The Dodgers are on the outside looking in to see how the fates of three remaining teams in the postseason play out. While the 2026 World Series gets underway, the Dodgers will now be focusing on how they will operate either before or after the impending lockout.
Nine players that were on the 2026 team will be reaching free agency; the biggest name of the bunch being left-hander Tarik Skubal. One of the biggest questions surrounding the Dodgers’ offseason will be whether or not they bring him back in the fold, and what price they’ll have to pay to retain his services. Sonja Chen of MLB.com lists the questions the Dodgers will have to answer, including Skubal’s future with the team.
The Dodgers parted with two Top 100 prospects — MLB-ready starter River Ryan and outfielder Zyhir Hope — in addition to right-hander Brady Smith in exchange for up to three months of Skubal. They weren’t the only team willing to spend big on a talent of Skubal’s caliber, and the same will be true when he hits the open market for the first time.
Although the Dodgers were unsuccessful in their hopes for a three peat, both Skubal and Blake Snell still believe that their championship window is still wide open, notes Maddie Lee of the Los Angeles Times.
“I don’t feel that at all,” Skubal said. “It’s hard to win the World Series, and this group has done it the last two seasons. Obviously, not this year, but … I think that this group is incredibly talented. And the preparation and the work ethic that this group has — I don’t buy into that narrative.”
Said Snell: “We’re only getting better.”
Jack Harris of the California Post gives Shohei Ohtani an “F” grade as a part of his end-of-season report card, with his turbulent second half and postseason derailing what looked to be another MVP-caliber season.
To be clear: The two-way star was the second-best player in the National League this year, hitting 30 home runs and posting a sub-2.00 ERA in 14 starts on the mound. Even in a relatively down year for him, he finished fifth in the majors in FanGraphs’ version of wins above replacement. He remains, undoubtedly, MLB’s foremost star player and the Dodgers’ most potent weapon.
But that is why the way his season finished was such a failure.
Miguel Rojas will no longer take the field in a Major League Baseball game, and he took the time to appreciate all of his teammates following their NLCS Game 4 defeat to the Milwaukee Brewers, per Cary Osborne of Dodger Insider.
“They changed my life,” Rojas later said, his eyes still pink from his speech to his teammates. “I truly and honestly say that from the bottom of my heart. The last couple years here for me, it’s been the most amazing time of my life in baseball, and I grew so much with this group. I grew as a man, as a father, as a player, as a leader, as a teammate. And I just wanted to say thank you to every person here in this organization for giving me the opportunity to be myself and to kind of help change the culture of this club.”