First Year Impact Players – 2011 to 2020

The winter of 2010 brought some more changes to the Dodgers. Joe Torre retired from managing and Don Mattingly took over. The other main point was the now very public and hostile divorce proceedings between McCourt and his wife. So things were off to a rocky start.

                            Colletti though had to put together a team and there were a lot of players who were free agents. He re-signed Kuroda and Gibbons. In November he signed Garland and Juan Uribe. He traded Theriot to the Cardinals for Blake Hawksworth.

                         He also signed Barajas, Padilla, Tony Gywnn Jr., and Eugenio Velez that month. Juan Castro, Dioner Navarro, Matt Guerrier were also signed.

                     Again there were no trades made at the winter meetings. He added a bunch of players on minor league contracts but none of significance. When the season rolled around, MLB announced in April that they would be appointing a representative to oversee the day-to-day operations of the Dodgers. Selig said this was because of his deep concerns for the finances and operations of the Dodgers. This was shortly after a LA Times report that McCourt had obtained a personal loan from Fox to cover the team’s payroll for April and May. Even though he denied the claim, Selig appointed former Rangers executive, Tom Schieffer to oversee the team.

                On June 27, 2011, the Dodgers filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Clearly the lowest point for any owner in the history of the LA Dodgers. All of this would stretch into 2012.

                 Meanwhile, on the field, the team was not very good through most of the summer. They did not have a month over .500 and at the end of June, they were at 48-59. But over the last 2 months, they went 34-20 to finish at 82–79 in 3rd place.

               Barajas handled most of the load at C. He hit 16 HR’s and drove in 47. Loney was solid at first with .288, 13, 65. Carroll handled 2nd most of the time playing in 146 games. He had a solid .290, 0, 17 line. Dee Gordon took over at SS later in the year playing in 56 games, with a . 304, 0, 11 line with 24 stolen bases. Uribe was the primary 3rd baseman getting into 77 games. He only hit .204, 4, 28. Gwynn was the main LF, .256, 2, 22 adding 22 stolen bases. The star was CF Matt Kemp, who had an MVP-worthy season with a .324, 39, 126 line and added 40 stolen bases. One away from being the Dodger’s first-ever 40-40 player. Ethier .292, 11, 62.

              Aaron Miles got into 136 games as the super sub. He hit .275, 3, 45. Juan Rivera who came over in a deal with the Jays went .274,5, 46 in 62 games. Furcal was traded after 37 games to the Cardinals for Alex Castellanos. He was hitting .197 at the time. Navarro was in 64 games but was hitting .193.

                Jerry Sands and Justin Sellers made their debuts. Sands managed 4 HRs and a .253 avg. Sellers .203 and 1. 30-year-old AJ Ellis got into 31 games and hit .271. His OBP was high because he walked a lot. None of the rookies made a major impact on offense.

                 Kershaw, now the Ace, went 21-5. Kuroda was 13-16, Lilly 12-14, Billingsly 11-11. Guerra saved 21. Guerrier was 4-3 out of the pen. 23-year-old Kenley Jansen got into 51 games and saved 5. Rubby De La Rosa, Nathan Eovaldi, made their debuts.

                                                  2012

                        Most of the news in the offseason was more about the divorce and finances than player moves. In June of 2011, the McCourts had finally settled their divorce with McCourt having to pay his wife 130 million dollars and she would renounce any claim to ownership. Some of that was contingent on MLB approving a 17-year broadcast deal between the Dodgers, Fox, and Prime Ticket. MLB rejected the deal. The divorce was held up until October when it was finally settled.

                 MLB pressed McCourt to sell the team and finally on the 27th of March 2012, he agreed to sell the team to Guggenheim Partners for 2 billion dollars. He sold them the land around Dodger Stadium for an additional 150 million. According to the group, McCourt has no control or influence over the land but can profit from potential future development. Guggenheim pays McCourt 14 million a year to rent the parking lots surrounding the stadium to an entity half-owned by McCourt.

              On May 1, 2012, the sale officially closed and Guggenheim’s tenure started.

                Meanwhile the business of building a team in the offseason continued.

They re-signed Rivera, added Mark Ellis and Matt Treanor, and Adam Kennedy in November. Chris Capuano and Wil Ledezma came aboard in December. Aaron Harang, Jerry Hairston, Josh Bard, John Grabow all were signed.

          Once again, no winter trades. In May they added Bobby Abreu as a free agent. In June they drafted Corey Seager, Paco Rodriguez, Ross Stripling, and Darnell Sweeney. On the 29th of June, Cuban refugee Yasiel Puig was signed.

          In June they traded Nathan Eovaldi and a minor leaguer to the Marlins for Randy Choate and Hanley Ramirez. They got Brandon League at the deadline. They also traded for Shane Victorino sending 3 minor leaguers to the Phils. In August they made another deal with the Phils for reliever, Joe Blanton.

      Julio Urias was signed as a free agent on the 17th of August. But then on the 25th, they pulled off what would be called, “The Trade”. They sent James Loney, Ivan DeJesus, Allen Webster, Rubby De La Rosa, and Jerry Sands to the Red Sox for Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, Nick Punto, and cash. Sands and De La Rosa’s involvement in the trade would not be announced until October,

     For the season, they showed some improvement in Mattingly’s second year. Finishing 2nd to the Giants, who would win their second world series in 3 years. They were 8 games back. They fell into second for good on the 20th of August. This after having a 5 game lead on the 10th of June.

     Ellis took over as the main catcher and had a decent .270, 13, 52 line. Loney was hitting .254 when he was traded. Ellis .258, 7, 51. Gordon .228, 1, 17 with 32 bags. Luis Cruz played 78 games at 3rd .297, 6, 40. Victorino hit .245 in 53 games Ethier .284, 20, 89. Matt Kemp was on his way to an even better 2012 when he crashed into the wall in CF at Coors messing up his shoulder in July. At that point, he was hitting close to .360 and had 15 HRs and 49 RBI’s after 63 games. He was out all of the rest of July. When he came back, and this is my opinion, way too soon, he was nowhere near the same player. He only had 8 HR’s the rest of the way and finished with a .303 average.

      Say what you like about Kemp, but my belief is that this injury totally changed his career. You add that he had major shoulder surgery in the off-season of 2012, that he even played at all in 2013 is amazing. But he would suffer other injuries that season which led to the claim that he was injury-prone. Also, he would be considered a clubhouse cancer because of his clashes with Mattingly over wanting to stay the CF.

      That being what it was, the entire season kind of went south after he was hurt. Rivera and Gwynn were the main backup guys. Rivera had 9 HR’s and added 47 RBI’s. Ramirez for into 64 games after the trade going .271, 10, 44. Gonzalez was in 36 games going .297, 3, 22. Most of the veteran backup players on the team were decent, but nothing spectacular. Crawford was injured and did not appear in a game. But Nick Punto became a crowd favorite hitting .286.

       Kershaw went 14-9. Capuano, 12-12, Harang, 10-9, Billingsly,10-9. Jansen in his first year as the closer was 5-3 with 25 saves. Bellisario won 8 and saved one. Wright won 5 out of the pen. Blanton was 2-4 after the trade. Rookie Eovaldi was 1-6 at the time of his trade to the Marlins. Rookie Shawn Tolleson went 3-1.

        New ownership had inserted themselves right into the thick of things and the culture was changing for the team. Guggenheim announced they were there to win the championship period.

                                                  2013

         With things on the ownership front finally quiet, Colletti focused on 2013. How to get the Dodgers back to being one of the NL’s best. In December, he signed Korean pitcher, Hyun Jin Ryu. The next day they signed Zack Greinke. He traded a minor leaguer to the Cardinals for Skip Schumaker. In January he signed reliever JP Howell.

          Dennis Santana was signed as an amateur free agent in March. Right after the season opened he traded cash and Aaron Harang to the Rockies for Ramon Hernandez.

     They drafted Brandon Dixon, Cody Bellinger, Jacob Rhame, Jose De Leon, and Kyle Farmer in June. Hernandez was released in June as was Luis Cruz. They traded Guerrier to the Cubs for Carlos Marmol and cash. 3 minor leaguers went to the Marlins in July for Ricky Nolasco.

       They picked up Drew Butera at the deadline for a minor leaguer. They traded Rasmussen to the Phillies at the end of  August for Michael Young.

      Well, something worked. They won the west by 11 games over the D-Backs. Kersh won the Cy Young. They were as many as 9.5 games back in June. Then they went on a tear. Going 57-25 from June to September. And even a 12-15 September did not derail their win. They beat the Braves 3-1 in the NLDS. Then lost the NLCS to the Cardinals in 6. A big contributor to that loss was Hanley Ramirez being hit by a pitch by Joe Kelly in game 1. It hampered his ability the rest of the series. They lost that game, 3-2. Wacha shut them out 1-0 in game 2.  Ryu returned the favor with a 3-0 win in game 3. St. Loo went up 3-1 with a 4-2 win in game 4. Behind Greinke LA got a little redemption against Kelly with a 6-4 win. But in game 6, the Cardinals knocked Kershaw and the Dodgers out with a 9-0 drubbing.

       Puig made an immediate impact when he was called up. He was nicknamed ” The Wild Horse” by announcer Vin Scully. He hit . 319 with 19, 42.  Adrian Gonzalez was declared the Dodgers “Butter and egg man ” by Vinny. Solid 1st year with a .293, 22, 100 line. Ramirez hit .345 in 86 games. He had been injured in the World Games. He added 20, 57. Uribe was healthy finally and had a good year hitting .278 with 12, 50. But his biggest hit came in the series against the Braves when he hit a go-ahead HR at Dodger Stadium.

   Ethier and Crawford were solid. Crawford got into 116 games and Ethier 142.

 Skip Schumaker and Punto were the most active bench guys getting into 125, and 116 games respectively. Matt Kemp, recuperating from off-season surgery and an ankle injury early in the year, got into 73 games .270, 6, 33. Scott Van Slyke added some pop off of the bench with 7 long balls. Puig was the most productive rookie in years.

       The pitching was solid. Kersh won 16, Greinke 15, Ryu 14, Capuano, 4, and Nolasco 8 after coming over. Jansen was 4-3 out of the pen with 28 saves League was 6-4 with 14. Paco Rodriguez got into 76 games and was 3-4 with 2 saves. Chris Withrow made his debut and was 3-0 in 26 games with a save.

      All in all a very successful season. And how would it have turned out had Ramirez not been hit in the playoffs? Who knows, so let’s do it again in 2014.

                                                          2014

          Colletti was set got a busy off-season. Improving the team was the goal and finally getting to a World Series. They had a ton of free agents. Tolleson was lost off waivers to the Rangers. In late November he signed Dan Haren. JP Howell, Juan Uribe, and Jamey Wright were retained. He signed C Miguel Olivo and Chone Figgins in January.

         On the 6th of February, he signed a player who had been cut loose by the Mets. He had no idea at the time the impact Justin Turner would have over the next 7 years. Olivo would be released in May. In June they drafted Alex Verdugo, Brock Stewart, Trevor Oaks, and in July, Caleb Ferguson. Keibert Ruiz was signed as an amateur free agent in July also.

       They got Darwin Barney from the Cubs for a minor leaguer at the end of July. And he picked up reliever Roberto Hernandez from the Phils in August. He also plucked Kevin Correia from the Twins.

      Through May they were 4 games over .500. Then they went 32-20 over the next two months. They were 32-21 over the last two months to finish with a 94-68 total and win the west for the second straight year. They were 6 games in front of the Giants who would be the eventual pennant and World Series champs again. Really irritating Dodger fans who had the firm belief that the Dodgers were a much better team, but that the Giants had a much better manager.

      It mattered not since they were taken out by the Cardinals again in the NLDS. 3-1. Game 1 was particularly galling since after 5 innings, with Kersh pitching, the Dodgers were leading 6-1. But Kersh gave up a HR to Carpenter cutting the score to 6-2.

   In the top of the 8th, the roof caved in. Kershaw was tagged for 6 runs. Baez then gave up 2 more on a HR to Holliday and it was 10-6. Gonzalez got 2 of them back with a HR off of Choate in the bottom of the inning. Howell and League shut St Louis down in the 9th giving LA a shot to tie. They managed to get 2 hits and a run off of Rosenthal, but he struck out Puig.

   Game 2 was a pitcher’s duel between Greinke and Lynn with the Dodgers getting 2 in the 3rd. Greinke shut the Cards down through 7. Howell came in and quickly was in trouble allowing the tying runs on a 2 run shot by Carpenter in the 8th. But Matt Kemp, who was hitting .555 in the series connected for an 8th inning HR off of Neshek, Jansen set them down in the 9th for the win.

     Game 3 was also a pitcher’s duel. Ryu for LA against Lackey. St Louis scored in the 3rd and the Dodgers caught up on a Ramirez double in the 6th. But that was all they would get. Scott Elbert gave up 2 in the 7th on a HR by Wong. Rosenthal then got his 2nd save.

    Game 4 was another tight one. Kershaw kept the Cardinals off of the board and the Dodgers scored 2 in the top of the 6th. But once again disaster hit Kershaw, he gave up a 3 run HR to Matt Adams in the bottom of the 7th, and the Cardinal bullpen took care of the rest allowing only 2 base hits and a walk in the last 3 innings to win the series.

                   Ellis did not have a great year at the plate, but he was Kershaw’s buddy and his personal catcher so he got into 93 games. Gonzalez was .276, 27, 116, Gordon .289, 2, 34 with 64 steals. Ramirez .283, 13, 71. Uribe .311, 9, 54. Crawford .300, 8, 46 Ethier .249, 4, 42. He was injured but still played in 130 games. Puig .296, 16, 69. Matt Kemp had a bounce-back season playing in 150 games and ended up .287, 25, 89. Turner, the jack of all trades off of the bench and Uribe’s main caddy was .340, 7, 43. Van Slyke got into 98 games .297, 11, 29.

           Joc Pederson saw his first action as did Cuban import Alex Guerrero. Olivo had been released after biting off a piece of Guerrero’s ear in the minors. The pitching was solid with Greinke 17-8, Kersh, 21-3, Haren, 13-11, Ryu 14, 7, and Beckett at 6-6. Jansen saved 44. Beckett no-hit the Phils on the 25th of May.  Kershaw matched that missing a perfect game on an error by Ramirez and then having Rojas make an outstanding play at 3rd to complete the no-hitter on the 18th of June.

       But all was not well. There were rumors of clubhouse problems and the 2 biggest cancer’s according to some were Hanley and Matt Kemp. There would no doubt be some changes in 2015. But at the time, no Dodger fan had the slightest inkling of what was coming and it would impact the team’s personality and the way business was done for the foreseeable future.

                                                     2015

               The first changes came in the front office. Colletti was kicked upstairs to a Vice Presidency and Andrew Friedman took over as President of Baseball Operations. He installed Farhan Zaidi as the GM. Gabe Kapler became the farm director and Billy Gasparino took over Logan White’s position as director of scouting.

              Things were about to happen very fast. If Dodger fans thought Friedman was going to ease into his job, they were totally wrong. His first trade came in November when he got Kyle Jensen from the Marlins. That same month he traded minor leaguer Greg Harris and Jose Dominguez to his old team the Rays for Adam Liberatore and Joel Peralta. And that was the opening salvo.

      They bought Mike Bolsinger from the D-Backs and then traded Noel Cuevas to the Rockies for Juan Nicasio. Matt Magill went to the Reds for Chris Heisey on the 2nd of December.  Butera was sent to the Angels for a minor leaguer on the 9th.

    On the 11th he swung his biggest deal yet sending Gordon, Haren, Rojas, and cash to the Marlins for Austin Barnes, Chris Hatcher, Andrew Heaney, and Kike Hernandez, and then spun Heaney to the Angels for Howie Kendrick.

    He signed Brandon McCarthy on the 16th, and then on the 18th, he made another big trade sending Kemp, and Tim Federowicz to the Padres for Zack Elfin, Yasmani Grandal, and Joe Wieland. Then the next day he sent Elfin and Tom Windle to the Phillies for Jimmy Rollins.

    By this time, my thought was that this guy is out of his mind. My feelings were partially because I thought that after bouncing back the way he did that Kemp was going to have a monster 2015 for the Dodgers. And as for Grandal, well, I just really disliked the guy and he had been suspended for PEDs and I have always been against any kind of drug use. Also, all they were talking about was Grandal’s great pitch-framing ability. I had no clue what that was nor did I care because I knew Kemp had 30 plus HR potential and he could drive in 100. We would never see that from Grandmal as I would call him.

     He also signed Brett Anderson in December. I was almost believing he would sign every free agent pitcher with any kind of MLB track record right up through spring training when he inked guys like, Sergio Santos, David Huff, Erik Bedard, Ramon Troncoso, David Aardsma, Brandon Beachy, Dustin McGowan, Chad Gaudin, and Freddie Garcia.

      Of course, none of them stuck. It also seemed like every time you turned around he was picking someone up off of the waiver wire. He signed Cuban Hector Olivera in May to a huge free-agent deal. Then in May, he traded Juan Uribe and Chris Withrow to the Braves for Alberto Callaspo, Eric Stults, Ian Thomas, and a minor leaguer.

     His first draft netted Walker Buehler, a hail Mary pick since he had been injured, Josh Sborz, Willie Calhoun, Edwin Rios, Matt Beaty, and Kyle Garlick. They bought Torreyes from the Jays. Then they traded two international bonus slots to the Jays for Chase De Jong and Tim Locastro. They got Grant Dayton from the Marlins.

    On the 30th of July in a 3 team trade, they sent Paco Rodriguez and Hector Olivera to the Braves, 3 minor leaguers to the Marlins, and got Bronson Arroyo, Luis Avilan, Jim Johnson, and Alex Wood from the Braves and Mat Latos and Mike Morse from the Marlins. They traded Morse to the Pirates the next day. On the 19th of August, he sent a minor leaguer and Darnell Sweeney to the Phillies for Chase Utley. Latos was released in September.

     They had a winning record every month of the season going 92-70 to win the division for the 3rd season in a row. Something they had never done before. They took over first place to stay at the end of May and beat the Giants by 8 games.

     Facing the Mets in the NLDS they lost game 1, 3-1 as deGrom beat Kershaw. Greinke won game 2, 5-2 over Syndergaard. The Mets hammered Anderson in game 3 for a 13-7 win. Kershaw redeemed himself with a 3-1 win in game 4 leaving it up to Greinke in game 5. deGrom pitched 6 solid innings giving up 2 runs in the first after the Mets had scored 1. The Mets tied the score 2-2 in the 4th. Then in the 6th, Daniel Murphy took Greinke deep for a 3-2 lead. Syndergaard and Familia were almost perfect in 3 innings of relief allowing only a walk. And once again, they failed to get out of the NLDS.

      They had let Hanley walk as a free agent after 2014, so his replacement, Jimmy Rollins, got into 144 games. But it was hardly a Rollins-like year as he went .224, 13, 41. Grandal hit .234, 16, 47 Gonzalez .275, 28, 90 Kendrick .295, 9, 54 Turner, now the starting 3rd baseman, .296, 16, 60 Crawford .265, 4, 16 Rookie Joc Pederson .210, 26, 54. Puig who was sent down to the minors for a while because of his actions and attitude, .255, 11, 38. Ethier was a valuable sub  .294, 14, 53 Van Slyke was in 96 games .239, 6, 30. Guerrero was in 106 games .233, 11, 36 Hernandez 76 games .307, 7, 22. Ellis added 7 HRs and 21 driven in. Utley did not hit much but brought a lot of fire to the field. He took out the Mets SS in the playoffs and it resulted in a new rule the next season. Corey Seager was called up in September and got into 27 games hitting .337 with 4, 17. Barnes saw limited action in 20 games. Jose Peraza got into 7 games but excited fans when he tripled for his first hit.

     The pitching was solid. Kersh 16-7, Greinke, 19-3 winning the ERA title, Anderson 10-9, Bolsinger 6-6, Rookie Carlos Frias went 5-5. Wood was 5-6 after the trade. Jansen saved 36 and won 2. Nicasio, Howell, and Garcia all had one save apiece. Hatcher was 3-5 with 4 saves. Peralta won 3 and saved 3. McCarthy was 3-0 in 4 games and went down with an injury never returning. Latos was a total bust at 0-3 as was Johnson.

       At least they were getting to the playoffs. Winning was something else again. By the way, over the next 2 seasons, Kemp would hit 58 HR’s and drive in 208 for the Padres and the Braves

                                                       2016

           By mutual agreement, Mattingly stepped down from managing the Dodgers and he was replaced by Dave Roberts. A former Dodger outfielder whose stolen base in a playoff game against the Yankees had ignited a Red Sox comeback and eventual World Series win. He also is the first minority manager in Dodger history.

       I was learning that Friedman was not one for standing still. Rollins left in free agency as did Greinke. He resigned Anderson because they made him a QO. Culberson was signed as a free agent and Utley re-signed. They made a 3 team trade, this is becoming a habit, with the Reds and the White Sox sending Peraza, Dixon, and Schebler to the Reds, getting Micah Johnson, Frankie Montas, and Trayce Thompson in return from the Sox and the Red sent Todd Frazier to Chicago. They signed Scott Kazmir in Dec.

   Japanese import Kenta Maeda was signed in January, then they traded Tyler Olson and Ronald Torreyes to the Yankees for Rob Segedin and cash and a PTBNL.

    Joe Blanton was signed in Jan, and then Kendrick brought back in February.  AF as we were calling him now was always watching the waiver wire and players who had been released.

    They released Guerrero in June. In the draft, they took Gavin Lux, Will Smith, Mitch White, Dustin May, and Tony Gonsolin. Later they drafted Zack McKinstry in the 33rd round. Crawford was released in June and they ate his contract.

   On the 19th of June, they traded Zack Lee to the Mariners for SS Chris Taylor.

They picked up Bud Norris, no relation, from the Braves at the end of June. On the first of August, they traded Bolsinger for Jesse Chavez, Yordan Alvarez for Josh Fields, Grant Holmes, Jharel Cotton, and Frankie Montas to the A’s for Rich Hill and Josh Reddick. Ellis went to the Phillies for Carlos Ruiz and cash.

       They won the west again, now 4 in a row, beating the Giants by 4 games. After a 12-13 start, they had winning records in every month until Oct when they went 0-2.

       They opened the NLDS in DC facing the Nationals. Kersh won game 1 4-3. Hill was beaten 5-2 in game 2. The winning pitcher was future Dodger Blake Treinen. Solis beat Maeda in game 3 in LA, 8-2. Blanton got the win out of the pen in a tight game 4, 6-5. Game 5 in DC was a 4-3 win for the Dodgers with Urias getting the win. They scored 4 in the 7th inning to come from down 1-0 when Pederson homered off Scherzer to start the rally. Ruiz and Turner knocked in runs to aid the effort.

    On to Chicago for the NLCS. Game 1 was an 8-4 loss. Kershaw won game 2, 1-0. Out pitching Kyle Hendricks. Dodgers got another shutout behind Rich Hill in LA going up 2-1 with a 6-0 win. That would be their last gasp. Chicago won the remaining 3 games, 10-2, 8-4, and 5-0 with Kendricks turning the table on Kershaw and shutting LA out.

    The Cubs would go on to win the Championship in a thrilling series with the Indians. Once again it was wait until next year for the Dodgers. But next year, it would be a whole different look.

     Seager was the Rookie of the Year. The teams first since Hollandsworth. Kershaw only won 12 since he was out for a while with an injury, but his ERA was 1.69. Grandal’s batting avg sunk to .228, 27,72. Gonzalez hit .285, 18, 90. Utley, .252, 14, 52 Seager, .308, 26, 72 Turner .275, 27, 90 Kendrick, now playing LF .255, 8, 40 Pederson .246, 25, 68 Puig .262, 11, 45.

    Thompson added 13 HRs and 32 ribbies. Hernandez tanked with a .190 avg. Reddick was a bust and booed by Dodger fans. Andrew Toles got into 48 games and hit .314. Charlie Culberson hit .299 and had the most dramatic HR of the year, a walk-off shot in the last game Vin Scully would call at Dodger Stadium that clinched the division.

     Maeda was 16-11, Kersh 12-4, Kazmir, 10-6, Stripling 5-9, Urias 5-2. Jansen saved 47. Blanton was 7-2 out of the pen. Wood, who was injured again, went 1-4. Hill was 3-2 after the trade. McCarthy injured again and went 2-3 in 10 games. Brett Anderson was 1-2 in 4 games. Ryu was injured and only pitched in 1 game. 

                                                   2017

           At the beginning of November, numerous players opted to be free agents. The first Dodger move was to trade Howie Kendrick to the Phillies for Darren Ruf and Darnell Sweeney on the 11th.

          They re-signed Rich Hill on the 5th of Dec. They signed Wilmer Font. They re-signed Turner. Jansen re-signed in January.

            They made four trades in January, sending Micah Johnson to the Braves for a player to be named later. Jose DeLeon went to the Rays for Logan Forsythe, they traded a minor leaguer to the A’s for Bret Eibner and then sent Carlos Frias to the Indians for a player to be named later.

        They signed Brandon Morrow, Ike Davis, and Jose Miguel Fernandez. In February they re-signed Chase Utley, signed Sergio Romo, released Ruf, and signed Franklin Gutierrez.

      In April they signed free agent Max Muncy. At the deadline they made 3 trades. The first sending Van Slyke and a minor leaguer to the Reds for Tony Cingrani. Then AF sent Willie Calhoun and 2 minor leaguers to the Rangers for Yu Darvish. He then traded 2 minor leaguers to the Pirates for Tony Watson.

     In August they picked up Dylan Floro, and Curtis Granderson.

        They jumped out to a lead and except for a 15 day stretch in June, they were never more than 2.5 games out of first. And that included a 10 game losing streak in September. They still won the division by 11 games with a 104-58 mark. Arizona finished second. Greinke had signed a huge deal with them in the off-season.

      Cody Bellinger was the Rookie of the Year, hitting .267, 39, 97.  Seven of the eight starters ended up with double-digit HR’s. Grandal, 22, Seager 22, Turner and Taylor, 21, Pederson 11, and Puig 28. Hernandez added 11 off of the bench and Utley 8.

     Austin Barnes, backing up Grandal hit .289, 8, 38. Adrian Gonzalez was injured most of the year and only got into 71 games. Granderson had 7 HR’s after coming over, but he only hit .161. Toles was hurt at the beginning of the year and only got into 31 games.

     Verdugo, Farmer and LoCastro got their first action in the majors. Farmer had a clutch walk off double against the Giants.

      Kersh was 18-4, Wood 16-3, Hill 12-8, Maeda 13-6 , Darvish 4-3 , Ryu 5-9 coming back from injury, McCarthy was 6-4. Jansen was 5-0 with 41 saves. Fields was 5-0 with 2 saves, Stripling had 2 saves. Morrow, called up in June, went 6-0 with 2 saves and was the only Dodger pitcher to not give up a HR during the regular season. The HR had become a big bugaboo for Dodger pitchers and 7 gave up double digits. Kersh led the team with 23, Maeda and Ryu both gave up 22. Walker Buehler got into 8 games in his first action and won his first MLB game.

      In the NLDS they faced the D-Backs. They quickly dispatched the D-Backs in 3 games with Kersh winning game 1, 9-5, Maeda game 2, 8-5 and Darvish game 3, 3-1.

       They once again faced the Cubs in the NLCS and dispatched the reigning World Champs 4 games to 1. The Cubs came to LA and lost game 1, 5-2, Maeda getting the win. Game 2 was a close game and was won on a walk-off HR in the 9th by Justin Turner, 4-1. Darvish won game 3 in Chicago giving up only a HR to Schwarber in the 1st and the Dodgers scored 6  with Ethier hitting a HR, and Taylor a 2 run triple to go up 3-0. Game 4 went to the Cubs, 3-2. All three Cubs runs scored on HR’s off of Alex Wood. Arrieta shut down the Dodger bats.

    Game 5 was a rout on the strength of a 3 HR 7 RBI game from Kike Hernandez. The Dodgers scored 9 runs in the first four innings. Kershaw went 6 innings for the win. For the first time since 1988, they were going to the World Series to face the AL Champion Astros.

     Chris Taylor and Justin Turner were co-MVPs of the NLCS. There is no need to rehash what happened in the Series.  It has been discussed numerous times since it ended, and when the cheating scandal broke, it got even worse. My personal opinion, which means nothing, is that the Astros got a slap on the wrist and a minor fine and were able to profit from the cheating. None of the players who participated were suspended, but the manager was.

    Pure BS in my mind. It did cost Carlos Beltran a managerial job. But that was about it. AJ Hinch and the GM were the ones punished. At the very least my thought was that they should have simply been stripped of the title, and no Champion crowned. That would have been fair.

                                           2018

        19 players declared free agency including Darvish and Andre Ethier who’s long-term deal had expired. He would retire before too long. Injuries had ruined his last few seasons. In December they sent 4 players, Culberson, McCarthy, Gonzalez, and Kazmir to the Braves for Matt Kemp in what was essentially a salary dump. No one thought Kemp had a shot at making the team.

      They signed Tom Koehler and then traded Luis Avilan and cash to the White Sox, Trevor Oaks, and Eric Mejia to the Royals, they got Jake Peter from the Sox and Scott Alexander from the Royals. The Royals sent Joakim Soria and cast to the Sox.

     Chase Utley was re-signed in February. They picked up JT Chargois on waivers. They made numerous waiver claims over the following months. Corey Seager was out with an injury and Taylor was playing short most of the time with Hernandez backing him up. They picked-up Floro for the second time in  2 years in a deal with the Reds. They also got Zack Neal and some international pool money. Then on July 18th, right after the All-Star game, they sent 5 players, 4 of them minor leaguers to the Orioles for Manny Machado.

       They then traded 3 players, including Logan Forsythe and current Dodger Luke Raley to the Twins for Brian Dozier. At the end of August, they got David Freese and Ryan Madson in separate deals. The big surprise of the season was the emergence of free agent signee, Max Muncy. Muncy played in 137 games and hit 35 HR’s with 79 RBIs. Matt Kemp made the team out of spring training and in the early days of the season he carried the team coming out of the gate smoking the ball. He ended up with 21 HR’s and 85 RBI’s and a solid .290 average.

Other solid contributors were, Grandal, 24, Bellinger, 25, Kike, 21, Turner 14 and a .312 avg in 103 games. Taylor 17, Pederson, 25, and Puig 23. Machado hit 13 after the trade, but was no where near the player he was in Baltimore. Freese hit .385 after the trade. Because of injuries, the only pitcher with double digit wins was Hill with 11.

         This season was a lot different than the prior 5 had been. They ended up tied at the end of the season with the Rockies. So, they had to play a one-game playoff in LA.

       Buehler started and went 6.2 scoreless. The Dodgers scored 5 over the 4th, 5th, and 5th innings going up 5-0. The Rockies got back-to-back HR’s off Jansen in the 9th from Arenado and Story, but then Kenley buckled down and got the last 3 outs.

     They beat the Braves 3-1 and then won an exciting NLCS with the Brewers in 7 games. Bellinger, despite hitting only .200 in the series, was the MVP on the strength of some fine defensive work and a clutch HR and 4 RBI’s.

       But in the 2019 World Series, they were clearly outmatched by the Red Sox. Steve Pearce, a Red Sox scrub, would win MVP honors. Once again they went home without the big prize. There would be more changes coming.

                                        2019

          As disappointing as it was losing back-to-back World Series, it would be an amazing year. A win record would be set, the team would cruise to their 7th straight division title and then lose in the first round of the playoffs, and go home wondering what the hell happened again.

        The off-season also brought another surprise as the Astro scandal escalated and punishment was handed down, then they found out that the Red Sox had cheated too, and their manager, Alex Cora was suspended for a year.

       But it was not proven they had cheated during the World Series and the way they manhandled the Dodgers, no one thought they did.

      But over the 18-19 winter, there would be some adjustments to the roster. Chase Utley retired. They signed Ryu to a one-year deal. Locastro was traded to the Yankees for a minor leaguer.

    On the 21st of December, AF signed Joe Kelly to a 3-year deal. But the big news came later in the day. They traded Yasiel Puig, Matt Kemp, Kyle Farmer, Alex Wood, and cash to the Reds for Homer Bailey, and 2 prospects, SS Jeter Downs and P Josiah Gray.

     Bailey would never suit up for the Dodgers as he was almost immediately released and they ate 20 million dollars of his contract. Downs would play a significant role in a trade the next off-season, and Gray became one of LA’s top prospects.

     On January 11th he traded a couple of minor leaguers to the Jays for old friend, Russell Martin. Another change that took place was GM, Farhan Zaidi left the team to take a position as President of Baseball operations for the Giants.

      On the 26th of January, they signed AJ Pollock as a free agent. It was business as usual all through spring with players being signed and released. Especially fringe guys who had no shot at cracking the roster.

       One really strange one to me was them signing Travis dArnaud as a free agent on the 5th of May and then selling his rights to the Rays on the 10th. He had 1 at-bat in LA.

     In July they traded a minor leaguer to the Rays for Casey Sadler. And in one of his worst moves, at least to me, he sent a minor leaguer to the Astros for Tyler White.

    On the 29th they acquired Ron Negron. Then at the deadline, they picked up Jedd Gyorko for Tony Cingrani and traded a minor leaguer for Adam Kolarek.

     The roster was set for their playoff run. Bellinger came out of the gate smoking, looking more like the ROY he was in 17, than the player who regressed a bunch in 18. He would go .305, 47, 115 and end up the MVP. Max Muncy would match his 2018 HR output of 35 and set a career-high in RBI’s with 98.

      Barnes and Russell shared the catching duties for a while, but with Barnes slumping badly, Will Smith would be called up and open a lot of eyes with some real clutch hitting and improved catching skills. His first HR would be a walk-off win against the Phillies. I was there to see that.

     Hernandez was the super-utility who got a bulk of his work at 2nd. His BA was low at .237, but he provided power sometimes with 17 long balls. Seager was back after his surgeries and a lost season in 18. He went .272, 19, 87.

       Turner, always reliable hit .290 with 27 long balls and 67 RBI’s. Joc Pederson had by far his best season, slugging 36 HR’s, hitting .249, and driving home 74.

    Pollock after suffering an infection in his repaired elbow, started slow but was one of the team’s best hitters down the stretch. He added 15 HR’s, a .266 avg and 47 RBI’s.

     The bench was a mix of kids and vets. Alex Verdugo got extended action and hit .294 in 106 games. But he was injured in August and missed the playoffs. Taylor was solid, and Matt Beaty, another rookie, was one of their better clutch hitters off of the bench.

     Will Smith was a revelation. He only got into 54 games, but hit 15 long balls. Two of which were walk-offs. One weekend against the Rockies, Beaty, Verdugo, and Smith all hit walk-off HRs.

     David Freese hit .315 in 79 games and added 11 long balls to what would be a team record. Lux saw limited time in his debut. Negron hit a couple of HR’s in his first week with the team, and provided some solid defense at multiple positions off of the bench. Edwin Rios hit 4 long balls, and a couple of them are still flying.

    Garlick made his debut and had a couple of dingers. Gyorko and White were mostly ineffective.

     The pitching was solid. Buehler went 14-4, Ryu 14-5, Kersh was 16-5, Maeda 10-8 and Rich Hill 4-1. Jansen had 33 saves but an ERA well over 3. Baez and Kelly also notched one save, and Baez won 7 out of the pen.

     With Hill injured most of the year, Stripling, Urias, May, Ferguson, and Gonsolin all got starts. Urias, Strip, Sadler, and Gonsolin all won 4 games. Kelly and Floro won 5 out of the pen. Urias had 4 saves and Sadler and Gonsolin 2 apiece.

     The team cruised. For one of the few times in their history, they did not have a losing month. They were 20-12 in March and April. 37-17 in May and June. 31-21 in July and August. Then they swept through September with an 18-6 mark. Finishing with a Dodger record, 106 wins, passing the 53 teams total.

     They went into first place for good on April 17th and won the division by 21 games. They hit 279 HR’s far surpassing the team record.

    So it was on to the NLDS where the Nationals awaited them, along with a rude awakening and the dashing of the dream again.

     The series went 5 games with the Dodgers winning game one behind a masterful shutout by Buehler, 6-0. Kersh took the bump in game 2 and was on the wrong end of a 4-2 loss to Strasburg.

   Now in DC, LA came back with a vengeance against Patrick Corbin and blasted their way to a 10-4 win behind Ryu.

     Scherzer pitched like the Ace he is in game 4 for a 6-1 win over Urias. Back to LA for the decider. LA Jumped out quickly to a 3-0 lead after 2 on the strength of HR’s by Muncy and Hernandez off of Strasburg. Meanwhile, Buehler was once again shutting down the Nationals bats.

    After a strong 6.2 he was pulled in favor of Kershaw, who got the final out of the 7th. Then Roberts, in what I consider a real blunder, sent Kersh back out in the 8th with Rendon, a dangerous RH power hitter coming up. Rendon immediately took Kershaw deep. 3-2. Now with lefty-hitting Soto coming up, Roberts decided to leave CK out there. Boom, another HR, Kersh, and the lead were gone just like that.

    Dodgers went meekly in the 8th and 9th and the game went into extra innings. Kelly who had pitched the 9th was sent back out in the 10th. Biggest mistake of the year for Roberts. Kelly was immediately in trouble. He loaded the bases and ex-Dodger Howie Kendrick comes to the plate and sends one over the fence in CF for a grand slam and that was that. 7-3 crushing defeat.

    If anything, that series magnified some huge blunders Roberts had made with his pitchers in playoff games. And a couple of times, Kersh was the one who should not have been out there. 17 series, game 5 against the Stros, and this game in the 8th.

    So it was back to the drawing board and get ready for 2020. A season that would turn out to be anything but normal.

                                            2020

     After the crushing defeat, many were calling for Roberts’s head. I was one of them. But he was extended and AF got down to the business of improving a 106 win team. How do you do that???

      First, you get rid of the driftwood. Negron was released and he retired. Freese retired. In December AF signed, Blake Treinen, and Jimmy Nelson. Alex Wood was brought back in January.

    But there were rumors floating of something much bigger in the works. A blockbuster trade. In February AF made a flurry of deals that crisscrossed each other. He traded a minor leaguer and Kenta Maeda to the Twins for Luke Raley and a kid pitcher named Graterol. He then spun Graterol, Verdugo, and Downs to the Red Sox for Mookie Betts, David Price, and cash. But, the Sox did not like Graterol’s medicals, so the Dodgers substituted Connor Wong instead.

     The Dodgers had acquired an MVP caliber player and a Cy Young pitcher for what seemed like a very low cost, and they got the Sox to pay half of Prices’ salary over the remaining 3 years of his deal.

   He then tried to trade Joc Pederson to the Angels, but the deal fell through. And that would benefit LA come playoff time.

      Spring training was going along as normal when the entire thing screeched to a halt. A pandemic had hit the world, and baseball shut down.

     No one knew if they would even have a season and there was a real chance that Dodger fans might never see Mookie in a Dodger uniform.

     But the powers that be finally worked out that there would be a 60 game season, expanded playoffs, and a universal DH. So the season was set to start in July. Just prior to the start of the year, AF signed LH reliever, Jake McGee. But the big news was a 12 year 365 million dollar extension for Betts, insuring that the Dodger fans would get to see their newest star for many years.

    Well, we all know how 2020 went. The Dodgers dominated the league and the West. The Padres made it very interesting. Mookie was everything a fan could want.

    Muncy and Bellinger had really off years. Seager became one of the most dangerous hitters in the league. Pollock, Smith, and Taylor were solid all year. Price opted out because of Covid.

    They beat Milwaukee in the wild card round 2-0. Then sent SD home with a sweep in the NLDS. The Braves took them to 7 games and were up 3-1 and the Dodgers came back.

     Then the World Series in Texas and fans were there to watch them finally win a title with a 4-2 World Series win. Seager was the MVP. Urias was lights out coming out of the pen. Kersh won 2 games erasing earlier failures. And the burden of 32 years was gone.

     We go into this season with a lot of confidence in this team. They are loaded. Who knows who is going to step up and make a difference. It is almost time for Dodger Baseball! The only thing missing is Vinny.

   Fans will finally get to see the upgrades to the ole’ ballyard.  If LA goes to Orange, 18,000 fans will be allowed in. Let’s all hope for an injury-free year, and a successful defense of the title. GO DODGERS.