The Los Angeles Dodgers dominated their way to the World Series title in 2024. They had Shohei Ohtani put together one of the best seasons in baseball history while the rest of the roster, including Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, were incredible as well. However, their repeat attempt didn't get off to the most superb of starts despite sitting in first place in the NL West as of this writing, and that is injuries.
During the postseason, they faced a few obstacles along the way, but all in all, it was a pretty quick run to the World Series championship. They capped it off with a dominant series over the New York Yankees, headlined by a historic walk off grand slam from Freeman.
This offseason, the Dodgers did nothing but get better. They added stars like Roki Sasaki and Blake Snell to the pitching rotation while also signing shutdown closers Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott to work in the bullpen. It seemed as though the Dodgers were going to cake walk to 100 or 110 wins while dominating their way to a World Series again in 2025. The injuries are starting to pile up, however.
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Injuries are the only thing stopping the Dodgers from winning the World Series again
The best ability is availability. So far this year, the Dodgers haven't been available.
Ohtani was expected to be ready to return to the mound early in the year, but we're over a third of the way through the season and the Japanese sensation hasn't pitched yet. The good news is he's working his way back and looking incredible in bullpens and live at-bats. But the bad news is they need him right now.
The Dodgers are 22nd in baseball in team ERA, which sounds ridiculous to say because they have the most talented group of pitchers in baseball when everybody is healthy. Right now, the Dodgers are without Snell, Sasaki, and Tyler Glasnow (Ohtani hasn't pitched either, as noted earlier). In the bullpen, they're missing Yates, Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips, and Michael Kopech, just to name a few.
The Dodgers are going to need to be aggressive at the trade deadline or else they'll lose their chance to repeat as World Series champions. Mind you, even with these injuries, the Dodgers are one of the best teams in baseball. But that's not good enough considering they came into the season with some expecting them to break the single season win record.