The Orlando Solar Bears, ECHL affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning, announced Saturday the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League (AHL) have signed goaltender Jon Gillies to a professional tryout contract (PTO).
Additionally, Ryan Fanti has been recalled by the Crunch, also announced Saturday.
Gillies, 30, has appeared in two games this season for the Solar Bears, posting a 1-1-0 record, a 3.08 goals-against average and a .902 save percentage.
A native of Concord, New Hampshire, Gillies was originally selected by the Flames in the third round (75th overall) of the 2012 NHL Draft.
Before turning professional, he played three seasons at Providence College, where he helped lead the Friars to an NCAA National Championship in 2015 and earned the tournament's Most Outstanding Player honors.
Saturday’s busy 14-game NHL slate started off with a bang as the New York Rangers snapped a three-game losing skid with a 5-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks at Madison Square Garden.
Both teams came in just below the playoff cut-line, and the matchup carried extra weight because it was J.T. Miller’s first game against his old team since he was traded back to the club that drafted him on Jan. 31.
After logging seven goals and 11 assists for 18 points in 20 games with the Rangers, Miller was all over the action on Saturday. The Rangers were badly outplayed during the first two periods, outshot 24-6. But after the Canucks opened the scoring on a first-period goal by Dakota Joshua, Miller helped his team draw even midway through the second, on the ice when Adam Fox tipped a point shot by Braden Schneider past Kevin Lankinen.
Then, early in the third, he dug out the puck from the end boards and fed Jonny Brodzinski, putting the home side ahead for the first time in the game and sparking a frenetic third period that saw the Blueshirts outscore the Canucks 4-2. After Brodzinski broke a 3-3 tie with less than five minutes remaining, the dagger came off Miller’s stick, 176 feet into the empty net, with 17 seconds left on the clock.
Miller earned third-star honors for the day, and Brodzinski’s two goals gave him the first-star award. But the Rangers wouldn’t have been in a position to mount their comeback without Igor Shesterkin. He held steady while under siege through the first 40 minutes, stopping 1.96 goals saved above expected in all situations according to Natural Stat Trick as Vancouver outshot New York 24-6.
The final shots were 39-12 for the Canucks, Vancouver’s highest shot total of the year. By himself, Quinn Hughes challenged the output of the entire Rangers team, with nine shots on goal to go along with four misses and two blocks. He finished with one assist, breaking the ankles of Matt Rempe before setting up Joshua’s opening goal.
Quinn Hughes putting Matt Rempe in the spin cycle will never get old 😆
The Canucks didn’t just lose the game on Saturday. They also lost two of their hottest offensive players — both Swedes, no less, on the first-ever ‘Hockey Day in Sweden.’
Elias Pettersson appeared to suffer an injury on a second-period face-off play against Vincent Trocheck.
Bad news for the Canucks as Elias Pettersson has gone to the dressing room after an awkward play in the faceoff circle.
He returned for two short shifts but was ruled out for the third period. Hoglander’s last shift came late in the second.
Both players had been piling up the points of late. Pettersson had three goals and six assists in his last six games, and Hoglander had six points in his last five games.
Canucks coach Rick Tocchet did not have an update on either player after the game but mentioned that a center may need to be recalled from AHL Abbotsford — which doesn’t bode well for Pettersson.
After the Canucks opened their six-game road trip on Thursday with an overtime loss to one of the teams they’re battling for a playoff spot, the St. Louis Blues, they’ll continue on the road for another eight days — visiting New Jersey, Long Island and Columbus before finishing off in Winnipeg.
Soucy, Mancini Tally Against Old Teams
Miller wasn’t the only traded player to chip in offensively on Saturday.
The Canucks also dealt defenseman Carson Soucy to the Rangers just before the trade deadline. He played 16:22 and finished at plus-one, with the second assist on Brodzinski’s game winner.
On the Vancouver side, former Ranger Victor Mancini picked up the second assist on Drew O’Connor’s third-period goal, which tied the score 2-2. O’Connor was also an indirect acquisition from the Miller trade, acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for the first-round draft pick that Vancouver received from New York.
Defenseman Marcus Pettersson also came to Vancouver as part of that deal. He had a quiet game, finishing at minus-1 in 20:10 of ice time.
Filip Chytil, another former Ranger, did not play on Saturday. After putting up six points in his first 15 games with Vancouver, the 25-year-old missed his fourth game after suffering a concussion from a hit by Jason Dickinson of the Chicago Blackhawks one week ago.
Despite everything that went right for those three, the Golden Knights scored six goals.
With the Red Wings dropping this game, they made a late move, sending a player down to the Grand Rapids Griffins. The team announced that Brogan Rafferty was being sent back to the AHL.
Rafferty and Austin Watson were recently recalled. Rafferty is going back to the AHL without playing in the NHL lineup.
This demotion likely means Jeff Petry is ready to return to the lineup. The defender hasn’t played a game since January 2nd against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Rafferty has 19 points in 50 games for the Griffins. This is his second year with the Red Wings AHL affiliate. Last season, he recorded 29 points in 62 games.
Red Wings fans will have to wait to see if Petry returns for their next game.
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The Kangaroos thwarted the Demons at every point of Sunday’s game to bring a feel-good factor the to club
At North Melbourne home games, club president Dr Sonja Hood and CEO Jennifer Watt often sneak out of their functions and spend the last quarter sitting with the cheer squad. They’ve had some glum afternoons – games that were over after 15 minutes and games where they were mown down late. Last year, one of Hood’s KPIs for her football department was how fans felt coming to games, rather than how many games the team won. For most supporters, half an hour of proctology was preferable to some of the final terms they had to sit through.
But they finally had their day on Sunday. With the contest still in the balance early in the final quarter, they slammed on three goals before Melbourne had even touched the ball. Soon it was torrential, and they’d kicked half a dozen goals in as many minutes. It was their biggest win in five years and perhaps a portent of a successful era to come.
Opening Day can’t get here soon enough, before another Yankee or Met gets hurt. Indeed, injuries have dampened spirits a bit for the local teams this spring, but there is still plenty of reason to believe they’ll both be playing October baseball again.
So it figures to be an eventful season here in New York, even if the Los Angeles Dodgers loom as a burgeoning dynasty with their huge payroll and galaxy of stars.
Who knows what surprises lay ahead, but here are my 10 bold predictions for the 2025 MLB season, centering mostly around the Mets and Yankees.
Seems crazy considering the former Mets’ ace turns 37 in June and has thrown only 41 innings in two seasons with the Texas Rangers, before and after the second Tommy John surgery of his career. For that matter he hasn’t thrown anything close to a full season, other than the shortened pandemic year, since 2019.
Yet deGrom was once again making it look easy in his brief return at the end of last season, as overpowering as ever in three abbreviated starts. It’s just a matter of staying healthy, and you’d think his latest elbow surgery would provide him some rope in that area. It doesn’t take 200 innings to win a Cy Young anymore either and if Justin Verlander can win the Cy Young at age 39 after missing two years from TJ surgery, well, why not deGrom?
9. Shohei Ohtani gives up pitching
At some point it’s just going to make too much sense for Ohtani and the LA Dodgers not to do it. The Dodgers probably would prefer it right now but they will bow to their superstar’s wish to resume pitching after Tommy John surgery in 2023.
And maybe he’ll be successful as a starter. But if he’s not immediately dominant and there’s any sense his pitching is taking a toll on his offense, the pressure will mount on him to just hit home runs and steal bases. The Dodgers, after all, have a loaded starting rotation without Ohtani but they need his impact in their lineup to win another championship.
8. Dedniel Núñez replaces Edwin Diaz as Mets closer
Diaz’s strong finish in 2024 made it easier to forget his up-and-down season but his shaky spring has resurrected concerns about whether he can still be an elite closer. His velocity has been down slightly and his inability to prevent baserunners from stealing at will against him is looming as a potentially costly problem.
Núñez, meanwhile, returned this spring from the flexor tendon injury that shut him down after he emerged as a surprise bullpen weapon in 2024, throwing 98 mph again. If Diaz can’t regain his 2022 dominance, in his second season back from knee surgery, the Mets could be better off with Núñez closing and Diaz in a setup role.
New York Mets closer Edwin Díaz (39) pitches in the 4th inning against the Houston Astros at Clover Park. / Jim Rassol-Imagn Images
The Yankees didn’t actually sign Dominguez when he was 12 years old, it just seems that long since the hype began. Yet his talent is legit and, despite all the hand-wringing over his misadventures in left field, I think he proves to be the real thing in his first full season in the big leagues at age 22.
He’ll settle in defensively, allowing him to relax and let his tools take over. He stole 40 bases in the minors two years ago and scouts continue to marvel at how quickly the ball leaves the ballpark when Dominguez squares one up. That could well add up to a 30/30 season and the emergence of a star.
6. The Red Sox are back in a big way
After several years of angering their fans with a lack of spending and a patient approach to building through the farm system, the Boston Red Sox will take a huge leap forward, winning the AL East and reaching the World Series for the first time since 2018.
They made some key moves in the offseason, trading for Garrett Crochet, signing Walker Buehler and Alex Bregman, to complement the young talent that is ready to blossom. The timing is right for them in a watered-down American League, all the more so considering the Yankees’ injuries.
5. Yankees trade for Sandy Alcantara
The idea was to pair Gerrit Cole with Max Fried and ride dominant starting pitching to a championship in the wake of losing Juan Soto to the Mets. But with Cole lost for the season and Luis Gil for months, the only way to replicate that formula is to trade for Alcantara this summer.
This is assuming the Miami Marlins’ ace returns with dominance after Tommy John surgery, and he appears to be on his way after a strong spring training. The cost will be high, as Alcantara is under contract through 2027, including a team option year, but the Yankees could well be desperate to win before Aaron Judge gets old. And the Marlins seem to be at the beginning of another rebuild.
New York Mets pitcher Clay Holmes (35) pitches against the Houston Astros in the third inning at Clover Park / Jim Rassol - Imagn Images
Holmes’ dominance in Florida is among the happiest developments for the Mets so far in spring training, making them look smart for the decision to sign him as a free agent and convert him from a reliever to a starter.
I don’t think it’s a fluke either. He’s added an effective change-up to his reliever arsenal and has begun complementing his turbo-sinker with a four-seam fastball up in the strike zone. What about stamina? Well, when Seth Lugo made a similar conversion upon signing with the San Diego Padres in 2023, he threw 146 innings in his first year there. No reason Holmes can’t do that and earn an All-Star nod along the way.
3. The rivalry is back: Yankees lose to Red Sox in ALCS
Baseball needs the Yankees and Red Sox to hate each other again, and while the intensity may never reach the 2003-2004 level, this looks like the year the rivalry will get hot again.
Injuries obviously have hit the Yankees hard but they still should have enough to earn a wild card spot and move on to an ALCS meeting with the division-champion Red Sox. Judge will have another monster season but the Yankees will miss Soto in the post-season and fall short of a second straight World Series appearance
2. Mets fall in NLCS again as the Soto-era begins with promise
This time it may not be as much of a love-fest as 2024, considering how high the expectations are with Soto on board, as the Mets earn a wild card berth but lose again to the Dodgers in the NLCS, mainly because their starting pitching can’t match up with LA.
Yet in the big picture I think the Mets in 2025 will take another step toward winning it all under Steve Cohen, as Soto establishes himself in Queens with an MVP-type season and the farm system starts to produce, most importantly on the pitching side, starting with Brandon Sproat making an impact at some point.
1. Dodgers tie '98 Yankees and go back-to-back
Obviously it’s not all that bold to predict a second straight championship for the Dodgers after their Evil Empire-like off-season, but I also think they go a step farther and deliver one of the great seasons in major league history by winning 114 games, as the Yankees did in 1998.
That’s still two short of the all-time record of 116, set by the 1906 Chicago Cubs and the 2001 Seattle Mariners, but it would be quite a feat while validating all of LA’s spending, while also officially make them the team to hate around baseball.
The Dodgers have so much elite pitching, both in the rotation and the bullpen, to go with their dynamic lineup, that 114 seems very much within their reach. And while the post-season is always a crapshoot, as the saying goes, the Dodgers have the weapons to win their second straight title and set up a possible dynasty.
The Ducks begin a five-game homestand on Sunday against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Ducks are coming off a 4-1 win against the Nashville Predators on March 20, while the Hurricanes are coming off a 7-2 shellacking from the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.
Anaheim recently returned from a three-game road trip, where they went 1-1-1. Their win against Nashville saw the return of John Gibson from a lower-body injury which held him out for five consecutive games. Gibson made 33 saves in his return.
"We didn't even skate (on Wednesday) and I asked him this morning, 'Are you gonna be okay?' He said, 'No problem,' Ducks head coach Greg Cronin said after the Nashville game. "He's been around a while. He's a unique goalie, a unique guy and we're really lucky to have him."
The last time that the Ducks and Hurricanes faced off was in Raleigh in mid-January. Cutter Gauthier had his first career multi-goal game, scoring the overtime winner. In the Ducks' last two games, Gauthier has been elevated to the top line alongside Leo Carlsson and Alex Killorn. Although the promotion hasn't resulted in any points yet, it's clear that Gauthier is adjusting to the NHL environment with every passing day.
The Hurricanes may be without the services of Seth Jarvis on Sunday after he appeared to slam his head into the boards during Saturday's matchup against the Kings. He did not return to the game. Andrei Svechnikov, who has missed the last five games with an upper-body injury, could be in line to return to the lineup, Frederik Andersen is expected to start for the Hurricanes after Pyotr Kochetkov started on Saturday against the Kings.
Nikita Nesterenko, who missed Thursday’s game against Nashville, was a full participant in the Ducks’ Saturday practice and is expected to be back in the lineup on Sunday.
Ducks Projected Lines
Cutter Gauthier - Leo Carlsson - Alex Killorn Frank Vatrano - Ryan Strome - Troy Terry Nikita Nesterenko - Mason McTavish - Trevor Zegras Jansen Harkins - Isac Lundeström - Brett Leason
Jackson LaCombe - Radko Gudas Olen Zellweger - Jacob Trouba Pavel Mintyukov - Drew Helleson
Lukáš Dostál (projected)
Hurricanes Projected Lines
Andrei Svechnikov - Sebastian Aho - Jackson Blake Taylor Hall - Jesperi Kotkaniemi - Jack Roslovic Eric Robinson - Mark Jankowski - Jordan Martinook Juha Jääskä - Tyson Jost - Logan Stankoven
Jaccob Slavin - Brent Burns Sean Walker - Scott Morrow Dmitry Orlov - Jalen Chatfield
The Mets continue their Grapefruit League action as they take on the Miami Marlins at 1:10 p.m. on PIX11. Here's what to know about the game and how to watch...
Mets Notes
Griffin Canning, Sunday's starter on the mound, has allowed just one earned run over the course of his three starts this spring
Brett Baty leads the Grapefruit League with his 1.123 OPS this spring. He's in the lineup again, playing second base and hitting sixth
Juan Soto leads all Mets players with four home runs this spring, while Baty and Jose Siri are just off the pace with three
MARLINS
METS
Javier Sanoja, LF
Francisco Lindor, SS
Dane Myers, CF
Starling Marte, DH
Kyle Stowers, RF
Pete Alonso, 1B
Eric Wagaman, 3B
Brandon Nimmo, LF
Matt Mervis, 1B
Mark Vientos, 3B
Liam Hicks, DH
Brett Baty, 2B
Rob Brantly, C
Alexander Canario, RF
Starlyn Caba, SS
Luis Torrens, C
Carter Johnson, 2B
Tyrone Taylor, CF
How can I watch Mets vs. Marlins online?
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Australian first, with McLaren teammate Norris second
Ferrari’s Hamilton and Leclerc disqualified after race
Now 18 years into his career and hoping to see it out with a flourish, it will not have gone unnoticed by Lewis Hamilton that while McLaren – with whom he started in Formula One all those years ago – are enjoying a breathless, heady run of form, his opening with Ferrari has been an altogether more frustrating affair. The teams’ fates in the Chinese Grand Prix could not have been in greater contrast and it is doubtful that it would give Hamilton occasion for so much as a wry smile.
In a processional race at Shanghai, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri won with a commanding drive from pole and with his teammate Lando Norris behind him they secured McLaren’s 50th one-two finish and the team’s first of the season. On this form, it will not be the last.
On March 23, the Nashville Predators picked up an impressive win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. After being down 2-0 at the end of the first period, the Predators responded with five unanswered goals to defeat Toronto by a 5-2 final score.
New Predators forward Michael Bunting got Nashville's rally started when he scored at the 1:39 mark of the second period. His goal was a nice one, too, as he one-timed a great feed from Fedor Svechkov past Maple Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll.
This goal was significant for Bunting, too, as it was his first since being acquired by the Predators from the Pittsburgh Penguins on March 5. The 29-year-old forward did not record a point in his first four games with the Predators, but he has now broken the ice with his great goal.
Bunting has shown throughout his career that he can provide solid offense when playing at his best. The 2014 fourth-round pick has two 23-goal seasons and memorably recorded 63 points in 79 games with the Maple Leafs in 2021-22. He also had 19 goals and 55 points in 81 games this past season split between the Carolina Hurricanes and Penguins. Thus, he has the potential to become a key part of Nashville's offense moving forward.
It will now be intriguing to see how Bunting builds off his strong performance for the Predators from here.
The Montreal Canadiens returned home for a Saturday night tilt at the Bell Centre against the Colorado Avalanche. The building was packed, and the fans were loud, mercilessly booing the American national anthem and going nuts early on for every big hit the Habs landed. Still, the visitors soon quieted them down with a pair of first-period goals.
Even though his goaltender Samuel Montembeault did not play very well in his last two games, Martin St-Louis decided to stick with his first netminder for Saturday night’s crucial match. Why? Because it’s not the time of the year to send messages, and because the Canadiens wouldn’t be where they are in the standings without him.
That’s fair, but it doesn’t have to be about sending a message. It’s possible to tell your goaltender you want him rested and not overworked for the final stretch and give him a night off riding the pine. That being said, the fact the Habs were down 2-0 after 20 minutes wasn’t on him.
The play was going just a bit too fast in the defensive zone for the David Savard-Arber Xhekaj pairing, and they finished the first frame with a minus-two rating.
Xhekaj Has Matured
However, early in the second frame, Xhekaj showed he had matured. Josh Anderson and Keaton Middleton were involved in a pushing-and-shoving game after the whistle while the Sherrif was on the ice. Not so long ago, he would have skated over and jumped in to say, “Not on my watch. " He would have gotten a third-man penalty in the process, but not Saturday night.
Instead, he skated away, and after the linesmen had separated the two men, he extended an invitation to fight to Middleton. I don’t know which words he used, but they were provocative, judging by how fast the Colorado player skated over. The two men dropped the gloves, and Xhekaj put his opponent down after both pugilists got to throw a few punches.
Just like that, the Bell Centre was reignited, and it might have been a turning point if the Canadiens hadn’t taken a too-many-men penalty less than two minutes later. Still, it resulted in the Habs playing a much better period, seeing more of the puck and dominating 10-7 in shots. Granted, the power plays helped, but Xhekaj still played a big part in the Canadiens getting back in the game.
There’s No Quit In This Team
As St-Louis explained, his team couldn’t execute early on, but they could stop the bleeding and improve from there. The execution got better as the game went on, and even though they were down 3-1 at the start of the third, they weren’t ready to “bend the knee.” The coach said:
I reminded the guys between the second and the third that we had scored five in the third against Ottawa, two in an empty net, but we had to get three in anyways, we scored two against the Islanders…We could have scored even more than three (in the third). We had our chances afterward as well.
-
Even after Colorado put in a fourth goal, the coach was impressed that his team didn’t let the game slip away from them. On his third line, St-Louis said:
Early on, Andy was…Andy was a wrecking ball, he just kept going. That line they just keep going, whatever the score is, I’m getting the same thing every shift, every night and they’re helping us out. Dvo’s goal tonight was a big goal.
- Martin St-Louis on his third line
I was very impressed with the Canadiens’ dominance in the faceoff department. Montreal won 57% of the draws, and it’s not like the Avalanche doesn’t have good centers. Nathan MacKinnon only won eight of his 24 faceoffs tonight, a 33% success rate. Throughout the season, he’s had a 49% success rate. Mike Matheson and Alexandre Carrier, who defended against Colorado’s top line, finished with a plus-two rating, which is quite impressive.
With an assist tonight, Brendan Gllagher caught up to Pierre Mondou in 28th place of the top scorers with the Canadiens, with 456. Alex Newhook played another good game, his speed really has an impact but he needs to find a finishing touch, thankfully, on his best opportunity, Joshua Roy was there to grab the rebound and score.
While two points would have been better, the Canadiens still skated away with a point after the 5-4 shootout loss, and it’s a big one. The Habs remain in the second wildcard spot, but they are a single point ahead of the New York Rangers, who won against the Vancouver Canucks. However, Montreal has two games in hand on New York. The Habs will have a day off on Sunday before heading to St. Louis on Monday since they have a date with the Blues on Tuesday.
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Their mission was clear the instant those giant buses whizzed past adoring thousands on downtown streets and emptied a group of tearful hugging players into a roaring Dodger Stadium for their first-ever November celebration.
One full-season World Series championship is just not enough.
Not for these kinds of players. Not for these heaps of money. Not for these sorts of fans.
It might not seem fair, and it’s certainly not much fun, but this Dodger dynasty cannot be considered a real dynasty unless they win it all again this season, becoming the first team in 25 years to capture consecutive titles.
It’s not very dramatic, it’s six months of grinding aimed at one month of glory, but there is no escaping it.
For the 2025 Dodgers, it’s a World Series championship or bust.
Last season’s title didn’t lift the pressure, it doubled it. If they really want to fully destroy the ghosts of postseason failures past, they simply have to make it two in a row.
“I do know that we're trying to do something that hasn't been done in 25 years, to go back-to-back, that's certainly in our calculus,” Manager Dave Roberts told reporters this spring, later adding, “It’s a motivator.”
It’s more than a motivator, it’s a must.
In most cities a championship buys a team at least one season of relaxed grace, but not with this team. In most cases a franchise can live with losing for two or three seasons after a title, but these Dodgers are different.
These Dodgers have won 11 division titles in 12 seasons. These Dodgers have a payroll of almost $402 million, some $75 million more than anyone else. These Dodgers should not just win. They should win, and win, and win.
Los Angeles knows dynasties and so far, this ain’t it.
These Dodgers are not yet in a class with Wooden’s Bruins, Pete’s Trojans, Showtime or the Kobe-Shaq Lakers. All were brash, dominant programs that won at least two consecutive championships while the rest of the world was at their necks.
The Dodgers haven’t done that yet. They haven’t become that yet. Considering the 2020 shortened-season title is discounted and last year’s title was their first full-season crown in 36 years, they need to add on.
And they know it. Roberts said he didn’t use the exact word “dynasty” in his annual speech on the first day of spring training, but he didn’t dance around it either.
“I do think that we're the epicenter of baseball,” he said. “I do think that we do a lot of things well, we have a lot of talented players. Our fans come out in droves. Our players understand that, like I said, there's a standard to uphold, and how we perform each day is important.”
The last baseball team to win consecutive titles was the three-peat New York Yankees from 1998-2000, and while they were memorable, these Dodgers can be better.
They can win it again. They should win it again. From ownership to the depths of the bullpen, they’ve done everything to put themselves in a position to win it again.
They ended the season as the best team in baseball by a fairly large margin, and guess what? With Mark Walter’s money and Andrew Friedman’s smarts, they got substantially better.
Then they capped it all off with a stunning signing of one of the best relievers in baseball, Shohei Ohtani’s nemesisTanner Scott, in a move that even surprised Roberts.
He thought they were finished buying. He was satisfied that they had greatly improved on greatness. And then…
“I just felt that we were tapped out…And we checked three boxes at that point in time, big boxes, so that would have been, like, good enough,” Roberts said. “So when I heard that Tanner Scott can still be in play, I was very surprised. And then when we acquired him, I was like, ‘I can’t believe that just happened.’ Because it would have still been a great offseason. A great offseason.”
It was indeed a great offseason, filled with several “I can’t believe that just happened” moments, manufactured by a front office that swings big and takes the extra base and works as hard as their hustling players.
“And I just think it speaks to ownership, and Andrew and the front office, how competitive they are, as our players are,” Roberts said. “And I just love the way they can put back into the players.”
Oh, the players. My, but they have the players.
This is not just the best and deepest roster in baseball. It might be one of the best and deepest rosters in baseball history. They're so loaded, they swept the Chicago Cubs in a two-game season-opening series in Tokyo without Mookie Betts or Freddie Freeman and without arguably their top two starting pitchers, Snell and Tyler Glasnow. They also used a different set of relievers each night.
Start, of course, with Ohtani, who could be the most complete player in baseball history. Next up, former MVP Betts. Then, regular season and World Series MVP Freeman. Follow with two 30-home run guys in Teoscar Hernández and Max Muncy, then two-time All-Star Will Smith, then NLCS MVP Tommy Edman, then former 30-home run guy Conforto.
The starting rotation is so deep that Ohtani isn’t being rushed to the mound after Tommy John surgery and might only make a dozen starts this year. And the two-time former Cy Young winner Snell is only the No. 2 starter, behind Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Then there’s the bullpen is so rich that last year’s World Series hero Treinen won’t even be the primary closer.
All this, and Roberts just cemented the credibility of his clubhouse culture with a contract extension that makes him the highest paid in baseball by annual salary.
Seriously, who is going to beat them? They could win a major-league record 120 games if they didn’t stress load management and spend the regular season gearing up for October. That’s what this summer is going to be, one long pregame stretch in preparation for the playoffs. They might “only” win 95 games, but you can bet they’ll be ready for that first round.
Or… not.
What if they suffer a World Series hangover? Remember the Rams’ Super Bowl hangover? What if that happens here?
Roberts says it won’t.
“I just think that we’re as good as anyone in baseball at putting the blinders on and getting better each day, with respect to expectations,” Roberts said. “And I think that managing high expectations that we have every year, I think our guys do a really good job of doing that, which as a byproduct guards against any type of letdown.”
But what if…
What if Ohtani gets distracted in his return to pitching and declines offensively? What if Betts wears down during his first full season at shortstop? What if Freeman suffers an understandable letdown after one of the greatest homers in Dodger history?
Teoscar Hernández earned his biggest guaranteed contract, and what if that robs him of his fire? Muncy struggled with injuries most of last season, what if his body will never be right?
What if Sasaki pitches like an unfocused kid and Snell loses his edge and relievers Scott and Yates crumble under the new pressure?
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, left, celebrates with manager Dave Roberts after scoring on a grand slam against the San Diego Padres in the NLDS on Oct. 8. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
When Dave Roberts addressed his full team for the first time this spring, he didn’t use the word dynasty.
On Feb. 15, during the opening week of Dodgers camp, the 10th-year manager did discuss the team’s World Series title, its expectations to repeat and the long road ahead to get there.
Roberts looked around a room — one that included the reigning National League and World Series most valuable players, two more former MVPs, two Cy Young Award winner who had combined to win the award five times, and a host of other All-Stars, big names and expensive free-agent acquisitions — and told the group they were at “the epicenter of baseball.”
But, even with the Dodgers trying to win their third championship in six years, the manager shied away from “dynasty” talk, taking a more narrowed focus that his players have echoed in the run-up to this season.
“You can’t look at what we’ve already done; you can’t look at what we’re trying to do,” veteran third baseman Max Muncy said. “We’re just focusing on what we can do at this moment.”
And in Roberts’ view, what the team needs to do is adopt a certain mindset.
“Be the hunter instead of the hunted,” Roberts said last week, as the club opened its season with a two-game sweep of the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo. “I think when you’re the Dodgers, there’s always a target. You can’t run from it.”
The stakes of this Dodgers season have been pretty clearly laid out.
Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki delivers against the Chicago Cubs at the Tokyo Dome on Wednesday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
They are trying to become Major League Baseball’s first repeat champion since the New York Yankees from 1998 to 2000, the last undisputed dynastic run by any big-league club in the sport. The Dodgers are trying not to squander a roster that boasts a nearly $400 million payroll, the highest in history for luxury tax purposes, and was bolstered by yet another big-money offseason from an Andrew Friedman-led front office and Guggenheim-funded ownership group.
They not only retained almost every important piece from last year’s title team, which claimed the organization’s first full-season championship since 1988, but they also went on a spending spree, adding two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell, Japanese pitching phenom in Roki Sasaki, the top reliever on the market in Tanner Scott, and more depth than many in the sport can remember seeing on one roster.
“Our ownership group is doing everything they can on their end to provide us with the best team every year,” Roberts said. “And it’s up to us on the field to kind of help them realize that vision.”
Friedman’s hope is that it all serves as a motivator in the clubhouse, as the team tries to do something that hasn’t happened in baseball since the advent of the luxury tax almost a quarter-century ago.
“Winning a championship is really hard. Winning back to back is even harder,” he said this spring. “A lot of the challenge is, I think it’s human nature that a lot of guys can get complacent after you win. So it was important to us this offseason to not have that set in.”
Seeing the Dodgers dominate yet another winter, and turn a talented-but-susceptible team into a seemingly foolproof (and, the team hopes, injury-proof) juggernaut, raised alarm bells around the sport about a growing competitive imbalance.
As a result the Dodgers have been cast as something of a villain. And as he tried to shape the their approach entering another 162-game grind, Roberts was happy to embrace the added scrutiny.
Dodgers right fielder Teoscar Hernández celebrates after hitting a home run against the Yomiuri Giants.
Dodgers teammates Kiké Hernandez and Tyler Glasnow smile after an exhibition game against the Hanshin Tigers.
Dodgers second baseman Tommy Edman bats against the Hanshin Tigers.
Dodgers pitcher Alex Vesia celebrates after a win over the Chicago Cubs.
Shohei Ohtani waves to fans as he leaves the field after a win over the Chicago Cubs at the Tokyo Dome.
Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times
“There’s an understanding with what we’ve done, who we are, that people are going to come at us with their best each night,” he said. “I think us being hunted or having a bull’s-eye, when you put on this uniform, that’s just the way it is.”
Roberts wants his players to feed off such pressure and match the sense of urgency they’ll likely face on a nightly basis.
“An analogy that I’ve used with our players is a mindset,” he said, referring back to the “be the hunter” message he has emphasized in recent weeks. “[We need to] flip it.”
The Dodgers still will need much to go right to wind up where they finished last year, when they celebrated the city’s first World Series parade since 1988 (the Dodgers’ 2020 title came during COVID and there was no parade).
In the starting rotation, Yamamoto and Glasnow are trying to avoid the injury problems that derailed their seasons last year. Ohtani, Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin are attempting to return to pitching after missing all of last year recovering from elbow surgeries. Sasaki might be the biggest wild card, possessing frontline-caliber stuff but little experience as he embarks on his MLB transition. And even Snell is searching for a bounce-back campaign, trying to turn the dominance he displayed during the second half of last year (when he lowered his earned-run average from 9.51 to 3.12 over the final three months) into a full campaign of Cy Young-caliber production.
The lineup faces its own questions, especially after Betts (who is transitioning back to shortstop on a full-time basis) and Freeman (who continues to battle the lingering effects of the ankle and rib injuries he played through last October) missed the team’s Tokyo games to begin the season.
“We didn’t win last year because we were talking about the World Series every day,” Betts said. “We won last year because we talked about the task at hand. I think we have to continue to talk about the task at hand and not worry about the end goal. We have an end goal, of course, but you have to take steppingstones to get there.”
The luxury for this year’s team is if things do go wrong, if players get hurt or fall short of personal expectations, the club’s sheer depth of talent should provide a sturdy safety net. The Dodgers should have the ability to endure unforeseen setbacks, clear unexpected hurdles and position themselves to cement their status as baseball’s next dynasty.
Dodgers players and manager Dave Roberts celebrate after beating the New York Yankees for the World Series title on Oct. 30. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
But for now, their focus is on the present, trying to turn a roster that looks almost flawless on paper into a dominant and unstoppable product on the field.
“I just think that we’re as good as anyone in baseball at putting the blinders on and getting better each day, with respect to expectations,” Roberts said. “Our guys do a really good job of doing that, which as a byproduct, guards against any type of letdown.”
