In a year that was seen as a remodel type of year where they didn’t re-sign star players, the Dodgers weren’t expected to be good coming into the 2023 season.
The front office of the Dodgers opted to keep things cheap rather than sign star players which many fans have been accustomed to because they wanted to go all in for Shohei Ohtani who is a free agent the following season.
Keeping things on the cheaper end rather than trying to find formidable talent that could take them deep into October hurt them in the long run, at least in the starting pitching department.
The Dodgers coming into the season had a questionable starting rotation but things took a turn for the worse.
Julio Urias found himself in legal trouble, Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin got hurt and were out the rest of the year and Noah Syndergaard didn’t pan out like the Dodgers hoped.
The Dodgers were left to rely on rookie starters from their minor league system, Clayton Kershaw and Lance Lynn whom they acquired via trade with the White Sox.
The offense was never an issue throughout the season, it was also the pitching, but as soon as Game One of the National League Division Series started against the Arizona Diamondbacks it was clear the offense and pitching were both problems.
Because the Dodgers didn’t sign or trade for any good or reliable starters the starting rotation for LA going into the NLDS was very questionable and within the three-game series that notion proved right.
Kershaw started the first game and could only get one out before getting taken out and pitching only 0.1 innings and giving up six runs.
In the second game Bobby Miller pitched the second and only went 1.2 innings and gave up three runs.
I’m the final game Lynn pitched only 2.2 innings the most of the three starters and gave up four runs.
In what seemed like the blink of an eye, the Dodgers just like that were eliminated and swept by the D-backs.
The pitching wasn’t the only department to blame because the offense was just as horrendous as the starting.
No one was able to get their act together and get clutch hits when the opportunities presented themselves which cost the Dodgers big time.
Kiké Hernandez and Will Smith were the only two players who were consistent in the short three-game series.
Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers’ best two players who are getting paid $527 million combined, went 1-21 in the NLDS.
When you are getting paid that much and people know how good both players are, you are expected to do a far better job than what they did.
It’s a damn shame that the fans every year come and support the team even with its outrageous prices in certain areas like parking only for them to end the same way every year.
The excitement for most fans has fizzled and faded because we expect the same results at the end of the year and that is for the Dodgers to get eliminated early in the playoffs and repeat the same thing the following year.
In an alternate universe where the Dodgers m signed good starters and the offense woke up, maybe they would be playing a game four on Oct. 12 rather than preparing for the offseason.
Unless the Dodgers sign Shohei Ohtani, it’s very reasonable for us fans to call on the Dodgers to bring down the prices on tickets, parking and concessions after putting a losing product onto the field every postseason.
