The Los Angeles Dodgers are currently entering spring training riding high after last year's World Series win vs the New York Yankees. The Dodgers dominated the playoffs after an up and down regular season thanks in large part to the greatness of Shohei Ohtani.
Despite this, the Dodgers somehow managed to get a whole lot better in the offseason with a flurry of free agent acquisitions and other moves to add to what was already the deepest roster in the MLB. Recently, The Athletic conducted a poll among their writers to decide which team had improved the most this offseason, and the answer was none other than the Dodgers.
“The Dodgers. Wow. Maybe the best team ever?” said one voter.
“The Dodgers just did their thing. They did whatever the hell they wanted to do,” added another.
Reporter Jayson Stark pointed to the Dodgers' additions of Roki Sasaki and Blake Snell on the pitching staff, as well as Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates to the bullpen, as key culprits for the decision. The team also added a new second baseman in Hyeseong Kim as one of the ten new free agents they signed this offseason.
“Are there 32-man rosters now?” an American League executive wondered. “Like, did I miss something? What are they going to do with all these guys?”
Having too much talent is certainly a good problem to have, although it will be interesting to see how Dave Roberts manages the immense amount of talent and ego that now exists in his clubhouse.
Still, as another American League executive said, “the Dodgers are just in a different world. Dodger World. They are literally in a completely different category.”
Even before this offseason's wave of acquisitions, the Dodgers had long drawn the ire of other less fortunate fanbases for their propensity to stack talent due to the MLB's lack of a salary cap, which included signing Shohei Ohtani last offseason.
In the months since this free agency, those calls have only grown louder, and they will continue to increase if the Dodgers follow through as expected and cruise to another championship this season.