One year after finishing second to the Giants in the NL West and being knocked out of the playoffs by the eventual champion Atlanta Braves, the Dodgers are gunning again for a World Series title.
And manager Dave Roberts is confident in his team.
“We will win the World Series in 2022,” Roberts said Thursday on the Dan Patrick Show. “We will win the World Series this year. Put it on record.”
It seems Roberts wanted to make a statement to his team and to the rest of the baseball world that the Dodgers’ expectations are sky-high entering 2022. And he has good reason.
Roberts won the title with the Dodgers in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, then finished one game behind the Giants for the division crown and MLB’s best record. Los Angeles beat the Giants in a tense five-game divisional series before the Braves knocked them out in six games in the NLCS.
The Dodgers responded by signing the face of the Braves, first baseman Freddie Freeman, to a six-year, $162 million contract in free agency after losing shortstop Corey Seager to the Rangers. They also won’t have 2021 midseason pitching acquisition Max Scherzer, who was lights-out for them after arriving from Washington last fall. Trea Turner, who they acquired alongside Scherzer, is expected to take Seager’s spot at short.
The Giants, like they did last season, have taken a less star-studded approach to building their 2022 roster as president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has focused on shoring up the rotation — re-signing Anthony DeSclafani and Alex Wood while adding Alex Cobb and Carlos Rondón — and creating a flexible group of position players to match up against a variety of opponents. San Francisco let its big midseason acquisition walk in free agency, too, as Kris Bryant signed a seven-year, $182 million deal with the Rockies.
Roberts’ response was born out of a finish-the-sentence prompt from Patrick: The Dodgers will win the World Series if…
“We play a full season and there is a postseason,” Roberts said.
In answering the spirit of Patrick’s prompt, about a key to the Dodgers’ success, Roberts pointed to his pitching staff.
“We are winning the World Series if our starting staff stays healthy,” Roberts said. “I know that’s vague but that’s my answer.”
Both the Dodgers and the Giants have taken steps in recent years to ensure their starting pitchers aren’t overtaxed, planning to use more than the standard five-man rotation over the course of the year. Whichever team is more effective in doing so this season could have a leg up in the divisional race — and a shot at meeting Roberts’ stated goal.
