(Victoria Cassinova / For The Occasions)
The mandate was set the second the dancing Dodgers flooded the Yankee Stadium area on that superb, gutsy October night time.
One isn’t sufficient.
The bar was set the minute the Dodgers squeezed previous the San Diego Padres then steamrolled all of New York to dominate baseball with their finest crew ever.
One isn’t sufficient.
Their mission was clear the moment these large buses whizzed previous adoring hundreds on downtown streets and emptied a bunch of tearful hugging gamers right into a roaring Dodger Stadium for his or her first-ever November celebration.
One is rattling positive not sufficient.
One full-season World Collection championship is simply not sufficient.
Not for these sorts of gamers. Not for these heaps of cash. Not for these kinds of followers.
It won’t appear truthful, and it’s actually not a lot enjoyable, however this Dodger dynasty can’t be thought of an actual dynasty until they win all of it once more this season, changing into the primary crew in 25 years to seize consecutive titles.
It’s not very dramatic, it’s six months of grinding geared toward one month of glory, however there isn’t any escaping it.
For the 2025 Dodgers, it’s a World Collection championship or bust.
Final season’s title didn’t raise the strain, it doubled it. In the event that they actually need to totally destroy the ghosts of postseason failures previous, they merely must make it two in a row.
“I do know that we’re trying to do something that hasn’t been done in 25 years, to go back-to-back, that’s certainly in our calculus,” Supervisor Dave Roberts informed reporters this spring, later including, “It’s a motivator.”
It’s greater than a motivator, it’s a should.
In most cities a championship buys a crew at the very least one season of relaxed grace, however not with this crew. Typically a franchise can reside with dropping for 2 or three seasons after a title, however these Dodgers are completely different.
These Dodgers have gained 11 division titles in 12 seasons. These Dodgers have a payroll of just about $402 million, some $75 million greater than anybody else. These Dodgers shouldn’t simply win. They need to win, and win, and win.
Los Angeles is aware of dynasties and to this point, this ain’t it.
These Dodgers should not but in a category with Picket’s Bruins, Pete’s Trojans, Showtime or the Kobe-Shaq Lakers. All had been brash, dominant packages that gained at the very least two consecutive championships whereas the remainder of the world was at their necks.
The Dodgers haven’t accomplished that but. They haven’t grow to be that but. Contemplating the 2020 shortened-season title is discounted and final 12 months’s title was their first full-season crown in 36 years, they should add on.
They usually understand it. Roberts mentioned he didn’t use the precise phrase “dynasty” in his annual speech on the primary day of spring coaching, however he didn’t dance round it both.
“I do think that we’re the epicenter of baseball,” he mentioned. “I do think that we do a lot of things well, we have a lot of talented players. Our fans come out in droves. Our players understand that, like I said, there’s a standard to uphold, and how we perform each day is important.”
The final baseball crew to win consecutive titles was the three-peat New York Yankees from 1998-2000, and whereas they had been memorable, these Dodgers might be higher.
They will win it once more. They need to win it once more. From possession to the depths of the bullpen, they’ve accomplished all the pieces to place themselves able to win it once more.
They ended the season as the most effective crew in baseball by a reasonably large margin, and guess what? With Mark Walter’s cash and Andrew Friedman’s smarts, they received considerably higher.
They signed the most effective veteran pitcher available on the market in Blake Snell. They signed the most effective younger arm in Roki Sasaki. They re-signed all of their free agent postseason heroes, from Teoscar Hernández to Blake Treinen to Kiké Hernández. They added veteran reliever Kirby Yates and outfielder Michael Conforto.
Then they capped all of it off with a surprising signing of among the best relievers in baseball, Shohei Ohtani’s nemesis Tanner Scott, in a transfer that even stunned Roberts.
He thought they had been completed shopping for. He was glad that that they had vastly improved on greatness. After which…
“I just felt that we were tapped out…And we checked three boxes at that point in time, big boxes, so that would have been, like, good enough,” Roberts mentioned. “So when I heard that Tanner Scott can still be in play, I was very surprised. And then when we acquired him, I was like, ‘I can’t believe that just happened.’ Because it would have still been a great offseason. A great offseason.”
It was certainly a fantastic offseason, crammed with a number of “I can’t believe that just happened” moments, manufactured by a entrance workplace that swings huge and takes the additional base and works as onerous as their hustling gamers.
“And I just think it speaks to ownership, and Andrew and the front office, how competitive they are, as our players are,” Roberts mentioned. “And I just love the way they can put back into the players.”
Oh, the gamers. My, however they’ve the gamers.
This isn’t simply the most effective and deepest roster in baseball. It may be among the best and deepest rosters in baseball historical past. They’re so loaded, they swept the Chicago Cubs in a two-game season-opening sequence in Tokyo with out Mookie Betts or Freddie Freeman and with out arguably their prime two beginning pitchers, Snell and Tyler Glasnow. Additionally they used a special set of relievers every night time.
May they go 162-0? Solely half joking.
The beginning rotation is so deep that Ohtani isn’t being rushed to the mound after Tommy John surgical procedure and may solely make a dozen begins this 12 months. And the two-time former Cy Younger winner Snell is simply the No. 2 starter, behind Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Then there’s the bullpen is so wealthy that final 12 months’s World Collection hero Treinen gained’t even be the first nearer.
All this, and Roberts simply cemented the credibility of his clubhouse tradition with a contract extension that makes him the very best paid in baseball by annual wage.
Significantly, who’s going to beat them? They may win a major-league file 120 video games in the event that they didn’t stress load administration and spend the common season gearing up for October. That’s what this summer time goes to be, one lengthy pregame stretch in preparation for the playoffs. They may “only” win 95 video games, however you’ll be able to guess they’ll be prepared for that first spherical.
Or… not.
What in the event that they undergo a World Collection hangover? Keep in mind the Rams’ Tremendous Bowl hangover? What if that occurs right here?
Roberts says it gained’t.
“I just think that we’re as good as anyone in baseball at putting the blinders on and getting better each day, with respect to expectations,” Roberts mentioned. “And I think that managing high expectations that we have every year, I think our guys do a really good job of doing that, which as a byproduct guards against any type of letdown.”
However what if…
What if Ohtani will get distracted in his return to pitching and declines offensively? What if Betts wears down throughout his first full season at shortstop? What if Freeman suffers an comprehensible letdown after one of many best homers in Dodger historical past?
Teoscar Hernández earned his largest assured contract, and what if that robs him of his fireplace? Muncy struggled with accidents most of final season, what if his physique won’t ever be proper?
What if Sasaki pitches like an unfocused child and Snell loses his edge and relievers Scott and Yates crumble beneath the brand new strain?
Heaps can go unsuitable, however right here’s guessing it gained’t. And the Dodgers are so deep, all of that must occur without delay for them to battle.
No, this season isn’t about histrionics, it’s about historical past. The Dodgers will make it. The Dodgers will cement it.
The Dodgers will win a second consecutive World Collection to grow to be considered one of baseball’s most dominant and Los Angeles’ most beloved dynasties.
Not less than, that’s the plan.
