by Paul Teetor
What a difference five months makes.
Back in the spring, after a billion-dollar off-season spending spree, the 2025 Dodgers were so stacked with talented players that they were being hailed as potentially the best team in baseball history.
When they got off to a red-hot 8-0 start the hype machine went into overdrive.
The tone of all the coverage and analysis was clear: Move aside, the 1927 New York Yankees with Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and a bunch of All-Stars behind them. Step away, the Dodger Boys of Summer of the 1950s featuring Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella and Pee Wee Reese. Make room on the Mount Rushmore of baseball next to the 1961 New York Yankees of Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Yogi Berra.
There’s a new sheriff in town. Led by the $700 million man, Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers will be laying down the law in Major League Baseball for at least the next half-decade.
But now as August is about to turn into September the 2025 Dodgers of Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts find themselves in a dog-fight with the San Diego Padres for the lead in the Western Division of the National League – a title they’ve won 11 of the last 12 years – and possibly scrambling for a wild card spot where they could lose their first playoff game and be one-and-done for the post-season.
After losing two out of three games to the Padres in this weekend’s showdown series – the last time the two arch-rivals will meet in the regular season — the boys in blue are now tied with the Padres for first place in the NL West and seriously contemplating what life would be like as a wild-card team.
So much for the fantasy that the defending World Champions were going to repeat in a cake walk and ride their most-expensive-in-baseball roster to another parade down Spring Street.
To make it even worse, the Dodgers have gone an embarrassing 0-6 to the hapless Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim,) which really hurt them this season. It should have been 6-0 or at worst 5-1 and would have given them a nice cushion over the Padres. Their SoCal rivals are led by former Dodger Manny Machado – still an over-priced punk with a bad attitude who’s not as good as he thinks he is — and one of the great young players in the game today, Fernando Tatis Jr.
Looking at the big picture with one month to go in a six-month regular season, here is All Ball’s take on who has been good, who has been bad and who has been missing in action as the Dodgers struggle to keep their status as World Series favorites alive.
As of right now they are far from that exalted front-runner status. Indeed, they should be embarrassed that the Milwaukee Brewers – that’s right, the low-budget Brewers – have been the hottest team in baseball for the last two months while the Dodgers have been on a win-one, lose-two, win-two, lose-three treadmill in which they have gone 12-22 over the same period and blew a nine-game lead over the Padres.
All Ball always prefers to accentuate the positive – if possible – so let’s start with the good things about the season so far.
Shohei Ohtani (DH/P): Ohtani has had a dominant season on both sides of the ball. Offensively, he has been an MVP contender and a home run leader whose total right now stands at 45. At that pace, he’s on track to hit 60 bombs if he closes the season strong like he did last season. But there’s one glaring problem. Manager Dave Roberts insists on keeping him in the leadoff slot, so too many of his homers turn out to be solo shots. With all due respect to Roberts – he’s the best manager in all of baseball – he’s wrong on this issue and it could be fatal if the 7, 8 and 9 batters don’t start getting on base more often in front of Ohtani. The return of Max Muncy, who was on a tear before his most recent injury, would help in that department.
Ohtani has also successfully returned to the mound for short stints and is being groomed for a bigger pitching workload in the post-season. But he’s had two injury scares while pitching in the last two weeks – one a hard-liner that slammed into his thigh and could have shattered his knee if it was two inches lower – and you have to wonder if the reward of putting him out on the mound once a week is worth the risk of losing him for the season. Without Ohtani’s bat in the lineup day-in and day-out the Dodgers would have no chance of repeating as world champs.
Will Smith: The All-Star catcher is in contention for the NL batting title. He has continued his consistent production at the plate from last year. Recently he has been in a mini-slump but we’re confident he will bounce back soon. A rock of stability on the field and in the clubhouse.
Freddie Freeman: The four-time All-Star has continued his reliable offensive production. Despite missing some time due to injury, he remains one of the Dodgers’ most crucial players. While his homers are down and he may never again get a hit as big as his grand slam, walk-off home run in the first game of the World Series against the Yankees last season, he continues to hit a ton of doubles and get clutch hits. And he, along with Smith, is a legit contender for the NL batting title.
Clayton Kershaw: The feel-good story of the summer. Unlike the last two years, when injuries and age turned him into a shell of his once dominant self, the 37-year-old Hall-of-Famer-to-be has become a reliable starter once again. He can’t throw a fastball harder than the low 90’s anymore, but his guile, mastery of his pitches and ability to think two or three pitches ahead of the batter have made him a reliable starter in a season when the pitching staff has been decimated by injuries.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto (P): The Japanese right-hander has performed well after signing the largest-ever contract for a starting pitcher last offseason. He has been one of the team’s top pitchers. His ERA is very good, but he has not gotten much run support. Therefore, his record is not as good as it should be.
Ben Casparius (P): A starter in the minors, Casparius has impressed in a relief role this season and has been stretched out for longer outings. He has been one of the Dodgers’ best pitchers and is in contention for a starting spot in the post-season rotation should they need it.
Unfortunately, that is it for the undisputed bright spots. Now on to the players who have prevented the Dodgers from reaching their full potential and put them in danger of having a short post-season.
Mookie Betts (SS/RF): The single biggest difference between last year’s world champs and this season’s struggling contenders has been Betts’ lackluster play. The clutch hits when they absolutely need one, the heady fielding plays, the moments where he inspires his teammates – all of that has seemingly disappeared and may never come back – despite his monster contract that runs through 2032. The 2025 season has been the worst of Betts’ 12-year career, marked by career lows in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and other offensive metrics. Despite this, he has been supported by the die-hard fans in Dodger Stadium. Because he is, after all, still Mookie and it’s way too soon to give up on such a mega-talent and first-class person.
Teoscar Hernández (RF): The right fielder has been one of the team’s most dependable hitters, especially early in the season when the team was dealing with injuries. He set new career highs for WAR, home runs, and stolen bases. But defensively he has been a liability, costing the Dodgers several games with his bone-headed fielding.
And finally, there are Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell, front-line starters who have been mostly missing in action thanks to an endless string of injuries. Unless both come back healthy in October, the Dodgers are going nowhere.
Prediction: the Dodgers will win the NL West on the last day of the season and go on to win the NL Championship Series on a walk-off home run by Mookie Betts and win the World Series over the Yankees when Ohtani hits a game 7, walk-off, inside the park home run by beating the tag at the plate.
Sweet dreams are made of this.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com
