The Dodgers are here to stay, folks. After 11 NL West titles in 12 years, they are getting stronger. Shohei Ohtani has his first taste of playoff baseball and it’s going well. Mookie Betts is back from his funk. Even a nagging ankle injury hasn’t kept Freddie Freeman from making a big contribution.
Of course, for all the consternation about their starting pitching, how about having the deepest bullpen in baseball? The power arms are endless for Dave Roberts, mitigating concerns in 2024 about basically being down to just Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jack Flaherty, and Walker Buehler. Michael Kopech was the trade deadline’s biggest relief acquisition by any club, and Tommy Edman has been pretty darn good. Both will be under contract in 2025.
Here’s another thing you may have forgotten: Shohei Ohtani will be back to pitching next year. Tyler Glasnow should be healthy, giving the Dodgers a loaded rotation of Ohtani, Yamamoto, Glasnow, and a plethora of intriguing options to fill out the rotation. Those include a bevy of young arms like Gavin Stone and Landon Knack, and potentially massive returns of the likes of Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin. That isn’t even to speak of still-recovering arms like River Ryan, Emmet Sheehan, and Kyle Hurt.
Los Angeles isn’t everyone’s favorite city, but it’s a big-market city and the Dodgers possess the greatest baseball player that ever lived (yes, I said it). Next year could be even tougher for teams like the Padres and Diamondbacks to catch up to L.A., as good as they are and the fact that both clubs have actually beaten L.A. in the lat two postseasons. But that was B.O. — Before Ohtani.
This is truly the Dodgers window to dominate. It isn’t easy to win in October, and though it’s not over yet, getting past the Padres feels like potentially the biggest hurdle they have to clear in 2024. Imagine how much relief they’ll feel next year with their first full-season championship since 1988 under their belt.
Look out, MLB, this is going to last awhile.
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