Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers continued to carry specialists and three catchers for their 2025 NLDS roster, but now with a seven-game series for the 2025 NLCS against the Brewers ahead — plus without awkward rest days — it seems like they’re going to have to go more traditional by carrying more pitching than before. That’s where the intrigue with this roster will take place. Though much like last time, the more entertaining point of discussion is how to align the rotation.
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Here’s a prediction as to how the Dodgers’ roster could look for the seven-game NLCS.
Catchers (2)
Infielders (4)
Freddie Freeman
Mookie Betts
Max Muncy
Miguel Rojas
Outfielders (4)
Andy Pages
Teoscar Hernandez
Alex Call
Justin Dean
Utility (3)
Tommy Edman
Enrique Hernandez
Hyeseong Kim
Unicorn (1)
The health of Will Smith was still in question last series, so the Dodgers continued to carry three catchers, but now that Dills is back starting it makes sense to drop one of them. The most likely candidate is Dalton Rushing given that Ben Rortvedt started over him.
Dave Roberts suggests the Dodgers' roster for the NLCS is "going to look a little bit different."
— Dodger Blue (@DodgerBlue1958) October 11, 2025
Among the likely changes is adding one more pitcher to replace a position player.
I’ve been wrong twice now that the Dodgers wouldn’t carry one specialist or another, but it seems they feel like there’s value at the margins in having both Dean and Kim available for defense and running, at least over another pen arm that they don’t trust anyway. It’s still possible they leave one or the other off for an extra arm, but chalk makes sense for now.
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Starters (4)
Blake Snell
Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Shohei Ohtani
Tyler Glasnow
Bullpen (9)
Blake Treinen
Alex Vesia
Jack Dreyer
Anthony Banda
Emmet Sheehan
Roki Sasaki
Justin Wrobleski
Clayton Kershaw
Ben Casparius
The rotation is basically set with those four, but how to deploy them is the big debate now.
Dave Roberts believes Dodgers will be fine with 4 starting pitchers in the NLCS despite fewer off days and Ohtani and Yamamoto typically needing extra rest.
— Dodger Blue (@DodgerBlue1958) October 11, 2025
Going into Game 1 on Monday, the rest status is Snell at six days, Ohtani at eight days, Yamamoto at four days, and Glasnow at three days.
Due to the scheduling returning to a normal sequence of a two games, rest day, three games, rest day, two games schedule, if you don’t want to use five starters then the only option is to start Snell in Game 1 since he can go in Game 5 as well. He has not started on four days rest all year, but they’d have to if they want to use only four starters. Once that is set, there are two primary alignments they can consider, depending on where Ohtani is at.
Two Shohei Starts:
Snell (6 Days Rest)
Ohtani (9 Days Rest)
Yamamoto (7 Days Rest)
Glasnow (7 Days Rest)
Snell (4 Days Rest)
Ohtani (5 Days Rest)
Kitchen Sink (Yamamoto Bulk)
One Shohei Start:
Snell (6 Days Rest)
Yamamoto (5 Days Rest)
Ohtani (10 Days Rest)
Glasnow (7 Days Rest)
Snell (4 Days Rest)
Yamamoto (5 Days Rest)
Kitchen Sink (Ohtani Bulk)
There’s no bad choice here, as you either get two starts from Ohtani — who finished pitching like one of the best in the league — or Yamamoto — who was one of the best in the league all year. The biggest reason to go with the second option is that in a Game 7 scenario, Shohei likely is more comfortable relieving, which he wouldn’t be able to do if he started Game 6, and I don’t think there’s a huge gap (if any) between him and Yamamoto as starters. It also really only matters if it goes to Game 7, which will be chaotic either way. Alternatively, they could push Ohtani even further back to Game 4, so Glasnow could start a Game 7 on regular rest. Though I’m not sure how much it might matter given the chaotic nature of those games.
For the pen, this is where the big roster decision will take place. With Tanner Scott out and Justin Wrobleski in, who else the Dodgers add is the mystery. It’s likely between Will Klein, Edgardo Henriquez, and Ben Casparius for the last spot. The Brewers aren’t platoon heavy in their lineup, so just take your best, and if Henriquez has blown his shot, it would seem like Casparius is the best remaining option due to his experience and that they were willing to leave Klein off so late in the year. Should be interesting.
Personally, I’d probably give Klein a shot as well over one of the specialists, but it seems they’ll stick with 12 pitchers plus the unicorn.
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Vs. RHP
Ohtani DH
Betts SS
Freeman 1B
Smith C
Muncy 3B
T. Hernandez RF
Edman 2B
E. Hernandez LF
Pages CF
Vs. LHP
Ohtani DH
Betts SS
Hernandez RF
Freeman 1B
Smith C
Edman 2B
Call LF
E. Hernandez 3B
Pages CF
Not sure if they have enough confidence in Smith’s health to bat him high up against righties, so it could be Teoscar instead, but that’s basically what they did when Smith and Muncy were healthy during the regular season. Does Teoscar continuing to hit in the playoffs make a difference in trust like Enrique has earned a starting role? Maybe.
Against lefties, Call has seemingly earned the trust of Dave Roberts, though it’s possible Miguel Rojas may find some playing time if he’s healthy. They already considered hitting him for Pages in the NLDS, so Miggy could play third and Enrique would shift to center assuming Tommy’s ankle is still shaky.
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The Phillies were an extremely tough out, as their pitching kept the Dodger bats very quiet, and they relied heavily on their starting rotation excellence, Roki Sasaki, and timely big blows to take the series in four games. For a longer series against the team with the best record in baseball, they’ll surely need more of their pen to step up, which likely means their lineup will have to come alive to have a chance — especially their lefties in Ohtani, Freeman, and Muncy. Their best chance to take games will likely be to get the Brewers starters early before it gets to their leverage pen arms, and hopefully through doing that they can reverse that 0-6 regular season record against them.
