No group in Main League Baseball is dealing with increased expectations and extra stress to win this season than the Los Angeles Dodgers. After a spending spree this offseason that included the document signing of two-way famous person Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers are dealing with World Collection or bust ranges of expectation.
Given their roster, they know they’re placing an enormous goal on their backs for the remainder of the league. A lot in order that Mookie Betts stated on Saturday that when different groups play the Dodgers they are going to be treating it like their very own World Collection.
That could be a daring declare, particularly for the reason that Dodgers should not even the defending World Collection champions. Nor did they even make the World Collection. In truth, they’ve persistently been a postseason disappointment in recent times regardless of their large payrolls and spectacular rosters. The one championship they’ve gained over the previous decade was the 2020 championship that got here within the COVID-shortened season.
Proclaiming your self to be the matchup everyone treats because the World Collection, while you your self should not the group proudly owning the newest title, is the peak of vanity. Even with their roster and offseason additions.
Together with Ohtani, the Dodgers additionally added Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Teoscar Hernandez to a group that already Betts, Freddie Freeman and Clayton Kershaw on it.
The Dodgers ought to be the most effective groups in baseball, and so they clearly realize it. But when they don’t make a severe run on the World Collection and have actual playoff success they run the chance of not solely being one of many greatest flops in current Main League Baseball historical past, but in addition utterly embarrassing themselves.