The conversation surrounding the Los Angeles Dodgers coming into the spring was whether the team would challenge MLB\u2019s all-time single season wins record of 116.<\/p>\n
Through the first week or so of the new campaign, the Dodgers still looked like they\u2019d push for 120 victories or more.<\/p>\n
While their 37-25 mark entering play on Thursday is fine and they still seem to be a lock for the playoffs, expectations have been significantly lowered for the defending champions.<\/p>\n
Now, as the early days of June continue and summer approaches, baseball analysts and fans alike have been trying to figure out why Los Angeles has looked, at times, mediocre since the red-hot start.<\/p>\n
Some players, like the trio of reigning or former MVP hitters in Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani, are performing as usual. Others have either been hurt or been vastly underwhelming.<\/p>\n
With more than two months of the regular season in the rearview mirror, Bleacher Report\u2019s Kerry Miller revealed their \u201cBold MLB Takes 60 Games into 2025 Season\u201d on Thursday. For one of them, the writer claims that the Dodgers \u201cHave Become the Biggest Loser of This Past Offseason.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Injuries Have Hit Dodgers Pitching Staff Historically Hard<\/strong><\/p>\n During their second straight massive offseason spending spree, Los Angeles added to its already loaded starting rotation and elite bullpen.<\/p>\n The Dodgers brought in Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki to join 2024 All-Star Tyler Glasnow and Japanese sensation Yoshinobu Yamamoto (among others) in the starting group, while acquiring two-time All-Star Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott (a first-time All-Star in 2024) to shore up an already stacked relief squad.<\/p>\n Los Angeles entered the year with injury trouble with its pitchers and things have only gotten worse.<\/p>\n Manager Dave Roberts\u2019 group has a whopping 15 hurlers on the injured list, including Glasnow, Sasaki, Snell and Yates.<\/p>\n Roberts did say on Thursday, however, that there was a \u201cgood possibility\u201d that Yates will be activated from the IL this weekend, per Benjamin Royer of the Los Angeles Times.<\/p>\n Despite their bevy of injuries, Miller wrote that \u201cNo one is going to shed a tear for the reigning World Series champions who are sitting (12) games above .500 with a total payroll (including their aforementioned $156 million tax bill) of $562 million that more than exceeds the combined $494.5 million payroll of the five stingiest teams: the Pirates, Athletics, Rays, White Sox and Marlins.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n He did admit that some of the team\u2019s \u201ccheaper moves have been awesome,\u201d including re-signing Kike Hernandez and signing Hyeseong Kim. The Dodgers\u2019 other half dozen moves that Miller mentioned have been largely disastrous, however.<\/p>\n The Newcomers Have Largely Failed Thus Far<\/strong><\/p>\n Miller points to the additions of Sasaki, Scott, Snell, Yates and one-time All-Star outfielder Michael Conforto (as well as re-signing reliever Blake Treinen) as the six transactions that make the Dodgers the \u201cbiggest loser\u201d of the winter.<\/p>\n \u201cBlake Snell\u2019s five-year, $182 million contract with the Dodgers was the first of many \u201cHow do they keep getting away with this?\u201d moments of the offseason, but he lasted nine innings before landing on the IL with no return yet in sight,\u201d Miller wrote. \u201cThat\u2019s one more inning than they\u2019ve gotten out of Blake Treinen, though. They brought him back on a two-year, $22 million deal, but he pitched eight innings, suffered two losses and has been AWOL since mid-April.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Two of the team\u2019s vaunted arms in a talented bullpen (Yates and Scott) have been either injured (in the former\u2019s case) or ineffective, as Scott has an MLB-high five blown saves and a 4.55 ERA.<\/p>\n Miller notes that Sasaki\u2019s \u201cprice tag\u201d was \u201cliterally pennies on the dollar compared to the others,\u201d but the righthander\u2019s 4.72 ERA across eight outings (before his IL stint) \u201cmight be the most disappointing of all in light of the lengthy courtship that preceded his arrival in Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n In terms of hitting, Conforto signed for just one year at $17 million but there\u2019s been talk of a possible release if his struggles continue.<\/p>\n \u201cMust be nice, though, to swing and miss that many times in free agency and still be the World Series favorite,\u201d Miller wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The conversation surrounding the Los Angeles Dodgers coming into the spring was whether the team would challenge MLB\u2019s all-time single season wins record of 116. Through the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67534,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n