I’m wondering if Andrew Friedman and Brandon Gomes, in the course of a mad offseason shopping spree, didn’t set themselves up.
You want the classic example of failure not being an option? We’re watching it, continuing Thursday afternoon when the 2-0 Dodgers play their home opener against Detroit after raising the 2024 World Series championship pennant. The expectation – excitedly here in SoCal, far less so in other locales – is that they’ll finish with more champagne being sprayed and another joyous parade through the streets of L.A.
This is the deal, a bargain that Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, and Gomes, their general manager, readily agreed to knowing the potential consequences. If they win a second consecutive World Series and third in six seasons, and become the first World Series repeaters since the 1998-99-2000 Yankees – why, that was the point of stockpiling all of that depth and all of those stars.
If they don’t? Well, if you thought it was organizational failure when they didn’t get out of their opening series against San Diego in 2022 and Arizona in ’23 – and most of us, including the executives, would agree it was – failing to seal the deal this time would likely be considered an organizational cataclysm, measurable on the Richter scale.
The worst part? People would be laughing their heads off in 29 other cities – yes, including Anaheim. Misery loves company, and those fans whose owners didn’t see it necessary to spend any money to improve their own teams would have quite the time poking fun at the biggest spenders.
(But those fans would still be campaigning for a salary cap, and those cheapskate owners – yes, I said it – would be carrying that banner all the way into another labor war with the players that could threaten the 2026 season. That’s the hidden danger. The Players Association has never accepted anything that even resembled a salary cap, and I can assure you they don’t intend to start now.)
Still, don’t you wish Dave Roberts had pulled a Pat Riley and issued a back-to-back guarantee? If you’re going to be everybody’s lightning rod, why not go all-in?
The Dodgers and their massive payroll – an anticipated $401.3 million opening-day charge for luxury tax measurement purposes, nearly $75.2 million more than the Mets at No. 2 on the payroll list – got off to a good start with two victories over the Cubs in Tokyo. Thursday it resumes in earnest, and they’ll send one of their new acquisitions, Blake Snell, to the mound at a little after 4 p.m. Thursday against the Tigers and reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal.
Snell, who struggled mightily early in the season last year with the Giants after being one of the last free agents to sign – March 19, about a month into spring training – was money in 14 starts after coming off the injured list July 9: 5-0 record, 1.23 ERA, 114 strikeouts, 0.784 WHIP, and a nine-inning no-hitter Aug. 2 against the Reds.
No wonder he was among the first to sign this past offseason, reaching agreement with the Dodgers two days before Thanksgiving and sending fans from coast to coast into a tizzy to go with their turkey.
The prediction here is that Snell will win his third Cy Young Award this season. But this is a rotation so stacked in response to last year’s arms crisis – as in, not enough healthy ones often enough – that it truly is an embarrassment of riches.
After Snell in the rotation comes Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki, who is the pick here as National League Rookie of the Year. (Presumably, and hopefully, it will still be named after Jackie Robinson when Sasaki is announced as the winner).
Dustin May, back finally after a year and a half of injury hiatus, is the fifth starter, and waiting in the wings are Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw. Tony Gonsolin, who was in the running for that fifth spot at the start of the season, will instead begin on the injured list with a back injury suffered in Arizona. Youngsters like Landon Knack and Justin Wrobleski will be biding their time in Oklahoma City. Even Bobby Miller, who regressed in 2024, is back in the mix.
But what position isn’t stacked on this roster? The bullpen has Alex Vesia, Blake Treinen, Kirby Yates, Tanner Scott and Anthony Banda, with guys like Michael Kopech and Evan Phillips on the 15-day injured list and Brusdar Graterol on the 60 and potentially a midseason addition.
The starting nine? A couple of years ago, Freddie Freeman called the Dodgers’ collection of talent the Monstars. (That’s a Space Jam reference for those who might have missed it.)
So what on earth do you call them now? You have three-time MVP (including 2024) Ohtani, 2018 MVP Mookie Betts, 2020 regular-season MVP and 2024 World Series MVP Freeman, Teoscar Hernandez, Will Smith, 2024 NL Championship Series MVP Tommy Edman, Max Muncy, Kiké Hernandez and newcomer Michael Conforto. And consider that they signed Korean infielder Hyeseong Kim and can afford to send him to Triple-A to get acclimated.
But baseball can be maddening. The best team doesn’t always win. Injuries happen, balls take funny hops, and slumps can bedevil the best teams at the worst times. (See: 2023, NL Division Series, Arizona.)
It’s also worth remembering that the Dodgers were one game from elimination in San Diego in October, before that bullpen game in Game 4 stifled the Padres and reversed the momentum.
They seem to check every box going into this season: talent, depth, star quality, the experience of having won a championship and the hunger for more.
And yes, I’m picking them again, only this time with a twist. I’ve got them facing old NL West rival Bruce Bochy and his Texas Rangers, the 2023 champions, in the 2025 World Series. And it says here that a team that hasn’t clinched a World Series at home since 1963 – some of us still remember Sandy Koufax leaping off the mound after that sweep of the Yankees – will get it done in The Ravine this time.
Dodgers in six.
Or else.
jalexander@scng.com