Season at a Glance Archives

07/12/26 
The All-Star Break
The Dodgers head into the All-Star break with the best record in baseball at 61-36 and an 11.5-game lead in the National League West. They were the first club to reach 60 victories and remain on pace for approximately 102 wins over a full season.
Even so, the first half ended on a sour note.
Los Angeles limped into the break by suffering its first sweep of the season, dropping three consecutive games at home to Arizona and serving as a reminder that even the best teams occasionally look mortal.
There are concerns heading into the second half.
Shohei Ohtani has reportedly undergone drainage treatment on his left knee following games, a development worth monitoring as the season progresses. Catcher Will Smith has also dealt with a lingering neck issue that the club hopes the All-Star break will help calm.
There is optimism on the pitching front.
Blake Snell appears to be nearing a return after missing significant time, while Tyler Glasnow has progressed to throwing on flat ground. In baseball terms, that translates roughly to playing catch while everyone involved attempts to sound cautiously encouraged.
The first half, however, was defined far more by what went right than what went wrong.
The Dodgers established themselves early as the National League's team to beat and never relinquished that position. Ohtani remained in the center of nearly everything offensively, continuing an MVP-caliber campaign that included a barrage of leadoff home runs and game-changing moments.
Mookie Betts provided his usual consistency, stabilizing the lineup during cold stretches and serving as the club's everyday constant. Freddie Freeman quietly continued doing Freddie Freeman things, producing runs with remarkable regularity and very little fanfare.
On the mound, Yoshinobu Yamamoto emerged as one of baseball's premier starters before injuries interrupted his season. The right-hander carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning in early July and established himself as a legitimate postseason weapon.
The Dodgers' run prevention remained among the best in baseball throughout the first half. Strong starting pitching, dependable bullpen work and solid defense combined to keep games manageable, even on nights when the offense struggled to produce.
The bullpen, a source of concern early in the season, gradually settled into defined roles and became a strength rather than an adventure.
The club also proved capable of winning away from Dodger Stadium, navigating difficult road environments with the calm expected from a veteran roster.
Success brought recognition.
The Dodgers matched the major league lead with five All-Star selections. Freeman, Max Muncy and Andy Pages earned starting assignments in Philadelphia, while manager Dave Roberts was selected to lead the National League staff.
The shortcomings, while real, were hardly fatal.
The Dodgers continued to struggle at times with runners in scoring position, occasionally turning promising innings into exercises in frustration. Offensive droughts had a tendency to arrive without warning and linger longer than expected.
Injuries forced repeated adjustments to the rotation and exposed a lack of depth in certain areas of the roster. Bench production occasionally lagged behind expectations, while defensive mistakes, though relatively infrequent, often arrived at costly moments.
The final impression before the break was not a pleasant one.
Arizona outscored Los Angeles 23-8 during the season's final series before the break as defensive miscues and offensive inconsistency combined to produce an uncharacteristically sloppy finish.
Still, perspective matters.
A 61-36 record, an 11.5-game division lead and a projected total of more than 100 victories would represent an exceptional season for nearly every franchise in baseball.
For the Dodgers, it feels more like unfinished business.
If Snell returns healthy, Glasnow continues progressing and the roster becomes whole again, the second half may be remembered less for the stumble into the break and more for the team that emerged from it.

06/07/26
Dodgers 101: An Open Book Quiz
What Have We Learned Through the First Third of the Season?

The Major League Baseball season is officially past the one-third mark. June is here, the weather is warming up, and while the picture is becoming clearer, there's still plenty of baseball left to be played.

As former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda famously said:

"No matter how good you are, you're going to lose one-third of your games. No matter how bad you are, you're going to win one-third of your games. It's the other third that makes the difference."

If you've been paying attention, this quiz should be easy. If not, don't worry. It's an open-book test and we're giving out all the answers.

Class is now in session.

Question 1:

Which Dodger used a quiet World Series as offseason motivation?

Answer: Andy Pages.

After spending much of last October watching more than playing, Pages arrived this season looking determined to make himself impossible to take out of the lineup. One-third of the way through the year, he's become one of the club's biggest run producers and one of the easiest success stories on the roster.

​Question 2:

What should Dodgers fans do the next time Dave Roberts asks for patience with a young pitcher?

Answer: Remember Roki Sasaki.

Early in the season there were questions about velocity, command, confidence, mechanics, and whether the Dodgers should consider changing his role. Roberts kept preaching patience. The Dodgers stayed the course. Now Sasaki is beginning to look exactly like the pitcher they thought they were getting.

​Question 3:

Who saved the Dodgers' rotation when Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow disappeared onto the injured list?

Answer: Justin Wrobleski.

If you said Eric Lauer, you may be on to something.

While much of the attention remained on the front of the rotation, Wrobleski quietly became one of the most important pitchers on the staff. Not bad for a guy who wasn't part of many preseason conversations. And if the Eric Lauer experiment succeeds, the Dodgers will once again be accused of finding quality starting pitching in the lost and found.

​Question 4:

What happened when Edwin Díaz's trumpets went silent?

Answer: Tanner Scott picked up the rhythm.

When Díaz went down, many Dodgers fans weren't exactly thrilled by the idea of Tanner Scott taking on a larger late-inning role. Old memories have a funny way of hanging around longer than current statistics. The reality is Scott has quietly put together a very good season, earning Dave Roberts' trust while helping stabilize a bullpen that has spent much of the year navigating injuries and uncertainty.

That doesn't mean every appearance has been smooth. Closers don't get judged by their best nights. They get judged by the few pitches they wish they could have back. Scott learned that again in Arizona when Ketel Marte ended a game with one swing.

Even so, the larger story remains unchanged. The Dodgers continue to hand him the ball when the game matters most, and Roberts continues to trust him with it.

​Question 5:

​How many injuries can the Dodgers survive?

Answer: Apparently more than anyone expected.

Blake Snell. Tyler Glasnow. Teoscar Hernández. Tommy Edman. Kiké Hernández. Michael Kopech. Evan Phillips. Brusdar Graterol. Kiké Hernández.

Yes, we listed Kiké Hernández twice. At this point, it seemed dishonest not to.

The list keeps growing. Somehow the Dodgers keep winning anyway.

​Question 6:

What is one of the rarest sights in baseball?

Answer: Watching Shohei Ohtani walk off the mound after shutting down the opposition, change gear, and lead off the next inning with a home run.
Of all the Shohei highlights, one of the most remarkable developments of the season has been the Cy Young form of Ohtani the pitcher. Seeing him transition from starting pitcher to leadoff hitter remains one of the most unique sights the sport has ever produced.

When he blanks the opposition in the top of the first, heads to the dugout, straps on his batting armor, strolls to the plate and casually launches a 420-foot missile into the seats, it's worth pausing for a moment to appreciate what we're watching.

Baseball has never seen many players who could do both. It has never seen one do it quite like this.

​Question 7:

Which Dodger is most likely to wake up a sleepy dugout?

Answer: Dalton Rushing.

Whether he's snapping a bat over his knee after a frustrating at-bat, exchanging a few choice looks after an aggressive play at the plate, or simply bringing a little edge to a clubhouse that occasionally looks too comfortable, Rushing has brought something the Dodgers haven't always had: a little controlled chaos.

Sometimes every good team needs that guy.

​Final Exam

Why are the Dodgers in first place despite everything above?

Answer: Because every time something goes wrong, somebody else seems to have the answer.

A starter goes down. Somebody steps in.

A hitter gets hurt. Somebody contributes.

A prospect gets an opportunity. He finds a way to make the most of it.
The Dodgers have plenty of stars, but the first third of the season has been less about star power and more about depth. It hasn't always been pretty. It certainly hasn't always been clean.

But one-third of the way through the season, it’s been enough to keep them exactly where they want to be: atop the National League West and sporting one of the top records in Major League Baseball.

​

05/15/26 
The Dodgers May Have Finally Found the
Balance Shohei Ohtani Needs
For the better part of two months, the conversation surrounding Shohei Ohtani has sounded a little like someone nervously checking the weather every fifteen minutes before a road trip.
Too many innings. Too many at-bats. Too much pressure. Too much swinging. Too much everything.
And somewhere underneath all of it sat the unavoidable reality that the Dodgers were attempting something baseball has never really seen handled at this scale before: asking the most talented player in the sport to simultaneously carry a lineup and front a rotation while trying to survive the marathon of another championship season.
Naturally, panic arrived right on schedule.
So when it was announced before Tuesday night’s game that Ohtani would pitch but not hit — and would also sit out entirely the following day — some people treated it like an emergency adjustment.
It wasn’t.
If anything, it was confirmation that the Dodgers have been quietly planning this for a long time.
Back in mid-April, Andrew Friedman practically laid the blueprint out in public if you listened closely enough.
“It doesn’t make sense for him to go wire to wire — pitch or hit or play every day, pitching every week,” Friedman said at the time. “That’s hard, and so we do need to mix some rest in there.”
That hardly sounded like an organization caught off guard by the demands being placed on Ohtani. It sounded like a front office fully aware that asking a player to do impossible things still requires some level of human maintenance.
Friedman even hinted then that rest days might not always look traditional. Maybe Ohtani rests before pitching. Maybe after. Maybe he becomes what Friedman jokingly described as a “silver bullet” off the bench late in games.
At the time, it sounded more theoretical than immediate.
Now it looks very real.
And judging by what unfolded Tuesday night against the Giants, it may end up being one of the smartest adjustments the Dodgers make all season.
Freed entirely from worrying about leading off games, taking five plate appearances or trying to drag a slumping offense uphill by himself, Ohtani looked frighteningly locked in on the mound.
Seven shutout innings. Four hits allowed. Eight strikeouts. An ERA sitting below one through seven starts.
More importantly, he looked fresh.
Not just physically. Mentally.
“I just did what I know I had to do today,” Ohtani said afterward, “collaborating with the pitching coach and Will Smith, just reading and reacting with the hitters’ swings.”
Simple answer. Very complicated outcome for the rest of baseball.
Because if the Dodgers are truly finding a sustainable balance between Ohtani the hitter and Ohtani the pitcher, the ceiling for this team changes considerably.
And make no mistake, Ohtani absolutely has his sights set on becoming the best pitcher in baseball.
At this point, arguing otherwise starts becoming difficult.
Through seven starts, he owns an ERA under one while routinely sitting in the upper-90s deep into outings. Roberts has openly talked about Ohtani becoming increasingly “hyper-focused” on the preparation side of pitching, and the results are beginning to reflect that obsession.
The scary part? Ohtani himself still thinks there’s room for improvement.
“The feeling is pretty good,” he said. “I feel really good with my pitches. But today, the deep fly ball to end the seventh inning, that could have really swayed my ERA. So I think there’s some luck involved as well.”
That answer probably tells you everything about why he’s different.
Most pitchers with a microscopic ERA spend their time protecting it.
Ohtani talks about the one fly ball that almost changed it.
At the same time, he also acknowledged something that has become increasingly obvious over the last few weeks: the offensive side has not fully looked like Shohei Ohtani.
“First and foremost, the fact that I’m not injured, that’s a good thing,” Ohtani said. “I do want to contribute more offensively. I haven’t done so this year, but I’m looking forward to doing that.”
And that may be the most important quote of all.
Because while the Dodgers would happily accept Cy Young-caliber production from Ohtani every fifth day, they are still going to need his bat once the calendar turns toward October.
That is where this evolving plan starts making real sense.
Periodic rest may not only preserve Ohtani physically. It may finally allow the Dodgers to get the best version of both players living inside the same uniform.
And honestly, Thursday night, the game after he pitched, may have revealed another benefit that cannot really be measured by analytics or workload charts.
On his scheduled day off, Ohtani spent much of the evening in the dugout alongside Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Justin Wrobleski, laughing between innings and casually watching the game unfold. Just watching his body language told the story. The usual intensity was gone. The constant locked-in stare had softened. For once, Shohei Ohtani did not look like he was carrying the weight of two jobs at the same time.
Truthfully, it was refreshing to see him without the game face on for once.
And judging from the relaxed smile that seemed to appear a little more often than usual, it probably felt good for him too.
Especially now that Mookie Betts has returned.
There is already growing discussion that Betts should reclaim the leadoff role, allowing Ohtani to slide comfortably back into the two-hole where the lineup flowed naturally. It worked before, and with Ohtani potentially receiving more strategic rest days moving forward, it could help stabilize both the batting order and Ohtani’s workload simultaneously.
And perhaps most importantly, it could help calm a fan base currently treating every Dodgers slump like a five-alarm fire.
Tuesday night served as a useful reminder that, despite the ugly stretch recently, the larger picture has not suddenly collapsed.
As Roberts likes to say, “The sky isn’t falling.”
In fact, with a more sustainable blueprint for Ohtani now starting to emerge, blue skies may not be that far away after all.

 

5/2/26
Dodgers’ Shohei Plan Includes Rest — And a Silver Bullet
It may be time to ease off the panic over whether the Dodgers are somehow running Shohei Ohtani into the ground.
For a few days, the concern had a little oxygen. Ohtani looked a touch off at the plate, there was the usual handwringing over the demands of being a two-way player at age 31, and the armchair workload experts began drawing up emergency plans. Then Ohtani did what Ohtani tends to do when the alarm bells start ringing — he went 7-for-11 over his last three games, scored six runs, drove in two more, and reminded everyone how quickly perceived crisis can become overreaction.
More importantly, if you listen closely to what the Dodgers have been saying publicly, it is fairly clear the organization has been thinking through this long before outside concern caught up.
The premise itself was always a little curious. The idea that the Dodgers, of all teams, would casually stumble into overworking the most valuable player in the sport never made much sense. Andrew Friedman all but confirmed as much when he acknowledged rest is not some abstract future consideration but part of an active, ongoing conversation.
As Friedman put it, “It doesn’t make sense for him to go wire to wire — pitch or hit or play every day, pitching every week. That’s hard, and so we do need to mix some rest in there.”
That hardly sounds like a club ignoring warning signs.
If anything, Friedman offered something more revealing than concern — he offered a framework. Maybe the rest comes on Ohtani’s pitching day. Maybe it comes before. Maybe after. Maybe, Friedman noted with a line too good not to keep, Ohtani becomes the “silver bullet” off the bench in the ninth inning of a tight game.
That was not the language of a front office scrambling. That was the language of a front office gaming out options.
And maybe that’s where the Superman comparison comes in.
Even Superman needed the Fortress of Solitude.
Not because he was weak, but because even the
strongest figure needed a place to reset,
recalibrate and recharge.
It was sanctuary as much as strategy.
For Ohtani, maybe that fortress looks less
dramatic than ice crystals in the Arctic and
more like sitting out a Wednesday day game
before a travel day to St. Louis. Maybe it
means occasional starts where he pitches
but doesn’t hit. Maybe it means calculated
breathers sprinkled through six months.
Whatever form it takes, the Dodgers are clearly building one.
Dave Roberts reinforced that idea when he made clear Ohtani would pitch Tuesday but not hit, the second time in three starts the Dodgers have eased the two-way burden. That is not accidental load management. That is managed intention.
And Roberts, like Friedman, sounded far less concerned than deliberate.
“We don’t have to just be beholden to the off-day,” Roberts said. “We talked to Shohei. He feels good.”
That may be the most overlooked part of all this. Ohtani is not a passive subject in this equation. He is part of it.
He made that plain himself.
“I’ll always let the manager make that final decision,” Ohtani said, “but if it makes sense as a team to occasionally put a guy in as a DH or hit later, that’s fine as well.”
There is flexibility there. Cooperation. Trial and error, as Friedman called it.
And there almost has to be, because as Friedman admitted, there is no baseball playbook for this. 
“We have no experience dealing with this,” he said.
Exactly.
That may be the most honest assessment anyone has offered. There is no historical comp for a player trying to be an ace and a middle-of-the-order force while navigating a modern workload model. Which makes rigid opinions about what the Dodgers should be doing feel a little premature.
Especially when the player in question enters Tuesday 2-0 with a 0.38 ERA, has struck out 25 in four starts, and, after all the noise about a tired bat, just ripped through a three-game stretch looking very much like himself.
The irony may be that the concern about Ohtani’s rest has surfaced just as the Dodgers appear to be implementing it.
Quietly.
Thoughtfully.
Without announcing some grand preservation plan.
Maybe that disappoints those looking for a dramatic intervention. But it suggests the Dodgers are already two steps ahead of the conversation.
And maybe that’s the takeaway.
Yes, even Superman needs a Fortress of Solitude.
But the Dodgers seem to understand that.
And they already have the Silver Bullet ready.

4/17/26
Shohei, Yama… and a Cy Young Problem

14–4. Best record in baseball. The NL isn’t exactly shaking in its boots yet, but it probably should be. The pitching depth has held together, the offense occasionally takes a few innings off like it’s on union break, and Roki Sasaki’s role still reads like a mystery novel missing the last chapter.

 But let’s skip past the usual headlines for a second and talk about something a little more… complicated. Because this isn’t just media speculation — it’s already been said out loud. Both Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto spoke this spring about the Cy Young being a goal. Not in a loud, billboard kind of way, but in that quiet, matter‑of‑fact tone elite players use when they’re telling you exactly what they expect from themselves.

 Shohei Ohtani. Yoshinobu Yamamoto. And a Cy Young race that might be happening in the same clubhouse. Yes, it’s April. No, we don’t care.

 Yamamoto: The Quiet Ace Build 

2026 (through April 14): • 2–1, 2.50 ERA • 0.89 WHIP • 18.0 IP, 14 H, 2 BB, 14 K

 Yamamoto isn’t lighting up the leaderboard — yet — but everything under the surface says this is very real: • Command is elite • WHIP is outstanding (and sustainable) • He’s pitching deep, clean innings • Strikeouts feel like they’re coming, not missing

He doesn’t look like the best pitcher in baseball right now, but he does look like the kind of No. 1 you win a title with.

Ohtani: Subtlety Not Included

2026: • 2–0, 0.50 ERA • 0.72 WHIP • 18.0 IP, 1 ER • 18 K, 6 BB

Ohtani isn’t easing back into pitching; he looks like someone who took a year off and came back annoyed about it. A 0.50 ERA and sub‑0.75 WHIP isn’t just “good start” territory — that’s early Cy Young pacing. And the 10‑strikeout outing against the Mets didn’t feel fluky. It felt like a preview.

So… Here’s the Problem

If both of these trajectories hold — or even improve — you don’t just have a Cy Young candidate. You have two. On the same team. At the same time.

“That’s Not How This Works”

The Cy Young is awarded to the best pitcher, not the best pitching‑staff internal competition. But it’s not completely unprecedented. In 1969, the award was shared between Denny McLain and Mike Cuellar — same league, same year. So yes, it’s rare. Yes, it’s unlikely. But it’s not impossible.

And That’s What Makes It Interesting

Because this isn’t just about numbers. It’s about two elite competitors pushing each other inside the same rotation — each outing raising the bar for the other. That kind of internal race doesn’t show up in the standings, but you feel it.

Final Thought

Is a shared Cy Young between Ohtani and Yamamoto going to happen? Probably not. Is it fun to think about? Absolutely. And sometimes, early in a season like this, that’s more than enough.

4/9/26
12 Games In
6 at Home, 6 on the Road
Early Breakdown​

Coming From Behind

Admittedly, it’s a small sample
size,12 games isn’t exactly a
lifetime in baseball terms.
We’re not sounding any alarms or carving anything in stone just yet. But it is enough to start noticing a few trends… whether the Dodgers planned them or not.​

Falling behind early is usually a problem.

For the Dodgers, it’s been more of a suggestion.

Through 12 games:

Opponent scored first: 7 times

Dodgers scored first: 5 times

And yet…

Record when allowing the first run: 5–2

So yes, more often than not, they’re playing from behind early.
And yes, more often than not, they’re still winning anyway.

At this point, spotting the opponent a run feels less like a mistake and more like part of the pregame routine.

That said, it’s probably not something Dave Roberts is drawing up on the whiteboard. You’d imagine the Dodgers wouldn’t mind flipping that script on the next homestand and trying something new — like leading.

Sasaki Chatter (Slightly Less Loud)

A funny thing happened over the last few games — the noise around Roki Sasaki got a little quieter.

Not gone. Let’s not get carried away.

But quieter.

He’s not dominating, not yet, but he’s also no longer driving the conversation in the wrong direction. Progress might be slow — very slow — but it’s there. And for now, that seems to be enough for the Dodgers to stay the course.

No detours. No sudden exits. Just a long road and a manager willing to let him figure it out.

Mookie

Injuries are part of the deal. No team escapes a full season without a few setbacks, and unfortunately, Mookie Betts became an early example.

The oblique strain isn’t ideal, and the timeline is still a bit fuzzy. The good news? The Dodgers aren’t exactly short on options. Miguel Rojas and Hyeseong Kim can hold things together just fine in the meantime.

If there’s any debate here, it’s simple — don’t rush it.

April wins are nice. October availability is better.

Pages

Andy Pages is locked in.

At the plate, in the field — doesn’t seem to matter. The production is there, the confidence is there, and the results are starting to stack up. Player of the Week honors tend to follow that sort of thing.

Which raises an important question:

Does this guy have a nickname yet?

Because if not, it might be time. Until then, we’ll just say this — Pages keeps adding to the story.

Glasnow

Not entirely sure what Tyler Glasnow did this offseason.

But whatever it was, he should probably write it down and share it.

He looks strong, sharp, and completely in control — arguably the best he’s looked since arriving in Los Angeles. For a rotation with a few question marks early, that’s not a bad thing to have.

So Far, So Good
Twelve games in, it’s still too early for sweeping conclusions. But the Dodgers currently sit with the best winning percentage in baseball, which is about the only early trend no one will argue with.​

As Tommy Lasorda used to say, “No matter how good you are, you're going to lose one-third of your games. No matter how bad you are, you're going to win one-third of your games. It's the other third that makes the difference.”​

So far, the Dodgers seem to be taking care of that “other third” — and then some.

And just like that, a full breakdown of the season so far…

…with not a mention of Shohei Ohtani.

Oops.

​

3/30/26
The Roki Sasaki Conversation Begins: Part 3
Control Issues, Role Questions
Before tonight’s game in Los Angeles, Dave Roberts was asked what he wanted to see from Roki Sasaki. His answer was simple: “Tonight we need to see him in compete mode… once the game starts, it’s about getting hitters out.”
He competed. Just not in the way Roberts likely intended.
Sasaki struggled with control from the start—six walks, two hit batters, and five runs allowed in just over two innings. To his credit, he struck out two and didn’t allow a hit. It’s the kind of line that makes you reread the box score, just to be sure.
As much as the Dodgers want Sasaki to develop into a full-season starter, that idea is starting to look more optimistic than practical.
Spring training is essentially over. There won’t be the option to pull him mid-inning, reset, and try again later. That disappears quickly once the games count.
I’ve said this before in these Season At A Glance pieces, and it still holds:
Roki Sasaki is not a bust.
He is also not an MLB starter.
At least not right now.
What we did learn last year is that he can be a high-leverage reliever. Electric. Unpredictable—in the right ways. The kind of arm that changes the pace of a game the moment he enters it.
If the Dodgers continue to push him into a starter’s role, they risk stretching him past what currently works.
In his postgame comments, Roberts said, “To put me in a place where there is another alternative right now… that’s not helpful.”
It may not be helpful. But it may be necessary.
Sasaki fits in the bullpen. Not as a fallback, but as a weapon. A late-inning option on a team built to shorten games.
Báilalo, Rocky.
Suéltale, Rocky.

3/23/26
The Crow-Flavored Edition

Less than twelve hours — twelve hours — after I confidently published my Opening Day roster thoughts, the Los Angeles Dodgers did what they do best:

They zagged the moment I zigged. 

Hyeseong Kim? Optioned to Triple-A.

Alex Freeland? Welcome to the big-league roster.

Me? Eating crow like it’s a team-issued postgame spread.

And as promised, I’m not hiding this. No burying it in the archives. No pretending I meant something else. No claiming I was misquoted by myself.

This one goes right on the shelf, spine out, next to “Predictions I Shouldn’t Have Made Before Breakfast.”

The Decision

Sunday morning brought the official word: Kim to Triple-A Oklahoma City, clearing the way for Freeland to make the Opening Day roster.

Freeland is expected to platoon at second base with Miguel Rojas while Tommy Edman continues rehabbing his ankle.

This is what the kids call a plot twist.

Why It Happened (The Actual Baseball Part)

For most of the spring, Kim looked like the frontrunner.

He had the speed.

He had the versatility.

He had the early swing adjustments.

He even had the Dave Roberts foot-race endorsement — which, in hindsight, I may have treated as binding law.
Then came the World Baseball Classic.

Kim’s swing didn’t just regress — it packed its bags, left the country, and forgot to leave a forwarding address. He went 1-for-12 with six strikeouts, and upon returning, Roberts described his swing as “out of sync,” which is manager-speak for this is not ideal.

Meanwhile, Freeland — despite hitting .116 in Cactus League play — quietly made his case. Eleven walks, eleven strikeouts, and a late-spring home run that, apparently, carried more weight than I gave it credit for.

Roberts even said, “The numbers aren’t there, but it’s still spring training,” which in retrospect was the baseball equivalent of a spoiler alert.

What It Really Means

This move says less about Freeland winning the job and more about what the Dodgers still want Kim to become.

Kim’s rookie season was a tale of two halves:

.383 over his first 37 games

.175 the rest of the way

Pitchers adjusted. The holes showed up. And this spring, some of those same issues resurfaced — eight strikeouts, one walk, and more than a few swings at pitches that had no business being swung at.

Triple-A gives him something Los Angeles can’t right now:

regular at-bats and the space to fix the foundation.

And Now… the Part Where I Admit I Was Wrong

I said Kim would make the roster.

I said Freeland was the long shot.

I said the Dodgers valued Kim’s speed and versatility too much to send him down.

I even said — and this is the one that lingers — “my gut tells me Kim has that last spot.”

Well… my gut was wrong.

My gut is now suspended for the remainder of spring training.

My gut will be undergoing its own swing-mechanics review in Oklahoma City.

But that’s baseball. It humbles everyone eventually — players, coaches, analysts…

…and yes, the guy writing My Season at a Glance.

Final Thought

Freeland earned his opportunity.
Kim will be back.

And I’ll continue making predictions with the confidence of a man who knows full well the Dodgers are standing just around the corner holding a frying pan labeled “plot twist.”

Crow consumed.

Receipt saved.

Season at a Glance updated.

​

03/22/26
Second Base, Sorted (Sort Of): Espinal Is In,
Miggy Is Forever, and Kim Has the Edge

If you stare at the Dodgers’ second base situation long enough, it starts to look less like a depth chart and more like one of those sliding puzzles where you keep moving pieces around, convinced it will eventually make sense.

​Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers seem perfectly content letting the rest of us squint at it while they sip coffee and insist everything is under control.

​Let’s start with what is clear: Santiago Espinal is in. Not “maybe.” Not “if things break right.” He’s in the way Kiké Hernández is in. The way Chris Taylor had been in for years. He’s the latest version of the Dodgers’ favorite archetype — the Swiss Army knife who makes a 26-man roster feel like it has a few extra compartments.

​Espinal is the guy you turn to when the baseball gods get restless and start testing your depth. He’s the human version of duct tape — reliable, flexible, and always where you need him. That alone gets him on the plane.

​Now to Miguel Rojas, who isn’t just making this team — he might as well already be leaning on the dugout railing. There is no version of this roster without him. What he did in Game 7 last year probably secured that, but even beyond the moments, Rojas brings something the Dodgers value just as much: presence.

​It doesn’t show up in the box score. It doesn’t need to. Everyone in that room understands what it means.

​That said, Miggy is 37. The mileage is real. Last season, there were days where the best thing he could do was not play. Expect him to be used with intention — starting against lefties, getting breathers against tough right-handers, and generally treated like something you want in peak condition come October.

​Which brings us to the real question: Hyeseong Kim or Alex Freeland?

​Two left-handed bats. Two different profiles. One spot.

​Freeland has the switch-hitting, the pop, the upside — the “maybe there’s more here” appeal. But he doesn’t bring speed. Not the kind that changes a game. Not the kind that makes pitchers rush or infielders think twice.

​Kim does.

​Kim has that burst — the kind that makes coaches lean forward and pitchers pay attention. And Dave Roberts has always had an appreciation for that style of play. He even challenged Kim to a foot race last year. Yes, Roberts ended up sprawled somewhere near second base, but the point still stands: he notices him.

​Managers don’t do that for players they don’t believe in.

​I’m not breaking news here. I’m just reading the room. And right now, the room says this: with only a few games left before Opening Day, Kim feels like the guy.

​Could it change? Of course. This is baseball. But unless something unexpected happens, the final spot appears to be leaning his way.

​Freeland will get his opportunity. But today? Speed matters. Fit matters. And Kim checks a box that’s hard to ignore.

​That’s how it looks from here — slightly amused, slightly skeptical, and fully expecting the Dodgers to wait until the last possible moment before telling anyone what they’ve decided.

​

03/04/26
The Roki Sasaki Conversation Begins Part 2
Roki Sasaki’s start Tuesday against the Cleveland Guardians may have created more questions than answers.

​The first inning unraveled in a hurry: walk, single, walk — bases loaded, no outs. Kyle Manzardo then turned a 97-mph fastball into a grand slam, and just like that the Dodgers were staring at a 4–0 deficit. Another walk followed, and Dave Roberts went to the bullpen.

​But spring training has its quirks. Roberts reinserted Sasaki to begin the second inning — and what followed only deepened the discussion.

​After throwing 23 pitches and allowing four runs in the first, Sasaki needed just 22 pitches over the next two innings, striking out two and shutting Cleveland down. Two versions of the same pitcher in the span of 30 minutes.

​Sasaki attributed the rocky start to mechanical issues, saying his upper body fell out of sync. That may be true. But there’s another angle worth considering.

​It has long been my belief that Sasaki may ultimately be better suited for a relief role. Yes, he technically started the game. But once removed and reinserted, he essentially worked in relief — and he looked dominant.

​I understand that’s a stretch. Still, the contrast is hard to ignore.

​There is something different about the mindset of a starter — the rhythm, the pacing, the responsibility of setting the tone. At this stage, Sasaki appears far more comfortable attacking in shorter bursts.

​The Dodgers’ rotation picture only complicates the matter. With Gavin Stone managing shoulder inflammation and Blake Snell unlikely to be ready for Opening Day, Los Angeles would prefer Sasaki to seize a starting role.

​They will give him every opportunity to do so.

​But I’ll stick to my position: the electric arm plays best in high-leverage relief. Whether that’s now or later remains to be seen.

​The arm is electric. The learning curve is real. And what the Dodgers decide to do with Roki Sasaki next may become one of the most fascinating storylines of the spring.

​

2/25/26
The Roki Sasaki Conversation Begins

As stated when this page was first introduced, Season At A Glance is designed to go beyond the box score. As the season begins to take shape, this space will focus on effort, execution, and decision-making — the details that don’t always appear in the stat line, but often determine who wins in October. When something stands out, whether it deserves praise or scrutiny, it will be addressed here.

Spring training is only a handful of games old, and overreaction is always a danger this time of year. Still, certain performances spark larger questions. That was the case following Roki Sasaki’s first appearance of the year against the Arizona Diamondbacks, and it’s worth beginning the conversation now rather than waiting for the regular season to force the issue.

Let me say this clearly right out of the gate so there is no misunderstanding. Edwin Díaz is the Dodgers’ closer. He is worth every dollar of his three-year, $69 million contract, and he has been one of the premier closers in baseball over the past several seasons. Barring something unforeseen, he is the man who will be finishing games for the **Los Angeles Dodgers. Period.

That said, Sasaki’s outing against Arizona brought back memories of last season. Early in the year, his debut as a starter was inconsistent. His velocity fluctuated, command came and went, and eventually injuries disrupted his progress. But when he returned, something changed. In a high-leverage bullpen role late in the season, he became one of the Dodgers’ most dominant weapons — often at the moments when the team needed him most.

For reasons that are understandable, the Dodgers remain committed to developing Sasaki as a starter. Coaches have talked about a new pitch he’s working on this year. They don’t even have a definitive label for it yet. Pitch-tracking systems sometimes classify it as a slider and other times as a splitter. Whether that pitch becomes a difference-maker remains to be seen.

But new pitch or not, the question still lingers: is that the best use of his talent for this roster, right now?

Personally, I believe Sasaki could become one of the most dangerous late-inning weapons in baseball. Imagine him entering in the seventh or eighth inning, shutting down the heart of an opposing lineup for an inning or two before handing the ball to Díaz to finish the job. Last season, when the bullpen door opened and Sasaki’s walkout music "Bailalo Rocky" filled Dodger Stadium, the energy in the building changed. More often than not, hitters had little chance.