Could the best roster money can buy beat the Dodgers?

Once again, the Los Angeles Dodgers are peaking at exactly the right time. No matter how bumpy the regular-season ride, or how vulnerable they might look, once October rolls around the ridiculous amoutn of talent that Andrew Friedman has assembled has a way of shining through — and shine through it did in the first two games of the NLCS this week.

Baseball is a game built on chaos, and anything can and will happen on any given night. Still, it's hard to avoid feeling like L.A. can simply overwhelm other teams when they're healthy and rolling; their record payroll this season has built the sort of roster we've scarcely seen in the modern history of the sport. And to prove it, we've given ourselves a little exercise: We're going to see if we can build a roster that goes toe-to-toe with MLB's preeminent superteam, comprised exclusively of players who are free agents this winter.

There are some ground rules here. We have to put together a conventional 26-man unit, with 13 position players and 13 pitchers (five starters, eight relievers). We also have to do it while staying under the luxury tax threshold, which for 2026 is set at $244 million. To keep us in line, we'll be using Spotrac's salary estimates as our guide. How did we do? Let's find out.

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Building the best 26-man roster in free agency

Lineup

Much as I would have loved to load up with names like Kyle Tucker, Pete Alonso, Cody Bellinger and Kyle Schwarber, I don't have the Dodgers' money to throw around, and some hard choices had to be made if I wanted to field a balanced roster while still ducking under our $244 million threshold. With finite funds, I decided to spend the most where this free agent pool is thinnest: the infield, where both Bichette and Bregman clearly stand out from the other options at shortstop and third base respectively. It'll cost us, but it's worth it when the alternative is Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Yoan Moncada.

Second base is similarly thin; I'd much rather have Torres than someone who's even more defensively challenged at the position like Brandon Lowe (or someone who's just cooked, like Luis Arraez). First base, however, I'm happy to realize some savings. Alonso is certainly a better hitter than Hoskins, but is it enough to justify a whopping $22 million? I don't think so; Hoskins looked great before getting hurt this summer, and he's still just 32 years old and primed for a bounce-back season. When he's right, he's a rock-solid 120 OPS+ bat, and that's a bargain.

Full disclosure: I wanted to find a way to fit at least one star outfielder, but the $30 million and $40 million price tags on Bellinger and Tucker, respectively, made it awfully difficult. I don't love my outfield, but Laureano and Yastrzemski are above-average bats who won't hurt me in the field while Bader remains an elite defensive center fielder (with that ever-tantalizing upside if he can ever put it all together at the plate). Going that route leaves me without any real liabilities while also saving enough money to put together a pitching staff.

Bench

Laureano and Bader together creates the need for an outfielder that can come off the bench and crush right-handed pitching, and while Phillies fans wanted to run Max Kepler out of town for much of this year, he fits that bill just fine. (Plus, he was better than you probably think if all you heard was the social media noise; he can still hit, and he feels well enough.)

It wasn't too long ago that Estrada was a starting-caliber player for the San Francisco Giants. Injury problems and a year in Colorado purgatory have thrown people off the scent a bit, but he's athletic, he can play all over the diamond (including shortstop if needed) and he can hit better than you'd expect. Castro, meanwhile, is a switch-hitter who can play just about everywhere but up the middle while giving us a much-needed boost of speed off the bench.

Starting rotation

It's awfully hard to put together a rotation of five quality starting pitchers without blowing a hole in your budget. I wanted to give myself at least two top-end guys I felt good about, so I sacrificed a bit elsewhere in order to fit both Cease and Gallen in. Both disappointed a bit in 2025, but Cease's underlying numbers were tremendous, while Gallen closed the year looking like the ace he had been previously in Arizona. I'll take the bet on them performing like a No. 1 and a No. 2.

Littell just eats innings and gets bundles of ground balls, ideal for a mid-rotation guy on a budget who even excelled in awful pitching environments in Tampa and Cincy this year. Mahle hasn't been able to stay healthy but has been very good when on the mound, while Soroka has strikeout stuff that he hasn't been able to fully weaponize just yet. You're going to need to take some risks on buy-low fliers at some point, and there's reason to believe in both.

Bullpen

If there was one area in which I knew I'd be trying to save some money, it was in the bullpen, where intriguing options are consistently available to less. Pagan gives me an established closer, while Iglesias was quietly great in the second half for Atlanta and still has an All-Star-caliber arsenal. From there, though, it's all about finding good value.

All Hill has done is get lefties out for the Yankees of late, and Matz gives us another southpaw who can also face righties and work multiple innings if needed. Miller and Kinley have intriguing profiles that could shine if injury (for Miller) and home environment (for Kinley, who came up in Colorado) don't get in the way. Harvey and Keller have both remade themselves into back-end options; the former was great in Kansas City before getting hurt, while the latter just put together an excellent season (and postseason) for the Cubs.

How would this team match up with the Dodgers?

Well, I trust my bullpen more, but that's a pretty low bar. Beyond that, though, I'm skeptical that this team would be able to keep pace with the Dodgers, especially over the course of a 162-game season.

My offense is solid, without any obvious weak spots. That said, spending my star-level salaries on non-power threats like Bichette and Bregman does cap the upside here somewhat; there are no obvious 30-homer guys here, which is a tough way to live against anybody — much less a team like the Dodgers that hit 244 homers during the 2025 season.

I also don't have a ton of confidence in my rotation being able to match up with L.A.'s; the Dodgers go four or five deep with star pitchers, and my Nos. 3-5 wouldn't be able to hold their against guys like Shohei Ohtani and Tyler Glasnow. Los Angeles is just too deep and too talented everywhere, in a way that isn't explained simply by having a lot of money. It also comes down to development and shrewd management; as this exercise shows, simply splashing some cash can only do so much.