The Los Angeles Dodgers are back to back World Series Champions for the first time since the New York Yankees completed a three-peat in 1998-2000. The Los Angeles Dodgers will seek to complete that as well in 2026 and be the early favorite to win it again.
The Dodgers have quickly become the franchise to beat and emulate by everyone. Their willingness to spend and be creative with contracts is showing how it can be done and pay off.
The Dodgers are printing money and championship trophies are paying dividends already and they will continue to double down with sports franchise values continuing to skyrocket. A few teams are starting to follow but the Dodgers continue to be the face of revolutionizing baseball in the modern era.
With all that the Dodgers are not without flaw, they did have a severe weakness last year that they were able to withstand with a big band-aid. Their bullpen and lack of closer was a major issue causing several starters to work out of the bullpen in the playoffs.
A position of need means the Dodgers are ready to pull out their check book. That is why the Dodgers will sign Emilio Pagán to be their next closer.
*This is a prediction, not a report*
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Emilio Pagán to Sign With the Los Angeles Dodgers
Emilio Pagán has been in the Majors now for 9 seasons and will be searching for his 7th team for year 10. Pagán has a career year with the Cincinnati Reds playing in a career high 70 games and putting up 32 saves, his most in his career. That put Pagán tied for 5th most saves in baseball.
He was a major reason the Cincinnati Reds were able to make a play for the playoffs where they fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Wild Card.
The Cincinnati Reds would undoubtedly love to keep Pagán as their closer of the future, but he may have played his way out of the budget in Cincinnati. Many teams are looking for high leverage arms that have the experience to get the job done.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are one of those teams. Don’t be fooled by the back to back World Series Championships. The Dodgers did in fact have some flaws, they were just masterful at planning around them.
The Dodgers bullpen and lack of closer were a big hindrance in 2025, so much that in game 7 of the World Series, the Dodgers threw out their 4 starting pitchers to win the game with Yoshinobu Yamamoto playing closer over 3 innings of work.
The Los Angeles Dodgers won’t sit still just because they won back to back games. They will still look to improve. A closer like Pagán would be perfect in this Dodgers lineup and help set the tone of the bullpen.
What will an Emilio Pagán Contract Look Like?
Emilio Pagán signed a 2 year deal worth $16 million with the Cincinnati Reds in 2024 and was well worth the money. Pagán will turn 35 next May and that will hurt his chances of a long term deal but it isn’t unlikely someone offers him one.
Raisel Iglesias has set the tone for the closer’s this off-season signing a 1 year $16 million dollar deal with the Atlanta Braves.
Pagán won’t earn that type of money, but the closer’s contracts are looking to be more than projected. Spotrac.com has Pagán projected to sign a 1 year deal worth $12,342,310.00. A cheap contract for the Dodgers relative to everyone else in the league.
The Dodgers will be the favorites in 2026 to 3-peat and they better do something about their bullpen if they are serious about getting that done. They should absolutely start with signing Emilio Pagán.