The Los Angeles Dodgers are entering a season when a three-peat is more than possible, though it will require another long 162-game stretch, plus the playoffs.
The Dodgers are facing the possibility of playing another 22 games on top of the regular season, and with an aging roster that has multiple veterans in their mid-30s, manager Dave Roberts will have a tough balancing act on his hands.
During 2025, Los Angeles dealt with a run of injuries in the middle of the season, losing multiple starters from the rotation early on, and then suffering a similar crisis in the infield.
The Dodgers’ depth was stretched quite thin over the year, though there were questions about whether the team was managing the pitchers’ load by exaggerating injuries.
Roberts, who had to deal with all of the headaches in the middle of the season from the key pitchers missing time, got angry about the accusation, per Bill Punkett of The Orange County Register.
“You don’t think we’d want Snell to open the season right now? It’s so not true,” Roberts said. “We don’t like not having our starters pitch.”
Andrew Friedman responds to the pitching accusation
With the Dodgers investing serious money in their roster — prompting an entirely different discussion about a possible salary cap — there are people who believe their depth allows them to put the regular season on the back burner.
However, Friedman rejected the idea that, in terms of pitching, they keep injury-prone pitchers on the shelf longer to make sure they are ready for October.
“That is a misperception,” Friedman said. “I think people assume that we have a plan of when such-and-such pitcher is going to miss time. It’s going to be this month, and this pitcher is going to miss time the next month,” Friedman said.
“There are obviously fatigue injuries, and there are acute injuries. Acute injuries are hard to do much about.
“But with fatigue-based injuries we can at least be on top of more with communication with the pitcher, tracking things closely to do everything we can to get them to pitch as many games as they can in ’26 and also be in the best position to help us win a World Series if we’re fortunate enough to qualify for the playoffs.”
Even if the Dodgers can be more careful with their players, the organization stands firm in its commitment to having them play as much as possible, within reason, no matter their track record.
