This Dodgers slump feels worse than past years because it is

“We’re not panicking” has practically become a mantra of the Dodgers during this era when questioned about any poor run of play that has media, fans, and lowly bloggers hitting the panic button. The apparent apathy or nonchalance about it has thus always been a point of contention and discourse online to differing extents.

But quite frankly, when you think about it, why wouldn’t the Dodgers have that attitude?

After all, they’re a veteran team laden with Hall Of Famers and All-Stars, they clearly know what it takes to win, and also how to manage their emotional highs and lows. Most importantly, they’ve simply backed it up in the past by winning, and nothing validates methods more than that. While people want Dave Roberts and the players to rant and rave, their attitude has kept them resilient amid adversity. As the aforementioned groups around the Dodgers all but gave up hope, they dug themselves out of huge holes through the years by keeping their composure and continuing to push forward.

As this latest skid in 2026 has led to increasing concern, perhaps the most cited rebuttal has been what this group has done the last two years, with emphasis on the state they were in last year. Understandable, and I’ve cited it frequently myself, because the timing of both the losing record and the offensive lull makes it is eerily similar. That said, as the weeks have gone on, it’s felt less of valid fallback and more of a way to cope.

And if the offensive slump feels worse than last year, well that’s because it is.

In summary, they did slump a bit in 2024, tailing off for July when they had a losing record (11-13) before punching the gas in August (19-8) and getting serious in September (16-10). But in July they missed Max Muncy (also missed half of August) and Mookie Betts, which almost made their slide downward rather predictable, and they mostly performed well to get it done in the playoffs (11-5).

2025 is the most similar to this slide, and they actually bottomed out offensively worse than this year’s team has. A brutal July (10-14) was followed by gradual improvement in August (15-13) before they finally started hitting in September (15-10). As for context, again Muncy missed all of July (and half of August), but that was mostly it and they made their September resurgence without Will Smith. Unlike 2024, it seemed like more of a legit team slump, and one hopeful note is they arguably didn’t hit rock bottom until they lost five straight to start September (even if that was pen related) before rebounding and going on to play a suffocatingly close World Series but overall going 13-4 in the playoffs.

So why be concerned this year? They’ll just kick it into gear down the stretch anyway, right? Well, maybe, but there’s definitely been some red flags that weren’t around before.

When you look at 2026, it stands out that literally everything is trending down. They were worse for the month of July last year, but they showed signs of improvement in August, whereas this year’s team has sunk to lower depths, barely posting a winning July (13-11) and struggling to a losing record in August (13-14). Context doesn’t help much either, as Will missed July and August, but Dalton Rushing was filling in admirably before he also went down in August. They missed at least equally (and probably more) important offensive pieces in previous years and didn’t sink to these levels, and now going into September and beyond, the health of Smith, Rushing, Andy Pages, and even Shohei Ohtani is in doubt. These are simply much bigger obstacles to overcome down the stretch than in the past.

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Before the game on August 10, Dave pressed his team for urgency, essentially trying to flip the switch at that point. It’s worked in the record book to some extent, as they’ve been 12-7 since then, but they’ve also gone 1-6 against the other NL division leaders. More to the point, the switch was largely about the offense and they haven’t responded, totaling a 93 wRC+ since, good for just 18th in baseball. Basically, he’s tried to get them to start the engine up and it’s sputtered in response. They have also yet to resolve issues with hitting the fastball that were acknowledged by Roberts, and the attempt to replace (or survive without) Pages has looked pretty rough so far.

All of that is just to say you’re right to feel like things are more dire than last year. It’s simply a worse offensive slump, they’re collectively a year older, and their “star” veteran in his prime years has been one of their biggest problems. It’s hard not to start feeling like this might be the year things don’t turn around in the end.

Then again, the fact that the slump has gone on for longer this year doesn’t mean anything in itself. September could see potential reinforcements arrive, and it’s not hard to envision a serious uptick in production if the main cogs get going and they start getting progressively healthier. And while Pages is probably out until the playoffs, Smith did the same last year and that ended pretty well. So we could indeed end up looking back at all of this worrying as pointless dooming once again, and that’s the hope, but to get there they’ll definitely have to dig themselves out of their biggest hole yet.