Cody Snavely
Expectations for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 2025 season are astronomically high, as they usually are. After another absurd offseason this winter, it is World Series or bust.
However, that is nothing new for the Dodgers. Since the team changed ownership to the Guggenheim Baseball Management Group in 2012, that goal and expectation have remained the same annually.
Still, despite the high expectations, there’s room for some bold takes that could surprise the team this year. Last year, I claimed that with a full season as a designated hitter, Ohtani would join the 40/40 club, and little did we know the historic season he would go on to have.
That said, here are three bold takes for the upcoming 2025 season, which includes a potential Gold Glove season by Mookie Betts, Cy Young Award winner Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and a comeback year for Bobby Miller.
Betts Wins First Gold Glove Since 2022 as a Shortstop
Last season, Dodgers insider David Vassegh would say, it was the season of Mookie Betts, who was on a mission to prove all his postseason doubters wrong. So he did after a stellar October performance that helped the Los Angeles Dodgers secure their eighth World Series title in franchise history.
However, entering the 2025 season, Betts still has a chip on his shoulder, this time regarding the criticism he received while playing shortstop during the first half of the regular season in 2024.
In an unorthodox move, the Dodgers opted to place all-star Mookie Betts at shortstop two weeks before the start of the regular season due to former Dodgers top prospect Gavin Lux having issues on defense.
The transition went about as smoothly as you’d expect, even for a Major League veteran like Betts, who had not played the position full-time since his senior year in high school.
Overall, in 531.1 innings at shortstop, Betts had a below-league-average fielding percentage of .963, -4 OAA (Outs Above Average), -3 FRV (Fielding Run-Value), nine errors (eight throwing), and a -4.6 UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating) before ultimately moving back to right field after returning from a fractured wrist injury suffered in July.
Still, despite the mediocre metrics, some indicators liked Betts defensively at shortstop, highlighted by his 3 DRS (Defensive Runs Saved) and 3rPM (Real Plus-Minus), along with the good ole’ fashion eye test, as Betts is a well-rounded athlete.
This winter, Dodgers General Manager Brandon Gomes stated that Betts would continue to transition to the infield. Some odd months later, the team and Betts confirmed that he would be the everyday shortstop, now with a full offseason to train rather than on the fly.
In an article by Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times, Betts’ training this offseason was rigorous training in Los Angeles or Arizona multiple times per week, including visits with former five-time Major League all-star and two-time Gold Glove Award winner Troy Tulowitzki.
Tulowitzki, 40, the long-time former Colorado Rockies shortstop who has been retired from baseball since 2019, is now a baseball coach at the University of Texas and had some high praise for Betts.
“I wouldn’t say this for anybody else that’s just spent however many years in the outfield and then go to the infield, but I can truly tell you, I think he can be an elite defender at the position — which is just crazy to say.”
The work Betts had done this offseason has paid off so far in the early days of Dodgers cam, with multiple coaches, including Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, stating, “It’s two grades better already.”
For Betts, who has been in the big leagues since the 2014 season, when he debuted with the Boston Red Sox, it is the most he’s had to mentally prepare for, but he is okay with the challenge. Betts, a six-time Gold Glove Award winner, looks to add more hardware to his mantle this time at shortstop.
At DodgerFest in early February, Betts stated, “Yeah, every time I put my glove on. My mindset is to make it gold, so it doesn’t matter where it is. That’s what I’m going after.” Now, time will tell if he can accomplish that goal, and I wouldn’t bet against him.
Yamamoto Becomes First Japanese Pitcher to Win Cy Young and Pitching Triple Crown
While year two of Mookie Betts at shortstop is massive for the Dodgers in 2025, year two for Yoshinobu Yamamoto is equally as significant if the team wants to reach their goal of another World Series.
Last winter, after the Dodgers were bounced early by their National League West rival, the Arizona Diamondbacks, in the National League Division Series, the team addressed their massive holes in the starting rotation.
Enter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who inked a massive 12-year $325 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers and was poised to be not only the best starter on the Dodgers but one of the best starters in the league.
After a rocky spring training that was filled with adjustments, Yamamoto’s debut could not have gone any worse when the team opened up the 2024 regular season in Seoul, South Korea, where the rookie right-hander gave up four hits, five earned runs, one walk, in one inning while only striking out two batters in one inning of work.
However, after that first start, Yamamoto posted a 7-1 record with a 2.53 ERA and 103 strikeouts in seventeen starts, but he dealt with a shoulder injury during the summer in a limited capacity.
Despite missing most of the summer, Yamamoto’s season was still successful. The Japanese righty ended the 2024 regular season with a 3.00 EAR, 2.61 FIP, 1.11 WHIP, .226 BAA, 105 strikeouts, and 90.0 innings pitched. That October, Yamamoto was nails.
Despite a shaky first start in the NLDS against the San Diego Padres, the righty pitched five scoreless innings in a winner-take-all Game Five and went 2-0 in his next two starts in the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets and New York Yankees.
However, in the case of winning a Cy Young Award, that is something no Japanese-born pitcher has ever done in Major League Baseball history. However, the Dodgers have three players with a legit shot of making that happen.
Despite missing a significant chunk of the season last year, Yamamoto posted great advanced statistics such as a 28.5% K%, which would have ranked seventh in Major League Baseball and fourth in the National League.
Yamamoto also posted a 6% BB%, 10.50 K/9, 2.20 BB/9, elite 0.70 HR/9, and 4.77 K/BB, all of which would’ve ranked him in the top ten in the National League had he pitched a full season and the qualified amount of innings.
Yamamoto doesn’t just have a great shot to win the National League Cy Young Award but also a potential Triple-Crown title.
Last season, each league had a Cy Young Award-winning pitcher hit the triple-crown mark, with Chris Sale in the NL and Tarik Skubal in the AL. It would be rare for it to happen in back-to-back seasons, but Yamamoto is better positioned than anyone.
To qualify for the Triple Crown as a starting pitcher, that player must lead the league in wins, ERA, and strikeouts. If healthy, Yamamoto will likely get 28-32 starts this season, and with him playing on the best team, there is a chance he will blow away most starters in the win column.
His 3.00 ERA last season would’ve been fifth in the National League, and if you remove his first start of the season, he would have finished with a 2.53 ERA, significantly increasing his chances. His 28.5% K% was one of the best in the National League.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has even stated that Yamamoto looks the most ready and determined to take the next step in his career coming into camp this season.
“He [Yoshi Yamamoto] is considerably ahead of where he was last year.; every time he throws a baseball, it’s just getting better — the command, the delivery.”
The Dodgers hadn’t had a top-ten National League Cy Young Award finish since the 2022 season when then left-handed starter Julio Urías finished third behind winner Sandy Alcántara and second-place finisher Max Fried.
That statistic is likely to change this season with Blake Snell‘s addition and the hope that Tyler Glasnow and Yamamoto have healthy seasons.
Miller Bounces Back in Year Three; Stays in the Starting Rotation All Season
Well, I’ll be the first to say this bold prediction is already off to a shaky start after Bobby Miller, in his 2025 Cactus League debut, left in the bottom of the third inning after getting hit by a comeback line drive off the bat of former Dodgers top prospect Michael Busch.
Still, despite the outing, Miller is fine and should begin throwing again in the next few days. Still, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts updated the media that the righty is under concussion protocol.
Picking Miller to have a comeback season after a terrible sophomore year is a popular pick amongst Dodgers fans, and for good reason. Last year, despite the rough stat line where, the 25-year-old righty posted an 8.52 ERA in 56.0 innings.
While Miller won’t make any excuses for his performance, some of it can be blamed on injuries in the first half of last season, Miller suffered from shoulder inflammation and, after that, had knee discomfort, which threw off his delivery and mechanics.
When healthy and on his game, Miller can be one of the best pitchers on the Dodgers, as highlighted by his rookie season, in which he posted a 3.76 ERA, 3.51 FIP, 1.102 WHIP, and 119 strikeouts in 124.1 innings pitched and spot in the Dodgers October rotation.
Injuries aside, many of Miller’s issues stemmed from control issues, which were highlighted by his 1.77 WHIP on the season. Last season, Miller had a 4.82 BB/9 and walked thirty batters in fifty-six innings.
The walks are more glaring when you look at Miller’s xFIP in counts. When Miller was ahead in count 0-2, the righty had a massive upper hand, holding opposing batters to an xFIP of 0.21, 0.08 FIP, and .439 OPS. However, the problem here is that Miller only got into 0-2 counts 6% of the time this past year.
Miller’s lack of command also significantly affected his pitching arsenal. With the righty falling behind so many counts this past season, he relied on his fastball, often throwing it 37.9% of the time compared to 28.9% in 2023.
However, unliked his rookie season, where his fastball had a pitch value of five, it was now one of the worst fastballs in baseball with a negative ten-run value. This was a common trend for Miller this past season as the quality of all his pitches decreased, having a negative run value for his change-up (-1), sinker (-7), curveball (-2), and slider (-6).
Even in Miller’s brief appearance yesterday in the Cactus League opener, he debuted a new sweeper, and all of his pitches graded out above-average due to spin and velocity, but command did seem to still be an issue.
Regarding a spot on the starting rotation, Mille will be battling with righties Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin, who have each missed extensive time on the injured list for various injuries.
Suppose Miller can resume his throwing program and get in more spring training games. In that case, he’ll more than likely make the trip to Tokyo, Japan, as the roster for that two-game series will be thirty-one, and with the Dodgers going with a traditional five-man rotation until Ohtani returns, one of those three will get that spot.
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