Cody Snavely
Despite winning the 2024 World Series over the New York Yankees in five games, the Los Angeles Dodgers have remained vigilant in their quest to improve their team for the upcoming season.
The 2025 Major League Baseball offseason has had all eyes on the Dodgers organization after shelling out free agent contracts to multiple players, such as lefties Blake Snell and Tanner Scott, along with retaining some of their own players like fan-favorite Teoscar Hernández.
The Dodgers’ most recent acquisition of 23-year-old Rōki Sasaki headlines the Dodgers’ illustrious offseason and puts the finishing touches on a starting rotation they’ve tried to improve for two years.
The 2023 season was wasted primarily due to the lackluster starting rotation, which imploded on itself, having a collective ERA over sixty during the National League Division Series. Despite only having three solid rotation arms this past October, the Dodgers won off the backs of their elite offense, which averaged 5.93 Runs Per Game, the most of any team that postseason.
However, suppose the Dodgers genuinely want to become the first repeat champions since the 2000 New York Yankees. In that case, they’ll have to make sure their starting rotation improves immensely and, most importantly, is healthy come October.
Make Starting Pitching Great Again
Historically, the Los Angeles Dodgers have been known as an elite pitching organization, producing the likes of Sandy Koufax, Orel Hershiser, Clayton Kershaw, and countless others. During this dominant stretch, dating back to the 2013 season, the Dodgers led the league in multiple pitching categories. However, that has not been the case in the last two seasons.
Last winter, when the Dodgers shelled out $325 million to Japanese phenom Yoshinobu Yamamoto and traded for Tampa Bay Rays ace Tyler Glasnow, the organization had hoped that would rectify the blip that was the 2023 season.
While the Dodgers did accomplish their goal of winning it all this past season, their plans for the starting rotation collapsed midway through the season.
Despite an outstanding rookie year from right-handed pitcher Gavin Stone, a career year for Glasnow, the return of veteran ace Clayton Kershaw, and multiple young prospects making their mark, the Dodgers rotation was a shell of itself come season end.
The Dodgers’ rotation was lackluster on multiple fronts, ranking 19th in ERA (4.23), 22nd in FIP (4.28), 20th in fWAR (10.1), 11th in K% (22.8), 20th in WHIP (1.26), and most embarrassingly 25th in innings pitched (797.2).
Prior to that, the Dodgers’ starting rotation was in the top five in all those statistical categories except for inning pitched, where they finished 11th during the 2022 regular season.
The Dodgers’ current ensemble looks to change that narrative by pitching better, playing deeper into games, and showcasing the revolutionized six-man rotation.
The current Dodgers front office, led by President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman and General Manager Brandon Gomes, planned to supply the team with depth at all organizational levels.
However, even with the additions, how will this Dodgers rotation look for the upcoming 2025 season, and how will they revert to one of the best starting rotations in baseball?
Upgraded Rotation Will Hit You with Depth & Stuff+
The Dodgers’ pitching depth is perhaps the deepest in Major League Baseball, and in typical Dodgers fashion, we will see most, if not all, of their potential arms this upcoming season.
One of the Dodgers’ most significant obstacles last season was the team’s number of injuries, including in the starting rotation. Overall, the Dodgers used a Major League-high nineteen different starters during the 2024 season, and if it had not been for their depth, they might not have won ninety-eight games or the National League West.
Despite already having multiple starters out for most, if not all, of the 2025 season, such as Gavin Stone (shoulder), Emmet Sheehan (Tommy John), and River Ryan (Tommy John), they’ll have plenty of options to choose from.
Enter the six-man rotation, which multiple people within the organization, including Friedman, Gomes, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, have hinted at.
The idea of a six-man rotation makes sense, especially since three of the Dodgers’ current starters (Ohtani, Yamamoto, Sasaki) are all from the Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB), where they pitched once a week in a similar rotation style.
One benefit of a six-man rotation is adequate rest days for each starter, and for a team at the epicenter of the pitching injury epidemic, this is a great way to alleviate injuries.
One of the biggest misconceptions about these injuries is that they are not entirely correlated with how much or how hard you throw but the rest between those dates. A six-man rotation and spot starter throughout the year will help give all starters the actual rest they need in between starts.
The Dodgers’ starting rotation currently includes Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, and Rōki Sasaki.
However, the organization will have multiple starters ready to make an impact during the 162-game season, such as Shohei Ohtani‘s return in May, Landon Knack, Bobby Miller, Nick Frasso, Justin Wrobleski, and Ben Casparius, and likely a re-union with veteran lefty Clayton Kershaw.
Now that we understand the Dodgers’ depth, how will they utilize their arms for the upcoming season? Well, the short answer is striking them out.
This offseason, the Dodgers have emphasized high strikeout rate pitchers, highlighted by Blake Snell, Rōki Sasaki, Tanner Scott, and their unofficial signing of Kirby Yates.
As Major League Baseball analyst Sarah Langs points out, the Dodgers currently have three pitchers who are projected to have a 30% strikeout rate or higher, per FanGraphs Depth Charts. No team in MLB history has had three pitchers with at least a 30% K% and seventy-five innings pitched each in a season.
Snell, who had an outstanding second half last season with the San Fransisco Giants, is poised to take another step forward in his career with the Dodgers pitching development team and is projected to have a 31% K%.
Glasnow, who had a 32.2% K% last season, is also projected to eclipse the 30% K% again. However, perhaps the biggest surprising projections are for rookie right-handed pitcher Rōki Sasaki, who is projected at 31.6% K% and second on the Dodgers in fWAR at 3.4.
The Dodgers clearly invested their time in scouting and signing players with a high K% and looking to produce a higher ranking by season end compared to 2024, when they ranked 11th in the league.
However, high K% and the pitcher’s reliance on strikeouts could be an issues that bites the Dodgers staff in their butts, especially if they take any tendencies away from Snell, who has an above-league-average WHIP of 1.217 in his career.
More strikeouts equal more pitches thrown, and with innings pitched and pitch count already an issue in Los Angeles, they will have to rely on that dominant bullpen and rotation depth more throughout the week.
Still, health is the ultimate factor regarding the success of the 2025 Los Angeles Dodgers starting rotation, but the depth, six-man rotation, and a more balanced schedule with off-days should do wonders for the organization in its quest to make starting pitching great.
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