For years the Red Sox have spoken about the need to build towards sustainable success, pledging to end the boom-or-bust cycle that has plagued the franchise for the past decade and a half.
But while they’ve talked the talk, the Dodgers have walked the walk.
Since 2013 the Dodgers, who visit Fenway Park this weekend for a big three-game series, have won 11 NL West championships in 12 seasons, 100 or more games five times, four pennants and two World Series. They boast baseball’s most star-studded roster, featuring future Hall of Famers like Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Clayton Kershaw along with a laundry list of All-Stars, and last year’s title-winning team has a strong case for being among the most talented clubs ever assembled.
Asked what he’s seen from the Dodgers this year, Red Sox manager Alex Cora laid out a scouting report that reads like a horror movie for an opposing team.
“They have the best athlete in the universe (Ohtani) playing for them, he’s leading off. One of the best baseball players in the league (Betts), he’s not having a great season but he still contributes,” Cora said. “The first baseman (Freeman) is a Hall of Famer, the catcher (Will Smith) is one of the best-hitting catchers in the league, (Andy) Pages has come up and done an amazing job, Teoscar Hernandez is a proven big leaguer, Miguel Rojas is a great shortstop, pretty solid, and whenever Kiké (Hernandez) pitches it means that they won.”
And yet while the Dodgers have spent a lot of money to bring this team together, the past year has shown there’s more to the Dodgers’ success than just running up a nearly $400 million payroll.
Last year when the Dodgers won their second World Series championship this decade, they did so with a pitching staff that was held together with duct tape and paper clips. Ohtani, Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow and Gavin Stone were all unavailable to pitch in October, leaving the club to get by with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jack Flaherty, Walker Buehler and a mishmash of relievers.
Didn’t matter. The Dodgers rolled through the postseason and clobbered the Yankees in five games anyway.
This year the Dodgers’ staff has been decimated again, with 12 pitchers currently on the injured list, including 11 on the 60-day IL. That group includes starters Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, Tony Gonsolin and Stone plus relievers like Tanner Scott, Evan Phillips, Blake Treinen, Brusdar Graterol and Michael Kopech. Plus, Ohtani’s still only thrown 12 innings this year as he ramps up in his return from elbow surgery.
A run of injuries like that would be enough to bury almost any team, yet here the Dodgers are, first in the NL West again and just behind the Milwaukee Brewers for the best record in baseball.
“The injuries are the injuries, I just still think we have enough talent right now for us to be better in the pen, and obviously offensively,” manager Dave Roberts said ahead of Friday’s series opener. “So that’s kind of where my focus is at, ‘guys we’ve just got to perform.’”
At this point the Dodgers aren’t just this generation’s answer to George Steinbrenner’s Yankees, who outspent everyone to ensure the game’s best players always eventually wore pinstripes. The Dodgers do all of the little things right too, ensuring a constant pipeline of talent is always flowing in case one or more of the high-priced acquisitions break down.
It’s no surprise then that the Dodgers are now at the center of the baseball universe. Just ask Buehler, who saw up close how well-oiled a machine the Dodgers have become at every level.
“When you scout, draft, develop and do all of those things really really well on top of having the highest payroll in the sport, I think it answers itself,” said Buehler, who recorded the last out of the World Series last fall for the Dodgers before signing with the Red Sox as a free agent. “Haven’t missed on many first-round picks, a lot of guys get to the big leagues and have successful careers when they get drafted there, so that’s what you want.
“I think they’re probably the model for a lot of people in how modern baseball should be done and I was very fortunate to be drafted and developed and spend so much time there,” he continued. “I attribute a lot of the success I’ve had to them and how they handled and treated me, I have nothing but good things to say about them.”
The Red Sox’s recent rebuild has been bumpy, but fans can take solace in knowing it didn’t happen overnight for the Dodgers either. Now with a young core led by Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, Garrett Crochet and others beginning to emerge, the Red Sox should be well positioned to contend in the years to come.
But the Dodgers and their overwhelming talent should still serve as a reminder that as far as the Red Sox have already come, they still have a long way to go.
