The Los Angeles Dodgers come into the season with a payroll of $178 million. That amount is due to rise soon with ace Clayton Kershaw in a contract opt-out year and a few young players due to hit arbitration in the coming years. The front office may need to make some hard decisions when it comes to money.
Those decisions are at least a year away, so the Dodgers just need to use their resources to improve this year’s team. They could be in the market for bullpen help as they get closer to the playoffs.
Can the Giants or Rockies catch them in the NL West?
Here is the 2018 MLB season preview for the Los Angels Dodgers.
2017 Win/Loss Record: 104-58
Key Additions: OF Matt Kemp, RP Scott Alexander, RP J.T. Chargois, SP Tom Koehler, SP Henry Owens, SP Manny Banuelos, RP Brian Schlitter & Pat Venditte
Key Losses: SP Yu Darvish, 1B Adrian Gonzalez, OF Curtis Granderson, OF Andre Ethier, RP Brandon Morrow, RP Luis Avilan, RP Tony Watson, SP Scott Kazmir, SP Brandon McCarthy & SP Josh Ravin
Interleague Schedule: AL West
Projected Starters: Yasmani Grandal, Cody Bellinger, Logan Forsythe, Justin Turner, Corey Seager, Joc Pederson, Chris Taylor & Yasiel Puig
Projected Starting Rotation: Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill, Alex Wood, Kenta Maeda & Hyun-Jin Ryu
Closer: Kenley Jansen
Fantasy Sleeper: OF Joc Pederson – I think we know what Pederson will give your fantasy team now: Power, and if your league has an OBP category, he’s a stud there as well. He’s going to be stuck in some sort of timeshare in a loaded Dodgers outfield, but he could still be a good NL-only guy for your league. There’s still some upside if he starts to get some more contact with the ball.
Prospect To Keep Your Eye On: SP Walker Buehler – The Dodgers always seem to have a stocked farm system. They have called up guys like Corey Seager, Cody Bellinger and Joc Pederson over the last two seasons and Buehler should be the next stud. The only issue that faces Buehler is the stacked Dodgers starting rotation. He pitched out of the bullpen some late in the season in Triple-A after sixteen starts across High-A and Double-A. He should be on the Major League roster very soon. I could see the Dodgers keeping him in the minors until the Super Two deadline passes. There’s no immediate need for him, but it would be great if the Dodgers could stick him at the end of the rotation to get him some big league experience.
Team Analysis: The Dodgers ran into a buzzsaw when they made it to the World Series last season. The Astros was just one of those ‘teams of destiny’ with all their homegrown talent and Yu Darvish allegedly tipping his pitches. Could the Dodgers have won the World Series if they benched Darvish? I guess it would have been possible, but very slim. The Astros were just locked and loaded.
The Dodgers didn’t sign any big free agents this offseason. They really didn’t even sign any average free agents. They made a trade with the Braves that was just a trade of bad contracts and signed a couple bullpen arms to help fill the void Brandon Morrow, Luis Avilan and Tony Watson left. The Dodgers may need their starters to go later in games as getting from them to Kenley Jansen won’t be as easy as last season.
The NL West is improved with the Giants pulling off a couple big trades and the Rockies young roster getting another year of experience. Those are the only other two teams that could finish over .500 in the division. The Dodgers are just another level above them. It would take a couple major injuries for those teams to pose any threat to the NL West crown. The Dodgers are one of the best teams in all of baseball.
2018 Wins Over/Under Betting Line: 95.5 (Prediction: OVER)
2018 Projected Win/Loss Record: 96-66 (1st NL West)
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About the Author…
Bobby Roberts (otherwise known as Sweetbob) is the creator of ‘America’s White Boy’ and contributor at Project Shanks. His writing has been featured on ESPN’s ‘SportsNation’, Sports Illustrated’s Hot Clicks, Guyspeed, and various other sites. You can follow him on Twitter at @Sweetbob.