Exactly How Disappointing Were the 2023 Los Angeles Dodgers?

Published on by Dennis Schlossman

While some fans of the Los Angeles Dodgers held onto a shred of hope that their beloved team would advance deeply into the 2023 postseason, others knew that an exit without bringing home a championship was inevitable.

They just didn’t think it would happen so soon.

A lot of us hoped that an offense that was so impressive most of the year could balance out a pitching staff that was hammered by injuries and one disgraceful leave of absence. Unfortunately, those hopes never became a reality. The bats never really showed up, almost replicating the same performance against the San Diego Padres in the National League Division Series nearly a year ago.

The group that became the first quartet in franchise history to register 100 RBI apiece — Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, J.D. Martinez and Max Muncy — were essentially shut down by an Arizona Diamondbacks pitching staff that finished 20th in the majors in team ERA during the regular season.

Regardless, to answer the question, although overcoming tons of adversity to hit the century mark in regular season wins was quite impressive, losing to a division rival and heading home after three short games frustrating and disappointing to all those close to the organization.

The problem is that the script is becoming quite familiar for the franchise — a stellar regular season and an early playoff exit without meeting expectations.

The bigger question might surround whether ownership is happy with the way the team is performing, or if the organization will try to invest in the resources to put the club over the top. More specifically, does the franchise value a World Championship as much as a steady stream of revenue and profitability?

Although there’s a lot of youth beginning to emerge and plenty of talent returning next year, there are still a bunch of holes to fill over the winter.

The starting rotation is basically non-existent right now aside from Bobby Miller. Even if Clayton Kershaw comes back on another one-year deal, there’s no telling how much he’ll contribute. Walker Buehler should rejoin the club, but it’s tough to say if he’ll ever return to his 2021 form when he started 33 games and posted 16 wins with a 2.47 ERA and 200 punchouts.

Julio Urias is gone, and there’s a slim chance Lance Lynn will return. Tony Gonsolin will miss the entirety of 2024. With any luck, Dustin May could return sometime after the All-Star break.

While youngsters like Ryan Pepiot, Michael Grove, Emmet Sheehan and Gavin Stone might end up being decent starting pitchers at some point, neither one is probably ready to shoulder a workload of 25 or more starts.

How the team looks in 2024 might be determined by how much the Dodgers are willing to spend. What we do know is that several additions are a must. Will the front office spend big on a free-agent top-tier starter like Blake Snell or Aaron Nola, or settle for something less like Kenta Maeda or Sonny Gray? Or will a blockbuster trade occur at this year’s Winter Meetings?

As far as position players go, there are several key decisions that will need to be made, primarily shortstop, third base, second base and designated hitter.

Martinez is a free agent, and the team must decide whether they want to honor Muncy’s $10 million club option. More importantly, will the team bank on Gavin Lux returning and contributing enough to be the everyday shortstop, or will they back him up with a legitimate insurance policy?

Rumors about signing Shohei Ohtani have been full steam for over a year, but it’s hard to imagine front-office boss Andrew Friedman investing a fortune in a player with so many question marks surrounding his health.

Whatever happens, the months and weeks leading up to spring training will certainly be interesting.

And we’ll all be along for the ride, despite all the disappointment we’re feeling right now.

31 thoughts on “Exactly How Disappointing Were the 2023 Los Angeles Dodgers?”

  1. Baseball is a pitching dominant sport. The Dodgers starting rotation at the start of the year was decimated along with losing their SS. Losing Urias was the final nail in their coffin as winning the first game would have changed everything. Kershaw should retire.
    I like the young arms and frankly winning the season doesn’t matter much if you lose in the first round.
    Roberts ADMITTED the last two year playoff losses were on him. It is the manager that has to get the players ready to play. He is incapable to do that in the playoffs and his horrible in-game decisions will not allow the Dodgers to ever win the WS with him at the helm. Pinch hitting with Barnes? Keeping Lynn on the mound? Roberts doesn’t have the FIRE! you have to run a team he treats it like a country club.
    If the Dodgers stay with Roberts they are telling us that as long as they lead the league in ticket sales winning the WS is not their priority.
    The young arms have more experience. Many teams would do anything to have this much young pitching talent. They can at minimum used as great trade chips. I am hoping that three guys in the rotation are Buehler, Miller and Pepiot.
    I think this loss of face will make the Dodgers go all out for Ohtani to distract from this disaster.
    I do not like guys that strike out and pop up. Muncy and Taylor are my least favorite players on the Team. I am sure they will pick up Muncy’s option but I prefer they promote Busch and Vargas and maybe use Muncy as at minimum as a DH. His defense is poor at a critical spot.

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  2. Good, thought provoking post, Dennis.

    Some random thoughts on 2024:

    Pitching – I think Miller and Pepiot are ready to be full-time rotation pieces. My gut feeling is that Grove is seen as a multi-inning reliever and I think Stone needs another year at AAA. Not really sure if Sheehan’s future is in the rotation or the bullpen. If we assume CK is going to retire and Buehler will come back throwing at least 90% as effectively as before surgery, that still leaves a need for more pitching. I’m not a Snell fan, although I think he’s an excellent pitcher. Too many walks, a slightly scary injury history and Boras as an agent. I’ll pass. No way Lynn is asked back. I’m ready to go all in on Japanese star right-hander Yamamoto and also interested in a Japanese lefty by the name of Shota Imanaga. Both will be posted this winter and Yamamoto is still only 25. If Nola, Sonny Gray or Montgomery are signable for the right price, I’m in. As an end-of-the-rotation piece, I’d even consider offering Ryu a one-year contract to come back.

    Position players – I’d like to see Mookie moved permanently to the infield to team with Lux. As to who plays short and who plays second I’ll leave that up to someone else to decide. We need to pick up Muncy’s option, because, if nothing else, it’s a valuable asset and could easily be traded. I wouldn’t let him get near 3B any longer, so if he isn’t going to be the 2024 DH, I’d trade him. He still has value. DeLuca, Vargas and Busch all need to be given a good look next year (unless they’re traded this winter) but I’d also be interested in signing a Korean outfielder by the name of Jung Hoo Lee, who will be posted this year and has excellent bat to ball skills.

    I don’t expect us to be high bidder on Ohtani, but you never know. I’m kind of conflicted on whether I even want us to sign him, so I’ve decided to be happy with whatever outcome I’m presented.

    I’m more or less neutral on whether I want to retain Roberts. I can’t think of too many guys that I think would do that much better. The one guy I’d make the change for in a second is Chase Utley. I’d love to see him back here as manager.

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      1. Last I heard, Utley and his family are living in England, promoting baseball throughout Europe.

        Not sure if he’d ever sign on to managing a 162 game MLB schedule while his kids are still young, but who says we give him a choice?

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      3. Yeah, that’s a side note all right, WAAAAY off to the side.

        Hamels making a comeback is an annual rite of spring. Rich Hill is doing it the right way, he’s just never going to retire in the first place. Can’t come back from where you’ve never been.

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  3. The so called “youngster” pitchers are all 24-26 years old except for the 23 year old Sheehan. The organization needs to stop babying these guys and retarding their development. Stop signing old guys like Lynn who they think are going g to magically pitch like they did several years ago just because they now wear Dodger Blue. Same goes on offense. Use the young talent.

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    1. I’ve been saying that for a long time Gary. Get the young guys on the roster and see if they are really prospects. The league is full of 23/24 year old pitchers, now more so than ever. We seem to wait til they are 27 to find out Oops, who’s next. This year because of injury the prospects got more than a few games to prove themselves. Didn’t see much big league talent, but first year is tough to tell. Also worse noting that Arizona lineup had 4 position players under 25. We had 4 position players over 35. We had nobody at all on the farm so went out and signed Wong for bench depth.

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      1. Didn’t see much big league talent? Not sure who you’re referring to Gordon.

        You don’t think Outman showed much big league talent? He accumulated over 3.0 bWAR which by most standards for a rookie is a very nice showing. 20 homers, 70 rbi hitting from the 7-9 hole in the lineup and better than average fielding grades.

        How about Bobby Miller? No, he won’t be considered for the Cy Young this year but in my opinion he showed an extreme amount of talent which will only get better in the coming years. But I think, even in 2023 he showed big league talent.

        And then we have Pepiot. A 2.14 ERA, vast improvement over last year and almost 8 times as many k’s as walks. I think that’s big league talent.

        I’ll agree that the jury is still out on Grove (who got better as the year went on, but still has something to prove), Stone (I’ll admit the results were not good, so he did not show big league talent this year) and Vargas (who would have to consider 2023 a failure at the big league level).

        Busch didn’t get enough of a look to show anything one way or the other.

        Maybe we don’t actually disagree on this since I’m not sure what your definition of “not much big league talent” is but I think the positive debut of 3 rookies who have shown they should be starters next year is very good progress.

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  4. Oops. Didn’t mean to confuse you Jeff. Outman was a 50 day wonder, disappeared, came back ( that’s good) then disappeared again ( not good) . Jury’s out on him, but not really who I was referring to.
    Miller actually surprised me . He was at times good but Inconsistent ( normal rookie). Couldn’t assess pepoit in those few innings. Rest were just former prospects struggling along.
    Vargas and Busch just didn’t make the cut, or at least weren’t in the same category as Wong and Kiki.
    If those 3 guys were 23/24 I would totally agree with you. But.
    I know I’ve wrong before about prospects before. Wait! I don’t think I have. Correct me if I have. Please .

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  5. Right Gary. I’m actually a Vargas fan. Monster in double A, Monster in triple A. Almost hit 200 with a good run with dodgers. Gave him a good shot. Then they sign Wong, who also couldn’t hit 200 for the playoffs. Tells me the dodgers know something that we do not. As we know the world is full of guys who can hit in the minors but are now bagging groceries at safeway. Right Jeff.

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    1. If they’re ex-Dodgers, they’re more likely bagging at Ralphs or Vons than at Safeway.

      Once they turn 26 and aren’t on an obvious path to Cooperstown, they bus them over to Ralphs and drop them off at the door.

      So are you saying that after giving Vargas a 250 AB shot, he is now considered hopeless? Or are you willing to hang on to him for another year to see if maybe he’s just a slow learner at the big league level?

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      1. No. Too much minor league talent to discard yet. But he also had a little introduction the previous year with the same results. And the dodgers saw enough to send him down permanently even when he again became a monster down there again. Not very encouraging as far as I can see.
        And name me 1 ex-dodger working at Vons or Ralph’s.

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      3. Lol. Everyone knows that. I meant to say name me 2 ex-dodgers bagging groceries at Vons or Ralph’s.

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      4. You should see Broxton with a meat cleaver. There’s the windup……………………………..
        (come to think of it I seem to remember Broxton only pitched from the stretch)

        I hear Vons is holding a spot in the produce department for Kolten Wong or Amed Rosario. Whoever (or is that whomever) claims it first gets the gig.

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    2. What we know is that the Dodgers have a large bias toward veterans even if they are having the worst year of their career as Wong was.

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      1. Can’t argue with your point about veteran bias.
        In a playoff scenario, all things being equal, they’ll go for the veteran.

        On the other hand, if we look at Wong, they wanted another lefty bat. Really, the only other option I can think of would have been Busch.

        In his time with the Dodgers (Dodger numbers only, regular season) Wong’s line was .300/.353/.500/.853, which was nothing to sneeze at. He had 8 RBI in 30 at bats whereas Busch had 7 RBI in over 70 at bats. I can’t argue with putting him on the playoff roster. If we’re going to lay blame for getting wiped out by the D’backs, I’m putting Wong way down the list.

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  6. Pingback: Exactly How Disappointing Were the 2023 Los Angeles Dodgers? – Think Blue Planning Committee – California Local Vivrr

    1. I was not disappointed at all. In fact, I was surprised they won as many as they did. I expected a lot less especially when they had injuries to so many key pieces.

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      1. I agree Michael. They had a really unbelievable year with a few injuries and few rookies and the fact they played 25/30 less games against west division teams, which I thought was probably worth 10 or 12 extra loses. Somehow they still won 100 games. Next year is another question that will probably be resolved during the off season.

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