by Megan Garcia
There was a buzz that floated throughout Dodger Stadium on Saturday.
“It’s a great time to be a Dodger.”
Mookie Betts captured it. The Dodgers made numerous moves during the offseason — from signing top free agents to bringing back key players — to bolster the roster leading into Saturday’s annual DodgerFest to kick off the season.
And now with pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training at Camelback Ranch in 10 days, the reigning World Series champions are ready to embark on another journey to October with new and familiar faces.
“Everyone is expecting us to repeat, to win a championship,” said manager Dave Roberts. “That’s not different from last year. But I think that what you’ll notice today, and I think all offseason, was just pure excitement [and] anticipation.”
Two-time Cy Young award winner Blake Snell was the first big-league signing of the Dodgers’ offseason on Nov. 30. Then, 10-year veteran reliever — and key fixture in the 2024 postseason — Blake Treinen was the first returning player to ink a deal with the Dodgers on Dec. 10.
Outfielder Michael Conforto, with a left-handed power bat, signed a one-year deal on Dec. 10, as well. The long-awaited signing of Teoscar Hernández to a contract happened on Jan. 3. Signings continued throughout January as Hyeseong Kim, Roki Sasaki, Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates also penned their respective contracts with the Dodgers.
“That’s the crazy part is you think, ‘Once we sign someone, that’s it.’ But then we kept signing another guy and another guy and another guy,” Snell said. “To see how invested (the Dodgers are) in to assemble the best team possible, it’s pretty special.”
The ability to compete in October was a mutual feeling between the Dodgers’ front office and free-agent players. But with new players coming into a core group that just won a championship, the stakes are understandably high.
“The first thing that I told my agent was it has to be a team that’s competitive,” said Conforto of his free agency preconditions. “He found the right team that wanted to compete. I think it was a no-brainer when the Dodgers called.”
Numerous Dodger players took center stage at DodgerFest and interacted with fans — including Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Tyler Glasnow, who all said they are trending in the right direction heading into the 2025 season.
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DodgerFest marks an exciting chapter for new and familiar faces was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.