Dodgers have a decided edge for another crown
The question, tinged with incredulity, surfaced in every corner of the Major League Baseball universe last month once the Dodgers reinforced a stacked lineup with Freddie Freeman: How many games will those plucky Dodgers win in 2022?
The consensus is somewhere in the triple digits. A National League West title is viewed as a formality. The other four teams, going by the prognostications, are playing for second place behind the club with the highest payroll in the majors.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts began spring training with measured public thoughts on his team’s chances. He noted they still have to play the games. Then, on March 24, he dumped the modesty and guaranteed the Dodgers will win the World Series on a national radio show. Hours later, he doubled down on his bluster to reporters.
On Thursday, Roberts emphasized the difficulty to overcome each day, each opponent’s best punch. The Dodgers aren’t the defending World Series champions, but they’re the Dodgers and the Dodgers in 2022 are a villain.
“Just embracing it is what it is,” Roberts said. “People love to beat the Dodgers. And our goal is to win the World Series. It is every single year. So to not shy away from it, run from it. And if guys think that that’s too much pressure, then we have the wrong players. And I don’t believe we do.”
Roberts knows surprises surface over a 162-game season. A year ago, the San Diego Padres were fast-approaching budding rivals, ready to challenge the Dodgers for divisional supremacy. Then the Dodgers won 106 games, tied for most in franchise history, while the Padres crumbled down Interstate 5.
The problem for the Dodgers was the San Francisco Giants smashed expectations. They totaled 107 wins with a flair for the dramatic. The stunning revelation reinvigorated a historic rivalry. Eventually, the Giants shoved the Dodgers off the NL West summit on the last day of the regular season to end their streak of eight straight division titles.
Two weeks later, the Dodgers retaliated, knocking the Giants out in a grueling fivegame National League Division Series. But not winning the division was costly. They needed a walk-off win over the St. Louis Cardinals in the wild-card game just to face the Giants before meeting the Atlanta Braves in the National League Championship Series.
“We were gassed,” Roberts said. “And no excuse. We lost to a better team, playing better.
But that’s incentive to kind of play at home and get off days and set your rotation, all that stuff.”
The odds are stacked against the four teams trying to keep the Dodgers from the top of the standings again.
The Giants are projected to regress. Having catcher Buster Posey, their best player and a future Hall of Famer, retire over the winter didn’t help.
The Padres, the other legitimate contender in the division, will be without star shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. for at least the season’s first two months because of a wrist injury. The Colorado Rockies remain a rudderless organization in disarray. The Arizona Diamondbacks compiled 110 losses last season. They can’t get any worse, but they’re years away from relevance.
Freeman signed a six-year, $162-million deal, but he wasn’t the largest expenditure in the division over the offseason. That distinction belongs to Kris Bryant. The Rockies, a year after practically giving away Nolan Arenado, committed $182 million over seven years to Bryant to play left field.
Bryant’s decision was another blow to the Giants; they acquired the slugger from the Chicago Cubs at the trade deadline last summer for the stretch run. The Giants instead allocated most of their money on four starting pitchers. Carlos Rodón, Anthony DeSclafani, Alex Wood and Alex Cobb signed for a combined $125 million to fill out the rotation behind ace Logan Webb.
San Francisco completed its offseason work by adding former Dodger Joc Pederson on a one-year deal.
He joins a group headlined by shortstop Brandon Crawford, a top-five NL MVP candidate last season, and longtime first baseman Brandon Belt. The Giants will work around those two veterans.
In San Diego, last season’s disaster cost manager Jayce Tingler his job. The Padres replaced him with Bob Melvin, who made the move from the Oakland Athletics.