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Freddie Freeman, Tommy Edman, Mookie Betts and Max Muncy in the infield.
Will Smith at catcher.
Kyle Tucker, Andy Pages and Teoscar Hernández in the outfield.
Shohei Ohtani at designated hitter.
Meet the probable 2027 Dodgers – the same team as the 2026 Dodgers.
Just older.
And probably without Tarik Skubal in the starting rotation.
The Dodgers know they have an aging roster. They know they have to incorporate younger players into their lineup before too many of their cornerstones become too old to remain competitive.
The problem is clear. The answer isn’t as obvious.
The team is too good to blow up, but also too old to keep together and expect next season to end any differently than this one.
The Dodgers were the oldest team in baseball this year, and they could be even older next year. Depending on when next season starts – owners are expected to lock out the players on Dec. 1 and the work stoppage could extend into the season – the Dodgers could field an opening-day lineup in which every one of their players outside of Tucker and Pages are 32 or older.
Freeman will be 37, Muncy 36, Betts and Hernández 34.
So much for a youth movement.
On the surface, this might seem like an easily-solvable equation.
The Dodgers’ farm system has a number of high-level prospects, headed by 21-year–old outfielder Josue De Paula, who was called up to the major leagues in September and made the playoff roster as a pinch hitter.
In practice, the situation is more complicated.
The Dodgers could address their long-term concerns by replacing their aging players with prospects, but they can’t do that without compromising their short-term goal of returning to the World Series.
“We’ve talked about the challenge of a team with our expectations, of how to phase in young players,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “It’s really difficult because you can’t phase in three guys (and) expect them to hit the ground running.”
There are no guarantees with prospects.
As talented as De Paula is as a hitter, what if the Dodgers open a place for him in their outfield by Hernández only to learn his defensive shortcomings outweigh his offensive production?
Eduardo Quintero, Mike Sirota and James Tibbs III have shown great promise in the minor leagues, but that doesn’t always translate to success in the major leagues. Who remembers Gavin Lux?
Then again, if the Dodgers wait too long to offer these players chances to break into the team, they could find themselves a couple of years with more rookies in their lineup than they would like. The contracts of Freeman, Muncy, Hernández and Tyler Glasnow aren’t guaranteed beyond the upcoming season.
While the Dodgers season ended with them being swept by the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series, they were still the second-best team in the major leagues.
They won’t revamp their roster for the sake of revamping it.
“If we started the season tomorrow,” Friedman said, “we feel really good about the roster and team that we have.”
The last major overhaul of the Dodgers transformed them from a team built around Corey Seager, Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger to one with Ohtani, Freeman and Betts as their centerpieces. The process didn’t happen overnight.
Before the 2020 season, the Boston Red Sox were looking to move Betts, who was in his walk year. The Dodgers pounced, picking up Betts in a bargain and signing him to a 12-year extension.
Following the 2021 season, the Dodgers lost Seager, who signed with the Texas Rangers as a free agent. They found a left-handed-hitting replacement for him in Freeman, who was out of contract with the Atlanta Braves.
The next winter was marked by the departures of Turner and Bellinger. Ohtani signed with the Dodgers a year later.
The upcoming transition won’t be as seamless, particularly with the free-agent market being barren of elite hitters.
The Dodgers don’t have as much financial flexibility as they had back then, as they now have a number of long-term contracts on their books. Anticipated changes in the collective-bargaining agreement can lead to greater restrictions on how much they can spend on players.
Their best way out of this predicament would be to trade for players in the primes of their careers – say, Elly De La Cruz of Cincinnati Reds, or CJ Abrams or James Wood of the Washington Nationals. Players like that would inject youth into the lineup but wouldn’t require on-the-job training.
Of course, the cost for a player such as De La Cruz or Abrams would be prohibitive. Whether their teams would even be open to trading them will almost certainly depend on the details on the next labor agreement.
The Dodgers won’t really know what they’re dealing with until the next CBA is ratified. Their roster makeover will have to wait until then.
They can do so with the knowledge they still have one of the better teams in baseball – but also with the fear of that not being enough to satisfy their demanding fan base.