As Evan Phillips stood in entrance of his locker earlier than the Dodgers’ house opener Thursday, answering questions concerning the group’s upcoming World Collection celebration that night time and the gold jersey they might put on to mark the event, his new neighbor within the Dodgers clubhouse interjected from one stall over.
“What’d you say to Tanner before the game?” first-year Dodgers reliever Tanner Scott, a longtime private buddy of Phillips’ within the recreation, implored his new teammate to share with a reporter.
Phillips laughed.
“I was surprised they gave 66 over here a little bit of gold on his jersey,” Phillips joked, referring to Scott’s uniform quantity — and the very fact he wasn’t a part of the membership’s title-winning roster final yr.
“That’s some bull, right?” Scott responded with a playful shake of his head.
“It’s just foreshadowing,” Phillips insisted, “what’s to come for him.”
Such was life for brand new Dodgers gamers this previous weekend, with a gaggle of six offseason acquisitions populating the group’s opening day roster.
All sequence lengthy, they had been current for the nightly pregame ceremonies honoring final yr’s World Collection. They wore the identical gold-accented uniforms, and the identical 2024 title sleeve patches, as the remainder of their reigning-champion teammates.
However for them, the proceedings offered a unique sort of perspective.
They weren’t in any of the scoreboard spotlight reels honoring final yr’s group. They didn’t have the identical emotional attachment to watching a World Collection banner get raised in heart area. And when the group’s championship rings had been offered to gamers and coaches Friday, all of them stayed again within the dugout, serving as mere spectators whereas being reminded of what their earlier groups failed to perform final season.
“There’s a lot of people in that room who enjoyed it,” supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned of his clubhouse’s response to the weekend-long celebration. “And also, there’s new guys that didn’t partake. And I want them to want that next year.”
So too, in fact, do the brand new gamers themselves — virtually all of whom provided the identical motive for desirous to signal with the Dodgers this offseason.
“I went to a World Series as a rookie. Now I’m almost 10 years removed from that, and I want to go back,” veteran outfielder Michael Conforto, a member of the New York Mets’ 2015 pennant winner, mentioned on the membership’s preseason fan fest occasion after signing a one-year, $17-million deal in December.
“I wanted to go to a team that’s going to compete. That was the first thing that I told my agent, that it has to be a team that’s competitive. So I think it was a no-brainer when the Dodgers called. … We want to win games and have a chance to get a ring.”
Scott echoed comparable sentiments at his introductory press convention in January, recent off inking a four-year, $72-million contract.
“They’re not a fun team to face,” he mentioned then, simply months faraway from being eradicated by the Dodgers within the playoffs as a member of the San Diego Padres. “We’re ready to win another one. And I’ll be a part of this one.”
Veteran reliever Kirby Yates, signed to a one-year, $13-million deal per week after Scott, referenced the identical championship aspirations when he was launched at Dodger Stadium for the primary time.
“The older you get,” mentioned Yates, who has appeared in only one playoff recreation over his 11-year MLB profession, “that starts being more important.”
For Yates, a spectacle like this weekend’s was nothing new.
In 2022, he watched the Atlanta Braves obtain their World Collection rings after signing with the membership within the wake of their 2021 championship. Final season, he went by it once more because the newly signed nearer of the Texas Rangers’ defending-title squad.
“This is my third time signing with the reigning World Series champions,” he mentioned. “I’m looking forward to finally trying to make that run and be able to pitch in the postseason.”
There was a lot to have a good time final weekend for gamers who had been on the Dodgers in 2024, together with, from left, Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Occasions)
Final yr’s Rangers celebration, Yates recalled this weekend, was a bittersweet expertise — the 38-year-old right-hander nonetheless reeling on the time from the 104-win Braves’ division sequence knockout the prior October.
“I think everybody on that Atlanta team felt like we had a really good chance of winning that World Series, and it didn’t happen,” Yates mentioned. “So watching that ring ceremony … you’re excited for [your new team] and you’re happy for them. But on a personal level, you want your chance to win one, too.”
This weekend, nevertheless, Yates had a extra auspicious feeling in the course of the Dodgers’ World Collection festivities.
Right here, he noticed a group uniquely poised to repeat as champions; one which already had a star-studded core, then aggressively pursued further depth and expertise throughout a half-billion-dollar offseason spending spree.
Yates’ signing itself, in any case, represented one in all their most luxurious splurges — more likely to successfully price greater than double its $13 million price ticket when accounting for luxurious tax penalties and the Dodgers’ want to chop former reliever Ryan Brasier and his $4-million wage in a corresponding transfer.
“The idea was to have as many good pitchers and as many good players as they possibly could have,” Yates mentioned, “to basically help [distribute] the load for the entire season, including October.”
Having been a part of two earlier failed title defenses, Yates’ hope is that such roster development will permit the Dodgers to beat what he believes to be the most important impediment for any defending champion: well being.
“Playing that long into October, it takes its toll on everybody’s body,” Yates mentioned. “But I think the difference here, and what they’ve done, is how many people they’ve added; the depth that you have to be able to make that run.”
The Dodgers, in the meantime, are hoping the starvation of their new additions will function a unique sort of catalyst of their 2025 quest.
None of their new gamers — from Yates to Scott to Conforto to Blake Snell — has received a World Collection. And this weekend, they’d the sensation of a title dangled in entrance of them, getting a fleeting preview of how a long-sought championship would possibly style.
“I don’t think any of the new guys really need any more motivation to go out and win,” Yates mentioned. “But watching how cool that is, watching everybody go get their rings, yeah, you definitely want your chance to be a part of that.”
