It’s good to be king.
In their second consecutive winter as World Series champions, various Dodgers – from Blake Snell, Emmet Sheehan, Will Smith, Kiké Hernandez and Tyler Glasnow to Mookie Betts (host of the MLB Awards show) and even Manager Dave Roberts – hit the ice (at NHL games), the court (at NBA games), the gridiron (at a Rams game) and the couch (on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”) with the World Series trophy in tow, serving as an all-access pass.
Miguel Rojas didn’t have the trophy with him when he vacationed in Italy. It didn’t matter. His Game 7, game-tying home run was his calling card.
“To be honest with you, I waited 20 years in professional baseball to have that moment, and it happens to me at the end of my career,” Rojas said at DodgerFest last month. “I mean, my life changed a lot. Especially the way I’ve been seen on the streets and outside of baseball, it’s just like something different happened to my career and my life.
“It’s been overwhelming. … Like in Italy, I’m walking around Rome and I’m seeing Dodgers fans over there saying, ‘Thank you for hitting that home run.’ It’s crazy. It’s overwhelming.”
And now it’s over. The Dodgers return to work Thursday when pitchers and catchers report for spring training. The first team to repeat as World Series champions in a quarter-century, the Dodgers’ challenge now is to become the first National League team (ever) to win three consecutive titles and join the Oakland A’s (1972-74) and New York Yankees (on multiple occasions) as the only franchises to do it.
“I don’t mind the three (consecutive championships) in the air as a carrot, and kind of a north star of focus,” Roberts said. “But I do think that we’re very mindful that there’s a lot of work that needs to be done to get to that point.
“It’s something of a challenge that I feel our guys are not gonna run from because after winning two in a row and three in six years with the same group of guys, a lot of the guys, you gotta kind of keep guys incentivized. And I think that’s a good thing that guys are chasing. Again, with the understanding that we have a lot of work to do.”
A year ago at this time, there were other numbers in the air.
Another aggressive winter in acquisition mode fueled hyperbolic predictions of a regular-season win total threatening the MLB record of 116. Rojas himself got caught up in the excitement and predicted 120 wins “if everyone is healthy.”
Everyone wasn’t healthy and the Dodgers fell well short of 120 wins. Slowed by injuries and a midseason lull that Roberts grudgingly acknowledged could have been attributed to a “World Series hangover,” the Dodgers won just 93 games – “just” because it was their lowest total for a full season since 2018.
It didn’t matter when October arrived. Now, the Dodgers report to spring training after another aggressive winter during which they addressed the two biggest needs on their roster (closer and outfield) by signing the best free agents available at each position (Edwin Diaz and Kyle Tucker). But there are no predictions of record-shattering win totals this time – even as the Dodgers head into the season as favorites to three-peat.
It might be a belated acknowledgement that the Dodgers value the regular season differently than most (nearly all) of their opponents.
“I don’t know that it’s differently,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said to that. “Our goal obviously is to win a World Series, our ultimate goal. Now as you peel that back, our first goal is to win the division and get a bye. Last year we were not able to secure the bye and it made our road that much more difficult.
“But we’re viewing regular-season decisions with October in mind when we’re in position to do so. So depending on what we think our odds are plays into that because if we were in a tight race and playoff odds were not extremely high then we would prioritize it more. When they are higher, we’re able to balance it a little bit with thinking about October as well. So I think it’s a function of where we are and what our championship odds look like that factor in to decisions we make – whether we err more on the side of caution or we’re more aggressive.”
Last year was a prime example of erring on the side of caution. The Dodgers won the National League West again despite putting the majority of their starting rotation (Snell, Glasnow and Roki Sasaki) on the injured list for months and keeping a governor on Shohei Ohtani’s pitching appearances. They aren’t likely to put the pedal to the metal this year, either, with most of their NL West competition seeming to have taken steps back.
“I would say ‘pedal to the metal’ is fair. We’re not often in that mode in the regular season in terms of red-lining guys,” Friedman said. “We are in terms of preparation and roster management and doing everything we can to increase our chances of winning that night. But not at the expense of potentially increasing the chances of hurting our October selves. There is a distinction there in that all of our work and prep and roster management is geared towards doing everything we can to win that night. Player usage and balancing rest and work is different in the regular season than it would be in October.
“It is true. We don’t have a win total goal in mind. Our goal is to win the division and get a bye. Whatever that requires. Now some years we have won more games. One year we won, what, 111 (in 2022)? You need some good fortune for those things to happen and it really does fall out of having the depth and doing everything we can each and every night. Then we’ll see what that equals at the end of the year.”
At the start of the year, the Dodgers have a decision to make at second base but only “high-class problems” (Roberts’ term) beyond that – how to fit Tucker into their loaded lineup, which relievers to line up in front of Diaz and how to avoid any complacency that back-to-back championships might create. The offseason additions of Diaz and Tucker “injects energy into us,” according to Freddie Freeman, and could fight that.
“To go out and keep getting the best players year in and year out, even when you’re winning the World Series, it’s refreshing. It just really shows you that our organization, our front office, our ownership group wants to win every single year,” the veteran first baseman said. “To be a part of that, it’s special. When you sign Edwin, you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s really – that’s great.’ And then all of a sudden Kyle comes along a couple weeks ago, and you’re like, ‘Geez, OK.’
“It’s exciting. As you can tell, talking about it makes me smile.”