There seems to be a disconnect in the way the Dodgers are perceived these days.
From the outside – i.e., observers who don’t see the team every day – they’re still considered favorites, or close to it, to go all the way. The smart guys in Vegas, in fact, listed Los Angeles as the favorites to win the World Series as of Monday, at odds ranging from +310 to +350, followed by the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees in the +500 range.
Those who live and die with every pitch – or, more accurately, every scrap of news about another pitcher headed to the injured list – may see those odds and scoff. Or cringe.
Likely, it has something to do with recent Octobers, and teams that were expected to win but didn’t. And it has a lot to do with a starting pitching rotation that began the season looking like a committee of aces but now resembles a piece of paper that the family dog tore to shreds.
Tyler Glasnow, a health risk before the Dodgers traded for and extended him last winter, appears done for the year at least, and that elbow sprain could be far more serious than even we realize. Clayton Kershaw’s window for returning from an injury to his left big toe is closing fast, and we have to ponder the idea that maybe we will no longer see the Kershaw to which we’ve become accustomed the last 16 seasons.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto is in the early stages of his return from a rotator cuff strain, and his impact – and the return on the $330 million for which he signed in December – will be uncertain until he proves otherwise. His start Monday in Atlanta was less sharp than his return last week against the Cubs, but he’s still working his way back and in any event he’ll be an every-sixth-day pitcher.
Walker Buehler has had good days and bad days in his return (and sometimes, as in his Sunday start against the Braves, a combination of both). Bobby Miller has had mostly bad days, Gavin Stone is in a holding pattern with shoulder inflammation and the list of pitchers who have had season-ending injuries could almost fill a second rotation. The talk of Shohei Ohtani pitching in the postseason, or Tony Gonsolin returning from Tommy John surgery, to save the day in the postseason? Sounds like pure desperation.
And say what you will about Andrew Friedman and Brandon Gomes in the front office – and everybody in the organization has been on blast the last few weeks – but where would the Dodgers be at this point without deadline acquisitions Jack Flaherty, Michael Kopech and Tommy Edman?
Those who follow the team daily see a team with a $308.4 million opening-day payroll that led the division by nine games in mid-June but entered Tuesday as a .500 team (30-30) since July 21. Given that recent history, they might not know what to make of these comments about the Dodgers from commentator Kevin Millar on MLB Network’s Intentional Talk on Monday afternoon:
“I just believe this is the team to beat. … Right now they’re kind of getting some mojo. Arizona’s been awesome, San Diego’s been awesome, but they (the Dodgers) aren’t going backward. They’re kind of moving forward, even with (Glasnow’s injury) … And do not sleep on (Shohei) Ohtani (pitching) … That lineup plays, and that starting staff plays.”
If you’re wondering which team Millar has been watching, that’s understandable.
It’s part of the beauty of baseball, a daily drama with all kinds of twists and turns ranging from ecstasy to excruciating. It’s the best reality show around, in an environment when the immediacy of live sports has become increasingly valuable TV programming.
To be a devoted fan is to suffer through the mistakes and the miscues and the losses. If your team can surmount those and celebrate in the end, why, you deserve to celebrate as well. (Which reminds us: These Dodgers still owe their fans a parade, after everyone was denied a 2020 party because of COVID-19.)
So I posed the question on Facebook, Threads and X: Are Dodger fans confident or pessimistic at this point? Some of the answers:
“The Dodgers have, at best, three healthy starters. I’ll be happy if they get through one series.” That on Facebook from former Press-Enterprise colleague Steve Straehley, who now lives in Florida, attended Saturday’s game in Atlanta and noted that while he included Buehler in that assessment, “after seeing Flaherty get lit up (in person) Saturday, I’m not sure it includes him.”
From Roberto Clemente Rincon: “The pitching staff was shaky even at full strength. … we’re basically down to one frontline starter for the playoffs. Def not enough to compete with SD, PHI, and ATL. Coupled with a manager (Dave Roberts) who gets exposed in Oct., might be another early exit.”
And, as another former P-E colleague, Tom Phillips, pointed out: “(Everyone) will call for Roberts’ head when they don’t have more than 2 guys who can go 5 innings.”
On X, Josh Thomas responded Monday afternoon: “Confident? No. They’re a below average defensive club with no one (at the moment) who should start a game 3 or 4. They need: 6+ (innings from Yamamoto and Flaherty) every time … heretofore unseen glovework … a dynamic offense top to bottom … Dino (Ebel, third base coach) on his A game … Doc (Roberts) not getting finessed with bench bat use.”
That was before Monday night’s series-splitting rout of the Braves. Afterward, he added: “I think the most of the Dodgers’ problems would be taken care of if they simply averaged 9 runs per game until the end of October.”
And on Threads, this from Paul Skupen (who describes himself as formerly from L.A. but now in Tokyo): “If Buehler’s start (Sunday) night was real, and Yamamoto’s two starts since coming off the IL are real, we got a chance.” Meanwhile, a correspondent with the screen name “chrisanc” wrote: “I’m apprehensive, but only because of all the pitching injuries. It is unrelated to previous Octobers.”
This is admittedly an unscientific survey. But it’s consistent with the normal tenor of Dodger fans on social media, especially after so many unfulfilling Octobers and particularly after the first-round disappointments against San Diego in 2022 and Arizona in ’23. These may be the most fatalistic fans of a good team in all of baseball.
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Maybe the last two months’ play and the continuing parade of injuries are setting us up for a great comeback story, an underdog tale reminiscent of 1988.
Then again, as former big-league manager Buck Showalter noted on MLB Network on Tuesday afternoon, the Padres are “the team I wouldn’t want to play” in the postseason.
So, Dodger fans, feel free to be afraid – or at least apprehensive – until you hear otherwise.
jalexander@scng.com