{"id":678525,"date":"2026-04-18T17:39:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T17:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/678525\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T17:39:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T17:39:20","slug":"the-dodgers-have-been-the-best-team-in-baseball-even-without-getting-much-from-marquee-offseason-additions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/678525\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dodgers have been the best team in baseball, even without getting much from marquee offseason additions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The two-time defending World Series champions are once again the best team in baseball. Friday night at a snowy Coors Field, the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> beat the Colorado Rockies<\/a> (LAD 7, COL 1<\/a>) to improve to 15-4. No other team has more than 13 wins and every other team has at least seven losses. The Dodgers have won four straight. <\/p>\n

“It was a dry cold,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts joked after Friday’s win (via MLB.com<\/a>), referring to the 35-degree temperature at first pitch. It was the coldest Dodgers game since at least 2000. <\/p>\n

The 15-4 start is L.A.’s best since a 16-3 start in 1977, though it is not that uncommon for a team to win 15 of their first 19 games. The San Diego Padres<\/a> did it just last season, and the Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> started 16-3 in 2023. It’s been done 12 times this century, including by three different teams in 2003 alone. <\/p>\n

The Dodgers are the 44th team in the Modern Era (since 1900) to start 15-4 or better. Thirteen of the 44 won the World Series and another six won the pennant. Twenty-five of the 44 made the postseason, though keep in mind there were no wild-card spots for much of baseball history. It has never been easier to qualify for October than it is right now. <\/p>\n

Of course, the Dodgers are no underdog who needed this hot start to get into the postseason. They’re heavily favored to win the NL West and a real candidate to become the first team to win three straight World Series since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees<\/a>. All this hot start does is reaffirm that yeah, the Dodgers are really good again. <\/p>\n

Perhaps most notable about this 15-4 start is the Dodgers have done it without getting much from Edwin D\u00edaz<\/a> and Kyle Tucker<\/a>, their two big offseason additions. D\u00edaz is 4 for 5 in save chances, though he hasn’t pitched since blowing a three-run lead last Friday, April 10. The team insists he’s healthy even though his velocity has been down. <\/p>\n

“It’s not an IL thing we’re talking about,” Roberts told MLB.com<\/a>\u00a0last week. “It’s more day to day.” \u00a0 <\/p>\n

D\u00edaz did warm up for a save situation in Wednesday’s 8-2 win over the New York Mets<\/a>, his former team, but he sat down once the offense broke things open in the bottom of the eighth. Alex Vesia<\/a> has recorded two saves since D\u00edaz last pitched and Tanner Scott<\/a> got the final three outs in another game the Dodgers won by four. <\/p>\n

As for Tucker, he’s plugging along with a .236\/.341\/.347 slash line that is far below his usual output. He did drive in the game-winning run with a soft single against the Mets on Tuesday, but otherwise has only two multi-hit games this season, and his 22.4% strikeout rate is well above his elite 15.0% strikeout rate from 2021-25. <\/p>\n

The Dodgers have thrived without Tucker making an impact because the rest of the lineup is just so good. Six of their regulars — Freddie Freeman<\/a>, Teoscar Hernandez<\/a>, Max Muncy<\/a>, Shohei Ohtani<\/a>, Will Smith<\/a>, and the red-hot<\/a> Andy Pages<\/a> — all have at least a 126 OPS+, as does Hyeseong Kim<\/a>, who’s filling in for the injured Mookie Betts<\/a> at shortstop. <\/p>\n

Roki Sasaki<\/a> and Emmet Sheehan<\/a> both have an ERA north of 6, but the Dodgers’ other four starters (Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow<\/a>, Justin Wrobleski<\/a>, Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a>) have a combined 1.88 ERA in 13 starts. The bullpen is sixth in ERA and fourth in WAR. They lead all teams in defensive runs saved and outs above average. You name it, and the Dodgers excel at it. <\/p>\n

If you’ve watched this sport for more than about five minutes, you know winning a third straight World Series is not a given no matter how great the Dodgers look. Remember, they were two outs away from losing the World Series last year. There’s just so much that can wrong in the six months between now and the Fall Classic. <\/p>\n

To start the season though, yeah, the Dodgers again look dominant, even without D\u00edaz and Tucker fully pulling their weight yet. For most teams, a slow start by their big new free agents would lead to an early-season funk. The Dodgers are built to withstand a slump by almost anyone. They’re every bit as good as they were expected to be this year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The two-time defending World Series champions are once again the best team in baseball. Friday night at a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2406],"tags":[5,39,15677,1087,64686,85935,29,67232,1165,4332,4333,774,57,3224,4331,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-678525","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-dodgers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-dodgers","10":"tag-dodgers-news","11":"tag-edwin-diaz","12":"tag-edwin-diaz-injury","13":"tag-edwin-diaz-stats","14":"tag-kyle-tucker","15":"tag-kyle-tucker-stats","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-la-dodgers","18":"tag-ladodgers","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-losangelesdodgers","23":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116426936689351314","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}