, and if they can also be one of those teams that benefit from competitive advantages gleaned from analytics. At least, like Toronto and their NL West rivals, Posey’s Giants are ready to spend what they must to get great players, not just good ones.