Ohtani’s determination to pitch and the Dodgers’ dubious decision to let him push his return from injury left their best player compromised for the playoffs. Ailments that arose in early summer carried into October, with Ohtani physically absent from the mound and figuratively so from the plate.

It was exactly the scenario the Dodgers pledged to avoid, and it ultimately played a key role in their downfall.

It’s fair to wonder why neither party surrendered to the obvious need to rest the four-time MVP, especially given the Dodgers’ jarring elimination by the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series.

The club was right to give Ohtani the benefit of the doubt when he identified knee soreness in June. Where the Dodgers erred was allowing him to try to pitch through those injuries when the workload was clearly becoming detrimental.

Friedman spent most of his news conference reflecting on those choices.

“How do we manage through a long season and have him at his best going into October? That’s a challenge,” Friedman said. “We have to figure that out together, and I’m confident that we will continue to learn from things as we go and continue to make it better.”

Game 4 of the WS has been the most exciting game so far. That’s including our series. Good for the Brewers just damn this hasn’t even felt like October. Bummer.

Edit: Nobody is giving you a medal for being the “you just don’t know ball!” Guy. Just because technically amazing on an ability level does not equal entertainment. You don’t know entertainment.

Edit: this game is a banger though! In case you missed the first line

As per Forbes, both owners are worth at least $1B, with the Rays owner having a financial downturn in the last year.

Despite failing to win it all this season, there are still quite a lot of things that we could be grateful for this season.

My personal favorite is Yoshi really cemented himself as Dodgers ace and GOAT level of endurance pitcher. This season he once again recorded elite stats with 2.53 ERA (3rd in NL and 5th in all MLB), 0.87 WHIP (2nd in both NL and MLB), and .182 BAA (2nd in both NL and MLB) within a very respectable volume in 185 IP (4th in both NL and MLB) and 28 Game started.

Not enough to make him win the Cy Young this season, but he was selected to the All Star for the second year in a row (despite once again not pitching there) and might put up a very solid argument for his second All MLB 1st Team.

All that by bein totally healthy with 0 injury (even minor) for the last 2 seasons, pitching to the very last out of the 2025 World Series, and started the seasons earlier than most pitchers with the 2025 Tokyo Series and 2026 World Baseball Classic.

He really cemented himself as a future Dodgers legend despite only playing with us for 3 seasons.

Honorable mention for me is how well our young talent is developed, especially the pitching unit. Roki, Sheehan, and Wrobbo definitely have a very promising future. Yes they still lack consistency, but they looks very promising. Rush also showed a very great result backing up Will for half of the season. Still needs to learn a lot, especially in managing starters (like the Ohtani case, lol) but he has the right learning attitude. JDP also showed the maturity level above his age on the plate despite the needs of learning how to field more.

What is yours?

Not counting Skubal, who do the Dodgers re-sign?

Kris Bubic

Eric Lauer

Alex Vesia

Evan Phillips

Blake Treinen

Brusdar Graterol

Kiké Hernández

Dodgers have enough starting pitching.
Bubic and Lauer are basically starters. Bubic was not effective in the playoffs, Lauer didn't even play.
Treinen will be 39. I think he hangs up the cleats.
Graterol is continually on IR.

Who gets re-signed?

Does Kiké come back?
Would Lauer or Bubic accept bullpen roles if re-signed?

Bullpen arms still on the roster:
Diaz (R)
Scott (L)
Wrobleski (L)
Dreyer (L)
Henriquez (R)
Stewart (R)
Hurt (R)
Klein (R)
Casparius (R)

I'm a Dodger fan, however, I actually don't hate the Brewers.

They played hard, decent baseball, and literally proved those who said small market team has no chance to compete against big market teams wrong...

And on a side note, I won't mind seeing Dustin May getting his 3rd ring too...

In fact, I even wish they sweep the Rays tomorrow... It will make me feel a bit better to see another team got swept by this same Brewers team...

That said, it is funny that many Brewers fans on u/baseball are this triggered by some of us saying this WS is boring...

I mean... It is boring...

It isn't just more boring than 2025. It is more boring than the 2016 too.

It is obviously not the Brewers' fault that it is boring, it is Tampa's fault that they can't get the 3rd out in the 5th...

So why get so triggered when we say this WS is boring...

I feel sorry for Brewers fans TBH... They are about to win their first WS, yet they are triggered by Dodgers fans' comment in u/baseball