DODGER STADIUM (Los Angeles) – Before taking the field on Opening Day, Dodgers players had a gift waiting in their lockers, courtesy of their best player.
Next to a brand new Seiko watch was a note.
“From Shohei Ohtani. Let’s three-peat.”
The target has existed on the periphery all season, usually unspoken but omnipresent as the Dodgers try to accomplish what no team has done since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees. No National League team has won three consecutive World Series championships.
The Dodgers understand the opportunity up front, even if it’s not something their manager chooses to bring up often. When they won the division for the fifth year in a row on September 17, manager Dave Roberts focused on the grit and hunger of his team and the sacrifices it would take, including time away from family, to ensure this October would be another one to remember.
“You never know who the guy is going to be, who’s going to get that moment,” Roberts told his team. “A lot of people have lived it at this club. My request is, get ready to be that guy.”
He did not mention the phrase “three-peat”.
He didn’t need to.
Ohtani’s veteran team knows what’s at stake, especially as the club’s old core turns a year older and labor disputes invite uncertainty about the future. What the Dodgers have built, and the odds in front of them, are not guaranteed forever.
“We’re all aware that we have a chance to do something that’s never been done in the National League and what it means for this franchise, this fan base,” Roberts said. “But it just makes life harder when you’re not focused on the job, which is winning the next series. I think our guys are pretty focused on that.”
They are also equipped for it.
In 2024, the Dodgers’ talented arms comprised a motley rotation on their triumphant postseason run. Last year, their glut of starters gave them additional relief options to manage a volatile bullpen. In Game 7 of the World Series, all six pitchers who entered the game for the Dodgers began the year as starters.
This year, the Dodgers project a more reliable mix of arms.
Everything is seamlessly created for them to make history. They are the team with the least handicap in the playoff field – Do the Brewers have enough power to win? Do the Braves or Padres have enough reliable starting pitchers? Will any American League team stand a chance against the National League winner? — with a rotation that may go down as one of the best October units ever assembled.
Back-to-back American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal will pitch in Game 1 against the Braves in the National League Division Series. Roberts broke the news to Skuba shortly after their All-Star deadline acquisition exited his final start of the season in San Francisco, where he needed just 75 pitches to strike out 10 in seven innings.
“I thought that at the moment I would be able to finish the game”, recalls Skubal. “And he says, ‘Get ready for Game 1.’ That’s what they told me, and obviously excited and fired up and ready to go.”
The Dodgers have another two-time Cy Young Award winner, Blake Snell, and reigning World Series MVP, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, ready to go in some order for the next few games. Tyler Glasnow, who struck out 21 batters over his last two starts of the season, would be the go-to arm on some playoff teams. He is the Dodgers’ fourth starter.
“In my opinion,” Freeman said, “we’ve got four No. 1s floating around out there.”
Compare that to their National League Division Series foes. While Tyler Mahle has stepped up in a big way to give Atlanta more pitching depth, Chris Sale is the group’s lone ace. The Braves used Sale twice in their wild-card series, once to start Game 1 and again two days later to secure the final five outs of the series — a decision that now carries significant consequences.
The Braves will likely use a bullpen game against Skubal on Saturday in Los Angeles, and Sale’s status for Sunday’s Game 2 is up in the air.
The Braves should have the edge, but there’s reason for optimism in October — certainly more so than a year ago — as the Dodgers’ full stable of arms narrows down to those on Roberts’ tree of belief. In August and September, Dodgers relievers combined for a 3.20 ERA, which ranked fourth in MLB.
In September, Alex Vesia was 2-0 with a 0.87 ERA while Evan Phillips had a 2.16 ERA with 12 strikeouts and one walk in nine appearances. More importantly, after a miserable season for Edwin Díaz, the Dodgers’ $69 million offseason signing started to look like the player they expected to get. After returning from the injured list, Díaz went five scoreless innings in which he struck out nine and allowed just two hits to finish the year.
Lefty Tanner Scott has enjoyed a bounce-back season in the second year of a four-year, $72 million deal and is the most likely option to man the ninth to start the postseason, though that role is not set. If Díaz continues to look more like the player the Dodgers expected, he gives the club another shutout option. They also have starter Roki Sasaki ready to make his annual postseason pilgrimage to the Dodgers’ bullpen, only now with a much more consistent season under his belt.
Roberts said he feels comfortable with any of Scott, Phillips, Díaz or Sasaki closing matches.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers’ struggling hitters have finally caught fire. Entering September, Mookie Betts, Kyle Tucker and Teoscar Hernández were the only hitters on the team to have at least 300 plate appearances and produce below league average. Then, in the final month of the season, Betts had a 1.112 OPS, Hernández hit .341 and Tucker came home six times.
In addition, catcher Will Smith returned from a nearly three-month layoff with a neck problem to slash .290/.400/.548 with four home runs over his last 21 games. Meanwhile, All-Star center fielder Andy Pages returned from a broken hand for the final six games of the regular season and went 6-for-18 with two home runs.
That doesn’t mean the Dodgers enter October without any concerns.
Snell left his first start on September 16th with a groin problem, though he returned to pitch four innings of work on September 26th. A sore right knee sapped much of Freddie Freeman’s power in the second half. Meanwhile, the team’s biggest question mark in October centers on the player who delivered that gift on Opening Day.
Lingering left knee and right biceps problems affected Ohtani’s production in the second half of the season and forced him onto the injured list in September. Neither Freeman nor Ohtani are expected to be 100% heading into the postseason.
That’s why the first-round bye the Dodgers secured was so vital, giving the club’s ailing veterans plenty of time to rest. Snell, Freeman and Ohtani are expected to be ready to go. Freeman, in particular, has already shown he can take his game up a notch in October even when he is not feeling well physically.
“A couple of Octobers ago it was probably 100 times worse, disease-wise,” Freeman said. “I feel really good right now physically, so it’s up to me to figure out the mechanics of the swing.”
Freddie Freeman was in good spirits as the Dodgers worked out ahead of their game against the Braves. (Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Thursday provided a promising sign when Freeman doubled in an intrasquad scrimmage.
“I feel very confident that once we get to Saturday, we will see the best version of Freddie,” Roberts said.
Earlier this week, Ohtani took batting practice on the field, a rare occurrence for him. Dodgers hitting coach Aaron Bates said he dropped a few baseballs off the scoreboard.
“It was as good as we’ve seen this year, as far as the way the ball was going and the way he was going,” Bates said.
In live at-bats Friday against Emmet Sheehan — another depth pitching option for the Dodgers this postseason — Ohtani struck out once and then lined a shot to right field. Roberts hopes the bright lights of October will bring out the best in his destined superstar, even in compromised form.
“I expect good things,” Roberts said. “I really do. We just haven’t seen enough of it for me to predict.”
Shohei Ohtani spent the last month of the season trying to put on weight and find his rhythm. (Matthew Huang/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Since 2024, after being eliminated from the playoffs in the first round in back-to-back seasons, the Dodgers have used the downtime between the end of the regular season and the start of the postseason to spend more time together as a team, including hosting playoff viewing parties and attending intrasquad games to stay close and avoid rust.
It’s worked the last two years for more flawed clubs than this one, delivering back-to-back World Series titles.
Given the way everything seems to be coming together, there’s no reason it can’t happen again.
“This team knows when to flip the switch and go,” Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas told me. “We all understand the task that awaits us, and we have the motivation to win three times in a row.”