Dodgers added two ace-caliber arms to an already loaded rotation
The Los Angeles Dodgers are on top of the world right now. An offseason reaching or even exceeding the most optimistic of expectations, the bragging rights as the reigning champs. The offseason went the Dodgers’ way, and with it comes a massive amount of pressure to live up to these incredible standards.
We all know the old speech about the difficulties of winning consecutive championships, and there is a reason why no club has done that in the 21st century. With this in mind, let’s look back at recent World Series winners and how they handled themselves in the following offseason, and their performances.
2023 Texas Rangers
Bruce Bochy came out of retirement to do what he prevented Texas from achieving well over a decade earlier, that is bringing a championship to the Rangers organization.
The Rangers model to success was pretty simple: throw a bunch of money at established stars and see what sticks. Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, and Nathan Eovaldi paved the way to a rather solid 90-72 campaign. Of course, not all signings provided the expected impact as Jacob deGrom went down with a serious issue after a few starts, but the roster showed massive improvements.
Still, as a 90-win team, the Rangers had holes and not only did they not get much better during that offseason, but they lost their best starter down the stretch in Jordan Montgmory.
Part of the issue for the Rangers in the offseason following their World Series title is that this team had a lot of long-term commitments on the books and not the budget of the big boys Mets, Yankees, and Dodgers. This scenario limited what they could do in terms of acquisitions. The most successful addition from Texas was the signing of Kirby Yates, who pitched like one of the top relievers in the sport in 2024. The Dodgers have since scooped him up too.
Many key players for Tedas regressed such as Jonah Heim, Eovaldi, Semien, and Garcia. And either through injuries or struggles, youngsters like Josh Jung and Evan Carter didn’t live up to expectations. All of this led to a dramatic drop-off and a 78-win campaign for Texas.
2022 Houston Astros
Despite scoring 90 more runs than they did in the year prior, Houston won only 90 games in 2023 in comparison with 106 during their championship run in 2022. All of this came down to pitching regression.
Basically, everything clicked for Houston’s pitching staff in 2022, finishing the season with a ridiculous team ERA of 2.90. And that wasn’t quite the case in 2023. Hunter Brown and Cristian Javier struggled heavily, and the team played most of the year without Justin Verlander, who had departed via free agency after a Cy Young winning season only to be reacquired at the trade deadline.
Offensively, despite the improvements from a year prior, the team whiffed heavily on its biggest add as José Abreu fell off a cliff in Houston.
Despite winning 16 fewer games, the 2023 Astros still rode their well-established core to another AL West crown and came within one home win of making it back to the World Series, losing the ALCS to the Rangers in seven.
2022 Atlanta Braves
Out of the playoff teams that Atlanta has put out in recent seasons, the 2021 version looked like one of the unlikeliest to make it all the way. Yet, they did just that, beating the Dodgers on their path to a World Series title.
The Braves had one big decision in the following offseason and they low-balled Freddie Freeman into signing with the Dodgers. The choice didn’t hurt them that much as they acquired Matt Olson from Oakland. Olson was phenomenal in 2022 and with a healthy Ronald Acuña Jr., new starters flourishing such as Spencer Strider and Kyle Wright, Atlanta went from an 88-win team to a 101-win squad.
In a perfect example of how cruel the baseball playoffs are, this time around it was Atlanta getting upset in a first-round exit at the hands of the Phillies.
One of the more well-run organizations in baseball, Atlanta sustained the loss of Freeman and has carried on with its perennial contender status ever since, even if without another World Series title.
2021 Los Angeles Dodgers
How much of it was the way the market presented itself and how much of it came from a specific purpose to carry the following approach is tough to say. However, the difference between how Los Angeles handled that offseason and this current one is staggering.
With Kiké Hernández and Joc Pederson as the biggest losses, the Dodgers retained basically the same core with the short-lived addition of Trevor Bauer. Let’s not get into that unpleasantness.
The most notable differences between the 2020 and 2021 Dodgers came in the form of deadline acquisitions, as this team swung the biggest of trades to acquire Max Scherzer and Trea Turner, both of whom were terrific down the stretch.
Scherzer’s regular season form with the Dodgers was outstanding, but unfortunately, when it counted the most he was unable to go out there in the NLCS. This after a pretty heroic short-rest save in Game 5 of the NLDS to close out the Giants.
This time LA wasn’t going to wait around until the deadline to get better. The Dodgers already added Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, Michael Conforto, not to mention resigning Teoscar Hernandez and Blake Treinen.
Conclusion
Apart from the Rangers, who were likely the shakiest of recent World Series-winning teams, most clubs come back strong and without many changes in the following campaign.
Similar to the case with the Yankees, as I wrote about at Pinstripe Alley, the Dodgers are in new territory coming off a World Series squad with all of these new faces expected to make a big impact.