They didn’t just put the band back together. They added a horn section.
The Dodgers spent more money this offseason – approximately $200 million in contracts given to free agents – than any team in baseball. But nearly all of that money was spent to keep last year’s team together (including $194 million committed to Kenley Jansen, Justin Turner, Rich Hill and, surprisingly, Chase Utley).
Twenty-one of the 25 players on the Dodgers’ roster for last October’s NL Championship Series will be in spring training with them again. The only subtractions were Howie Kendrick and Carlos Ruiz (both traded), Josh Reddick and Joe Blanton (both free agents, Blanton still unsigned) while strategic additions were made, making last year’s deep team even deeper.
Had you found Manager Dave Roberts in the visitors’ clubhouse at Wrigley Field after the Dodgers’ loss in Game 6 of the NLCS and told him he would have nearly the same team to work with when spring camp opens at Camelback Ranch on Wednesday, it would have brightened his mood.
“I would have said, first off, ‘Sign me up,’” Roberts said on the eve of spring training. “But then I would have said it’s almost impossible.
“The whole narrative for me is going to be – and Andrew (Friedman) and I have talked a ton, and Farhan (Zaidi) and all the guys in the front office – we have to get to a place where people that are here are choosing to be here and they want to be nowhere else but here, playing with the Dodgers. And if they’re not the right person or the right player, then we turn them away. From Rich to Kenley to JT to Chase to Sergio Romo, all these guys are leaving money on the table and that means a lot.
“So, suffice it to say, I’m excited.”
That is the default position for the ever-upbeat Roberts. But his bright outlook is shared by nearly every website that uses projection systems to predict win totals. The Dodgers are projected to win at least 95 games, outperform the defending champion Chicago Cubs and, in some cases, finish with the best record in baseball.
MLB hasn’t had a repeat champion since the New York Yankees won three consecutive titles 1998-2000 and the National League hasn’t had a repeat pennant winner since the Philadelphia Phillies of 2008-09. If the Cubs aren’t going to buck that trend, the Dodgers go into the spring seen as the most likely team to unseat them.
It sounds perfectly logical to Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal and center fielder Joc Pederson.
“We know the kind of guys we have on the team and we’ve been there now. We lost to the best – and we feel we could have won,” Grandal said.
“We were one or two games away from getting to the World Series in October,” Pederson said. “If we can continue with the same team and keep building, I think we’re in good shape. We’ve added (Logan) Forsythe and we’re in position to do like the Cubs did last year when they added (Aroldis) Chapman (at midseason) and add another impact player maybe and we’ve got a World Series winner.”
For now, the Dodgers have some first-world problems to solve.
Of the 15 pitchers who started at least one game for them last year, 10 will be in camp this week. As the full squad reports, they will have nine outfielders jockeying for position, at least 12 candidates for seven or eight bullpen spots (not counting the potential spillage from the overstuffed starting rotation), three or four second basemen and an assortment of additional spare parts.
It’s Roberts’ job to sort through all that largesse.
“Competition is a good thing. That’s part of it and obviously track record is going to play a part of it,” he said. “Last year, I talked a lot about being unselfish and guys are going to have to be unselfish.
“The thing is – if you pitch well, you’re going to have an opportunity. If you play well, you’re going to have an opportunity. I believe that. I know Andrew believes that. We understand that there’s only 25 roster spots and only so many starting spots. But good things happen when you perform.”
Contact the writer: bplunkett@scng.com
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