2025 Los Angeles Dodgers

2025 Los Angeles Dodgers / Franchise: Los Angeles Dodgers / BR Team Page[edit]

Record: 93-69, Finished 1st in NL Western Division (2025 NL)

World Series Champions

Coaches: Aaron Bates, Josh Bard, Dino Ebel, Bob Geren, Danny Lehmann, Brandon McDaniel, Connor McGuiness, Mark Prior, Robert Van Scoyoc and Chris Woodward

Ballpark: Dodger Stadium

History, Comments, Contributions[edit]

The 2025 Los Angeles Dodgers were entering the season as the reigning World Series champions, and made it clear during the off-season that they would not rest on their laurels. For the second straight year, they signed one of the top pitchers in Nippon Pro Baseball, inking Roki Sasaki to a free agent contract. Contrary to their signings of Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto the previous off-season, this signing did not break the bank as Sasaki, because he was under 25, was considered an international amateur free agent, so both his signing bonus and his salary over the next six years was constrained by limits set by the Collective Bargaining Agreement. They also signed P Blake Snell to a five-year contract, this one coming without a discount, as well as relievers Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates. They also re-signed OF Teoscar Hernandez, P Clayton Kershaw (although it wasn't clear whether he had anything left in the tank at this point) and IF/OF Kiké Hernandez. The only major subtractions were P Jack Flaherty, who had been a rental player for the stretch drive the previous year but had proved immensely valuable as one of the team's few healthy and experienced starting pitchers during the postseason, P Walker Buehler who had been slowed significantly by injuries over the past few seasons but who had taken a star turn in the World Series, and 2B Gavin Lux, a disappointment with the bat after having been an all-world prospect a few years ago.

The season started with a two-game series played at the Tokyo Dome on March 18-19 against the Chicago Cubs. The Dodgers had played a number of international series in previous years, but never in Japan. However they were a logical choice given their three Japanese stars in Ohtani (the biggest of them all), Yamamoto and now Suzuki (the Cubs also featured two high-profile Japanese players on their roster). Yamamoto and Suzuki were selected to start the two games, making it Suzuki's major league debut, while Ohtani was continuing to work on the side on returning to the mound at some point during the season. In the meantime, he remained the best designated hitter on the planet and had two hits and two runs in the opening game, a 4-1 Dodgers win. They then hit three homers, including one by Ohtani, to also win the second game, this one by a 6-3 score. They followed that by winning their home opener against the Detroit Tigers on March 27th, 5-4, to become the first defending champions to start a season 3-0 since the 2001 New York Yankees. The two key players who had missed the Tokyo Series, 1B Freddie Freeman and SS Mookie Betts, were both back in the starting line-up for that game. They ended up sweeping that three-game series, and made it a 6-0 start with a 6-1 win over a reeling Atlanta Braves team on March 31st. That matched the best start by an Dodger team playing in L.A., namely the 1981 edition of the team that had gone on to win the World Series, then set a new record by winning their seventh straight, 3-1 over Atlanta, on April 1st. That game marked the return to the mound of Dustin May, who had missed almost two full seasons since his last appearance in May of 2023. They won again on April 2nd, defeating the Braves, 6-5, on a walk-off homer by Ohtani in the 9th, after being down by five runs early on. Yet, even with an 8-0 start, they had a problem: the pesky San Diego Padres, the team that had given them the most trouble the previous season, had started the year 7-0. It was the first time in MLB history that two divisional opponents had both started a season 7-0 or better. They made it to 8-0 before finally losing a game, being bested by the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-2, on April 4th.

Real world events caught up with the Dodgers in June, as the Trump Administration's push to deport a huge number of immigrants, sometimes using brutal methods, led to demonstrations across the country. Los Angeles became Ground Zero for this crisis when some demonstrations against the strong-hand tactics turned violent and the President decided to federalize the State National Guard and send in the Marines (literally) to restore order, never mind that local authorities stated that they had things well under control. The Dodgers tried to ignore the whole crisis, but with a fan base made up in a large proportion of Latinos, and with the team having a long and proud tradition of being open to players from all backgrounds, that stance soon became untenable, and the ownership team was criticized for pretending nothing was going on. On June 14th, when Vanessa Hernandez decided to sign the National Anthem in Spanish against the team's wishes, the Dodgers first said she would be banned from Dodger Stadium permanently, before retracting in the face of massive backlash. If the owners thought that not angering the presidential beast would help them stay below the radar, they were wrong, as a few days later, ICE (United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents showed up en masse at the entrance the ballpark's parking lot on June 19th, presumably to sweep up anyone wishing to attend the game who looked somewhat Latino, as they had done in various locations around southern California in recent weeks, the Dodgers finally had enough, they were denied entry. The next day, team President Stan Kasten announced a $1 million donation, to be distributed through local nonprofits and advocacy groups, to support immigrant families impacted by recent federal immigration raids in Southern California. For its Part, ICE denied that its agents had attempted to access the parking lot.

In an uncharacteristic note for the team, the Dodgers suffered their worst loss ever at Dodger Stadium on July 4th when the Houston Astros demolished them by an 18-1 score. And of course, 1B Christian Walker, who had been a nemesis of theirs while wearing the uniform of the Diamondbacks over the years, made the most of his first visit to the ballpark with the Astros as he went 4-for-5 with a homer and 4 RBIs. reliever Noah Davis had an absolutely nightmarish outing, giving up 10 runs in just 1 1/3 innings. That loss started a seven-game losing streak just before the All-Star break that saw L.A.'s first-place lead shrink from 8 to 4 games, but they then won their final two games before the break, against one of the main rivals, the San Francisco Giants. However, they stumbled out of the gate in the second half, being swept in three games at home by the Milwaukee Brewers, giving them ten losses in the first fifteen games in August, their first tough stretch of what had been a textbook season until then. They briefly fell into second place behind the Padres on August 13th, the result of another sweep, this one by the crosstown Los Angeles Angels, who thereby defeated the Dodgers in all six games of their season series. However, they were given an immediate chance to redeem themselves as their next opponent was the Padres, and they rose to the occasion by sweeping them in three games at home from August 15-17 to build themselves a small cushion once again.

On September 17th, Kershaw announced that this season would be his final one, after spending 18 years in a Dodgers uniform, meaning that his start on September 19th at Dodger Stadium would be his final regular season one in front of hometown fans. He went 4 1/3 innings against the Giants, but it was reliever Edgardo Henriquez who received credit for the 6-3 win that clinched a 13th straight postseason appearance for the team. Ohtani hit his 52nd homer that night - having already earlier that week become the first player since Alex Rodriguez in 2000 and 2001 to post back-to-back seasons of 50 or more homers. They clinched their fourth straight division title - and 12th in the last 13 seasons - on September 25th with an 8-0 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks behind the pitching of Yamamoto. The game also featured Ohtani's 54th homer, matching the franchise single-season record which he had himself set the previous season.

Awards and Honors[edit]

All-Stars: Freddie Freeman, Clayton Kershaw, Shohei Ohtani, Will Smith and Yoshinobu Yamamoto
NL MVP Award: Shohei Ohtani
NL Silver Slugger Award: Shohei Ohtani (DH)

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