Dodgers, ‘more hungry’ and with a ‘unique challenge’ in 2025
The title conquered in the 2024 World Series has been left behind and Los Angeles Dodgers open more hungry training than ever ‘and see 2025 as a’ unique challenge ‘
Glendale, Arizona – Five years ago, Mookie Betts HE arrest in medium of a wardrobe here and It appeared to the New companions of team of The Dodgers angels telling them basically that They needed to dominate the details in February If they wanted to raise the trophy in October.
On Tuesday, in the unofficial home of one season in which the Dodgers will face immense expectations, Betts transmitted a similar message.
“We cannot continue thinking about being champions again,” Betts said the day many of the Dodgers players underwent their physical pre -season exams. “We have not even played the game 1. We have to take care of spring training, and then, when game 1 comes, then game 1. But we can’t keep talking about the World Series.”
Not long ago, the Dodgers looked like a Greek tragedy -continuously presented rosters full of stars and dominated the regular seasons, only to absorb a massive disappointment in the playoffs. All of that changed the past fall, when one of the rosters most affected by dodgers injuries surpassed the deep San Diego Padres, dispatched the brave New York Mets and quickly got rid of the neglected New York Yankees to capture the first title of The franchise since 2020, and the first in a full season since 1988.
The Dodgers continued to redouble the commitment to what was already one of the most awarded rosters in baseball, guaranteeing about $ 400 million to nine players: Blake Snell, Tanner Scott, Teoscar Hernández, Michael Conforto, Kirby Yates, Hyeseong Kim, Roki Sasaki, Enrique Hernández and Clayton Kershaw, the latter is expected to be official on Wednesday.
According to Spotrac, the salary payroll of the Dodgers by 2025 is estimated at 385 million dollars, about $ 65 million more than the METS, which occupy second place. In spite of everything, they have become the target of complaints about the state of sport. The owners have questioned the financial capacity of the Dodgers in their attempt to impose a salary stop. Fans have lamented the use of postponements-especially with Shohei Ohtani, which allocated 680 million dollars for retirement-to close agreements. Executives have criticized Sasaki’s hiring process, believing that their signature with Dodgers is inevitable.
“People are always going to find something to complain about,” said the third base of the Dodgers, Max Muncy. “We are simply trying to deal with our business and put ourselves in a good position to reach the postseason.”
The big leagues have not had a champion that repeats their title since the Yankees won their third consecutive title in 2000, but the Dodgers have good possibilities. Baseball Prospectus Pecota, which executes thousands of simulations to project the total victories for the next season, estimates that Dodgers will have 104 wins in 2025, at least 11 more than any other team.
The reasons are obvious. The rotation of the Dodgers-which includes Snell, Sasaki, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and, eventually, Ohtani and Kershaw-is one of the best of sport in its entirety. His alignment-with Ohtani, Betts, Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernández, Muncy, Will Smith, Conforto and Tommy Edman occupying eight positions, possibly in that order-is one of the most fierce in history. And his bullpen, which is already a strength, has added Scott and Yates to a group that includes Michael Kopech, Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips and Alex Vesia, among others. If dynasties are still possible in an unpredictable sport with a constantly expanding postseason field, Dodgers seem to be prepared to become one. But it is not something that their players want to accept publicly.
Their own failures in the playoffs have taught them that.
“What happens with this sport is that it does not matter what kind of squad you have -one and again, the teams have shown that, if you reach the playoffs, anything can happen,” said Muncy. “If you look at the Diamondbacks a couple of years ago, they arrived at the World Series with (84) victories. And technically, they improved last year-89 wins-and did not even reach the playoffs.
“It is one of those things in which, all you have to do is get to the postseason and anything can happen in this sport. You can have the best player in the world in this sport, and cannot always take control as in Other sports, where if you have the best player on the court in the NBA, it will take control of the game for most of the time. The World Series “.
And so, the Dodgers players spent much of their time on Tuesday by dismissing questions about the construction of a dynasty and the search for the record of victories of all time in the regular season – -116, established by the Chicago Cubs of 1906 and the Seattle Mariners of 2001– and, instead, they talked about the importance of maintaining their advantage.
The Dodgers will not carry out their first training with the entire team until Saturday, but most of their players in the inner painting -Freeman lessons, which is back in Los Angeles to go through the final stages of rehabilitation of their right ankle surgically repaired – Most of the last two weeks have passed by receiving rolled in Camelback Ranch. The same can be said of most of its pitchers, which have begun their early launch programs in advance of a regular season that will begin on March 18 in Japan.
Muncy has taken that as a sign that this team is “more hungry than ever.”
“We didn’t win last year because we were talking about the World Series every day,” Betts said. “I think we won last year because we talk about the task in question. I think we have to continue talking about the task in question and not worry about the final objective. We have a final goal, of course, but we must take steps to get there And not worry about getting there. We will get there. “
