How the Dodgers stack up in 2026 projections

It’s an opportune time to take stock of where things stand for the 2026 Dodgers.

The Winter Meetings have come and gone. The holiday season is arriving, and the calendar will soon flip to 2026. Los Angeles has made a few moves -- among them bringing back World Series hero Miguel Rojas and, most notably, landing free-agent closer Edwin Díaz -- but work remains to be done, even for the two-time defending champions.

FanGraphs’ 2026 depth charts projections provide a useful snapshot of where this roster stands, as of Tuesday, compared with the rest of the league. (That’s in terms of FanGraphs’ Wins Above Replacement, or WAR.) So let’s go position by position to gauge where the Dodgers are set and where they may look to improve.

Catcher: 9th in MLB (3.8 projected WAR)

Los Angeles has no worries behind the plate, where Will Smith gets it done year after year. If there’s intrigue here, it concerns whether Dalton Rushing becomes a solid No. 2 option in his age-25 season. Rushing entered 2025 as a top prospect, but he struggled mightily in his transition to the Majors. There’s also a chance the Dodgers could use him in a trade to address another need and look for a veteran backup instead.

First base: 5th in MLB (3.2 projected WAR)

Freddie Freeman is as dependable as they come. In four seasons as a Dodger, he’s averaged 153 games played. For the past two seasons, he’s been right around the 4-WAR mark. Freeman did turn 36 in September, though.

Second base: 23rd in MLB (2.0 projected WAR)

This is one of the more uncertain spots on the diamond for the Dodgers. The above projection includes three players getting significant playing time: Hyeseong Kim, Tommy Edman and Rojas (plus a bit of Alex Freeland). But each of those three primary options could also spend time elsewhere, including Edman in center field, if he can bounce back from a right ankle injury that hampered him in 2025. The Dodgers could also add someone else to this mix, although if the team is looking to bolster its lineup, the outfield might be a more logical target.

Third base: 12th in MLB (3.0 projected WAR)

Max Muncy continues to bring a potent bat to the table, but he’s also 35 and has been banged up over the past two seasons, playing a total of 173 games. That’s why he’s only projected here for 455 plate appearances. Freeland is the top backup listed, and it would be interesting to see what the 24-year-old switch-hitter could do with a more extended opportunity. Freeland struggled in a 29-game debut in 2025 (.601 OPS), but he enjoyed a stellar season at Triple-A and is ranked as MLB Pipeline’s No. 45 prospect (No. 4 in the Dodgers' system).

Shortstop: 5th in MLB (5.1 projected WAR)

When you take a step back, it’s truly remarkable that Los Angeles can enter 2026 feeling confident in having Mookie Betts as their regular shortstop. Betts was a top-10 defender at the position by Statcast’s Outs Above Average in '25, and while he’s now a year older, at 33, he also figures to be even more comfortable at the position. In a surprising twist, it’s now Betts’ bat that is perhaps the bigger question mark after his offensive numbers fell off considerably last season.

Left field: 18th in MLB (1.8 projected WAR)

Center field: 11th in MLB (2.9 projected WAR)

Right field: 14th in MLB (1.9 projected WAR)

We’ll take these together, since there is overlap among the three positions. (In fact, Andy Pages is projected to lead the Dodgers in playing time in both left and center.) While the team’s outfield situation is hardly dire -- it still ranks in the top half of the league overall -- it’s also not hard to see why this has been considered an area of need this offseason. There are question marks about Edman’s health and Teoscar Hernández’s defense, and as things currently stand, players such as Alex Call and Ryan Ward (who would be a 28-year-old rookie) are projected to get significant at-bats in backup roles. A top free agent such as Kyle Tucker or Cody Bellinger, or a notable trade acquisition, would obviously change the equation, and this might be the spot most worth watching over the rest of the offseason.

Designated hitter: 1st in MLB (5.5 WAR)

The Dodgers have Shohei Ohtani. What more needs to be said?

Starting rotation: 1st in MLB (17.1 WAR)

If you think back to the 2025 postseason, this should be no surprise. Whenever the Dodgers have the bulk of their rotation healthy and clicking at the same time, they are going to shut down a lot of lineups. The main question is how often that will happen. The good news for manager Dave Roberts is that he has options and depth beyond the team’s enviable top four of Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Ohtani. Roki Sasaki, Emmet Sheehan, River Ryan and Gavin Stone are just some of the young pitchers who will be in the mix for a rotation spot or available in reserve in 2026.

Bullpen: 1st in MLB (4.7 WAR)

If you think back to the 2025 postseason, this feels like a surprise. Then again, this was a top-five regular season bullpen by fWAR last season, and that was without Díaz closing games. The projections also see the Dodgers getting considerable rebounds in 2026 from the likes of Tanner Scott and Blake Treinen. A healthy Brusdar Graterol also would help, and once again, there is depth available, including from one or more of the starting candidates mentioned above. It would also be foolish to rule out the possibility of further additions to this mix as the winter progresses.