Cody Snavely
Our friends over at the Baseball Isn’t Boring Podcast have a new series hosted by Reece Green called The Case For… where they chose one fan from each MLB team to state why said team should win it all in 2024.
In the latest episode, the team in question was the Los Angeles Dodgers, and I was selected to represent the Boys in Blue and state their case for the 2024 season.
The Dodgers’ MVP trio
One area of little concern for the Dodgers in 2023 was the offense. While the Atlanta Braves had the league-best offense, the Dodgers were a close second, scoring 906 runs (2nd) and putting up a .257/.340/.455 slash line and an OPS+ of 113.
The combination of Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman atop the Dodgers’ order was historically good. The pair each finished in the top three of NL MVP voting and earned All-MLB First team honors.
However, the Dodgers broke baseball and signed the two-time unanimous AL MVP Shohei Ohtani to a massive 10-year $700 million deal.
With the signing of Ohtani, the Dodgers are in historic territory, tying the MLB record for most MVPs on a roster with four. They are also only the fifth team in MLB history to begin a season with three players who each finished top three in MVP voting in the previous season, joining the 2004 Yankees, 1967 Orioles, 1960 White Sox, and the 1942 Brooklyn Dodgers.
Prior to the start of the 2024 season in Korea, the Dodgers trio of Betts, Ohtani, and Freeman were batting .420/.494/.739 and a 1.233 OPS collectively.
One of the biggest questions facing the team early was how the top of the lineup would be constructed. However, Dave Roberts decided to go with Betts, Ohtani, and Freeman in that order.
In their careers, Betts has a .915 OPS in the leadoff spot, Ohtani has a 1.013 OPS in the two spots, and Freeman has a .906 OPS in the three spots.
Although the league will look at the three-headed monster in LA, it is also the other hitters in the lineup who are poised to have big years, such as Max Muncy, Will Smith, and Teoscar Hernández, who LA inked to a 1-year prove-it deal.
While on paper the Dodgers offense looks unstoppable, they still have to show up, and last season was no different. Once October hit, Betts and Freeman went a combined 1/21 and were a huge reason why the offense hit a standstill in the Postseason.
Revamped starting rotation
While the 2023 season saw the Los Angeles Dodgers win 100 games for the fourth straight full season, they did it without a dominant starting rotation.
The Dodgers’ collective ERA was 4.06, the first time over 4.00 since 2010, and the starting pitchers were not better, posting a collective ERA of 4.57, which ranked 20th in the MLB.
The Dodgers were similarly in the bottom third in the majors in both ERA+ and FanGraphs WAR, compared to the previous six seasons, when they were ranked in the top two or three every year.
The problems with the starting rotation reached their boiling point in October, when Clayton Kershaw, Bobby Miller, and Lance Lynn posted a combined ERA of 63.90 in 4.2 innings, a missive reason why the Dodgers were swept out of the Postseason by the NL Champion Arizona Diamondbacks.
Entering the winter, there was a clear focus the Dodgers had to address, and that was the starting staff.
While the Dodgers were counting on Bobby Miller to continue to grow in his sophomore season, along with the return of Walker Buehler to the Dodgers rotation, who in his career has posted an ERA of 3.02 with 690 SO, 136 ERA+, and 1.036 WHIP, it was not enough depth to cover the team.
However, Andrew Freidman, the Dodgers President of Baseball Operations, had two stars in his sights: Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Let’s start first with Tyler Glasnow. In December, shortly after the Dodgers shocked the baseball world by signing two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani to a massive 10-year $700 million deal, they acquired Glasnow in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays.
In 2023, Glasnow had his best and healthiest season of his career, making 21 starts with 162 SO and a 3.53 ERA in 120 innings. However, the Dodgers expect the best is yet to come, showcased by the team’s five-year contract extension worth $136.5 million.
The biggest red flag for Glasnow is his health, as the right-handed flame thrower is only two seasons removed from his lone Tommy John Surgery. But if he can stay healthy and join the Dodgers pitching lab with Mark Prior, expect a big year for Glasnow.
As for Yamamoto, the Dodgers are taking a huge risk signing the star Japanese pitcher to a 12-year $325 million deal without even throwing a pitch in the United States.
However, during his time in Japan, Yamamoto was a five-time all-star, three-time triple crown winner, and two-time Cy Young winner. He had a career 1.82 ERA in just under 1,000 innings, which is why the Dodgers are confident that the “stuff” will translate to the MLB.
The combination of Yamamoto and Glasnow gives the Dodgers two frontline starters for October. But behind them is also a lot of depth with Bobby Miller, James Paxton, Emmet Sheehan, Gavin Stone, Walker Buehler, and perhaps Clayton Kershaw in August.
High expectations
On March 27th, 2012, embattled owner Frank McCourt agreed to sell the Los Angeles Dodgers franchise to Guggenheim Baseball Management for a record $2 billion. Mark Walter, the CEO of Guggenheim Management, would become the team’s controlling owner.
Since the purchase, the Dodgers have been a staple of success and growth. Since 2013, the Dodgers have made the postseason every year, won three NL Pennants, and won a World Series Championship in 2020. The team has also increased in value by over 300%, coming in at $4.8 billion, which is second in baseball behind the Yankees ($7.1 billion).
However, despite the team having a track record of prolonged success rivaling the 1990s Atlanta Braves Dodgers owner Mark Walter viewed his years as a failure, only winning one World Series.
That statement, which was used in the Dodgers pitch to free agents, stuck, as the team each year has only one goal in mind: to finish on top with a championship.
After back-to-back losses in the NLDS, the Dodgers went into the winter with a mission to put their team in the best position to win. In the process, the Dodgers committed over $1 billion, acquiring star talents on both sides of the ball.
Entering the 2024 season, the Dodgers have the second-highest projected payroll at $306.5 million, just behind the New York Mets. While the Dodgers certainly opened up their wallets, a winning season is no guarantee.
The Dodgers are the World Series favorites at all major sportsbooks and are listed at +350 at ESPN BET. With that being said, all eyes will be on the Dodgers as Mookie Betts said, “every game [against the Dodgers] is going to be the other team’s World Series.”
With such high expectations on the Dodgers, anything less than a World Series victory will be viewed as a failure, and no other team in the league can say that.
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