How Dodgers Were an Organizational Failure & Why They Failed in the Postseason
It’s been about a week-and-a-half since the Dodgers disappointing NLDS exit in the 2022 postseason. Fans are probably somewhere in the middle of their seven stages of grief, as they’re hopefully getting on their way to moving forward and looking ahead to the offseason.
However, before we can fully look to the offseason, it’s important to understand where the team went wrong in 2022, so they can fix those issues ahead of the 2023 season.
So the experts here at Dodgers Nation gave their takes on the “organizational failure” that was the 2022 season, and where they need to improve in 2023.
The Dodgers will definitely need to look at their postseason approach before next year. They’ll need to figure out the perfect formula for winning in October, because, outside of 2020, they’ve been unable to do that during this dominant stretch of regular season baseball.
Who do you blame most for the Dodgers’ early exit in the postseason? And what changes would you make to the team to get them back to the World Series in 2023? Let us know in the comments below!
Have you subscribed to our YouTube Channel yet? Subscribe and hit that notification bell to stay up to date on all the latest Dodgers news, rumors, interviews, live streams, and more!
Dave Roberts is to blame for bad pitching decisions in the NLDS. The front office is to blame for failing to re-sign Manny Machado, Kenley Jansen and failing to sign Blake Harper and Realmuto, whose hitting would have kept the Dodgers alive in the postseason. Trading for joey Gallo and Craig Kimbrell were front office failures!
Quit the post season hype! Go 87 and 75 next season and enjoy it… Burn through the rotation for the W every time. Bring up fresh arms to relieve them if they can’t give more than 80 pitches over 5 innings. Bring up some of that home-grown talent in the farm system. Quit wasting money and prospects on the likes of Yu Darvish, Manny Machado, Max Scherzer, and the likes… Play every postseason game like an elimination game.
It’s time to move on from Cody Bellinger, Justin Turner, Trea Turner,Joey Gallo, and Trayce Thompson…Cody refuses to adjust his batting approach, Justin has been awesome but father time is creepin up on him, Trea is not a post season threat, Joey is too much of an offensive rehab project, and Trayce tried hard and had some success, but he needs to be a big fish in a smaller pond, he’s not ready for the Prime Time Dodgers….and Chris Taylor has become “suspect”, great defense, but a horrible uppercut swing for a rightie…the Dodgers need players that play like their hairs on fire instead of another day at the office…bring up Outman and Vargas and some other hot young prospects that can light a fire under the veterans asses like Tatis did for Manny, who is now the leader of the Padres and a MVP candidate…we need the FIRE!!!!!
Exactly! I said the same thing’s the day after their choke to the Padres. All the guys you mentioned have got to go, including the hitting coaches, game planner or coordinator, and offensive strategist. Burned out in 2021, had to be stressed to the last day because of a few mis- managed games—-then got complacent in 2022 because of days off and arrogance. Game rules will be changing in 2023, and need to shake it up to make the necessary changes to the same old same old thinking.
Trea is not a post season threat? He was one of the only ones to hit. We need Trea who is a top notch short stop after loosing Seager. We are NOT signing Carlos the cheater, and Swanson though good not Trea. Justin and Trayce, totally agree on both. Oatman permanently leave in left. Vargus should stay up. Get rid of Lux, who’s defense is crap and is an ok hitter. Then sign pitching and make a decision on Cody. Done. Lol
Absolutely Dave Roberts fault at this point, never has a man done so little with so much. Clayton, JT, even Kenley should have two hands worth of championship rings at this point, they deserve better and we as fans do too. We do our job, we support the team in every way and the proof is in the attendance every year where we lead every other team. I’d give some of the blame to Andrew Friedman as well mostly because he’s a bit reactionary like after failing to resign Kike he overspent on CT3 because he was afraid of losing another glue guy when he should have done the opposite and signed Kike and let Taylor walk.
Go with the best prospects and rookies; Vargas, Outman, Pepiot, etc. We need a new and younger team out there.
Stop swinging for the fence on every pitch. Make more contact and strike out less.
Stop swinging for the fence on every pitch. Make more contact and strike out less. Shake up the team with a new manager and hitting coaches.
Hindsight is an easy way to blame, but in this case it isn’t hindsight. This was observable and predictable before and during the play-offs. My 27 year old daughter couldn’t believe Roberts was taking out a hot pitcher in Anderson after 5 innings. Or Freidman making excuses for the decision, let alone the other factors involved in the meltdown. Betts doing his thing as he did by not making contact with timely hitting with runners on base when runs were desperately needed, as has been a pattern with him. For $350 million, the expectation is there for that sort of thing, don’t you think? The list could go on, but you get the point. And it appears the front office isn’t in any hurry to reflect on what went wrong. For example, they seem satisfied to allow for Roberts making such a bad decision in his thinking about his pitching strategy that it makes one wonder if Freidman wasn’t the one making the call, even though Friedman denies it. Plausible deniability here? I could go on but why. It’s plain for all to see.
Roberts lost the momentum by taking key players out of their roles to rest them. I believe it caused a physical and mental distraction. When ware on a roll keep rolling like you have everything to lose!
It seems that in most years (not every year, but most) the Dodgers go into the post-season with the most HR in the NL, or, at least close to the top. They absolutely refuse to adjust their approach at the plate and flail at off-speed pitches as they look to launch long homeruns like they did all season. The old “make contact” and “go with the pitch” is not something they ever seem to adjust to when post-season spotlight is on. So, another year of pining for what might have been, an outcome that was within their ability and their reach if they could only adjust their attitude and play some “small ball.”