The relative ease in which the Los Angeles Dodgers completed the final two rounds of the 2024 MLB postseason paled in comparison to the challenge they faced against the San Diego Padres in the National League Division Series.
Several players from last season’s championship-winning team have been outspoken about the importance and difficulty of their matchup against the Padres in the NLDS. Mookie Betts believed the Padres were “way more talented” than the Dodgers when the two teams went head-to-head, even going so far as to call them the best team in baseball at the time.
During an appearance on “The Chris Rose Rotation,” Miguel Rojas said it was a commonly held belief in the Dodgers clubhouse that the Padres had a better roster on paper:
“I think everybody in that clubhouse knew that we didn’t have the best team last year. We had to work. If you put both teams — Padres and the Dodgers — on paper, we didn’t have the advantage in that series.”
Rojas went on to explain it was not as if the Dodgers were lacking talent when compared to the Padres, rather much of it was simply unavailable to them:
“Remember, we have a broken Freddie Freeman. A really broken Freddie Freeman. We have a Freddie Freeman literally on one ankle, hitting and playing first base. We had three starters, and Walker Buehler became Walker Buehler in the postseason. That was another story. Walker Buehler had a seven ERA in the regular season, and you didn’t know how he was going to perform.”
“And then you have two starters, one rookie in Yamamoto. You can say whatever you want about the pay, but Yamamoto was a rookie who had never pitched in that moment before. And Jack Flaherty, who came from another organization. Who knows how many pitches he has left to go through the postseason.”
“We didn’t have Glasnow, we didn’t have Gavin Stone, who pitched really well for us. And our bullpen, we didn’t even know who was going to close. Michael Kopech took it, Blake Treinen took the role when they weren’t supposed to do that.”
Faced with a 2-1 series deficit and on the brink of elimination, it was both the Dodgers bullpen and their big-game players that kept them alive in the NLDS and allowed for an exhilarating comeback:
“And then a bunch of dawgs in that bullpen that saved us. And a bunch of guys that were ready to play; Kiké Hernández was the best example. He said to me, ‘This is the moment they got me here for, so let me take over.’ He knew it was time for me to pass the torch because I couldn’t go anymore and it was time for him to take over.”
Rojas highlightd some of the injuries the team suffered ended up being a benefit to them in the long run:
“Tommy Edman, the same way. Tommy Edman didn’t play for four months to start the season. He made his debut in July. He was fresh. He’s fresh, I passed the baton, he took off.
“Max Muncy didn’t play for three months. I think he got a total of 200 at-bats during the regular season. He was fresh, and plays the full postseason”.
Rojas added it was the intangibles the Dodgers possessed as a team that got them through the postseason, more so than their sheer talent alone:
“What I’m saying is we won because we were a team that showed character and we were ready to play.”
That type of determination and no-excuses approach has become an expectation in the Dodgers clubhouse regardless of how talented the roster is.
They of course are heading into the 2025 season as an overwhelming World Series favorite and as a team Rojas believes is capable of breaking the all-time MLB wins record of 116.
Miguel Rojas recovered from infection
While Rojas went into the offseason knowing he would need surgery for a hernia injury that impacted him late last year and throughout the playoffs, a complication arose as he contracted an infection after the operation.
It delayed the veteran for roughly an additional two weeks as he needed to wait for the infection to clear before beginning offseason workouts.
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