The Dodgers Are No Longer the Team to Beat in MLB
A swathe of injuries and poor performances has slowed down the Los Angeles Dodgers this summer, and their competition has caught up.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have had a rollercoaster of a season.
After winning the World Series in 2024, the Dodgers went out and spent heavily in the offseason. Between new signings like Blake Snell and reunions with players like Teoscar Hernández, they committed nearly $400 million.
Thus, the Dodgers looked like the most formidable team in MLB coming into this season. However, things have not necessarily gone as-planned in Los Angeles this year.
While they still have a good record, they are a far-cry from where expectations placed them in March. Injuries have certainly played a role in this throughout the year, but numerous players have generally unperformed.
Several offensive players have been incredibly streaky, like Andy Pages and Max Muncy. Others, like Mookie Betts or Michael Conforto, have now spent sustained stretches of time performing well under expectations.
Things have been just as rough with their pitching staff. Injuries have decimated them, and poor performances have hampered the Dodgers at times throughout the season.
Overall, this has led the Dodgers to slide significantly over the past month. This comes at a rough time, as several other teams will certainly look to take their place at the top.
Today, let’s dive into what has gone wrong for the Dodgers this year and which teams have emerged as contenders for the top spot.
The Bigger They Are…
Coming into the season, the Dodgers had assembled a juggernaut of a team.
While their team the previous year had been formidable, the reinforcements brought in made this team among the best in recent history. That is, at least on paper.
The roster boasted four former MVPs, 10 former All-Stars, and two former Cy Young winners. Additionally, their depth was substantial and they had promising young prospects waiting in the wings.
Their rotation was expected to be particularly dominant. Led by Yoshinobu Yamamoto and former Tampa Bay Rays teammates Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, Dustin May and Roki Sasaki rounded out the Opening Day staff.
With Clayton Kershaw and Tony Gonsolin expected back mid-season, the Dodgers seemed to have an abundance of starters. Not to mention, Shohei Ohtani was slated to return to the mound soon.
As for the offense, the group looked prime for a strong year as well. Re-signing Hernández and adding Conforto fully packed the lineup, with an experienced bench alongside it.
The Dodgers started the year with eight straight wins, seemingly ready to repeat or surpass their success from the year prior. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t be able to celebrate their hot start for long.
… The Harder They Fall
First, Freddie Freeman hit the injured list for a brief period on April 3rd after aggravating the ankle he injured the year prior. A few days later, on April 6th, Snell hit the injured list with shoulder inflammation. He made just two starts and has yet to return.
Freeman would return shortly after, and became a sparkplug for the lineup for the next few months. However, the pitching staff took two more significant hits with Sasaki and Glasnow going down with injury by the end of April.
May would see the Dodgers’ depth worn even thinner. Through the end of the month, Tommy Edman, Teoscar Hernández, and Kirby Yates spent time on the injured list.
Worse yet, Blake Treinen, Snell, Glasnow and Evan Phillips would all end up on the 60-day injured list. Unfortunately for Phillips, his season would end here as he underwent Tommy John surgery in early June.
The story has been much more of the same through to today. Sasaki and Gonsolin went down, wearing down an already depleted rotation. The bullpen has become similarly depleted by the injuries of Michael Kopech and closer Tanner Scott. Max Muncy is also injured, to boot.
Overall, the team has been through the ringer on the injury front. On the bright side, this has allowed young players like Hyeseong Kim, Ben Casparius, and Jack Dreyer to step up for the team.
However, injury-prone as the team has been, it has been subpar performance that has plagued the team most this year.
The Veneer
The Dodgers have held one of, if not the best records in baseball throughout the season. In spite of their various injuries and down seasons, the Dodgers have largely held their own.
However, it is not that the Dodgers have necessarily been bad – it’s that they need to be the best to compete. They have a great roster, and are certainly still contenders, but they could be much better.
As of today, the Dodgers lead MLB in comeback victories with 35. With 59 total wins on the year, that means they have trailed in 59% of their wins and 76% of their games overall.
One could say that this just means the Dodgers have performed well in the clutch. Really, this means it becomes much more incumbent on the offense to ensure the team stays ahead.
This has largely worked out for the Dodgers this year. Their 116 wRC+ is tied with the Chicago Cubs for second-best in MLB this year behind the New York Yankees. They narrowly have the second-most home runs and RBIs in MLB as well.
Their pitching, on the other hand, has not fared so well. They possess the 23rd best ERA since the start of the year, and rank 23rd and 24th in HR/9 and BB/9 as well.
So, what happens when the offense slumps? The Dodgers have been finding out first-hand since the start of the summer.
Since June 1st, the Dodgers have dropped from 2nd overall in league wRC+ to 19th best. They rank 24th overall since June 22nd. Over this same timeframe, they rank 24th in ERA, 27th in SIERA, 22nd in K/9, and 29th in BB/9.
Who is Next Up?
The combination of the Dodgers’ injury and performance troubles has led them to a middling 25-21 record since June 1st.
Most recently, they’ve lost 10 of their last 15 games. This includes a 7-game losing streak, kicked off by a brutal 18-1 loss to the Houston Astros.
With the Dodgers seemingly far from being a juggernaut at the moment, several others have an argument for the best team in MLB.
The Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs have each passed the 60-win mark and have both been white-hot. They have rattled off 30 and 24 wins respectively since June 1st.
Both have been top-5 in wRC+ over that span, and top 10 in offensive fWAR on the year. The Cubs have the best offense in MLB by fWAR this year, and could look to make their case stronger by bolstering their bench and pitching staff at the trade deadline.
The Detroit Tigers are another one of the first teams to 60 wins this year. While they have slowed down in recent months, they could still easily stand as the best team in the American League.
The Toronto Blue Jays have interestingly made a strong push for that spot as well, as they’ve won 32 of their last 46 games. They have possessed the second-best wRC+ in MLB since June 1st, and currently lead the AL East by 5.5 games.
Race to the Finish
Beyond these four teams, others will certainly look to establish themselves further in the coming months.
The Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets stand in lockstep atop the NL East division. In the American League, the Astros and Yankees could easily step on the gas in the second half.
In the NL West, the San Diego Padres stand just six games behind the Dodgers. The San Francisco Giants trail not far behind at seven games back. This puts the Dodgers in a bit of a precarious situation as they navigate their slump.
Despite the opposition, the Dodgers could also just as easily come back. With the trade deadline around the corner, few would be shocked to see the Dodgers seek to recoup some of their injury losses.
The roster remains star-studded as it is. If struggling players like Mookie Betts turn their years around and the roster maintains some baseline level of health, they could easily move back atop the MLB hierarchy.
However, their health concerns and ongoing struggles will certainly make it more difficult to fight an already uphill battle. This will only become more true as the teams around them continue to heat up.
Ultimately, time will tell who ends up as the most anticipated World Series contender come October. While it remains to be seen whether the Dodgers can reclaim this spot, one thing is certain.
The sprint to the finish line will certainly be a contested one.
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