Building the Dodgers: 9 steps that turned LA from disappointment into postseason dominance

Shohei Ohtani had a 2.87 ERA in 14 regular-season starts and started the NLCS Game 4 clincher last Friday, delivering one of the greatest games in baseball history -- three home runs and six shutout innings with 10 strikeouts. (Wikipedia via Joe Glorioso/All-Pro Reels)

By CHAD JENNINGS / THE ATHLETIC

The Los Angeles Dodgers have taken down the surging Cincinnati Reds, the loaded Philadelphia Phillies and the best-in-baseball Milwaukee Brewers on their way to the National League pennant. They have lost just one playoff game in the process. On paper and on the field, they look like a juggernaut.

This team was struggling in early September?

For much of the regular season, the narrative around the Dodgers was one of profound disappointment. They were good, but not nearly the unstoppable force their roster, payroll and track record suggested.

So how did a team that underperformed for six months become a relentless steamroller when it mattered most? It started a year ago and has been quietly coming together ever since.

Start with a championship lineup.

The Dodgers won their second World Series in five years last October. Ten players have taken at least eight at-bats for the Dodgers this postseason, and all 10 were with the team last October, too. Four were with the Dodgers when they won in 2020. Despite the in-season focus on the Dodgers’ flaws, it was not as if the entire roster was falling apart. From April 28 to the end of the season, the Dodgers played only two games in which they did not have at least a share of first place.

Shohei Ohtani is a favorite to win his third consecutive MVP award, first baseman Freddie Freeman was top 10 in baseball in weighted runs created plus, Will Smith was the best-hitting catcher in the NL, and Mookie Betts, the converted right fielder, led the majors in defensive runs saved at shortstop.

Massive expectations did not come out of nowhere. The Dodgers were loaded with talent from the beginning.

Rebuild the pitching staff.

In the offseason, the Dodgers signed Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates, and re-signed Blake Treinen and Clayton Kershaw.

Even after splurging on Ohtani in December 2023, the Dodgers did not have baseball’s largest payroll in 2024. The New York Mets did. But the Dodgers spent the most this year. With a 10-player spending spree — re-signing four players and adding six more — the Dodgers committed nearly $400 million total and added roughly $185 million to this year’s payroll.

The Dodgers’ biggest offseason splash, though, was their first. On Nov. 30, when he had been on the open market less than a month, Snell, a two-time Cy Young winner, signed a five-year, $182 million deal. He made only 11 starts in the regular season, but he has been dominant in three playoff starts (21 innings, 28 strikeouts, 0.86 ERA).

Find a center fielder.

The Dodgers entered spring training with several options up the middle. Betts was Plan A at shortstop, and Tommy Edman would play second base or center field. The team had five options for the final everyday job: infielder Miguel Rojas, utility players Hyeseong Kim and Kiké Hernández, and homegrown center fielders Andy Pages and James Outman. There was uncertainty because Pages and Outman had not proved they could handle an everyday assignment.

That changed when Pages won the center field job out of spring training and thrived in April. He finished with the fifth-best wins above replacement among MLB center fielders, according to FanGraphs, and wound up starting 117 games at the position.

Pages’ emergence as an everyday option let the Dodgers use Edman primarily at second base (where he won a Gold Glove in 2021) and to take their time with Kim (who was promoted in early May). Pages has not hit much this postseason, but he has started every game.

Take full advantage of baseball’s best player.

In his first year and a half with the Dodgers, Ohtani was the MVP in the NL, but he was not nearly as valuable as he could have been. On June 16, the game’s only true two-way player made his return to the mound after his 2023 Tommy John surgery. Most of his starts were limited, but his presence in the rotation was a game changer.

With Ohtani now cleared for 90-plus pitches, the Dodgers are able to maximize their rotation. Ohtani, Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow have been the postseason starters, leaving Sasaki to slide into the closer role while Emmet Sheehan, who made 12 regular-season starts, has become an important reliever, with Kershaw available for emergency long relief.

As for Ohtani, he had a 2.87 ERA in 14 regular-season starts and started the Game 4 clincher last Friday, delivering one of the greatest games in baseball history — three home runs and six shutout innings with 10 strikeouts.

Keep Yamamoto healthy.

Yamamoto was the most accomplished Japanese pitcher to come to America since Ohtani. He was excellent in his MLB debut last season (3.00 ERA, pitched well in Game 2 of the World Series), but he got hurt last June and missed almost three months. His early postseason starts in 2024 were limited to fewer than 75 pitches apiece.

There have been no such limits this postseason. Yamamoto not only stayed healthy, but he seemed to get stronger. Opponents had a .584 on-base plus slugging percentage against him in the first half, but a .470 in the second half. From June 25 — around the time he went on the injured list a year ago — through the end of the regular season, he made 15 starts with a 2.22 ERA. This postseason, he has thrown more than 110 pitches in two of three starts, including a complete game in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.

Let Betts be Betts.

Five years before they signed Sasaki, four years before they signed Ohtani, two years before they signed Freeman, the Dodgers traded for Betts. Nine months later, they won their first World Series in 32 years.

The Dodgers were a model franchise with seven consecutive playoff appearances and an impressive blend of player development and open-market spending, but the Betts trade was a flex. The Dodgers traded for one of the best all-around players in the sport, and immediately won a title. Four years later, they won another.

Betts, 33, was not elite this year. He was left out of the All-Star Game for the first time in a decade, and as of late August, he was 114th in the majors in FanGraphs’ WAR. His defensive metrics were good, but he had a .681 OPS, which had been as low as .664 in the second half.

That changed in August. Betts hit .400 over an eight-game stretch, and from Aug. 24 to the end of the season, he had a .926 OPS and ranked 10th in the majors with a 1.5 WAR. He has remained potent in the playoffs.

Get key players healthy.

The Dodgers still are not especially healthy. At least eight important pitchers are unavailable, but the Dodgers did get closer to full strength in the past three months. As their roster got healthy, they began to look more like a viable World Series contender. The Dodgers won nine of their last 11 games in the regular season.

The return to health really started with Glasnow, who was hurt last year and could not pitch in the 2024 postseason. He came back from a two-month absence in July, then Snell returned three weeks later after missing four months with shoulder inflammation. Two days after Snell, third baseman Max Muncy returned after missing a month (Muncy got hurt again and missed another three weeks but returned in September). Edman and Sasaki also came back in the final month, and Smith, the catcher, returned from a hand injury in time for the postseason.

The glue holding everything together might be Muncy. The Dodgers were 37-35 without him in their starting lineup this season. They were 56-34 with him.

Get production in the outfield corners.

Two of the Dodgers’ big offseason moves were re-signing Teoscar Hernández and signing Michael Conforto. They were supposed to stabilize the outfield and deliver offense in the corners. Instead, the Dodgers ranked 14th in the majors in weighted runs created plus in right field (where Hernández played), and they were 21st in left-field WAR (where Conforto was below replacement level for the first time in his career).

So why hasn’t that been a problem in the postseason?

First, Hernández turned things around in September. Beginning with a two-homer game Sept. 9, he finished the season with a .916 OPS in the final three weeks, and he has been even more productive in the postseason (starting with a two-homer game in the wild-card series opener). He leads the Dodgers in postseason runs batted in.

As for left field, Conforto has not even been on the playoff roster. The Dodgers have primarily used Kiké Hernández in left field while giving outfielder Alex Call occasional starts. Kiké Hernández has started in left field more times in the playoffs than he did in the regular season.

Find an unexpected closer.

Because of his age, cost and upside, Sasaki was the offseason’s most desirable free agent this side of Juan Soto. He chose the Dodgers, which seemed almost unfair, but then he stumbled to a 4.72 ERA through his first eight starts. His fastball was hittable, and he had nearly as many walks