With the exception of 2021, the Los Angeles Dodgers have largely been uncontested in their dominance over the National League West.
But the San Diego Padres, and to a slightly lesser extent the Arizona Diamondbacks, have made significant gains in recent years.
There is no better example of iron sharpening iron as both the Padres and Diamondbacks have greatly improved their roster construction, player development and prospect development.
It has culminated in each team defeating the Dodgers in the NL Division Series in recent years, and the Diamondbacks proceeding to reach the World Series upon doing so in 2023.
The Padres recovered from a slow start this year and posted the best record in baseball after the All-Star break by going 43-20. The Dodgers and Diamondbacks were right behind them with records of 42-23 and 40-25, respectively.
While hosting the “On Base With Mookie Betts” podcast with teammates appearing, Mookie Betts shared his belief the Padres roster had more talent than the 2024 Dodgers:
“We’re playing them and at the time, to be fair, they were way more talented than we were. That was probably the most talented team I’ve seen. They were the best team in baseball.”
The Padres went all in on the 2024 season and were the most active team at the trade deadline, acquiring arguably the two biggest names to be moved in Jason Adam and Tanner Scott to fortify what already was a quality bullpen. This was in addition to trading for Dylan Cease in March and Luis Arraez in May.
However, all of the talent the Padres acquired came at a tremendous cost in terms of prospects. San Diego parted with 12 of their top 21 prospects, causing their fourth ranked farm system to fall all the way to 28th by midseason according to MLB Pipeline.
The Padres also went into their NLDS matchup against the Dodgers in far better shape health wise, with the exception of Joe Musgrove who was lost for the rest of the playoffs due to an injury in the NL Wild Card round.
Mookie Betts joins Dodgers praising Padres
There appears to be a shared sentiment among the Dodgers players that they seemingly won the World Series in reverse, with their most difficult matchup of the 2024 postseason being the NLDS against the Padres.
It’s a sentiment Alex Vesia and Joe Kelly shared, and one manager Dave Roberts agreed with.
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