Kings of L.A.
Long live the kings.
The greatest era of Dodgers’ baseball has only just begun.
When I sat down to write this piece about the Dodgers, it had been the first time I had the chance to reflect on the team’s off-season moves and what the 2025 roster would look like heading into Spring Training. The days leading up to this article had been a whirlwind of moves that began with the Dodgers signing ace starting pitcher Roki Sasaki on a Friday and ended with the team signing ace relief pitcher Tanner Scott on a Sunday. These two signings are the cherries on top of another wonderful off-season, during which the team, under the keen leadership of baseball executive GOAT Andrew Friedman and general manager Brandon Gomes, strengthened its roster and addressed areas of critical need in its pitching staff to get ready for another potential World Series run.
Elite Pitching Acquisitions
Friedman and Gomes knocked last off-season out of the park. They signed Teoscar Hernández, and all he did was rake in the biggest moments, from the start of the season until Game 5 of the World Series. Teo was big time. Friedman and Gomes also signed three elite pitchers: Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Tyler Glasnow. Ohtani was never going to pitch last season because of the elbow surgery he had, but Yoshi and Glasnow were penciled in to join an Opening Day rotation that featured Bobby Miller (coming off an impressive rookie season), James Paxton (the annual reclamation project), and Gavin Stone (another promising young pitcher). Dustin May, Clayton Kershaw, and Walker Buehler were all recovering from injuries, but they would join the team later in the season.
As it went, and I’m only accounting for the injuries to the Dodgers’ starting pitchers, Miller couldn’t find his “Bobby Ice” mojo and was eventually sent down to triple A. Yoshi hurt his arm while warming up for a start in mid-June and didn’t return until September. Sometime around the All-Star break, while rehabbing from elbow surgery, Dustin May got hurt in a bizarre food-related accident and missed the rest of the season because of the emergency surgery he needed to repair his torn esophagus (chew your food thoroughly kids, and don’t swallow a bone). James Paxton was designated for assignment in late July to make room for pitchers returning from injury. Stone pitched well until the All-Star break. Then, he flamed out and ended up hurt and off the board for the remainder of the season. Kershaw returned in late July and lasted a little over a month before he hurt his toe and was lost to that injury for the rest of the season. Right before that happened, Glasnow got hurt didn’t return to the mound in 2024. Buehler returned late in the season but struggled, and it looked like the “Buetane” flame had been extinguished, until he came through in the postseason. Pitching was a huge concern for the Dodgers and a big reason why a lot of people didn’t pick the Dodgers to make it past the Padres in the NLDS.
You could say that if not for the savvy front office making some clutch trades and acquiring Jack Flaherty and Michael Kopech at the deadline to help out their pitching staff, the Dodgers would not have won the World Series last season. You could also say that despite all of the injuries the Dodgers had, they managed to win the World Series because of all around clutch performances from the team in every moment they needed to be clutch (and also because our guys know how to catch fly balls and cover bases).
This off-season, Friedman and Gomes prioritized pitching. Before any moves were made, the Dodgers had a few arms they expected to return to the mound from injury in 2025: Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Gavin Stone, Tyler Glasnow, and Shohei Ohtani. These pitchers were set to join Yamamoto, and that rotation would have been tough, as long as everyone stayed healthy, but why take that risk? Someone is going to miss some time. Why not just go balls-to-the-wall in the offseason and get some more pitching? You can never have enough of that. That’s the approach that Friedman and Gomes took this offseason because they weren’t satisfied with what they had as their starting rotation. They let beloved Dodger Walker Buehler walk to the Red Sox, and there were still some questions as to how some of our pitchers would look when they returned from injury. The season is a grind, and the Dodgers wanted to expand to a six-man rotation to keep their arms fresh in the event they make another postseason appearance. They went out and signed Blake Snell, who has dominated the Dodgers for years, and then signed another top Japanese pitcher, and the prized pitcher of this offseason, Roki Sasaki. Now, the starting rotation looks like something someone built in a video game.
Wow.
The Dodgers have their rotation set for the next few years, but they didn’t just improve their starting pitching. They brought back bullpen stud, Blake Trienen, and signed Tanner Scott away from the Padres bullpen. Scott joins Snell (also a former Giant and Padre), and Sasaki as three arms San Diego needed and wanted but ultimately didn’t get.
The remaining question for this pitching staff now is, “Do we bring Clayton Kershaw back?” It’s crazy that a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and lifelong Dodger, could now be a foregone conclusion because there may not be enough room for him on the roster. Sentimentally, yes, I would like to see Kershaw back on the team for one more year to give him the chance to contribute in a meaningful way. I think he would be great coming out of the bullpen, like late-career John Smoltz. He and Dustin May could join Alex Vesia, Anthony Banda, Evan Phillips, Blake Trienen, and Tanner Scott. Yikes.
I think Kersh would consider that option because he doesn’t want to pitch for another team (“Dodgers for life!”). If there isn’t a place for him in the rotation, and he won’t consider the bullpen, then maybe he’ll just walk off into the sunset as a Dodgers legend. I think he’ll be back with the team at some point, though. He wants to at least win one more.
Bringing Teo Back
This was my biggest offseason concern. Yeah, the Dodgers needed more pitchers, but Teoscar Hernández was a huge part of the Dodgers’ 2024 success. He was fun to watch during the regular season, with the sunflower seed shower home run celebrations and the Home Run Derby win (the first time a Dodger had ever won the damn thing), but it was October Teo who captured every blue heart in Dodger Nation by coming up big in the biggest moments. Who wouldn’t want this guy back?
The job of bringing back key players is not finished yet. The Dodgers still need to re-sign the other Hernández (Kiké), who becomes a superhero for the team in the playoffs.
Trading Places
L.A. added some other new faces to the roster. In early December, the team signed veteran outfielder Michael Conforto to a one-year contract to bolster the outfield depth. Then, the Dodgers signed infielder Hyeseong Kim from the KBO League and traded Gavin Lux to the Reds (and picked up another upside outfielder, Mike Sirota). Lux was once a top prospect that showed flashes of talent but was sidelined for a season with a horrific knee injury. In his first year back from that injury last season, he was largely underwhelming, which is somewhat expected from a guy coming back from all of that time off.
After the All-Star break last season, Lux was pretty good, but the bat went quiet in the postseason. Maybe he’s still got it, but he is limited as to which positions he can play. He was no good at shortstop, which was really the only place he was needed, so he ended up at second, which meant the Dodgers had to find a replacement for shortstop. Mookie tried, God bless him, and it was better than Lux but not great. So, the Dodgers pivoted to Miguel Rojas, who was a defensive upgrade but also another liability at the plate. Friedman was able to swing a trade for Tommy Edman at the deadline, and the game changed for the Dodgers once he was inserted into the starting lineup.
This off-season, the starting lineup will feature the same old guys who can rake with power and some improved hitters who know how to make good contact with the ball and not whiff all the time.
A Game of Thrones
In a city known for its celebrities, sports stars, and championship teams, the Dodgers are currently the crown jewel. This is a relatively new phenomenon for such a storied franchise, but for decades the Dodgers were irrelevant. They weren’t good enough to be serious contenders, and they weren’t all that interesting to watch. I know; I’ve watched a lot of Dodgers’ baseball in my lifetime. They were champions a couple of times in the 80s, which made them interesting and relevant. They had some big, young stars on the roster during the 90s, which made them interesting, but they were not relevant. Then, for the next ten years, they were neither. For a hot minute at the end of the 2000s, they were interesting and relevant, with Joe Torre leading a young squad of stars, like Clayton Kershaw, Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, Russell Martin, James Loney, and Chad Billingsley. But that ride ended abruptly, and it was back to the Dodgers fighting to win the division against their rivals in San Francisco. While the Giants feasted, the Dodgers lamented: Cuando?
The time is now.
The Dodgers are pushing for a dynasty. These last two off-seasons have proven as much, and last year’s title may have been a year early. If you’re a hater, it’s easy to say that the Dodgers have an unfair competitive advantage because of all their money, which they have a bit of. But all MLB owners have money to spend thanks to revenue sharing. Under the latest MLB collective bargaining agreement (negotiated in 2022), each MLB team polls forty-eight percent of their local revenues with the total amount split equally among all 30 teams. Which means that every team owner since 2022 has walked away from the season with an additional 110 million dollars. All of these MLB teams also receive national revenues, which equal to around 90 million dollars per team. So, before you cry about how the Dodgers just outbid all of the poor small-market teams, consider that every team gets $200 million every year for the team’s owner to see fit how they want to spend it. Mark Walter, the controlling owner of the Dodgers, and the consortium of other owners in the Guggenheim Baseball Management group simply want to win. Winning makes them money and leaves behind a legacy. Winning keeps your fans happy, which keeps butts in the seats and merchandise selling. Winning is all a sports team should try to do. Win. Win. Win.
Because of the brilliant minds managing the Dodgers, they have maximized strategic planning, scouting, and development process to a point where their way is just better than everyone else’s. This era of Dodgers’ baseball could ended up being discussed among other sports dynasties, like the Yankees of yesteryear, or the 90s Bulls. Dominant. It is my dream that the other storied sports franchise in L.A., the Lakers, somehow, someway, turn the corner like the Dodgers did in 2012, when Frank McCourt sold the team to Guggenheim. Jeanie Buss doesn’t have it like her dad did. That has been proven, and the brand has been tarnished. It is living off of the fumes of its legacy. Outside of the 2020 championship, the team hasn’t been a relevant contender. They have been interesting for the wrong reasons, and they are falling behind their cross-town rivals in terms of representing good basketball. That’s all Lakers fans want. They want their team to be good, and it won’t be until it’s run well. Take a look at the Dodgers.
