The Los Angeles Dodgers entered the 2025 season as the favorite to repeat as World Series champions, but not without some expected competition within the National League West.
Through nearly two months of play, that sentiment has held true as the Dodgers entered Tuesday only a half-game ahead of the San Diego Padres for first place in the division. The San Francisco Giants are also enjoying a strong season thus far, and the Arizona Diamondbacks have come on of late.
During a recent episode of the “On Base With Mookie Betts” podcast, the eight-time All-Star said a tight NL West race will motivate the Dodgers to play at a high level for most of the season:
“I think it will make it fun, just because as we go through June, July, August, when the season really gets long, you can’t really allow that to happen because these teams are constantly winning games. So it really makes you perform each and every day.”
Teoscar Hernández agreed with Betts and said the other NL West teams will bring the best out of the Dodgers:
“And put in more effort. Sometimes you feel like, ‘I think we’re going to win today. We’re not going to play hard or play at the max level.’ But now that everything shifted, it used to be in the American League, now it’s in the National League. It’s our division. … Every team that faces us, it’s going to be their best because they want to win and beat the Dodgers. It’s not like we’re the villains, it’s that everybody wants to win.”
Hernández previously said that he enjoys the pressure from other NL West teams as it ultimately helps the Dodgers stay on top of their game during the dog days of summer.
L.A. didn’t clinch the NL West last season until the final week of the regular season, which was largely due to the Padres and Diamondbacks both posting top-three records after the All-Star break.
The NL West race in 2025 could be even tougher this year with the Giants re-emerging as a contender, and the Padres and Diamondbacks both picking up where they left off in 2024.
Dave Roberts: NL West race ‘helped’ Dodgers
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts believes the close NL West race from the 2024 season benefited the team during their World Series run.
“It’s helped us a lot,” he said at the time. “I still believe Arizona, the Padres, are two of the better teams in all of baseball, and we got to see a lot of them. Having to go through the Padres in that D.S. was just kind of a grind. So I certainly felt it prepared us for the rest of this postseason, absolutely.”
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