All MLB fans heard this offseason was that the Los Angeles Dodgers were "breaking baseball," and to be honest, it was hard to blame those who felt this way. The Dodgers just won the World Series and got substantially better, adding Roki Sasaki, Blake Snell, Tanner Scott, and Kirby Yates, among others, to what was already MLB's most talented roster, and they had done so thanks in large part to unprecedented deferrals.
While the Dodgers being seen as heavy favorites always made sense, it never made sense to deem them "unbeatable" or make the claim that they "broke baseball." Tyler Glasnow's injury, suffered in his most recent start on Sunday, shows exactly why.
Glasnow departed Sunday's start after just one inning of work with shoulder discomfort, adding to an absurdly long list of Dodgers pitching injuries. The state of Los Angeles' rotation shows why this team, while loaded with talent, is far from beatable.
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State of Dodgers rotation makes Los Angeles more than beatable
The list of injuries the Dodgers are currently dealing with is nothing short of ridiculous. Assuming Glasnow heads to the IL, he will join Tony Gonsolin, Clayton Kershaw, Blake Snell, and Gavin Stone on the sidelines.
When healthy, the talent the Dodgers have on the starting pitching front is absurd and deep, but how sure are we that they can be healthy in October? There's no timetable for when guys like Snell and Kershaw will be back. Glasnow has never thrown more than 135 innings in a single season. Even currently healthy pitchers like Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dustin May, and Roki Sasaki all have fairly extensive injury histories.
Yes, the Dodgers won the World Series despite a myriad of starting pitching injuries last season, but they were also on the verge of losing in the NLDS to the San Diego Padres, and the National League as a whole is much improved from where it was last season.
On paper, this Dodgers team blows the league out of the water talent-wise. An argument can be made that they have the most talented lineup, rotation, and bullpen in the sport, which is insane. With that being said, though, health does matter, and there's reason to believe that these injuries will eventually catch up to the Dodgers at some point.
Repeating as World Series champions is hard enough, and it'll be even tougher the longer this list of injured starters gets. The Dodgers can still do it, and should be considered the favorites to do so, but it's far from a guarantee at this point.