Let’s be clear about one thing, Dodgers fans. This ballclub wants to repeat yet again as World Series champions.
The Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t sit idly by in the offseason. They added maybe the premier reliever in all of baseball this winter. Signing former New York Mets ace reliever Edwin Díaz immediately wraps a tourniquet around that troubled Dodgers bullpen.
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Of course, the Dodgers wouldn’t mind adding some help to the outfield and maybe another bat to come off the bench when needed.
Yet desperation isn’t one thing that the Dodgers have to deal with when compared with other MLB clubs who haven’t won the Fall Classic either in a few years or, well, never.
What Los Angeles must fight off right now is that feeling of complacency.
In a new article, Bleacher Report MLB writer Kerry Miller grouped all MLB clubs in different categories based on their level of desperation.
While the majority of teams that Miller grouped are two, three, or four teams together, the Dodgers simply got their own category. Miller put Los Angeles in the “Won Two in a Row, But Thirsty (and Spending) for a Three-Peat” category.
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“How desperate can you possibly be when you’ve won two World Series in a row and three of the last six?” Miller wrote. “Better question: How complacent can you possibly be while on track to once again spend roughly as much as the five stingiest clubs combined?
“The Dodgers can’t possibly land at No. 1 on this list, but you better believe they are desperate to continue winning and will have plenty of egg on their face if they fall short of another title as the heavy favorites,” Miller continued.
“Also of note: This team is slowly but surely starting to get old,” Miller wrote. “We don’t mean that in a ‘their success is getting old’ sort of way, which is true in the eyes of many, but rather that the average age of this roster is creeping upward.
“With the exception of Andy Pages, the 11 team leaders in plate appearances in 2025 were already playing in at least their age-30 season,” the article states. “Same goes for three of the four starting pitchers who appeared in Game 7 of the World Series.
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“They’re more than fine for now,” Miller wrote. “Probably for 2027, too, provided that season isn’t lost to a lockout. But they’d love to win at least one more while the likes of Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani are still major contributors and not just major expenses.”
Look, the Dodgers are really sitting pretty good entering the 2026 MLB season. They have enough tools in their toolbox, if you will, to make life really tough for other teams.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts will have plenty of time at spring training to see how his team is coming together. Each MLB team, no matter whether they’ve won the World Series or not, goes through changes in the offseason.
The team that played in 2025 is going to be a little different in 2026.
Still, the word that the Dodgers have to deal with is complacency. It’s something that they hope to avoid all season long.