The Dodgers seemed unready to win either of the last two World Series heading into the playoffs. With their upgrades this year, will this year be “easier?” The answer is probably.

Los Angeles Dodgers

The Dodgers prefer to win with starting pitching leading the way and more than enough firepower to cover for any off days. The problem the last two years is that the starters keep ending up in the hospital having surgery.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto leads the staff. When he’s on, pitching looks effortless and easy. That’s hard to do. He’s a CY Young candidate every year and led the team in starts last year with 30.

Tyler Glasnow leads the parade of pitchers who missed significant time last year. In 18 games, he was very good (3.18 ERA, 1.10 walks and hits per inning pitched) He only averaged five innings per start.

Emmet Sheehan could be the most important Dodger pitcher. Last year, he posted a 2.81 earned-run average in 15 games. If he can give quality starts as the fourth starter after Shohei Ohtani’s expected four-inning outings, the bullpen will be able to catch a rest. Ohtani threw in only 14 games last year and is starting the year with a pitch count limit of between 70 and 80.

Roki Sasaki is listed as the fifth starters. He’s incredibly talented. But, again, he was hurt in 2025 and pitched in only 10 games. Justin Wrobleski is the lone likely lefty starter to begin the year. Blake Snell is the other, but he is…wait for it…injured.

The Dodgers would be wise to give Daulton Rushing more starts to ease the load on catcher Will Smith. Rushing hit only .204 last year, but that was after an awful summer. He hit .286 in September. L.A could use him to give first baseman, Freddie Freeman a day off. Freeman is 36.

Santiago Espinal’ addition should not be overlooked. He’s basically a .250 hitter, but he plays seven positions. The Dodgers have used those guys to great effect in their dynastic run of the last decade. He and Miguel Rojas will see a lot of time.

Max Muncy (the older one) and Mookie Betts round out the infield.

Teoscar Hernandez, Andy Pages, and Kyle Tucker will roam (or in Hernandez’s case…) with Alex Call and Enrique “Kiké” Hernández giving them a five-man outifield. Hernández will be late to the party, though, having just had elbow surgery.

All told, they look great on paper…100-win great. But if the injuries stack up again, they could get very ordinary very quickly.

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San Francisco Giants

New man in charge and he’s looking to see clouds of dust between the bases. Tony Vitello turned Giants runners loose to the tune of 24 stolen bases in the pre-season. Last year, under Bob Melvin, the team had just 60 stolen bases for the entire year.

With Buster Posey as General Manager, Vitello should not have to worry too much about professional egos challenging the new skipper, even though he is in his first year as a professional manager after a successful run at the University of Tennessee.

Posey has already picked up pieces to make Vitello’s job easier. Professional hitter, Luis Arraez hit .292 last year, which was the worst year of his seven-year career. Jung Hoo Lee can handle the bat and steal a base. Rafael Devers has moved to first, whether he wanted to or not. The average was down (.252), but he hit 35 bombs and drove in more than 100. Who protects him? The Giants have a bunch of guys who sink or swim at the plate. It seems like the hope is one of them will come through even if the others whiff. Willy Adames had 30 homers, but hit .225. Matt Chapman didn’t hit for average or power. Heliot Ramos had 21 bombs, The possible feel-good story of the year in Major League Baseball? Jared Oliva, who was last in the big leagues in 2021. The weakness of the team seems to be depth as the roster is rounded out by Jerar Encarnacion, a career .218 hitter.

Logan Webb leads the team onto the field every fifth day and leads by example. He is a fierce competitor, but not one who loses his head. His style works well at Oracle Park. You can’t earn 224 Ks in 207 innings without throwing the ball over the plate. He seems the perfect leader for a group of veterans and talented youngsters. Robbie Ray (186 Ks, 3.65 ERA) proved to be worth the gamble last year in his first full season back from injury. He’s left-handed, which will help the Giants match up against the Dodgers in at least one game during a series. Landon Roupp (3.80 ERA) has a high WHIP of 1.45 for his young career but has been able to get out of trouble. I’m not sure how long that will last. Adrian Houser (3.21 ERA, 92 Ks in 125 IP) pitches to contact. Tyler Mahle’s ERA was almost half his career mark. If he’s even decent, he seems poised to be a solid fifth starters. If he’s as good as he was last year? Look out for the Giants. With their pitching, they should make the playoffs: 92 wins

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For the San Diego Padres, the starting staff isn’t bad. Nick Pivetta (13-5, 2.87 ERA in ’25) was great. But every starter is just a little bit worse than the Dodgers. Griffin Canning and Joe Musgrove (On the Injured List) are good with sub 3.88 ERAs coming off last year, but not Glasnow and Ohtani good.

Speaking of Ohtani (.282, 55 HRS, 102 RBIs) can you really say Nick Castellanos (.250, 17 HR, 72 RBI) is anywhere even close to him as a designated hitter? Nope, though the playoffs should have given opposing pitchers a much better idea of how to pitch to him- high and tight with the fastball, breaking stuff in the dirt.

Gavin Sheets (19 Hr, 71 RBI) isn’t Freddie Freeman. Xander Bogaerts (.263, 11 HR) isn’t Betts. Machado (.275, 27 HR, 95 RBI) is better than Muncy.

The outfield is on par. Ramón Laureano (.281, 24 HR, 76 RBI) is just as good as Tucker, Jackson Merrill is on par with Pages. Fernando Tatis is better overall than Teoscar Hernandez, but not by as much as we all figured five years ago.

They’re good, just not good enough. 88 wins.

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Arizona Diamondbacks

Zack Gallen and Ryne Wilson lead the staff, with Eduardo Rodriguez, Brandon Pfaadt, and Michael Soroka bring up the rear. It is not a starting five built for success. Corbin Burnes (3.15 career ERA) could return in July, which would make things interesting, if he doesn’t suffer the typical performance issues of pitchers when they first return from Tommy John surgery. Merrill Kelly (3.77 career ERA) is either recovering from an irritated intercostal nerve, or he is shooting the sequel for Cabin Boy, Groundhog Day, or There’s Something About Mary.

James McCann and Gabriel Moreno make a nice offensive catching tandem and McCann has valuable experience that Moreno will need. Carlos Santana is 39 and is playing like it. Eleven homers like he hit last year isn’t going to help this club. Paving Smith only hit eight. Ketel Marte is a solid number-two, three or five hitter (.283, 28 HR, 72 RBI), but he might end up being the cleanup guy. Same assessment goes for Geraldo Perdomo (.290, 20 HR, 100 RBI, 27 stolen bases. Same goes for Corbin Carroll (.259, 31 HR, 84 RBI, 32 SB). Leadoff works for either Carroll or Perdomo. Arizona would love it if Nolan Arenado returns to form. He hit 45 points below his career average last year and had only 12 homers in 400 at-bats. He’s going into his 14th season. Ildemaro Vargas reminds me of Miguel Rojas from the Dodgers. He plays everywhere and hits pretty well for a bottom-of-the-lineup guy. Alek Thomas, Jordan Lawlor, and Jorge Barrosa round out the team.

With this pitching staff, three good hitters and a bunch of guys is not going to get them to the playoffs. They will wreck some weekends, though. 73 wins.

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Colorado Rockies

Hunter Goodman (.278, 31 HRs, 78 RBI) can hit, which is nice to have from your catcher.

After that you have what from your infielder, hmmm, let’s see, Ezequiel Tovar (.253, 9 HR, 33 RBI).

In the outfield, Jordan Beck’s numbers aren’t a ton better. And after that, you have a bunch of guys with little experience. They could be spectacularly bad. But, they’re young. The Houston Astros were young once. They rebounded to win a couple of World Series and prove their owners right for having tanked to get draft picks. It’s really hard to put a number on this. They won 43 last year. With the theory you have to win at least once out of every four days, we’ll say 41 is the number. That would tie them with the Chicago White Sox for the worst modern-day season ever. Who knows? They could be better if all of the youth plays decently. But, man, they are sooooo young!