The Los Angeles Dodgers haven’t quite exceeded the expectations laid out for them this season, but at least according to president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, it is too close to call.
An offseason that looked to addressing pitching depth was plagued once again by injuries, and with the promise of hot bats and high-flying home runs, something the Dodgers have certainly done a lot of recently, there have been just as many stretches of stagnant offense.
Friedman is still not looking backwards at judging potential offseason woes, rather looking ahead to the postseason.
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“We’ll wait until after the season,” he said to the Los Angeles Times’ Bill Shaikin. “All we’re focused on is these next few games and October.”
One of the biggest names in last year’s free agency pool was relief pitcher Tanner Scott.
At this point in the season, Scott is now notorious for his late-game blunders and being tied with the MLB-most blown saves (10), but with a four-year, $72 million price tag, there are already plenty of reasons to feel regret.
The 31-year-old Scott was coming off a 1.75 ERA campaign in 2024 with an ERA+ of 243, ranking him 143 percent higher than league average. The southpaw was doing so with a 97 mph average fastball velocity, and ranked in the 100th percentile in baseball with an average exit velocity of 84.3 mph.
His ERA this season is 5.01, he now ranks in just the 10th percentile in average exit velocity (91 mph), and his swing-and-miss rate has fallen from to 32.7 percent (92nd percentile), to 27.7 percent, placing him in the 69th percentile.
Scott isn’t the only questionable decision from the offseason as Michael Conforto has also been highly scrutinized for his lack of production.
Last season, Conforto was batting .237 with a .759 OPS as a member of the San Francisco Giants. This year, after inking a one-year, $17 million deal, Conforto is hitting .194 with a .632 OPS.
As Friedman said, there will be no way to fairly judge the offseason until the conclusion of the postseason. If those who have been scrutinized all year long come up big in October, it can prove invaluable for how their 2025 is remembered in Dodger blue.
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Photo Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images
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