{"id":251624,"date":"2026-04-04T13:01:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T13:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/251624\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T13:01:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T13:01:28","slug":"what-2026-regular-season-means-for-los-angeles-dodgers-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/251624\/","title":{"rendered":"What 2026 regular season means for Los Angeles Dodgers"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES — The identity of the 2026 Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> is presented in a 100-second hype video that airs before each home game. It\u2019s set to the beat of Billie Eilish\u2019s \u201cBad Guy\u201d and begins with a question, asked by actor Jason Bateman: What\u2019s wrong with being the bad guy? Near the end, Bateman summons Tony Montana, the fictional drug lord from the movie \u201cScarface\u201d: You need teams like us so you can point your finger and say, \u201cThat\u2019s the bad guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, yes, the Dodgers\u2019 marketing team is leaning into the \u201cbad guy\u201d narrative, even if the players are just along for the ride.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally don\u2019t care,\u201d Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts<\/a> said. \u201cYou can call us whatever you want to call us. At the end of the day, you\u2019ve got to go play the game. Villains, not villains, whatever — the game will determine who wins and who loses. The villains is outside noise.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the outside noise was loud last year, this year, after a second straight championship and a third consecutive blockbuster offseason, it will be deafening.<\/p>\n

With a bitter labor fight over the game\u2019s economics looming, it feels as if the entire sport has fixed its gaze on the Dodgers. It\u2019s them against everybody else. And while some, like Betts, find it best to ignore that reality, others, like Max Muncy<\/a>, seem to draw strength from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always have that target,\u201d the Dodgers\u2019 longtime third baseman said. \u201cIt\u2019s just going to be even bigger now. It\u2019s a challenge, but it\u2019s something we get to look forward to. We get to embrace it. That\u2019s what makes it fun. That\u2019s why you\u2019ve heard guys say, \u2018Being a Dodger is not for everybody.\u2019 You have to want to be out there and get everyone\u2019s best every single night. It just creates a challenge that you\u2019ve got to find a way to embrace.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers — 4-2 in their first homestand despite getting almost nothing from the top half of their star-studded lineup — will be challenged every night by opposing teams eager to take them down. Sometimes it will push them, other times it will wear on them. All throughout, though, the Dodgers\u2019 sights will be set on October. These six months are merely the buildup.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, we identified four themes that will shape their regular season.<\/p>\n

Break the regular-season wins record? The Dodgers don\u2019t care<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s championship team won 93 regular-season games, the Dodgers\u2019 lowest in a full season since 2018. In 2022 and 2023, they won a combined 211 times — only to get bounced in the National League Division Series each year. So while many outsiders have spent these past two years wondering if the Dodgers could reach 117 wins, surpassing the 1906 Chicago Cubs<\/a> and the 2001 Seattle Mariners<\/a> for the single-season record, nobody inside the Dodgers\u2019 clubhouse cares.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything\u2019s possible, certainly with this team, but that\u2019s not our north star,\u201d Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. \u201cIt\u2019s really not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their ultimate goal, of course, is a third straight championship, something no NL team has accomplished. But they still believe their best path is to secure home-field advantage and earn a first-round bye. The Dodgers survived a gauntlet last October, overcoming the randomness of a wild-card series, then playing the first two games of a best-of-five NLDS in Philadelphia and later having to win Games 6 and 7 of the World Series in Toronto.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll spend these next six months hyper-focused on avoiding that, regardless of how many wins it takes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many challenges to that three-game series,\u201d Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said. \u201cWe lose series throughout the course of the year to teams that aren\u2019t as talented as we are, but that\u2019s the nature of the game. So being able to avoid that three-game series and really set things up and use those five days to prepare is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

It almost feels like a distant memory at this point, but this era\u2019s Dodgers were long defined by dominant summers that only led to disappointing autumns. From 2013 to 2023, they won 10 division titles in 11 years, accumulated a major league-leading 1,031 regular-season wins — 91 more than the second-place New York Yankees<\/a> — and came away with only one championship, during the COVID-shortened 2020 season.<\/p>\n

The disappointments prompted an internal study to determine what failed. Some of it could be chalked up to the happenstance of October, but there was something about the way they prepared, about the way their rosters were built, about the way they approached the preceding six months.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers aren\u2019t sharing that report, but one thing is certain: maxing out on regular-season wins is not on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won 111 games four years ago and we got eliminated in the first round,\u201d Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman<\/a> said. \u201cI just want to be home in the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will they really use 40 pitchers again? \u2018It\u2019s far from an exact science\u2019<\/p>\n

The Dodgers set a franchise record by using 40 players to pitch in 2024. In 2025, amazingly, they did it again. And through that, they sharpened what has become an organizational ethos: Because pitchers are so susceptible to injury, and because it\u2019s so difficult to predict when or how they happen, the Dodgers have become methodical in the rehab process, often giving them way more time than they need.<\/p>\n

In short, they want to make sure that when pitchers return, they don\u2019t get hurt again.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing through a situation for guys to come back and either not be themselves or suffer injury spoke loudly,\u201d Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. \u201cAnd for us, it\u2019s about trying to build out the foundational steps in the rehab process to come back and stay back. And you can\u2019t possibly simulate the adrenaline and the stress of a major league game in that process, so we try to build up as much tolerance as we can to get them in the best spot to get back to stay back. But it\u2019s far from an exact science.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers did this with Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a> in 2024, then with Blake Snell<\/a>, Tyler Glasnow<\/a> and, to a certain extent, Shohei Ohtani<\/a> in 2025. This year, they\u2019re doing it with Snell again. He\u2019s a two-time Cy Young Award winner on a $182 million contract, but he was slowed by shoulder fatigue in spring training and is progressing slowly, not set to return until late May at the earliest.<\/p>\n

Snell being unavailable allows Roki Sasaki<\/a> and Justin Wrobleski<\/a> to get extended looks. Later, if any one of Yamamoto, Glasnow, Ohtani or Emmet Sheehan<\/a> need to miss time, the Dodgers can call up another promising pitching prospect in River Ryan<\/a>, who would help front most other major league rotations.<\/p>\n

Slow-playing starters is a luxury perhaps only the Dodgers possess.<\/p>\n

But if you\u2019re looking for a reason their regular-season win total might not match their talent level, this might be the biggest.<\/p>\n

Load management for an aging lineup? Stay tuned<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re wondering whether Freeman, now in his age-36 season, will take some additional time off this year, he already has that figured out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll miss probably two games when the baby comes,\u201d said Freeman, whose wife, Chelsea, is expecting the couple\u2019s fourth child. \u201cAnd then I always take the day off after we win the division, so that\u2019s three. A hundred and fifty-nine — that\u2019s good enough, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers are old, relatively speaking, especially on the position-player side (average age: 31.3, tops in the majors). One of their superstars, Freeman, is adamant about playing every day. Another, the 33-year-old Betts, now plays the second-most physically demanding position on the field. And given Ohtani\u2019s presence, the designated hitter is not an option to occasionally ease their workloads.<\/p>\n

Keeping those two players fresh isn\u2019t just critical to the Dodgers\u2019 chances of three-peating, but of extending their contention window as much as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo much of that is going to show itself in terms of how guys are moving, whether they\u2019re going to be able to stay in their legs when they\u2019re hitting,\u201d Friedman said of planning additional off-days for Freeman and Betts. \u201cThere are so many things that present themselves that will give us a much better sense of how aggressive we want to be in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he was learning shortstop in 2024 and the early part of 2025, Betts took hundreds of ground balls every day. Four hours before game time, he\u2019d already be drenched in sweat. The continual toll on his body became a cause for concern, but it was only temporary. Betts hadn\u2019t played shortstop since high school. He needed to build volume and create muscle memory. His pregame work has since been pared down significantly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt needed to be,\u201d Dodgers infield coach Chris Woodward said. \u201cYou can\u2019t physically keep doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before every game, Betts, Freeman, Muncy (35 years old) and Miguel Rojas<\/a> (37) are on the field for early defensive work. Often Woodward needs other coaches to help him navigate it all. It\u2019s a point of pride throughout the organization, a symbol of the dedication and meticulousness that has helped the Dodgers dominate this era. The work, Woodward stressed, is strategic and efficient. Rather than take a toll on their bodies, he believes it\u2019s a major reason they remain productive.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s partly why Freeman doesn\u2019t want days off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m old,\u201d he said. \u201cLike, I don\u2019t feel old, so it\u2019s hard to say that. And I know, I get it, in our sport, mid-30s is old in our job. But as players, our job is to be ready for the game that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can Ohtani win a Cy Young? Only if he maximizes his opportunities<\/p>\n

If there was any lingering doubt about Ohtani\u2019s readiness to be a traditional starting pitcher at the outset of this season, his six innings of one-hit ball on Tuesday should have erased it. Despite not pitching in his first spring training game until March 18, eight days before Opening Day, Ohtani is already a full-fledged member of this rotation, with the expectation being that, assuming good health, he will occupy a spot all season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe desire is high, and I think it\u2019s realistic,\u201d Roberts said of Ohtani going wire-to-wire as a starting pitcher, part of his grander ambitions to win a Cy Young Award. \u201cThen the bigger question is: How are we going to manage that and navigate it?\u201d<\/p>\n

It will consist mostly of additional days of rest. The Dodgers are opening this season with seven Thursday off-days in nine weeks, and they\u2019ll use them to give Ohtani additional time between starts. Ohtani\u2019s second pitching start is expected to come on Wednesday, at which point he\u2019ll take the mound on seven days\u2019 rest. Expect that to be the norm. In his three-year run as a two-way player with the Los Angeles Angels<\/a> from 2021 to 2023, Ohtani never started on the traditional four days\u2019 rest and made 40 of his 74 starts after at least six days off.<\/p>\n

Ohtani will be in the lineup every day. When he\u2019s pitching, he will be as unrestricted as any other starting pitcher. The only real way to manage his workload is to maximize his time between starts — a pursuit made easier by the Dodgers\u2019 pitching depth.<\/p>\n

How pitching impacts Ohtani\u2019s offense is also worth monitoring. Here\u2019s what the numbers — in this case, OPS — tell us.<\/p>\n

What can we conclude from this? It\u2019s hard to say. Some years Ohtani hit really well on his start days, some years he didn\u2019t. Some years there seemed to be a toll the day after his starts, some years not so much. Teams rely far more heavily on internal metrics and biomechanical data to determine their players\u2019 fatigue, not batted-ball outcomes. The Dodgers will do the same. Roberts said performance — good or bad — will not alter Ohtani\u2019s pitching schedule. The additional rest will simply be baked in, at least while it\u2019s feasible.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something Ohtani expects.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe the team should be prioritizing Yoshinobu, Glasnow, and Snell when he\u2019s back,\u201d Ohtani said through an interpreter. \u201cSo, I think it\u2019s easy to kind of fit me into that schedule whenever the team feels that\u2019s a good thing. What\u2019s most important is that we\u2019re all healthy in October.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES — The identity of the 2026 Los Angeles Dodgers is presented in a 100-second hype video…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,32374,32375],"class_list":["post-251624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-los-angeles-dodgers-sports-baseball-team-team-statscom-243","tag-shohei-ohtani-sports-baseball-player-player-statscom-727378"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}