Dodgers Interview: Dreyer looking to build on strong rookie year
LOS ANGELES — Jack Dreyer has already learned one of the quickest lessons a young reliever can learn in Los Angeles: if you’re wearing “Dodgers” across your chest, you’re not just pitching for the guys in the clubhouse. You’re pitching for a city of passionate, engaged fans.
On the final day of the Dodgers Love LA tour on Friday, January 30—at an event honoring local firefighters at the Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center—Dreyer went straight to the point about what the week meant to him and why these stops matter.
“Obviously the Dodgers aren’t the Dodgers without the fan base and the community,” Dreyer said. “So, to be able to go in and interact with people is awesome, especially here with the fire department… everything that they gave and sacrificed last year with the fires… it’s the least we could do to come spend time with them.”
That’s a pretty clear window into how a rookie experiences his first winter as a champion. It’s not just the ring. It’s realizing how many different corners of L.A. are emotionally invested in the team—and how much the team’s presence can mean when it shows up in person, shakes hands, tells stories, and listens.
“To get to talk to them and tell stories and that kind of thing, it’s just been great,” Dreyer said.
A short offseason is a good problem
Dreyer’s offseason is moving fast for the same reason yours probably did: the calendar got eaten by October. Asked how quickly it’s gone, he framed it as a good problem to have. “The shorter the offseason means the deeper you went in the postseason, the year before,” he said. “We’re happy to do it. Everybody’s ready to go.”
And yes, Dreyer said out loud what everyone in blue has been thinking since the parade confetti got swept up. “I know that the players and the fans both have the same goal in mind and that’s three in a row,” he said. “So we’re just ready to go.”
“We’re obviously a family”
One of the most human moments in Dreyer’s first interview wasn’t about pitch shapes or a new sweeper grip. It was about a teammate who’d suffered an unimaginable loss.
A viral clip made the rounds this offseason of Dreyer and a few other Dodgers and former Dodgers surprising Alex Vesia with matching pajamas. It’s the kind of goofy, only-in-the-clubhouse thing that fans love because it tells you who actually hangs out with whom—and who cares enough to show up when a friend is healing.
Dreyer was asked about his relationship with Vesia and how the group has been there for him in the wake of the passing of the Vesia’s newborn daughter in October. “We’re obviously a family,” he said. “Everybody on the team stays pretty close together when things are going on.”
Then he added something that matters if you’re trying to understand how Dreyer got comfortable in his first big-league season: Vesia wasn’t just a friendly veteran. He was daily structure.
“We were catch partners the whole season,” Dreyer said. “So we spent hours and hours every day, and he was… my mentor and helped teach me and… grow within the game and stuff.”
That’s not nothing. A rookie reliever trying to stick in a championship bullpen can drift if he doesn’t have a routine and a trusted voice nearby. “He’s been very, very important to me,” Dreyer said. “So to get to spend some time with him this offseason has been excellent.”
And the pajama coordination? Dreyer didn’t even claim credit. “That was all of the wives getting together… I had no idea when I showed up,” he said. “Then I saw him and then it didn’t kind of dawn on me until I saw like seven or eight of us all matching. So that was a funny twist by them.”
That’s clubhouse life. The players get the headlines; the families end up doing half the glue work behind the scenes.
Big names, small egos
Dreyer also touched on something Dodgers fans hear from player after player, year after year: the roster can look like an All-Star ballot, but the room doesn’t run on celebrity.
“The Dodgers obviously have so many high-profile guys, big names,” he said. “But in the clubhouse, all of us are just good teammates, good friends, and everybody cares about winning and doing whatever it takes to win a championship. There’s no ego or anything like that.”
You can roll your eyes at that kind of line if you want, but the consistency matters. The Dodgers keep collecting stars, and the stars keep saying the same thing once they’re inside the building: the day-to-day is professional, team-first, and bluntly focused on winning. Dreyer said he’s soaking it up. “I’m just so lucky to be able to learn from so many future Hall of Famers,” he said.
The “child’s game” on the biggest stage
The next day—Saturday, January 31 at DodgerFest—Dreyer was back in interview mode, but the setting was different: Chavez Ravine, home crowd, season celebration energy, and the chance to reflect on a first year that went from “hello, I’m here” to “ring on the finger.”
“It was an absolute dream come true,” Dreyer said. “Getting to start with the team in Tokyo and have a debut there, going all the way to being the only team standing at the end. I don’t think you could ask for anything more…. Especially… the Hall of Fame talent that we have on the team, and being able to learn what I learned, that kind of thing. It’s a season that I will never forget.”
When asked what he learned about himself—what allowed him to be successful in those moments—Dreyer gave an answer that feels like it came from someone who’s already felt the adrenaline, the pressure, and the noise that comes with pitching in meaningful games.
“When you’re playing a child’s game on the biggest stage, it’s difficult sometimes to block out the noise,” he said. “You have millions of fans who are watching you and all kinds of stuff from every direction.”
Then he described the mental trick that helped him: reducing it back down to the simplest version of the job. “Being able to kind of quiet the mind and understand that it is just a game… it kind of simplifies things. It makes it just a lot easier,” Dreyer said.
Conviction, and a clubhouse that pulls you forward
Dreyer was also asked how surprised he was by what he accomplished. “I’d like to say not at all,” he said. “Having conviction in yourself is important. More than that, having a belief in the team and… your teammates—when you see them go out and perform and have success—it just makes you want to have success that much more.”
That dynamic is real in a good clubhouse: success becomes contagious. You watch the guy before you handle a jam, and it raises your standard for your own outing. You watch the offense bail the team out, and you want to return the favor. You watch a veteran bounce back after a bad week, and it gives you a model for your own rough patch.
“I think our team really came together really well and gelled,” Dreyer said.
Workload lessons, and the best kind of “second ring”
The Dodgers have asked a lot of their bullpen the last couple years, and Dreyer acknowledged his own jump. “This was the most innings that I pitched in my career… and the shortest turnaround,” he said. “It’s better to have a short offseason than to have a long one.”
He also gave credit to the veterans for showing him how to manage the grind. “Being able to learn from some of the veteran guys and how to maintain, how to handle your body and kind of stay in shape… has been invaluable,” Dreyer said. “We’re just ready to get—”
And then he got asked how he celebrated. Only in the best way possible: “I got married,” Dreyer said, smiling right through the answer. “So I got a second ring… which was the highlight of my offseason for sure.”
That’s about as good as it gets: a championship ring in one pocket, a wedding ring on the hand, and a rookie who sounds like he knows exactly what his role is on a team chasing another run.
One more thing: the Rubik’s Cube tease
If you’ve been around Dreyer content at all, you know he has his own off-field quirks. In the firefighter event interview, he got asked if he has any new Rubik’s cube–type stuff coming. “I have a couple things designed that I’m going to have to keep wrapped up for now,” he said. “But I hope to be able to show things off here in a little bit.”
Dreyer, who created a little bit of buzz last spring when his Rubik’s cube creations went viral, is a whiz with the puzzle, and has got noticed all over the league for his artwork created with numerous cubes. What’s he got planned for 2026?
Consider that your spring-training subplot: Dodgers bullpen, three-peat talk, and whatever Dreyer has cooking on the puzzle front.
For now, the main takeaway from both interviews is simple. Dreyer sounds grateful, grounded, and completely bought into the program. He’s talking about community and firefighters one minute, then about quieting his mind under “millions of fans” the next. That’s Los Angeles baseball in a nutshell: big stage, bigger expectations, and a daily reminder that the team is tied to the city around it.
And Dreyer? He sounds ready to get back to work. Both on the mound and on the cube. And we’re so here for it.
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