The 2025 Los Angeles Dodgers successfully pulled off the title defense. Despite injuries and a shaky bullpen, the Dodgers won the National League West again and then rolled through the NL side of the playoff bracket. And in a seven-game series, a deep Dodgers team got past the Blue Jays to repeat as World Series champions. However, hthe more interesting story is how the Dodgers go there.

The Offense

StatNumberRank Runs Scored 825 2nd Home Runs 244 2nd OPS .768 2nd Whiff% 25.8% 20th Hard Hit% 42.1% 8th

The Pitching

StatNumberRank Starters’ ERA 3.69 5th Relievers’ ERA 4.27 21st Strikeouts 1,505 1st Whiff% 27.2% 3rd Chase% 27.8% 22nd

The Good

There’s not much more that needs to be said about Shohei Ohtani at this point.

For the first time, Dodgers fans received the true experience of “Sho-time.” Not only did Ohtani belt 55 home runs and finished with the best OPS (1.014) in the National League but he also pitched for the first time in the blue and white.

It was…an interesting year pitching-wise. Ohtani only made one-inning appearances when he first returned to the mound, a byproduct of not being stretched out. But by year’s end, he was. He struck out 62 over 47 innings, joining another kind of 50-50 club. On the other hand, the command was somewhat suspect; he had 10 wild pitches.

The Dodgers’ lineup was something special — again. Los Angeles led the National League in runs scored, home runs, and OPS. Only the Yankees bested the Dodgers in all three categories.

Freddie Freeman racked up 24 home runs and a .869 OPS, yet another typical season for him. Will Smith posted a .901 OPS and came up with clutch hits in the playoffs, most notably the game-winning home run in Game 7 of the World Series. Teoscar Hernandez had a down season by his standards. Yet, Hernandez hit 25 home runs.

The big breakout star this year was Andy Pages. Pages hit 27 home runs in his first full season with the Dodgers, establishing himself as an everyday fixture. However, a .078/.113/.098 in the playoffs was a major issue.

As for the starting rotation, it was hard to get much better on paper than what the Dodgers had on their roster.

Los Angeles started last winter with a bang, adding two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell. Snell only made 11 starts thanks to injuries but was fantastic when healthy. The lefty struck out 72 over 61.1 IP, then followed that up with a MLB-high 41 strikeouts in the playoffs.

Tyler Glasnow struck out 106 over 90.1 IP. However, he, much like Snell, had injury troubles this season.

The ace of the staff was none other than Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who excelled from start to finish. Before he won the World Series MVP for recording three wins in the Fall Classic, Yamamoto struck out 201 over 173.2 IP. He finished the year with the third-best wOBA (.244) in the Majors among pitchers with at least 100 IP, behind only Nathan Eovaldi (.240) and Trevor Rogers (.226).

However, to get to the playoffs, there were other pitchers who helped piece together the rotation.

Emmet Sheehan struck out 89 over 73.1 IP in his first action at the MLB level. And then there’s Clayton Kershaw. In his final MLB season, Kershaw posted a 3.36 ERA. Not to mention, he had the best HR/9 ratio (.29) in the second half.

Kershaw’s slider, the money pitch that’ll likely net him a spot in Cooperstown, did a lot of work this season to keep hitters off his four-seamer.

The Bad

Let’s talk about the bullpen for a minute.

Manager Dave Roberts used his rotation’s depth to full advantage this October. Not only did he try to get as much length as possible from the likes of Snell and Yamamoto — a strategy that worked very well, thanks to how those two pitched — but Roberts also used Glasnow and Emmet Sheehan in relief.

Roki Sasaki, who had a very shaky first half, highlighted by a velocity drop and a shoulder impingement, excelled as the team’s closer. Sasaki was back hitting triple-digits with his fastball and posted a .84 ERA with three saves in the postseason.

It washed away what was a complicated calculus for the Dodgers’ bullpen. While the likes of Jack Dreyer, Anthony Banda, and Alex Vesia were excellent, Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates had difficult years.

Scott, signed in January 2025 to solidify the bullpen, blew 10 saves this past year. Things seemed to unravel on a dime at times for Scott; a case in point was in early September when Scott — over an eight-day period (September 5-12) — gave up four earned runs and took one loss along with a blown save.

He took a loss on the 5th, earned a blown save in the game that Yamamoto had a no-hitter through eight, and gave up three runs without recording an out on September 12, thanks to a Patrick Bailey grand slam.

Yates, signed a week after Scott, posted a 5.23 ERA. It was buoyed by nine home runs.

Those two weren’t the only underperformers from last winter’s free agent class from the Dodgers. Michael Conforto had a nightmare-ish season. Conforto slashed .199/.305/.333 with a wOBA figure (.287) that ranked 210th among the 242 players with 350+ plate appearances last season.

Conforto looked like a strong signing at first. A fly-ball hitter with power, Conforto joined a deep Dodgers lineup that offered a lot of protection. Unfortunately for him, a lot of weak contact (5.0%), coupled with subpar defense (-8 OAA) made for a tough season.

Early Projected Lineup for 2026

The Dodgers’ lineup looks mostly set for 2026. However, could the Dodgers look to make it even better by going after one of the many outfielders available in free agency?

Time will tell.

As for the pitching staff, the team made it known that the plan is for Roki Sasaki to move back to the rotation in 2026. If Sasaki can hold up and resemble more of the pitcher seen in 2022 and 2023 compared to the first half of 2025, he would round out an incredible rotation.

The bullpen, meanwhile, has depth to fill out the middle innings of games. However, another potent right-handed reliever to work as either the primary or secondary stopper would make sense.

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