Invincible.
The word first came to mind Wednesday afternoon when the Dodgers held a news conference to introduce a nervous kid who has never played a minute in the major leagues.
Nearly 100 reporters still showed up to gawk at their greatness.
Invincible.
The word jumped out again when I queried co-owner Peter Guber, who was beaming in the front row as he watched his team celebrate the arrival of fireballing Roki Sasaki, the centerpiece of an offseason haul the likes of which has never been matched in sports.
Read more: Dodgers officially welcome Roki Sasaki, plan to ‘hit the ground running’ with pitcher
I asked Guber, who also co-owns the Golden State Warriors, the authors of that record 73-win season, if the Dodgers had the best roster of any team he had ever been around.
He answered yes.
”Yes, for sure, as good of a team as anybody has been around,” he said.
Invincible.
That’s the word I was thinking when I asked team CEO and co-owner Stan Kasten if this was the most impressive collection of players he has been involved with in his more than 40 years of sports management.
He said, quite possibly, yes.
“I don’t know. It’s up there for sure,” he said. “When you look at the different elements, when you look at offense, defense, starting pitching, relief pitching … it’s up there with anything I can remember, it really is.”
Seconded. Confirmed. Done. Why not say it because you know everybody’s thinking it, from those envious little brothers down in San Diego to the expensive embarrassments in New York.
In three short months, the Dodgers have gone from defending World Series champions to invincible.
They have spent money like they were desperate. They have acquired stars like they were barren. They have acted like a third-place team that is finally making a serious push to end a decades-long drought.
Read more: ‘They all wanted him here.’ How Shohei Ohtani, other Dodgers helped recruit Roki Sasaki
Except they’re not desperate, they don’t need stars, and they’re mere weeks from passing out rings.
Has any defending champion ever acted less like a defending champion?
They acquired a two-time Cy Young award winner even though he won’t even be their best pitcher. They didn’t need Blake Snell. They got him anyway.
They re-signed an aging outfielder mostly because he was an October hero and the fans demanded it. They could have survived without Teoscar Hernández. They brought him back anyway.
They found the one pitcher who can shut down Shohei Ohtani and, just for grins, put him on Ohtani’s team. They didn’t need Tanner Scott. They got him anyway.
And then came Wednesday, when they officially partnered with the lanky 100-mph Japanese phenom that the entire league coveted. They truly didn’t need Sasaki. They won him over anyway.
It’s amazing what a Los Angeles ownership group will do if they are continually intent on honoring the trust of its city.
“It’s a results business, and we understand that,” said Andrew Friedman, team president of baseball operations. “And so for us, it’s about continuing to get better, hopefully with seismic leaps.”
A seismic leap, all right. From great to otherworldly. From superstars to aliens.
Invincible.
You laugh. You scoff. You tell me.
Who’s going to beat them? In a lopsided sport where two-thirds of the teams aren’t actively trying to win and most of the other ones aren’t smart enough to win, the Dodgers have moved far and away beyond everybody.
The Padres can beat them? Not anymore. The New York Mets and Juan Soto can tame them? The Dodgers beat both last October.
The New York Yankees? Maybe if they remember to cover first base. The Cleveland Guardians? Who?
And don’t come in here with smack about how the Dodgers can collapse in a five-game divisional series because they’ve done it twice before. Nope, that’s not happening again, because as Kiké Hernández so obscenely described, in addition to all their stars, they’ve got a chip.
After this winter the Dodgers have everything, more than they’ve ever had, maybe more than any team ever.
Look at their rotation. They essentially added three pitchers this winter with the return of Ohtani to the mound. There’s Snell and Sasaki. Throw in Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. That’s potentially five aces, and that’s not even counting their forgotten Hall of Famer. Clayton Kershaw will come back to get his 3,000th strikeout — he’s 32 short — but he might not be needed for much more.
Now look at their bullpen. They brought back their best closer, Blake Treinen, and then acquired Scott in the most underrated great move of the offseason. Scott struck out Ohtani all four times he faced him in the playoffs. You know the old saying … if you can’t beat him, give him $72 million.
As for the lineup, they have one of the game’s best catchers, a World Series MVP first baseman, an infield featuring a former MVP outfielder, and a third baseman who went 36-105 in homers and RBIs just two years ago.
Read more: How the Dodgers benefit from salary deferrals and signing bonuses to build their roster
The outfield features Teoscar Hernández in left, National League Championship Series MVP Tommy Edman in center and professional hitter Michael Conforto, new to the team, in right.
And oh yeah, Ohtani is the designated hitter, and now you’re feeling that word, too.
Think about how the whole thing is run by statistically the best manager in baseball history — Dave Roberts — and the word becomes a reality that begats a question.
Who can beat them?
This is the only thing for which Team Invincible has no answer.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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