Mirjam Swanson: Same plan next year, Dodgers? Because job's not actually finished.

Mirjam Swanson, The Orange County Register on Nov 3, 2024

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

LOS ANGELES — So that was (expletive) fun. See you back here next year? And the year after? And the year after that …

Mookie Betts is banking on it.

“When I became a Dodger, it was for 12 years, and we got two (World Series rings) so far,” the Dodgers outfielder told fans on Friday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, where the team’s championship parade ended with a series of heartfelt, NSFW speeches.

Betts’ message, however, was repeatable – and should be.

“… I gotta get to at least five or six, right?” said the Dodgers star, the only active MLB position player to win three World Series rings, counting his previous titles with Boston in 2018 and the Dodgers in 2020. “I’m trying to fill this hand up, L.A.!”

A delighted crowd filled Dodger Stadium on Friday, singing happy birthday to Fernando Valenzuela on what would have been the pitching icon’s 64th birthday – and then, of course, celebrating their 2024 champions.

Their Dodgers, on top and on the rise all at once.

Winners of two World Series titles in the past five years, and 11-of-12 National League West titles, an accomplished cast that’s just getting started.

This club that has recorded five 100-plus win records in the past seven full seasons, hasn’t had a full season with fewer than 90 victories since 2012 and is trending upward.

This team with the best record in baseball that’s setting up even better for next season.

This organization with a spectacular and spectacularly competitive core under contract for years, a group that finally got a taste of the parade that comes with getting the job done, a treat denied during the COVID pandemic in 2020.

“You guys wanted a parade and we got a parade!” Roberts shouted hoarsely. “… let’s get ready to run this thing back next year too!”

If you’re any of the other 29 major league clubs, no, you’re not like them.

There’s having the heart of a champion, always clutch. But here come the Dodgers with the depth and attention to detail of a champion. With the data collection and developmental acumen of champions. With the rugged determination. With the manager, Dave Roberts, steering with scary discipline, his GPS set not to win playoff series wins, but beyond that, toward the World Series finish line.

That’s the foundation for a generational run loading. A world-beating collection of talent for whom it’s finally clicking; what a time it’s about to be to be alive in L.A.

Because what’s going to stop the Dodgers now? What could slow them down?

Injuries? As if.

Roberts’ club was ravished by setbacks this season and just kept coming, no matter how wonky things got.

They just kept fighting and figuring it out, vanquishing their rival San Diego Padres in the National League Championship and then making easy work of both New York teams, first the Mets in the NLCS and, on Wednesday, the Yankees in Game 5 of the World Series.

Imagine the Dodgers with even a little bit better luck in the health department.

Picture a pitching rotation that will feature Tyler Glasnow, a Cy Young-caliber dealer who was sidelined in August with elbow inflammation, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, just 26, and looking every bit an ace in his World Series start.

And Shohei Ohtani!

The presumptive 2024 NL MVP as a designated hitter, the Dodgers’ 10-year, $700 million man, founder of baseball’s 50-home run, 50-stolen base club, the superstar who connected in his first crack at the postseason after getting shut out in six seasons in Anaheim, and who told Dodgers fans, in English, on Friday: “This is so special for me.”

And he’s expected to get back to giving ’em heck on the hill, a pitcher with a career 3.01 ERA.

Add Clayton Kershaw, Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May, all on the mend. Or Bobby Miller, on the verge of emerging, and Landon Knack, who showed promise in his 12 starts.

And, ideally, Walker Buehler – one of the World Series heroes, partying Friday in Orel Hershiser’s 1988 World Series jersey – back on the bump for those big moments he lives for.

And the Dodger dawgs. Those guys who enabled the team to “bullpen … their way” to a championship, as Blake Treinen put it. A free agent too, he’s one of the relievers on a nasty relay team that also features Michael Kopech and Alex Vesia, and Brusdar Graterol, Ryan Brasier and Anthony Banda.

All that to complement a lineup that will continue to rudely greet opposing starters with a trio of MVPs atop the lineup: Ohtani, Betts and World Series MVP Freddie Freeman. And behind them, let’s hope, Teoscar Hernández, a free agent outfielder who wants to stick around. And then Max Muncy, Will Smith, and NLCS MVP Tommy Edman.

And, if the Dodgers re-sign him too, utility man Kiké Hernandez, the Dodgers’ proven postseason performer who said on live TV that he didn’t give a, um, hoot who doubted this club that spent Friday parading down the streets of L.A. and then dancing in a shower of blue confetti on stage at their ballpark.

C’mon, let’s go, Dodgers. Job’s not actually finished. It’s only getting started.

____