After a home sweep of the Chicago White Sox on July 3, the Los Angeles Dodgers were on top of the baseball world. They were an MLB-best 56-32, with a seemingly overwhelming nine-game lead in the NL West. Despite an almost-comical run of pitching injuries, L.A.'s unparalleled depth had managed to weather the storm, and the superteam everyone had expected to see was on track to roll toward a second straight World Series title.
What a difference a month or so can make. The Dodgers promptly lost seven in a row and 11 of 14, and after an extra-innings loss to the rival Angels on Tuesday night, they're just 10-13 in the second half. And that division lead that seemed overwhelming has now evaporated: After AJ Preller went for broke at the trade deadline, the San Diego Padres have gone 8-3 in the month of August to pull dead-even with L.A.
The most talented team in baseball now appears to be on the verge of falling apart entirely, and not even the two-way brilliance of Shohei Ohtani has been enough to pull the Dodgers out of it. Which members of the organization are most to blame for this shocking slide? Let's break it down.
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4. RP Alex Vesia
Maybe this is unfair, considering just how good he's been for the majority of this season (and, really, his four-plus years in L.A.). But injuries to Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, Evan Phillips, Brusdar Graterol and now trade deadline acquisition Brock Stewart put a ton of pressure on Vesia to hold the back end of this bullpen together. Instead, he's picked the worst time for his first real slump of the year.
Tuesday night's blown save was the lefty's third in his last nine appearances. He's allowed at least one earned run in each of his last three outings, raising his ERA to 6.23 for the month of August. With their relievers a MASH unit and the Padres breathing down their necks, the Dodgers need Vesia to slam the door whenever they hand him a late lead. Instead, he's turned those leads into losses, losses that Los Angeles can ill afford right now.
Of course, it's also possible that the Dodgers' repeated reliance on Vesia since Scott went down has finally caught up to him, and that the fault really lies with the team's front office for not bringing in adequate reinforcements at the trade deadline. But we'll get to that in a bit.
3. Manager Dave Roberts
Whenever a team (especially one as talented as the Dodgers) is stuck in a funk like this, the manager needs to come in for at least a bit of the blame. It felt like Roberts had finally won L.A. over while leading the team to the World Series last year, but now all the familiar complaints have reemerged: He doesn't show the requisite urgency when his team is scuffling; he's too deferential to veterans; he doesn't always pull the right levers with his bullpen.
Granted, injuries have made just about all of the above more difficult. But it's Roberts who keeps running out struggling hitters like Michael Conforto on a daily basis, and it's Roberts who called on a struggling Vesia to face a string of right-handed hitters in the bottom of the ninth inning on Tuesday rather than call on a righty like Ben Casparius.
There's a bit of confirmation bias here; the manager is the first one to get the blame when things are going wrong and the last one to get credit when things are going right. Still, the Dodgers aren't playing with a ton of confidence right now, and it doesn't feel like Roberts is putting them in the best position to be successful.
2. OF Michael Conforto
Amid an offseason full of massive moves, it felt like the Conforto signing had the chance to be the most pleasant surprise of the bunch, a rock-solid hitter who was finally healthy and moving to one of the better hitter's parks in the sport. Instead, it's been an outright disaster: After another 0-for-3 on Tuesday, Conforto is slashing .187/.299/.327 on the season with just nine homers and 25 RBI.
The underlying metrics suggest he's been among the unluckiest hitters in the sport, and injuries have thinned out the Dodgers' outfield depth, so you can't blame Roberts for trying to give him as long a runway as possible to get going. Still, we've reached the point at which putting your best nine out there is more important than playing the long game, yet Conforto is still an everyday presence in L.A.'s lineup.
But again: Conforto is right now just about the only healthy lefty option the Dodgers have to run out there. He needs to start hitting, and fast.
1. President Andrew Friedman
Friedman deserved his flowers for constructing what seemed for all the world to be a superteam at the start of this season. And bad luck has as much to do with where the Dodgers find themselves right now as anything. But Friedman knew how banged up his team was ahead of last month's trade deadline, and he still decided to simply fiddle around the margins, adding a platoon outfielder in Alex Call and a reliever in Brock Stewart who almost immediately landed on the IL.
Money certainly isn't an object for this Dodgers team, and they had more than enough prospect depth to make a competitive offer for just about anyone they wanted. But despite all that, it never felt like this team was particularly in the mix for pieces like Steven Kwan, Emmanuel Clase or Mason Miller who could have been real difference-makers at a critical time. Friedman has been willing to go bold with midseason acquisitions in the past; not doing so this time around feels like a missed opportunity that could be costly.