New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge and Los Angeles Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani had historic seasons worthy of all the praise they receive, but it’s time to recognize the Los Angeles Dodgers on that same level for their accomplishments.
The 2022 Dodgers finished the season with a 111-51 record, which placed them second all-time for wins in a season by a National League team and tied for fourth in MLB history. Only the 1906 Chicago Cubs (116 wins), 2001 Seattle Mariners (116) and 1998 Yankees (114) won more games, while the 1954 Cleveland Indians also won 111 games.
The Dodgers’ 111 wins set the live-ball era (since 1920) record for most in a season by an NL team, and they set their franchise record for winning percentage in a full season at .685, passing the 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers (.682).
Additionally, the Dodgers became one of just 10 teams in MLB history to finish the season with a +300 run differential or better, and the first since the 2001 Mariners. Their +334 run differential is the fourth-best mark a team has posted in the modern era (since 1900), trailing only the 1939 Yankees (+411), 1927 Yankees (+376) and 1962 Pirates (+335).
“I think the magnitude as far as history, that’s context,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said about his club’s success in 2022. “This team is in elite company for the regular season. To go through and do what we’ve done, speaks to a lot of people. We appreciate it.”
The Dodgers accomplishments this season mostly came without Walker Buehler, who underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery; Dustin May, who only made six starts; and two of their top relievers in Blake Treinen and Daniel Hudson.
They also lost Clayton Kershaw and Tony Gonsolin to lengthy stints on the injured list, while Justin Turner scuffled for half the season, and Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy struggled through most of it.
That is enough to ruin the season of any team, except the 2022 Dodgers.
This dominance is not exclusive to 2022, however. With 106 wins in 2019 and 2021, the Dodgers became the first club in MLB history to win 106 games or more in three consecutive full seasons. The only year they didn’t win 106 games in the last four seasons was due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, but all they did was post a .717 winning percentage while winning the World Series.
The Dodgers have also led the NL with the most runs scored and fewest runs allowed for five straight seasons, which is the longest streak by a team in their league in MLB history, passing the 1936-39 Yankees team that did it four times.
That success has led to nine NL West titles and 10 postseason appearances in the past 10 seasons. The only year L.A. didn’t win the division was the season they set their previous franchise record of 106 wins.
Since their dominance began to take off in 2013, the Dodgers have gone 931-588, good for a .613 winning percentage across 10 seasons. The next closest teams in that time frame are the Yankees, who have gone 858-660 (.565) and St. Louis Cardinals, who are 848-668 (.565).
That’s 73 more wins than the next closest team, which averages out to 7.3 more wins per season. The gap between the first-place Dodgers and the second-place Yankees is larger than the distance between the Yankees and the ninth-place Chicago Cubs, who won 789 games, or an average of 6.9 fewer per year than the Yankees.
The Dodgers have just been on another level than even the next closest club. What they are doing is nearly unprecedented and should put them among the all-time great clubs in MLB history. Unfortunately, they aren’t treated that way and their success is often only based on what they do in October.
Why are Dodgers viewed as ‘chokers’?
It has become almost expected that the Dodgers will just be among the best teams every season with a nearly endless supply of resources, both in terms of financial ability, prospects to trade and front office executives that other teams love to poach. But still, clubs with similar resources have been unable to replicate the success of the Dodgers.
No other team in professional sports is able to consistently call up impact players from their Minor League system while simultaneously trading top prospects every season to make a splash at the deadline. It is a credit to the Dodgers’ player development system that is the envy of every team in MLB.
They have also been able to consistently find undervalued talents who become stars in their organization thanks to their front office finding traits that their coaching staff can utilize. This has included Justin Turner, Chris Taylor, Max Muncy, Yency Almonte and Evan Phillips, who all became impact players after struggling to even stick on a Major League roster previously.
Not to mention what the team has been able to do with fringe starters Tyler Anderson, who earned his first All-Star appearance, and Andrew Heaney, who should be an important piece of their pitching staff in October after being designated for assignment just one year ago.
But with all the winning and success, Dodger fans have become spoiled by expecting a World Series every season.
“Our job, from Mark (Walter), to Andrew (Friedman), to myself, to the players, is to put our best foot forward because fans deserve that,” Roberts said. “They pay good money, they take their time to watch on TV, pay good money to come see us to perform at a high level, the highest level. And my job and the coaches is to get the most out of the players.
“And so if certain fans see that as spoiled, and not grateful that the team that they love and support take it personal to show their best every single year for them, then that’s their prerogative.”
However, the MLB postseason is a tournament characterized by chaos, randomness and luck, that has more often than not ended in failure for the Dodgers. It is a format designed by MLB to give the best teams a roughly 15% chance of winning the title each season, and the road to the championship consistently gets harder every time MLB decides to change the format.
In MLB’s first postseason format, the two teams with the most wins in the regular season went directly to the World Series. Later, they added the League Championship round to double the number of postseason teams. Now, six teams from each league make it and play three to four rounds, which only gives time for more chaos to build.
While the Dodgers have made the postseason 10 straight seasons, eight of them have ended in disappointment and one has yet to begin. With their only successful finish coming in 2020, which many characterize as a “fake season” — conveniently only deemed such after their team was eliminated.
The Dodgers should have won another ring in 2017, but as we all know, that season was tainted by the Houston Astros conducting one of the largest cheating scandals in professional sports history to win their “piece of metal.”
So despite all their regular season success, each season is still characterized by many fans as a failure if the Dodgers don’t win the World Series, and that has often been the case with this club. “I can’t speak for all the fans,” Roberts said. “I know the certain narratives out there.
“Fans are fans for a reason. They’ve never put on a Big League uniform. We want to win a championship just as much as they do, if not more, our jobs depend on it. We’re in the grind every single day from February 15 every single day.
“So there are fans, some subset, that feel that they don’t get interested until the postseason and the season is defined by that. That’s their prerogative.
“There’s another subset of fans that can appreciate what goes into winning, having the season we’re having, and understanding that there’s a lot of things that happen that play out in a postseason that are unpredictable. And that’s the ride of the ups and downs, the unpredictability of baseball that makes it so great.
“And there’s that subset that’s in it with us and really appreciate that this is a great team. And they’re prepared to handle any result. So it’s a fine line for me in my chair to kind of talk about that first subset because they take it as we’re leaving a side door, an excuse, [it’s] not about that.
“We already expect to win the World Series. That’s our only focus. So that’s just kind of my take on it.”
So before the Dodgers begin the postseason in the NL Division Series against the New York Mets or San Diego Padres, take a moment to appreciate what this club did during the regular season. Take a moment to reflect on how good they have been for the last decade.
There is a high chance you will never see another club this talented and successful in a single season or one that wins this much over a decade. “Unfortunately, the world has gone very cynical, which is sad,” Roberts said.
“You know, having a great season, enjoying the ride. Are certain fans, not all, are certain fans jaded? Absolutely. And don’t realize what it takes, what teams, what this team, in particular, has had to overcome to get to this point, not a rite of passage, to be in this position, and no one in that clubhouse feels that way.
“The sense of gratitude and joy is at many times lost in our society. And certainly, in sports, it’s at the forefront. But people are going to have their thoughts.
“In a perfect world, the world’s not perfect, I wish they certainly would enjoy the ride and know and appreciate what we do, regardless of ultimately if we’re the last team standing, which that’s just the case in sports.”
Yes, the Dodgers might not win the World Series in 2022. In fact, the odds are against them. But no matter what happens, the Dodgers had one of the most historic seasons, and decades, in baseball history, and there is nothing 3 to 18 games in October can do to change that.
All a World Series would do is become the final flourish of an already incredible team.
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