Jorge Castillo
Jorge Castillo
ESPN Staff WriterESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024. andÂ
Alden Gonzalez
Alden Gonzalez
ESPN Staff WriterESPN baseball reporter. Covered the L.A. Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the L.A. Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016.
Multiple Authors
Apr 17, 2026, 12:00 AM
The Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets have a combined payroll of more than $1 billion — but only one of them is getting their money’s worth so far.
The Dodgers completed a three-game sweep of the most expensive series ever Wednesday night, improving their record to an MLB-best 14-4 and sending the Mets to their eighth straight loss. The Mets fell to 7-12 and are in last place in the National League East.
It’s early. But what did we learn about these two teams this week — and what have we learned so far this season? ESPN MLB writers Alden Gonzalez and Jorge Castillo break down the Dodgers and Mets, respectively.
Three things we’ve learned about the Dodgers
1. Their lineup is deep.
Yes, everybody basically knew that going in, but perhaps not to this degree. Consider: Mookie Betts is out with an oblique injury, Kyle Tucker has been one of their worst hitters, Shohei Ohtani only got going recently … and yet the Dodgers rank near the top of the majors in almost every major offensive category.
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Most of the production has been coming from the bottom of the lineup. Their Nos. 7, 8 and 9 hitters have combined for a .935 OPS. That not only leads the majors; it’s 130 points higher than the second-place Atlanta Braves. It’s also just 10 points shy of Juan Soto’s OPS from 2023 to 2025. That won’t last, but neither will the struggles and absences of their top three hitters. And Andy Pages, who generally bats eighth when everyone is healthy, could alter the dynamic.
Pages struggled so badly down the stretch last season that he was benched in the playoffs, but he’s a 25-year-old with 30/30 potential, and he has seemingly made important strides in his second full season. It’s not just his .409 batting average and 20 RBIs. It’s his approach. Pages is seeing more pitches and striking out less often, and he has made mechanical tweaks to his batting stance — staying slightly more crouched, keeping his bat path shorter and limiting his head movement — that are helping him put up elite hard-hit rates.
2. Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto will push each other.
Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior talked about it in spring training, recalling how sharing a rotation with Kerry Wood in the early 2000s elevated his game. He then saw how Zack Greinke, Hyun Jin Ryu and Walker Buehler were made better by becoming teammates of Clayton Kershaw. And he believes it will happen now, too, because Ohtani and Yamamoto are both chasing something: a Cy Young Award, something no Japanese pitcher has ever won.
Yamamoto has gone at least six innings while giving up no more than two runs in all four of his starts this season. Ohtani has been charged with just one earned run in 18 innings, allowing just 14 baserunners and striking out 18.
The Dodgers are slow-playing Blake Snell’s return from shoulder fatigue. On any given week, they have no idea what to expect out of Roki Sasaki. But their starting-pitching depth continues to be the envy of baseball, with Tyler Glasnow a capable frontline starter, Justin Wrobleski and Emmet Sheehan showing encouraging signs of late, and River Ryan waiting in the wings. At the top, though, it’s Ohtani and Yamamoto. And they might spend all year trying to one-up each other.
“Iron sharpens iron,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I’m not going to say it’s a competition, but I do think they both make each other better.”
3. The Dodgers won the World Series last year despite a disastrous bullpen. It’s better this year.
That’s not just because the Dodgers splurged on star closer Edwin Diaz — it’s because Tanner Scott might be getting back to his dominant form of 2023 and 2024. Roberts has used Scott in a variety of roles already this season — low leverage, in the middle of a jam and, most recently, as a setup man — and Scott has responded by allowing just one run and zero walks in 8â…” innings.
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“Everything was wrong last year,” Scott said. “I had a terrible year. I just wanted to get back to what I was good at in ’23 and ’24.”
Scott, 31, has been better at getting his bottom half synced up and preventing himself from flying open with his delivery (he checks with assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness after every outing to make sure). After a year in which he believes he threw “way too many” strikes, Scott has also been better at throwing what he believes are the right strikes — on the edges when he gets ahead in counts.
“Just placing it better,” Scott said. “Just commanding it. I was throwing strikes last year, but sometimes strikes aren’t good.”
The Dodgers are still waiting to get three key right-handed relievers back off the injured list in Brusdar Graterol, Evan Phillips and Brock Stewart. But it seems as if they dodged a bullet with their best right-hander, DÃaz, who exhibited diminished velocity last Friday and hasn’t pitched since. DÃaz felt tenderness in his surgically repaired right knee, but he said he felt good throwing a bullpen session Tuesday and was getting ready to pitch the ninth inning Wednesday before the Dodgers blew the game open in the bottom of the eighth.
“I’m good to go,” DÃaz said. “I feel good.”
Three things we’ve learned about the Mets
1. The Mets are not on the Dodgers’ level yet.
Steve Cohen’s goal when he bought the Mets in November 2020 was to create the East Coast Dodgers. That requires elite organizational depth, which was why he hired David Stearns from the Milwaukee Brewers to run baseball operations after the 2023 season. For now, the organizations remain miles apart.
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Losing Juan Soto for a few weeks was a brutal break. But the Mets’ roster, after a transformative offseason that included remaking the position player core, is too expensive for the offense to crater without one player — even if that player has a $61.875 million salary this season.
Look at the Dodgers. Betts, their starting shortstop and a future Hall of Famer, also went on the injured list early in the season and they’ve kept on humming. Yes, they employ Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith and other stars. But Pages, a 25-year-old homegrown center fielder, has been one of the top hitters in baseball.
The Dodgers spend money and develop talent at the highest level. The difference was on display this week.
2. The Mets need Soto back as soon as possible.
Luis Robert Jr. and Francisco Alvarez have been bright spots for the offense. That’s about it. New York ranks 27th in the majors in runs scored per game, 29th in wRC+ and 27th in extra-base hits.
Francisco Lindor (71 wRC+), Bo Bichette (65 wRC+) and Marcus Semien (53 wRC+), who will make a combined $102.1 million this season, are off to horrid starts. Mark Vientos, 0-for-23 with eight strikeouts over his past seven games, batted third Monday against the Dodgers. Jorge Polanco batted third Tuesday and might go on the injured list with left Achilles bursitis. Brett Baty, who batted third in Wednesday’s series finale, has a 30 wRC+.
The Mets scored just three runs in the three games against the Dodgers, with 12 hits and 27 strikeouts.
It’s early. Lindor, a notorious slow starter, and Bichette, one of the best contact hitters in the sport, should rebound. The Mets believe the 35-year-old Semien has more in the tank, though his last two seasons do not suggest a return to All-Star level. But this offense lacks pop and a consistent presence without Soto. The Mets need him back and healthy.
3. Nolan McLean is the real deal.
The 24-year-old right-hander has picked up where he left off last season with a 2.28 ERA through four starts. His fourth outing against the Dodgers on Tuesday was his best: seven innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts.
Nobody spins the baseball quite like McLean. His sweeper moves 21 inches to his glove side, the second-largest horizontal break in the majors. His curveball moves 17.5 inches to his glove side and has the highest spin rate in baseball. Oh, and his 95 mph sinker moves 17.6 inches to his arm side and has been one of the best pitches in the sport with a run value of four.
He’s the third pitcher since 1900 to collect at least 80 strikeouts and allow 20 or fewer runs in his first 12 career appearances, joining Matt Harvey and Paul Skenes. His 2.13 ERA through 12 starts ranks second in franchise history.
The Mets acquired Freddy Peralta, a two-time All-Star in his prime, over the offseason, but McLean is the club’s ace. The only question is whether McLean can handle a full major league season’s workload after logging 113â…” innings in the minors and 48 in the majors in 2025.