The big, bad Dodgers have looked awfully beatable lately.
They lost seven in a row to start this month. Over the weekend, they lost three of four to the Brewers at home. And this week, they swept the Rockies, but they didn’t make it look as easy as sweeping the Rockies should be for the two-time defending champions.
So what’s up with this juggernaut? And what could stand in the way of a third straight World Series title for L.A.?
On the latest episode of “Baseball Bar-B-Cast,” Yahoo Sports’ Jake Mintz and Katie Woo of The Athletic discussed what has been ailing the Dodgers and why they might not three-peat.
The Dodgers’ closer, after another string of rough outings, went back on the injured list this week due to a neck injury.
How much of this is physical, and how much of it is mental? Woo believes it’s more of the latter and noted that the team does not view Diaz’s injury as serious.
“Any time a team is so vague with an injury, you’re like, ‘OK, they just want to get their hands on this guy and get him right,'” she said. “And can you blame them? Diaz has been essentially unusable in the ninth since coming back from that elbow surgery at the end of July.”
Now Diaz will have another stint on the IL with hopes of getting him back on track before the playoffs, when the Dodgers, who have a significant lead in the NL West, actually need him.
“We’re going to need him in October, so he needs to get right in August,” Woo said of the team’s mindset.
Mintz invoked the Cancun clause, his proposal that once per season, each team should be allowed to send one player on a vacation to reset his mind.
“Maybe the neck injury for Edwin Diaz is [from] all the times he’s had to hang his head over the last couple weeks,” Mintz quipped.
Tucker joined the Dodgers this past winter on a four-year, $240 million deal, and so far, he has been a disappointment in L.A.
He has a 93 OPS+ and 11 home runs on the season. He went 0-for-19 in the Dodgers’ recent home stand, got benched by manager Dave Roberts and dropped a fly ball on Monday against the Rockies. He is making mental mistakes and appears to be lacking confidence, according to the hosts.
“He is not right. This is the worst season Kyle Tucker has had in his career. He’s hitting under .200 at Dodger Stadium on the season,” Woo said. “But … [the Dodgers] have the ability to keep running him out there to make sure he gets right because this is kind of their … extended spring training.”
Aside from that recent benching, the Dodgers are continuing to put Tucker in the lineup in hopes of giving him the reps to find his stride. They have the luxury of “hiding” him somewhat in a lineup full of MVPs. That said, if Tucker doesn’t get back on track by the end of September, Woo said she can envision a scenario in which he isn’t one of their best nine players to put on the lineup card in October.
“They say the only way to figure out how to hit big-league pitching is to face big-league pitching, and I do think there is an element of that at play with Kyle Tucker,” Mintz said.
Age and fatigue
If the Dodgers end up losing in October, what will be the reason? Mintz asked.
“Age and fatigue,” Woo answered. “This team is tired, and they aren’t the youngest roster in the league by far.” She noted that the Dodgers have put an emphasis on earning a first-round playoff bye in part to mitigate the workload for their key players.
“When you look at the overall offensive plights of guys like Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernandez, age is definitely playing into it,” she added of the team’s collective offensive struggles.
Indeed, L.A. has only two every-day players under the age of 30: Kyle Tucker, 29, and Andy Pages, 25. Among playoff contenders, only the Phillies have a similarly aged roster.
The road to the end of the World Series is very long, and yes, the Dodgers navigated it last year, but they’re another year older and that much more tired this time around.
“The Dodgers, having played deep into October the past two seasons, there is a chance that all of that baseball adds up and gets to them,” Mintz said.
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