The Los Angeles Dodgers have meticulously cultivated a strong culture in their clubhouse in the eight years under manager Dave Roberts.
The word culture often gets thrown around a lot, whether it’s describing a clubhouse or locker room, but what does it really mean?
Perhaps the best way to describe it is an assessment of the observable behaviors a team and organization promotes and accepts. It is a measure of how 26 different men from various walks of life interact with each other and work toward a common goal.
The 2024 season might have been the year that the Dodgers benefitted from their culture that promotes hard work, collaboration, and selflessness all in the name of winning. It was necessary as Roberts navigated his way through a season with an ever growing injured list and depleted starting rotation.
It was most certainly needed when the Dodgers had their backs against the wall in the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres and it was ultimately why they ended up at World Series champions.
While Roberts’ job as manager is to foster its growth, the culture in the Dodgers clubhouse is ultimately player driven. Not only are Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Shohei Ohtani the Dodgers’ three best players, they are also pillars of the clubhouse culture.
As one of the more junior members of the Dodgers despite playing in his fifth Major League season in 2024, Gavin Lux admired the example set by the leaders in the clubhouse.
“None of them have egos. I think all three of those guys just want to win at the end of the day, and know that our ultimate team goal is to win a World Series. All three of them are obviously three of the best players in baseball. That’s no secret. But at the same time, there’s no ego,” Lux said.
“There’s a lot of selflessness and just want to win. You see it with Freddie, obviously Shohei. These guys are playing with broken bones and needing surgery and still putting their bodies on the line every day. That just shows you these guys are selfless superstars and they just want to win. I think that’s part of the reason why that makes us special.”
For all players, but especially young players, having a culture that encourages people to put their egos aside makes the clubhouse more welcoming and supports player development.
The Dodgers are at a point where they can be extremely selective of who they allow into their organization in order to preserve their culture, placing equal importance on talent and character.
“It’s about getting the right players, the right people. Talent is a lot, but it’s not everything. You still have to be cohesive. I just think we do a great job of getting the right players in our clubhouse,” Roberts said.
Roberts also explained that the Dodgers are comfortable handing out massive financial commitments to players like Betts, Ohtani, and Freeman because they make the players around them better and sets the organization up for future success.
With nine years under his belt in the Majors already, Teoscar Hernández has plenty of knowledge of what it takes to be successful in MLB. And yet, even he found his exposure to the Dodgers’ culture to be very beneficial because of the example set by Betts, Freeman and Ohtani.
“For me, when you have three players like that, that have been great, they’ve been one of the best in their position for a long time. And you see the way they talk, the way they act, the way they work, the way they prepare for every game, it’s just amazing because they have no ego,” Hernández said.
“They just think they’re just one more player in the clubhouse, and they just go from there. When you see guys like that, working like that and thinking like that, you get better as a player, and obviously you make yourself work a little harder just to be like them.”
Gavin Lux learned from Dodgers stars
During his five years in the Majors with the Dodgers, Lux did everything he could to learn from the Dodgers’ best players. Lux didn’t shy away from asking questions or studying the habits of Freeman, Betts, and Ohtani because they were so approachable, which is a result of the Dodgers’ clubhouse culture.
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