The Los Angeles Dodgers won the National League West for the fifth consecutive season and in the process set a franchise record with 104 wins, their most since relocating from Brooklyn.
There are a few players remaining with the organization who have been part of each of the NL West-winning teams, including Kenley Jansen and longest-tenured Dodger, Andre Ethier. In Jansen’s case, he re-signed with the Dodgers during the offseason to pursue a World Series title.
Having already won the NL West a handful of times, Jansen believes he and the Dodgers are focused on a much larger goal, according to Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times:
“I’m not that excited about winning the division,” Jansen said. “My focus is one goal, to bring a championship back to L.A. I think it should be everybody’s focus and I think it is.”
For Ethier, this October run may very well be his last with the organization. He too downplayed the Dodgers’ regular-season success and division titles, via Austin Laymance of MLB.com:
“It’s a thing where it doesn’t matter how many games you win,” Ethier said of the Dodgers’ 104 regular-season victories. “It’s getting to the playoffs and winning the World Series. There’s no banners hanging up that say we’re the NL West champions five years in a row. The only banners you see out there are World Series championships. One hundred and four-win seasons, a 90-win season, they don’t mean anything unless you’re winning. No one is going to remember in five years that this team won 104 games [if it] didn’t win the World Series.”
Jansen and Ethier have both known to be big-time performers in recent postseasons. The right-handed closer pitched multiple innings in several appearances last October, including an exhausting performance in Game 5 of the National League Division Series.
Although not coming off the disabled list until September last season, Ethier was included on the Dodgers postseason roster to serve as a pinch-hitter off the bench. He delivered a clutch hit in the NLDS and hit a home run in the NL Championship Series.
Ethier was one of the veterans who addressed the team following their workout at Dodger Stadium Thursday night.
