The Los Angeles Dodgers looked like they'd cruise to a National League West title for most of the first half of the 2024 season.
Then they hit a couple of ruts. LA is now 14-16 in their last 30. Their division lead shrank to 4.0 games, and a flurry of trade deadline moves still leaves their roster littered with question marks.
The Dodgers are a team that expects to be one of Major League Baseball's best every season. That didn't change this year when they added reigning American League MVP Shohei Ohtani in the offseason. Alas, they've been unable to truly get over the hump to look like a National League juggernaut. They certainly have the talent to do so, but their inability to sustain any long-term success might not be the team's fault.
According to ESPN's Bradford Doolittle, no team has had worse injury luck than the Dodgers this season. Turning that around will be their key to turning the corner and making a run to the World Series.
Via ESPN:
The always-deep Dodgers haven't been as deep this season, mostly because a number of their role players haven't been as steady as in seasons past. L.A. addressed this at the deadline by adding Amed Rosario and Kevin Kiermaier to the bench. Still, to flash back to the preseason, this version of the Dodgers is as top-heavy in roster construction as we've seen during the Andrew Friedman era. This is fine if the top of the roster is healthy, but too often this season it has not been. According to an injury impact index I monitor, based on data from Baseball Prospectus, the Dodgers have been the most injured team in baseball. The Dodgers can still become the special team that many saw after last winter's spending spree. For that to happen, Mookie Betts, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Max Muncy, just to start, have to get healthy -- and everyone else needs to stay that way. For once.
Injuries can often sound like an excuse, but with this Dodgers club it's hard to find a bigger reason they've struggled.
They've been without Muncy since the middle of May. They've been without Betts since the middle of June. Yamamoto went down one day before Betts.
Still, they had the depth to potentially withstand all those injuries. Then players like Jayson Heyward and Miguel Rojas got hurt. Clayton Kershaw didn't return from offseason surgery until July. Walker Buehler spent time on the IL. A smattering of relievers have spent time on the IL.
The Dodgers, despite being 18 games over .500 entering play August 7, have never felt whole for the entire season.
It's a testament to their roster that they've been able to overcome those injuries to find regular-season success, but it's clear to anyone who watches them every day that they're far from a shoo-in to go to the World Series.
Things are trending the right direction health-wise, though. Muncy, Betts and Yamamoto are on track to return. Role players like Rojas and reliever Michael Grove have also been added from the IL. A loaded roster is finally starting to look like the team the Dodgers anticipated having when the season began.
If they can turn their injury luck around over the final two months and into October, they'll be as big a threat as any to hoist the Commissioner's Trophy.
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