On week from today, the Dodgers will begin their 2025 postseason in the wild card round. This is not set in stone just yet, but with Los Angeles already unable to catch the top-seed Brewers and with a tragic number of two to be iced out by the Phillies, it’s pretty clear the Dodgers will have to play extra baseball before the Division Series for the first time since 2021.
The Dodgers have already set up their rotation in such a way that at least three of their top four starting pitchers are lined up for the wild card round, with Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto starting this week against the Diamondbacks in Phoenix, with Tyler Glasnow’s final tune-up to be determined.
There are a few roster decisions left to be made before the Dodgers begin their title defense.
Will Smith taking a foul ball off his right hand on September 3 in Pittsburgh has proven much more costly than originally thought. The All-Star catcher has played in only one game since, and won’t play this week either after subsequent testing showed a hairline fracture in that hand. Whether he will be ready for next week remains to be seen.
Dalton Rushing had a right shin contusion of his own but returned from the injured list last week. He started only two of six games though, as Ben Rortvedt has taken “the lion’s share” of duties — Dave Roberts’ words — behind the plate. It’s abundantly clear the club prefers the receiving skills of Rortvedt, who has started 11 of the last 15 games.
Smith started every game for the Dodgers and caught all but two innings last postseason, and that probably would have been the case this year too. But with Smith’s status very much in doubt, Rortvedt seems like the probable choice for October either as the backup to Smith or starting in a timeshare with Rushing.
What a difference a year makes, after navigating last year’s postseason with only three starting pitchers and relying heavily on a very deep bullpen all the way to a championship. This year, the rotation is the Dodgers’ clear and obvious strength, so much so that quality starters likely won’t get starts in October. Emmet Sheehan has pitched as well as any Dodgers starter of late, but will instead be deployed as a weapon in relief in October.
Roberts last week said of Clayton Kershaw’s postseason status, “I don’t know what role, but I just feel there’s a spot for him,” which was as nice a way as possible to say he won’t be starting in October. This comparison is probably unfair to both parties, but I view Kershaw’s 2025 role as sort of a better Landon Knack, who had a fill-in bulk role a year ago.
The Dodgers bullpen has been an unpleasant adventure down the stretch, with a 5.23 ERA that ranks 25th in the majors in September, and the worst walk rate (13.9 percent) in the league.
Tanner Scott seems to be on the other side of his horrific “baseball hates me right now” slump, with four consecutive scoreless appearances. Blake Treinen is going through it, taking each of the last five Dodgers losses during a 10-5 stretch for the team.
The Dodgers’ most reliable relievers — Alex Vesia and Jack Dreyer — are both left-handed.
With Treinen struggling, Michael Kopech no longer a viable option, and Kirby Yates unable to find his early-season effectiveness, finding right-handed relievers to trust is something the Dodgers need to sort out, and soon. Edgardo Henriquez might be the best bet here, and Sheehan will certainly be asked to get important outs in October.
Getting Roki Sasaki and Brock Stewart are expected to be activated off the injured list during this series against the Diamondbacks add too more potential right-handed relievers into the mix, trying to catch lightning in a bottle.
Aside from Smith’s injury status, the rest of the Dodgers’ offensive roster is basically set. They have 14 position players active in September, but basically only 13 have played this month. Hyeseong Kim hasn’t played at all since September 14, and has only batted twice in the last 12 games, appearing late in games the Dodgers won by eight and nine runs. A lot of Kim’s sitting last week was due to the Dodgers facing five left-handed pitchers in seven games, but his October status is fairly clear, as Roberts noted last week. From Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register:
He’s growing. He’s going to get better. But I think right now (when it comes to playing time) I’ve got to think about guys that I feel that can handle postseason pitching. But I think that this experience for Hyeseong to be on the club, to be in a pennant race, I think this is going to help him going forward.”
But that doesn’t necessarily mean Kim will be completely iced out of October. The wild card round is a best-of-3 series over three days, and a team doesn’t necessarily need to carry 13 pitchers to cover those innings. Last year, for instance, six of eight wild card teams carried 12 or fewer pitchers for that round — the Royals and Astros only had 11 pitchers — which left room for an extra position player. So it wouldn’t be all that surprising if Kim is active for the wild card round as a pinch-runner and late-inning defensive replacement.