Dodgers Called ‘Biggest Loser of This Past Offseason'
Dodgers Called 'Biggest Loser of This Past Offseason' originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
Boasting a 38-25, first-place record in the NL West, it would be hard to imagine the Los Angeles Dodgers as being losers. But while they have been great, they have been far from lucky.
Advertisement
Double-digit pitching injuries have plagued their pitching staff this season. When discussing their extensive misfortunes, sports writer Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report went as far as to claim 'The Dodgers Have Become the Biggest Loser of This Past Offseason.' The 2024-2025 offseason was a busy one for Los Angeles, and one filled with blockbusters. The Dodgers acquired Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, Tanner Scott, Hyeseong Kim, and re-signed Teoscar Hernandez, among many other moves. But while most have gone well for Los Angeles, Miller argues the offseason did not.
'Blake Snell's five-year, $182 million contract with the Dodgers was the first of many 'How do they keep getting away with this?' moments of the offseason, but he lasted nine innings before landing on the IL with no return yet in sight,' he wrote after noting the success of Enrique Hernandez, Teoscar Hernandez and Kim.
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tanner Scott (66) and Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Will Smith (16) celebrate after defeating the New York Mets at Dodger Stadium.Jason Parkhurst-Imagn Images
'Tanner Scott (four years, $72 million) has been a nightmare with an MLB-worst five blown saves and a 4.55 ERA. His usual problem of walking batters left and right hasn't even been the issue in the slightest, either, with just four free passes issued in 27.2 innings pitched. Rather, he went from an 11.6 K/9 and 6.7 H/9 from 2020-24 to marks of 10.1 and 8.8, respectively, this season.
Advertisement
'Michael Conforto's one-year, $17 million deal has gone so poorly that it's astounding they are still giving him the majority of starts in left field.'
Miller also touched on Blake Treinen, Kirby Yates, and Roki Sasaki, all of whom performed poorly before falling injured. Indeed, Miller is right about the woes the Dodgers are facing and the money they spent on said woes. However, the season is still in the early innings, and the Dodgers are still in first place.
There is still plenty of time for the Dodgers to become, not just World Series winners (again), but offseason winners as well, should at least some of their many investments begin to flourish. In fairness to Miller, he did title his article as 'Bold MLB Takes 60 Games into 2025 Season,' indicating that his assessment might be a little stretched. But as for his description of the Dodgers' situation thus far, it would be hard to argue his point.
Related: Former MLB Manager Makes Baseless Accusation on Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 6, 2025, where it first appeared.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
32 minutes ago
- Washington Post
What are the Red Sox doing?
BOSTON — If you are curious exactly what kind of team the Boston Red Sox are a few games past the halfway point of the 2025 season, you would fit right in at Fenway Park. In the stands and in the dugout, in the front office and in the line at Dunkin', no one seems quite sure.
Hamilton Spectator
33 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Skenes, Misiorowski and Burns are part of an influx of talented young pitchers in the NL Central
Chase Burns arrived in the big leagues with a flourish, striking out the first five hitters he faced for Cincinnati in his debut against the New York Yankees. He's just the latest young pitcher in the NL Central to show his impressive potential. Pittsburgh's Paul Skenes, of course, finished third in the National League Cy Young race as a rookie last year. More recently, Milwaukee's Jacob Misiorowski threw 11 straight hitless innings to start his career and then beat Skenes in a head-to-head matchup Wednesday. Now Burns, the No. 2 pick in last year's draft, has reached the majors, and Skenes could have some help in his own rotation whenever Bubba Chandler — MLB Pipeline's No. 2-ranked prospect — is promoted to the Pirates. These pitchers have given the NL Central quite a shot in the arm after the Chicago Cubs have appeared in control of the division at various points. Milwaukee has won 22 of its last 31 and trails the Cubs by just two games now. Cincinnati has won 14 of its last 21. Even the last-place Pirates have played better than .500 baseball for over a month, and they just swept three straight from the New York Mets by a combined score of 30-4. Four teams in the NL Central are at least four games over .500, and every team has an ERA under 4.00 — the only division that can say that. These young starters, who have joined more established pitchers like Freddy Peralta of the Brewers and Hunter Greene of the Reds, suggest the future is bright in the division — as long as you're not a hitter. SF slump The Giants dropped two of three to the lowly Chicago White Sox immediately after losing three in a row to Miami. San Francisco is now 7 1/2 games behind the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers and has gone 4-8 since its big trade for Rafael Devers. Devers has hit .217 since arriving from the Boston Red Sox. Trivia time Washington's James Wood became the first player since Barry Bonds to be intentionally walked four times in a game Sunday. But which Hall of Famer drew five intentional walks in a game in 1990? Line of the week Sonny Gray — another NL Central pitcher — was sensational Friday night in St. Louis' 5-0 win over Cleveland, throwing a one-hitter with 11 strikeouts. Gray had not thrown a complete game since 2017 and hadn't thrown a shutout since 2015. Gray did not have a walk, faced one batter over the minimum and threw only 89 pitches. Comeback of the week Miami trailed Arizona 7-3 before scoring three runs in the eighth, one in the ninth and one in the top of the 10th to win 8-7. Dane Myers stole second and third in the ninth before scoring the tying run on a sacrifice fly, and Agustín Ramírez put the Marlins ahead in extra innings with an RBI single. Arizona's win probability peaked at 97.4% in the bottom of the seventh, according to Baseball Savant . Honorable mention: Baltimore fell behind 6-0 in the second Friday night before blowing out Tampa Bay 22-8. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Orioles became the first American League or National League team to win by at least 14 runs after trailing by six. Trivia answer Andre Dawson of the Chicago Cubs was intentionally walked five times on May 22, 1990, against Cincinnati. The Cubs won that game 2-1 in 16 innings. ___ AP MLB:
New York Times
33 minutes ago
- New York Times
Phillies takeaways: Relief for bullpen, offseason additions underwhelm, and a late-season move?
Sunday brought a series-clinching win for the Phillies and, with it, a brief bullpen rollercoaster. Orion Kerkering entered to face pinch hitter Drake Baldwin and the top of the Atlanta Braves' lineup in the eighth. He struck out Ronald Acuña Jr. on four pitches, the final fastball sending the star right fielder swinging and missing in the zone. A single from Matt Olson aside, Kerkering shined as he struck out three on a combined 13 pitches. Advertisement Then came lefty Matt Strahm in the ninth, whose trouble started with a 91.9 mph fastball near the center of the zone. Ozzie Albies lashed the pitch for a one-out single to left. Two batters later, Strahm walked Eli White on six pitches. A wild pitch sent Albies to third, putting runners on the corners with two outs. The Braves did not complete the comeback, but it was within arm's reach. So was a difficult day for the Phillies' bullpen, which escaped unscathed in a 2-1 win. Strahm's velocity is up, but his stuff has not played well at times, as he's allowed four runs (two earned) and eight hits while striking out nine across 10 innings in June. His exit velocity is up against everything but his slider in June, while his whiff rate is down on all of his pitches. Jordan Romano started the month pitching the ninth before giving up walk-offs against the Toronto Blue Jays and Pittsburgh Pirates. Kerkering has been the main positive of late in the back of the bullpen, flourishing since moving into the closer-by-committee operation in Miami two weeks ago. He has one earned run and two saves across 11 innings in June. But one excelling high-leverage reliever is not enough for a team with World Series aspirations, which is already without José Alvarado because of his 80-game PED suspension. Ahead of the trade deadline, the president of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski, told The Athletic that the back end of the bullpen is the Phillies' 'main focus.' There is one month to go until then. The Phillies just need to make it there, then make the right moves. Saturday was not the first time this season Romano has hunched over, watching his bad pitch become someone else's very good night. It was not the first time this month; Romano yielded walk-offs to Pittsburgh and Toronto and saw helmets fly, the opposing dugout swarm the field. The right-hander, signed to a one-year, $8.5 million deal in December, was called 'one of the best back-end, high-leverage guys in baseball' by Dombrowski at the time. But the former Blue Jays closer, coming off an elbow injury in 2024, has been shaky more often than not. Advertisement He was one of three key offseason acquisitions who appeared in Saturday's 6-1 loss to the Braves, with left fielder Max Kepler ($10 million, one-year deal) and reliever Joe Ross ($4 million, one year) being the others. Their impact was mild at best, loss-provoking at worst. The same could be said about the trio's combined impact in June: • Kepler did not reach base on Saturday, striking out twice. He took issue with being platooned multiple times during the past week, telling The Athletic: 'I was told I was going to be the starting left fielder.' • Ross struck out two but gave up a single and walked one. He's allowed eight earned runs across 10 innings this month, including three runs against the Mets on June 21 after taking over with a 4-3 deficit. • Romano gave up a grand slam to Atlanta's Sean Murphy — the catcher's first home run since May 29 — to hand the Braves a commanding lead. Once a key part of the Phillies' closer-by-committee operation, Romano has pitched in the seventh during his past five outings. This was the first winter the Phillies did not sign a player to a multi-year deal since the 2016-17 offseason. The combined $22.5 million spent on Kepler (0.2 WAR), Ross (minus-0.3 WAR) and Romano (0.1 WAR) has added up to about zero wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs. All three players were injured at some point in 2024. There was some risk, some reward to signing them in the offseason. But, as of June, it appears the risks outweigh the group's collective upside. The upcoming schedule poses more tests, particularly for Kepler. The left fielder is batting .184 across his past 10 games with a .542 OPS. Against the Braves, Kepler went 2-for-11 with three walks. He has primarily seen playing time against righties and will continue to as the Phillies are scheduled to face three consecutive Padres righties to start this week. Advertisement Should the Phillies look for an outfield shakeup? No. 3 prospect Justin Crawford, who has played some left field, is slashing .344/.434/.469 in 76 plate appearances with Triple-A Lehigh Valley in June. Sure, Ranger Suárez has been a reliever before. But he continues to look like he shouldn't be moved to the bullpen come postseason (or part of any late-season adjustments), striking out eight across seven innings on Sunday. He has the best ERA (1.19) in the majors among healthy pitchers since his second start of the year on May 10. Suárez is deceptive. His cutter and changeup combined for 10 whiffs on Sunday. And he's healthy, which he's said is most important to his continued success. It is difficult to imagine Suárez, should he pitch like this into September, being moved to the bullpen. Dombrowski told The Athletic he does not anticipate moving a starter to the bullpen anytime soon. Any changes would likely come late in the regular season or during the postseason, he said. Those dates are far away. But there's an early candidate for the move: Jesús Luzardo, who has stumbled somewhat since recovering from potentially tipping and surrendering 20 runs to the Cubs and Brewers. Luzardo has worked high pitch counts early in recent outings; it was 13 after the first inning on Saturday, which jumped to 44 after facing six batters in the second. His pitch count sat at 35 after the second inning against the Marlins on June 17, when he also went five innings. Luzardo's stuff remains sharp. His sweeper is a strong out pitch. His changeup drew five whiffs on nine swings Saturday. He pitched out of the bullpen at times with Oakland, making his postseason debut in relief in October 2019. He allowed one hit and walked two across three innings. There is plenty of time to make these decisions. But, for now, Luzardo looks like a worthwhile candidate for high-leverage bullpen situations later. (Top photo of Matt Strahm: Mady Mertens / Imagn Images)
