The Los Angeles Dodgers were the talk of the sport, both for better and worse, after following up their 2024 World Series title with a remarkable offseason that saw them sign Blake Snell, Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates.
That was in addition to re-signing their own free agents, Blake Treinen, Teoscar Hernández, Clayton Kershaw and Kiké Hernández.
Dodgers fans reveled in the team’s prospects to repeat as World Series champions, but plenty of others cried foul and began calls for an MLB salary cap with the new collective bargaining agreement that will need to go into effect for the start of the 2027 season.
“I think you’ve got to embrace it,” manager Dave Roberts at the beginning of the year when discussing the Dodgers being painted as a proverbial villain.
“Who wouldn’t want to be the focus and do what our organization is doing for the city and fans? To be quite frank, we draw more than anyone as far as any sports venue in the world. When you’re drawing 4 million fans a year, the way you reciprocate is by investing in players, and that’s what we’ve done.”
At the time, the Dodgers had not yet reached 4 million in attendance. They achieved that milestone for the first time in franchise history behind a strong and consistent showing at Dodger Stadium throughout the season.
While the Dodgers dealt with a rash of injuries and inconsistent performances, resulting in the team falling short of lofty expectations that included breaking the all-time MLB wins record, they have hit their stride in the playoffs.
A 9-1 stretch to this point has been punctuated by a National League Championship Series sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers, who finished with the best record in baseball.
Dave Roberts says Dodgers should ruin baseball
After the Dodgers’ win in Game 4, they gathered together on a stage just off the infield dirt to be presented with their NL champions trophy. The postgame festivities also included Shohei Ohtani being named NLCS MVP.
While Roberts was speaking with Lauren Shehadi on the TBS broadcast, he alluded to the narrative that surrounded the Dodgers for much of the year and implored the team to effectively embrace it by winning another World Series.
“I’ll tell you, before the season started, they said, ‘The Dodgers are ruining baseball,'” Roberts recalled.
“Let’s get four more wins and really ruin baseball! Let’s go!”
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