Simply weeks into the offseason, the Dodgers are already pondering 11 months forward.
Having simply completed one more grueling October marketing campaign, they’re bracing for the lengthy highway required to get again.
The staff’s central focus proper now, in fact, is on bolstering its roster and supplementing its star-studded core popping out of final week’s annual MLB basic managers’ conferences in Las Vegas.
However as they go for a World Sequence three-peat in 2026, one among their major challenges can be managing the returning expertise — and guaranteeing the burdensome toll from their earlier two title treks doesn’t turn into a roadblock of their pursuit of one other ring.
That pondering was current final week, when basic supervisor Brandon Gomes introduced that utilityman Tommy Edman will endure surgical procedure to handle an ankle damage that nagged him for the second half of this previous season.
When requested about Edman’s restoration timeline, Gomes stated the “goal” is to have him prepared for spring coaching — however that the staff was additionally “gonna be smart” about ensuring he isn’t rushed again.
“Obviously, he hasn’t had [the surgery] yet. So we’ll look into that as we get into the rehab process,” Gomes stated. “And like we do with everything, let’s keep the big picture in mind, with the goal of playing through October.”
Taking such a protracted view has turn into an annual follow for the Dodgers. Their assortment of star expertise and organizational depth means they’re nearly all the time in place to make the playoffs. It has afforded them leeway to handle gamers’ regular-season workloads and restoration from accidents with a watch towards having them at full power come the autumn.
It was a steadiness the staff struck properly this previous season, navigating a wave of regular-season pitching accidents to have their rotation totally wholesome to spearhead their postseason run.
Subsequent season, nevertheless, the problem of that activity could possibly be considerably amplified.
Their already getting old roster can be one other 12 months older. The after-effects of enjoying 33 additional video games the previous two Octobers can be acutely felt. And whereas it’s a worth the Dodgers have been joyful to pay, it can make subsequent 12 months an final check of endurance that the membership is already accounting for now.
“That’s an extra month to a month and a half that you don’t get to rest and recover, and that you’re pushing beyond what you normally do,” third baseman Max Muncy stated throughout this 12 months’s playoffs in regards to the challenges that include deep October runs. “One postseason game is the equivalent of playing three extra-inning games, all at one time. The stress — both mental, physical, emotional — it’s just on a whole ‘nother level.”
The large query in 2026 can be how the Dodgers’ pitching bounces again from this October’s heavy workload. All 4 of their high starters (Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani) threw greater than 20 postseason innings and labored both out of the bullpen and/or on brief relaxation. Yamamoto logged a whopping 37 ⅓ innings between his two full video games and heroic back-to-back performances in Video games 6 and seven of the World Sequence.
Sometimes, that form of mileage can have adversarial results the next season.
“Playing this deep, guys did things that most people don’t do in the World Series, so it’s just making sure we’re being prudent on the front end and saying, ‘If we need extra rest here, we can do it,’” Gomes stated. “We have ways to navigate it.”
Nonetheless, problems loom — beginning with the triennial World Baseball Basic scheduled for subsequent March.
9 present Dodgers participated within the occasion’s 2023 version, and a number of other extra could possibly be candidates for subsequent spring’s match. Essentially the most intriguing names on that record are the membership’s Japanese trio of Yamamoto, Ohtani and Sasaki, who can be anticipated to star for his or her house nation because it tries to defend its 2023 title within the worldwide occasion.
Some pitchers of their conditions would possibly sit out the WBC, or pitch with strict workload limitations coming off the form of strenuous stretch they skilled within the playoffs — to not point out the shoulder damage that sidelined Sasaki for a lot of the 12 months. However the match’s significance in Japan (the place it’s held in even increased standing than the World Sequence) would make any type of limitations on their availability a culturally controversial improvement — and go away the Dodgers in a doubtlessly tough place in the event that they had been to attempt to push for any of them to prioritize additional relaxation.
“We haven’t gotten into WBC stuff yet,” Gomes stated. “I’m sure we’ll be getting those asks in soon.”
Ohtani himself presents one other query for subsequent common season, as he embarks on what can be his first full-time season as a two-way participant since 2023.
Although Gomes stated Ohtani’s pitching plan will “probably look more like a normal schedule than last year” — when he slowly constructed up in his return from a second profession Tommy John surgical procedure, and didn’t make full-length begins till the tip of the season — he additionally stated Ohtani’s utilization could possibly be considerably “fluid,” leaving the door open to some flexibility along with his schedule as he additionally balances his designated hitting duties.
“Everything we’ll do is with a big-picture mindset,” Gomes reiterated. “So those are conversations we’ll have as we get closer [to next season].”
There could possibly be comparable conversations with a few of the membership’s older stars. By the tip of subsequent October, Freddie Freeman can be 37, Muncy can be 36, Teoscar Hernández and Mookie Betts each 34, Ohtani 32, and Will Smith and Edman 31. Most of them have nursed accidents over the previous couple of seasons. Holding them wholesome and recent for the lengthy haul subsequent 12 months may require some extra strategic load administration — and insurance coverage from a variety of different choices within the group (plus whoever they add this offseason) to offer regular depth.
“I feel like our guys take really good care of themselves, so they might not be quite the same aging curve as everyone just with their level of hunger and their commitment in the offseason,” Gomes stated. “But I think there’s the give and take of … making sure we maintain a good group of young guys that are ready to come up and fill holes when necessary. [It’s] also balancing, as we get into the season, are we making sure we’re having conversations with our guys of, ‘Maybe a day [off] here and there isn’t the worst thing,’ and trying to work those in more.”
All of it underscores the troublesome highway forward for the Dodgers of their push for 3 straight titles: inevitable pace bumps that may solely additional complicate their quest.
“It’s a balancing act,” Gomes stated.
One which the staff is already factoring in because the winter progresses.
