The Dodgers are a team built to win the World Series. Making the playoffs is a formality, winning the division is something just north of that. Getting beyond that to win the World Series has proved to be a bigger obstacle. This year's club is constructed well enough to be a team that gets over the hump, but they'll need some help in the second half of the season.
Los Angeles is in a uniquely unenviable position considering the help they need might necessarily be something they control.
There's no bigger obstacle for the Dodgers in the second half than their health. And it's not even about staying healthy. That's key for every club that fancies itself a contender. The Dodgers have the more difficult task of getting healthy. The team has $113 million worth of injured players on the IL, by far the most in the Majors.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Mookie Betts, Tyler Glasnow, Max Muncy and Walker Buehler offer just a sample of the type of talent unavailable for LA. That doesn't include the likes of Joe Kelly and Clayton Kershaw, both of whom are on track to return at some point after the All-Star break.
The good news is the Dodgers are on the right track. Muncy is the only player who's had any kind of setback in their return. He's dealing with an oblique injury that knocked him out in the middle of May. The rest of the group listed above are all expected back at various points in the second half of the year. While LA has say in those rehabs and can have a hand in the returns of each player, there's not a ton of certainty in those processes.
It's true the trade deadline will matter, and the right kind of splash will help the Dodgers overcome some of those injury woes, especially in the pitching rotation. Getting healthy will put the Dodgers back into a real position to contend for a World Series. A full squad with this version of the club may be considered the favorite going into the playoffs.
Getting to that full squad might take awhile and LA's best course of action in getting help might just be waiting for things to fall into place.
