It’s safe to say the 2024 Los Angeles Dodgers have yet to fire on all cylinders. Although it is only mid April, many fans are up in arms about how the team has performed thus far.
After 21 games, the Dodgers sit at 12-9, one game ahead of the San Diego Padres in the NL West. They have only won two of their last seven games, which includes two losses to the aforementioned Padres, and only two wins in their current nine game home stand.
Lots of things are going wrong for the Dodgers at the moment.
Currently, the pitching staff is dealing with six starters on the injured list – an entire starting rotation. Of course if all healthy, they would not all be in the rotation with the current healthy pitchers. However, the Dodgers would have more options to pull from when one did go on the IL.
Having only four healthy starters puts pressure on the bullpen to collectively cover the fifth starter’s spot, plus cover the end of the other games. Additionally, the bullpen is dealing with injuries of their own.
This, combined with the offense going to sleep doesn’t lead to too many wins. The Dodgers were just shut out Wednesday for the first time since July 30, 2023. Not great when you have what some call the best top three batters in history together at the top of the lineup not producing many runs.
Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani have been more than productive at the plate, however lately not consecutively or with runners on base. But what really is hurting them is Freddie Freeman’s current slump.
Over his last seven games, Freeman is only batting .160. Hard to score runs when your number three batter isn’t producing at all.
Also, the bottom three in the lineup have yet to really get anything going at all. Gavin Lux, James Outman, Chris Taylor, and Enrique Hernandez are all hitting below the Mendoza line. Pretty hard for the top three to produce any RBI when there aren’t any runners to bat in.
However, some things are looking up. Freddie Freeman was crushing the ball on Wednesday. Unfortunately for him, Luis Garcia’s fantastic defense negated any hits that might’ve resulted from those batted balls. But it could be a sign Freddie is starting to turn things around.
Michael Grove and Alex Vesia, two relief guys who have had some pretty shaky outings, have looked much more solid over their last couple of performances. Grove had five strikeouts covering the last three innings of Wednesday’s game.
Walker Buehler will have his last rehab start on Thursday, and if all goes well should be reinstated to the roster and make his first start of the season on the team’s upcoming road trip to Washington and Toronto.
If all goes well with Blake Treinen’s throwing sessions this weekend, he should be heading out on his own rehab assignment and be rejoining the bullpen within the next few weeks.
The team has also undergone an infusion of young talent. Andy Pages has been on fire in AAA Oklahoma City, and forced his way to big leagues. Because of the pitching injuries, a couple other guys have made their big league debuts.
On Wednesday, Landon Knack made his first MLB start. After a shaky first inning where he allowed two runs, he shut out the Washington Nationals over the next four innings. Ricky Vanasco pitched two scoreless innings in his debut, and Nick Ramirez pitched three scoreless over two outings.
After an off day Thursday, the Dodgers will take on the New York Mets starting Friday, who have won eight of their last 10 games.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto is slated to start Friday, and currently is the only scheduled starter for the Dodgers for the series.
The Dodgers are too good a team to stay this bad for very long. And unfortunately Dodger fans are used to early season slumps like this. This team will start clicking much sooner than later.