The Man Who Can’t Lose: How José Ureña Locked Up a World Series Ring Before the First Pitch — and Became Baseball’s Most Unlikely Winner of 2025
When José Ureña woke up on a crisp October morning, the World Series hadn’t even started — but he was already guaranteed a championship ring. The journeyman pitcher, who split his 2025 season between five teams, somehow found himself part of both rosters now battling for baseball’s ultimate prize.
It’s one of those rare, bizarre quirks that only baseball can produce. Ureña, 33, pitched six games for the Toronto Blue Jays and two for the Los Angeles Dodgers this year. Those two clubs — one fueled by youth and the other powered by payroll — are now facing off for the title. No matter who wins, Ureña will finish the season as a World Series champion.
“It’s crazy, man,” a former teammate joked. “He’s got the best win-loss record in baseball — he literally can’t lose.”
But behind the humor lies something deeper. Ureña’s journey has been anything but glamorous. Since debuting with the Miami Marlins in 2015, he’s been a survivor in a sport that rarely forgives inconsistency. He’s bounced between starting roles and bullpen gigs, from Detroit to Milwaukee to Texas, searching for belonging in a league that values dominance over durability.
And yet, here he is — proof that perseverance sometimes gets rewarded in the most unexpected way.
In Major League Baseball, any player who appears in at least one game for a team during the championship season qualifies for a ring if that team wins the World Series. That means both the Dodgers and Blue Jays are obligated to honor Ureña’s contributions, however brief they were.
He may not have been the ace or the closer. But he was part of their journey. And that counts for something.
“People forget what it’s like to live out of a suitcase,” one National League scout said. “To show up in a new clubhouse every month, shake new hands, learn new signals — and still go out there and compete. That takes heart.”
Ureña’s stat line this year — modest at best — will never tell that story. What it won’t show is the quiet resilience of a pitcher who’s faced DFA designations, minor-league bus rides, and uncertain offseasons. What it will show, though, is that somehow, some way, he found himself connected to the final two teams standing.
It’s poetic, in a strange baseball way.
As fans gear up for Game 1, Ureña’s name won’t be on the lineup card, and he won’t be standing in the dugout. But somewhere — maybe in Florida, maybe in the Dominican Republic — he’ll be watching, smiling, knowing that no matter the outcome, his wait is over.
In a game obsessed with statistics and superstardom, José Ureña’s story is a reminder that baseball still has room for the improbable — for the man who refuses to give up, and somehow, wins it all.
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