Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Come for Andrew Friedman righteously venting on narratives developed after the Dodgers lost in the NLCS to the Brewers, stay for Blake Snell getting pranked good as hell.
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Bill Plunkett: Surprised this exchange with Friedman didn’t get more coverage, as he gave a rather shockingly honest answer as to whether the Dodgers can learn anything from the Brewers winning and the offensive approach they took.
“No. I think every year there’s a narrative that forms around the team that wins. They’re a really good team that was playing really good baseball at the right time. Obviously, to win a World Series you have to have really good players. So I’ve learned that having really good players is really helpful in winning a World Series. I think there are really lazy narratives that are formed when teams win. It’s ‘Oh, you have to do this.’ This year there was a lot of talk about the Brewers making contact. Well, we made more contact than they did in the NLCS. People don’t like that when it goes against their argument. It’s never as simple as being able to learn something that you can then directly apply. I think the most important thing is to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your roster and then to lean into the strengths as much as you can. That’s my takeaway.“
Hard to argue with that, IMO.
I personally may have found it more intriguing than most because when you take a deeper look at the approach of the Brewers, the Dodgers do in fact already have a lot of similarities with them. Fans act otherwise, but it’s true. Sometimes you just get outplayed even if the gap wasn’t actually as big as it turned out. Happened to the Brewers in 2025 and it was the Dodgers turn in 2026.
California Post: Josue De Paula being able to play the field could be one of the most important things for the Dodgers in 2027, so it’ll be a constant storyline. While really nothing new is said in this article, it just reinforces that everybody is aware of the task ahead.
“We’re going to keep working at it and come back better,” said De Paula, who is widely considered a liability as a corner outfielder.
When the Dodgers were eliminated by the Brewers in the National League Championship Series, De Paula said he would return to his native New York, then spend time at a training center in Miami run by his agent, Scott Boras.
“The focus is on him adapting to an outfield position,” Boras said.
Working with De Paula will be former major league outfielder Alex Ochoa, who now runs Boras’ Miami facility. A defensive standout as a player, Ochoa was a World Series champion with the Angels in 2002. He also played in Japan.
Boras said he also expects former Red Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. to assist De Paula. Bradley won a Gold Glove in 2018.
Given that I haven’t heard anything negative about his makeup, I really love seeing him take these critiques personally, not unlike how he sees plate appearances as a battle with the pitcher. The general acknowledgement of the deficiency and framing it as a challenge to conquer really fills one with borderline delusional optimism even if there’s admittedly a long way to go by all accounts.
Dodgers Beat: At the recent GM meetings, Brandon Gomes talked more about Miguel Rojas‘ role with the team.
Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes has a nickname for Miguel Rojas in retirement: “super specialist.” The official title is still being worked out, but Rojas has already started working with players.
Asked at the GM Meetings whether Rojas had a formal title, Gomes joked about the possibilities before saying the Dodgers hadn’t settled on one. What impressed him was how quickly Rojas threw himself into working with the group in the Arizona Fall League after finishing his playing career.
Dude retired, immediately showed up at the Arizona Fall League to help out the Dodgers, and is already talking to Hyeseong Kim like he wants to go through some drills. Let’s go.
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MLB: Kyle Tucker provided optimism after his finish to the 2026 season, but whether that’ll continue into 2027 is the question. Well, there did appear to be tangible improvement, at least in his swing decisions.
All of this would lead to a pretty straightforward, best-case scenario explanation: For the first five months of 2026, Tucker’s swing decisions were consistently more flawed than they were in the last two.
Broadly, there are two possible answers to the question we’ve posed: Either Tucker’s September/October surge was a fluke, or that was just how long it took for him to get right again. In all likelihood, it’s the latter.
Admittedly, it’s not exactly the most robust evidence, but neither were his problems, which were best described at mid-season as him just being slightly worse across the board. That understandably made many think worst-case scenario in that we were just seeing early decline from Tucker in what should be his prime years. However, the most marginal changes can lead to comically significant differences in baseball, and Tucker may have found some solutions.
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Baseball Prospectus: Honestly didn’t think 2027 prospect lists were going to start coming out already, but here’s their Top 20 plus four more. It feels like they are notably high on Mike Sirota and Hyun-Seok Jang, while perhaps low on maybe James Tibbs III, but not really.
The State of the System: The Dodgers took a small bite out of the top of their system at the deadline, but this remains one of the best orgs in baseball, chock full of up-the-middle bats and power arms.
As you can probably tell, it’s mostly positive.
Baseball America: Their Pitching+ leaderboard from the Arizona Fall League is notable because they use the MLB ball and the Statcast data is publicly available. Particularly notable for the Dodgers is Luke Fox with his Pitching+ of 112, Stuff+ of 106, and Location+ of 106.
Fox throws four pitches: a four-seam fastball, cutter, sweeper and changeup. The fastball is his highest-graded Stuff+ pitch, averaging around 93-94 mph with an angle that plays up from his lower slot. He locates the pitch at a plus level, and it’s helped him to drive a 35.9% whiff rate so far in the AFL.
Fox’s second-best pitch is his sweeper, which sits 82-83 mph with 10-11 inches of sweep. It boasts a 46.7% whiff rate in the desert and has become a bigger part of his arsenal over time.
Actually though, their whole contingent there graded out as above-average, including Cody Morse, Brooks Auger, Marlon Nieves, and Sam Horn.
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Anthony Davis and Zach LaVine pranked the hell out of Snellzilla for Bleacher Report‘s Foul Play.
Poor guy is just chill as hell and seemed like he really wanted to be in the game, lol.
