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His smile is so unassuming, his stare so innocent, one has to wonder.

Does Yoshinobu Yamamoto understand he’s become a Dodgers legend?

“No,” he said Saturday, chuckling at the notion. “Nothing’s changed.”

Ah, but everything has changed, the formerly overpaid disappointment having transformed himself into arguably the most important player on baseball’s most important team.

Barely touching 5 feet 10, he looks tiny next to giant countryman Shohei Ohtani, with whom he’ll always be compared because they joined the Dodgers at the same time with equally historic contracts.

Quiet and contemplative, he seems dry next to the charming Ohtani. Employed only as a pitcher, he seems boring next to the goose-bump-inducing Ohtani.

Struggling at times during his first two regular seasons with the Dodgers while Ohtani was twice voted National League MVP, Yamamoto was originally overshadowed by the greatest player in history.

Until last October, when he became one of the greatest World Series pitchers in history.

Who can forget how he shut down the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 2, shut them down again in Game 6, then shut them out in relief on zero days rest to get the win in the deciding Game 7.

It was crazy. It was historic. It was two allowed runs in 17 ⅔ innings with 15 strikeouts and two walks.

Put it another way: It was more compelling than Sandy Koufax’s three-hit shutout on two days rest to win the 1965 World Series over the Minnesota Twins.

It was Yamomania. It was Bulldog 2.0. But if you believe the guy on the mound, it barely made a ripple.

Read more:Why Dave Roberts expects Shohei Ohtani to be 'in the Cy Young conversation'

At Camelback Ranch on Saturday, in his first news conference since his World Series heroics, he shrugged and acted like those games were just a walk in the park — except, of course, he barely walked anybody in the park.

Someone asked, how did the World Series change him?

Um, it didn’t.

“I was able to get into the offseason with a great feeling and I was able to go into the offseason with more calmness,” he said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda.

Someone else asked, did he have to alter his legendary workload in the offseason?

Er, no.

“As a matter of fact, the amount of work I did last year has not been affected in terms of preparation,” he said. “In November, I took off and then I began a gradual ramping up. It’s been like a normal offseason.”

Read more:Plaschke: Alex Vesia opens up about unimaginable loss: 'Life can change in an instant'

Then someone asked, has he watched anything from that World Series?

Actually, yes!

“Of course, that moment of the last out,” he said. “But when I reflect back on that series, there’s so many great plays they made. Also there’s the small play which was very important. So many great scenes.”

One of the best scenes was the one nobody saw, after Yamamoto had thrown 96 pitches in a Game 6 victory.

He was done. He told his personal trainer he was done. Dave Roberts told the media he was done.

But then, in his words, he got “tricked.”

According to a report by then-Times columnist Dylan Hernández, trainer Osamu Yada told Yamamoto, “Let’s see if you can throw in the bullpen tomorrow.”

The trainer figured Yamamoto’s mere presence as a potential reliever would inspire the Dodgers and worry the Blue Jays.

Yamamoto figured he was just going to the bullpen for show.

Oh, he put on a show, all right.

After he pitched 2⅔ scoreless innings to win the game and the World Series championship for the Dodgers, the gamesmanship had been transformed into greatness, and the con man had become a hero.

“For him to have the same stuff that he had the night before is really the greatest accomplishment I’ve ever seen on a baseball field,” said Dodgers baseball boss Andrew Friedman to reporters after the game.

Yamamoto explained afterward, “I didn’t think I would pitch. But I felt good when I practiced and the next thing I knew, I was on the mound in the game.”

And before he knew it, history.

“I really couldn’t believe it,” Yamamoto said. “I was so excited I couldn’t even recall what pitch I threw at the end.”

Read more:Plaschke: Start talking three-peat! Dave Roberts believes these Dodgers can be better than ever

Now, with the Dodgers chasing a third consecutive championship and Yamamoto involved in a daring race for a Cy Young Award — who will get there first, he or Ohtani? — a different sort of question must be asked.

How on earth can he pitch any better?

“That’s an internal personal question … as far as, can you repeat and continue to get better than what you’ve been,” Roberts said. “Certainly there’s a high bar, but there’s always room for improvement and I can’t find anything right now to be quite honest, but …”

Yamamoto needs to stay healthy. He made his major-league high 30 starts last year after making just 18 the previous year. He needs to do that again to support the other frail Dodgers starters.

Yamamoto also needs to take care of himself while playing for Japan in the upcoming World Baseball Classic. Ohtani is not pitching, but Yamamoto is, and he doesn’t need to wreck his arm.

Finally, he needs to continue acting like the ace that he has become, from his uncomplaining leadership to his dazzling arsenal.

“Every time he takes the ball, he expects to win and we expect to win,” Roberts said.

That is the bottom line on Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s new reality. He was once Ohtani’s sidekick. He is now Ohtani’s partner.

Like it or not, his life has changed. Witness the crowd that screamed for him Saturday at Camelback Ranch like they always scream for Ohtani.

“More calmness?”

He’ll need it.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Preseason projections are the name of the game in the early going of spring, as camp gets going but the games have yet to start. Barring some last-second news dropping, the AL East has their rosters lined up for another year of chasing one of the hardest crowns to claim in baseball. We’ve talked about their overall strengths a couple of days ago, but every contender aims to stockpile as much pitching as they can, and it’s worth its own breakdown.

The Yankees didn’t make many changes to their rotation, saving their tinkering for a bullpen that was far more volatile in 2025. Max Fried leads the charge again, but this time with Gerrit Cole set to lead beside him at last. Carlos Rodón builds the bridge to the younger part of the staff, where Cam Schlittler hopes to live up to some star potential and both Will Warren and Luis Gil hope to make a mark before Clarke Schmidt is ready to return. Ryan Weathers is the one new addition on board for 2026, brought in to help cover the innings workload while Cole and Rodón get their legs back under them. It’s a strong staff, one of the best in the league if the dice roll in their favor, but there’s a lot of uncertainty built into just how many of their arms are returning from significant injuries.

And, just as their competition has built some all-around competitive rosters, there are some strong staffs around the East specifically. Boston matched up particularly well against the Yankees with Garrett Crochet atop their rotation, and they’ve augmented themselves with Ranger Suárez and Sonny Gray to go alongside Kutter Crawford and Brayan Bello. That’s a rotation that carries a high floor, and should be a driving factor in whether Boston makes it back to the postseason.

Toronto were no slouches in free agency this year, signing Dylan Cease to be the new ace of their staff. While Cease had a down year in his final season as a Padre, his overall body of work has been elite and he got rewarded handsomely for it — now he’ll hurl alongside Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage, and Shane Bieber. The Rays continue to pump out gems on the mound and last year was Drew Rasmussen’s time to shine, but they also have a high-risk, high-reward ace candidate in Shane McClanahan as well when healthy. The Orioles have the potential to contend this year, but their rotation looks the most questionable with Trevor Rogers and Kyle Bradish trying to prove that their fantastic stretch of play can last an entire season.

It’s a tough call to make on who bests who in a given series, but over the course of the season I’d expect the Yankees to slightly edge out Boston for the top rotation in the East, closely followed by Toronto before Tampa and Baltimore round it out. There’s always a need for pitching, however, so we’ll see if these rotations look similar enough to what they were now by the end of the year or if the trade deadline will inspire a transformation or two.

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It’ll be a quiet day on the site as we head into the weekend. Kevin celebrates the birthday of a Yankee that made a sizeable impact despite his short stay in pinstripes in Russell Martin, and then later on John has the social media spotlight to cap off the offseason and get us into spring mode at long last.

PHOENIX — One was a 36-year-old career journeyman infielder from Venezuela who hadn’t produced a hit in more than a month.

The other a 26-year-old reliever with his fourth team in 11 months who wasn’t even on the playoff roster the first three rounds.

Who would have imagined that in a clubhouse full of All-Stars and future Hall of Famers, Miguel Rojas and Will Klein would be honest-to-goodness Los Angeles DodgersWorld Series heroes, still basking three months later from the most glorious moments of their careers?

Rojas, who hit perhaps the most unlikely home run in World Series history, will not only forever be remembered in Dodgers lore for not that ninth-inning Game 7 homer, but also saving the game with a spectacular defensive play in the bottom of the frame.

“I’ve watched that moment over and over so many times, but it’s still hard to believe it happened," Rojas tells USA TODAY Sports. “It’s just overwhelming. I’ve always wanted to have a moment in my career where I feel valuable, especially on the offensive side. And then when you do something like that, you know it’s going to be remembered for a long time.

“Probably forever."

Klein was working out in Arizona and wasn’t even on the Dodgers’ postseason roster until Alex Vesia left the team before the World Series to be with his wife after the loss of their newborn daughter. He was summoned in the 15^th inning of Game 3, and then pitched four shutout innings in the 6-5, 18-inning victory.

“It’s still crazy to think about," Klein says. “I mean, I was hearing from people I went to high school with and old teams. There were people I went to middle school and high school with that didn’t even know I was playing baseball. They saw me on TV, and started sending me random stuff."

'No one expected' Miguel Rojas home run

The Dodgers were down to their last two outs, trailing the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-3, in the ninth inning of Game 7. Rojas, who hadn’t had a hit in an entire month, stepped to the plate facing Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman. Rojas worked the count to 3-and-2 when Hoffman tried to fool him with a slider. Rojas belted it over the left field wall and the screaming crowd at the Rogers Centre went dead silent.

The only sound you heard was the Dodger bench and scattered fans screaming in euphoria with Rojas barely able to feel his feet trotting around the bases.

“No one expected Miguel Rojas to hit that home run," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts says. “No one."

Still, it looked like it might be all forgotten when the Blue Jays loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the ninth. The Dodgers pulled the infield in, and Daulton Varsho hit a bouncer to the right side of Rojas. He snared the ball, but then slipped, and had his momentum carrying him towards second base. Rojas set, and fired home just in the nick of time to nail Isiah Kiner-Falefa at the plate and prevent the winning run.

Two innings later – and after Yoshinobu Yamamto’s 2 ⅔ shutout innings in relief on no days’ rest – the Dodgers were back-to-back World Series champions with Yamamoto winning the World Series MVP.

With the Dodgers all gathering for the first time since their World Series parade, everyone still is talking about Rojas and Klein's heroics.

“(Rojas) is one of the best teammates I ever had, and just one of the best people in baseball," says third baseman Max Muncy, who delivered an eighth-inning homer in Game 7 then made his own big defensive play. “So, for something like that to happen to him, after all of the work he out in and the mentality he had about certain situations, it was so well deserved.

“It was like how the game was rewarding him for how he handled his role last year."

Rojas, who didn’t even play the first five games of the World Series, and was informed only a text message from manager Dave Roberts that he was starting Game 6 in Toronto, never complained about his role. Sure, he wanted to play more, but once Mookie Betts shifted from right field to shortstop, he did everything possible to help Betts improve so dramatically defensively that Betts became a Gold Glove finalist.

And in one glorious moment, it was Rojas who went from an understudy to an Academy Award winning performance, getting congratulatory messages from the likes of Hall of Famer Derek Jeter, Don Mattingly, and the scout who signed him out of Venezuela.

“That’s why I felt so great after it happened, not just because I hit a home run that tied the game," Rojas says, “but seeing the reaction of the people that I really care about. It was so cool. And everybody in the media had something good to say about me.

“The biggest compliment for me is that a guy like me, in front of the whole team, Doc [Roberts] told them that the game honors me because I did things the right way. I’ll remember those words forever. That makes me feel like after the 20 years that I’ve been in professional baseball, I’ve been doing something good."

Rojas, who plans to retire after the season and stay with the Dodgers in player development with hopes one day of being a manager, still has strangers stopping him and thanking him for his home run. He has had more autograph requests during the winter than he’s had in his entire life.

Yet, the question no one asks is which play meant to  him, the game-tying home run or the game-saving play in the bottom of the ninth inning that forced the game into extra innings.

“The home run is going to be something that people will remember forever because you’re two outs away from being done," Rojas says. “But the play, I mean that’s the hardest play I ever made because it’s do-or-die to not only win the game but lose your season. If I don’t make the play, the home run and everything is kind of our of the window.

“So, it’s really tough to put it into context because if I don’t hit the home run, I don’t make the play, and then if I don’t make the play, the homer doesn’t count. I’m just so proud I was able to come through when it counted."

Will Klein: 'No one knows who I am'

Klein was working out at the Dodgers’ spring-training complex in Phoenix when he got the emergency call to join the team in Toronto. Klein, who had spent most of the season pitching in Triple-A, threw a grueling 72 pitches across four innings in Game 3, the most he had thrown since he was at Eastern Illinois, and became an overnight hero.

He was congratulated by legendary Dodger Sandy Koufax, who shook his hand after the game.

“I didn’t think most people," Klein says, “even knew who I was."

So now that he’s a World Series hero, do people recognize him now wherever he goes?

“I heard people say that everybody would know me now," Klein says, “but it hasn’t really changed. My wife and I went to Disneyland and Universal Studios, and maybe like two people recognized me. We’ll walk around Pasadena and LA, and no one knows who I am."

Besides, Klein says laughing, it’s not like he’s Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza of Indiana University. Klein, born and raised in Indiana, is a diehard Hoosiers fan and says he may have celebrated the school's football national championship harder than he did the Dodgers' World Series win.

“I mean, to be the losingest team ever in college football history before that, and then win it all," Klein says, “it’s something I’ll remember forever. I remember going to games when Wisconsin would beat us like 82 to 20, and losing to teams like North Texas and Ball State, so it’s been a long ride.

“I can’t even imagine how many kids are going to be born in Indiana now named Fernando."

While Rojas will be retiring after the 2026 season, Klein is hoping his World Series performance will kick-start his career. Hey, if you can throw four shutout innings in a World Series game, you’re sure not going to be fazed by a regular season relief appearance against the San Francisco Giants.

“It’s easy to look at it like that," Klein says, “but that doesn’t mean I’m going to automatically pitch well this year. I’ve still got to go out and put the work in each day, and use that confidence. But I can’t get lazy and think, 'Oh, I’m going to be great just because I did that in one game of the World Series.'"

It’s the same with the Dodgers, Roberts says. They had a bullseye on their back then, and they’ll have it now.

The Dodgers can’t simply throw $400 million worth of talent on the field each night and expect to automatically win. They have to move forward and focus on 2026 if they have a chance to make history, but still, no matter what transpires, those memories of that glorious 2025 World Series will live forever.

“Man, when I think about it," Roberts says, “it still blows my mind. Who would ever have thought that Miggy would hit that home run? Who could have ever thought that Will Klein was going to throw four scoreless innings in a World Series?

“But you have to have stuff like that go right for you."

No matter who steps up as the hero.

Follow Nightengale on X: @Bnightengale

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dodgers' unlikely World Series heroes still have champions in awe

There has been a decent bit of discussion around Alex Anthopoulos’ comments regarding essentially only looking to add a starter who would be a middle/top of the rotation guy and not really trying to add just a guy to fit into the back of the rotation. I have conflicted feelings on these comments. A guy like Chris Bassitt would have made this roster better on paper. That’s not really something disputed. I think there is an argument if you think that Bryce Elder and/or Joey Wentz are 1-1.5 fWAR/162 starting pitchers, then adding a 2-2.5 fWAR/162 starter for just under $20 million isn’t good return on investment and doesn’t substantially improve depth when it results on the likely loss of a guy like Elder from the roster entirely. One counter-argument to that would be that Elder or perhaps a Holmes or Lopez could be stashed in the bullpen to preserve depth if a guy like Bassitt had been added, but I don’t see Elder as a particularly strong bullpen candidate and that scenario wouldn’t have made much sense until Schwellenbach’s injury status was discovered. That said, adding a top 3 starter to the roster for reasonable cost is a very difficult task, so perhaps that is an unrealistic self-imposed bar for adding to the pitching staff. It’s an interesting approach and I hope that the Braves don’t suffer from another plague of injuries to their pitching staff this season.

Braves News

We put out some early roster predictions including the starting rotation and the backup catcher spot.

MLB News

The Orioles acquired pitching depth from the Twins for cash.

The Padres signed longtime Rockies starter German Marquez to a one year deal with a mutual option in 2027.

Zac Gallen’s one year $22 million deal in Arizona will be considered worth $18.7 for luxury tax purposes after considering deferrals.

Greg Joyce | X: After learning on Friday that Cam Schlittler was dealing with a back/lat issue that is not believed to be serious, the team reported that first baseman Ben Rice is also nursing a minor injury. The young first baseman, per Joyce, ‘slept on his neck wrong the other night’ and that’s why he has not been hitting the last few days. The hope is that he starts swinging again in a matter of days, possibly hours. Big things are expected from Rice, who put together a breakout season in 2025 with 26 home runs and a 133 wRC+.

Francys Romero | X: Heavily criticized in recent seasons for their lack of success in the international market, the Yankees secured their first major prospect in the Mario Garza era: Venezuelan catcher Sebastian Pérez, who is expected to sign for a $1.7 million bonus. The real challenge for the Yankees will be actually signing the young star when the next period opens in January 15, 2027. According to Romero, Pérez “features elite exit velocity at the plate and premium defensive skills behind the dish.”

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: Gerrit Cole threw his first official bullpen session of the spring on Friday, and reportedly touched 96 mph on the radar gun. Despite the pitcher himself doing his best to control expectations, he looks ahead of schedule and could return in April. When asked about his ace and how he looked, manager Aaron Boone gave an encouraging response: ‘He looked like Gerrit Cole.’

“Just really efficient, really great command,” Boone told Hoch. “When I think of Gerrit and his greatness, a lot of it ties to his delivery. Everything looks like it’s coming out free and easy. I liken it to a diver that dives off the high board and just goes in the water, making no splash. That’s Gerrit.” Catcher Austin Wells also praised the veteran pitcher, saying he could get outs in the majors right now. The Cole Train is in full swing this spring.

MLB Trade Rumors | Anthony Franco Late on Friday, the Yankees added a veteran right-hander to their bullpen mix. They signed Rafael Montero to a minor league deal with an invitation to camp, with a $1.8 million base salary if he makes the club. Montero played with three clubs in the 2025 campaign: the Astros, the Braves, and the Tigers, compiling a 4.48 ERA in 60.1 innings pitched.

SNY | Phillip Martinez Last spring, Yankees prospect Chase Hampton was diagnosed with a flexor strain that resulted in Tommy John surgery. After several months of grueling rehab, the right-hander is trying to show the organization he is ready to pick right where he left off.

“I don’t know his progression, so to speak. I’ve seen a couple of his bullpens now and it keeps ticking up,” Boone said after Saturday’s practice. “I know he is chomping at the bit for a little bit more because he is feeling really good as well. Boone added that Hampton is looking ‘pretty good right now’ and that bodes well for his future and his chances. The skipper didn’t want to predict if the young righty is going to pitch in Grapefruit League games, though.