The Dodgers and Ohtani are going for the MLB title

Shohei Ohtani left the Angels and went to his neighbor’s house, the Dodgers, where among the 700 million reasons he had to move house was going from a team that had never been in the playoffs to a team that prepares to go out and win every year.

Upon his arrival to the team based at Dodger Stadium, Ohtani joins an offensive and defensive machine led by stars Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, with whom he will form a trident of MVP winners at the top of the lineup led by Dave Roberts.

Along with Betts (39 home runs, 126 runs scored and 107 RBIs), Freeman (29-131-102), Max Muncy (36-95-105), Will Smith (19-80-76) and rookie James Outman (23- 86 – 70), Ohtani will be part of one of the most complete lineups in the Major League right now.

That’s without considering the contributions that players the caliber of Jason Heyward or Chris Taylor can bring to the field.

Last season, the Dodgers finished second in the league in combined home runs (249), runs scored (906) and runs batted in (877), numbers that should improve with a bat capable of hitting 40 or more home runs, 100 or more RBI and about 100 recorded.

Like never before in his career, Ohtani joins a group of usually healthy shortstops (Mike Trout has mostly been out for the Angels with injuries) who can provide lineup protection and receive it at the same time. and in which he must respond, but they will not have the sole responsibility for carrying the attacking weight of the team.

One area in which he won’t be able to contribute in his Dodgers debut is pitching, due to surgery on his pitching hand he underwent at the end of last season that will keep him out of action for all of 2024.

The Dodgers’ pitching was their main challenge last season, which they finished with a 4.06 earned run percentage, ranking 13th overall.

Mexican Julio Urías’ problems on and off the field, left-hander Clayton Kershaw’s back discomfort, along with Tony Gonsolin’s inconsistency, have undermined their starters, relying heavily on their relief pitching featuring Venezuelan Brusdar Graterol, Shelby Miller and Evan Phillips.

The bet for the Dodgers in terms of pitching would center on the return of Walker Buehler, who missed the season recovering from Tommy John surgery; they count on the return of Kershaw, who is a free agent; and that both Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin can recover to the level they showed before the injuries that affected them and reduced their performance in 2023.

Roberts, regular winner and postseason problems

Dave Roberts has managed the Dodgers since the 2016 season, when he replaced Don Mattingly as manager, winning manager of the year honors in his first year.

He has since led the Dodgers to 100 or more wins in five of his eight seasons at the helm, compiling a 753-442 record, winning the National League West pennant in seven of those eight years and advancing to the postseason in each of those campaigns.

The problem for Roberts, who has led the Dodgers to three World Series, is that he hasn’t been able to fully carry over the success he had in the regular season into the postseason.

Roberts won the 2020 “Fall Classic” championship by defeating the Tampa Bay Rays in six games (4-2). Before this result, they were defeated in the editions in 2017, by the Houston Astros, and in 2018 by the Boston Red Sox.

Although he lacked that consistency to achieve multiple championships, with the way Roberts has led the team and the way the Guggenheim Baseball Management group – headed by Mark R. Walter, including Magic Johnson – is investing in what the team needs to be competitive, Ohtani is practically guaranteed to advance to the first postseason.

Ohtani, on the other hand, remains in the western United States, but by moving from the Angels to the Dodgers, he will move from the American League to the National League.

Against National League teams, Ohtani is hitting .269 with 16 home runs, 49 RBI and 65 runs scored, stats that should improve given that he will have more games against MLB’s top teams and that at Dodger Stadium he is hitting .357 in the six games he played in that environment.