This story was excerpted from Sonja Chen’s Dodgers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
One year ago, as the Dodgers set out to do what no big league club had done in a quarter century -- repeat as champions -- manager Dave Roberts had a message for his team: Be the hunter, not the hunted.
Every World Series champion has a target on its back the following year. That was especially true for the 2025 Dodgers, who refused to rest on their laurels and made several notable additions in free agency. Rather than play under attack, Roberts wanted his team to go on the offensive.
Roberts' message was more or less the same this year, with the Dodgers looking to join the Yankees and A's as the only Major League clubs to three-peat, but with a twist. Starting from the first day of full-squad workouts, Roberts instructed his team: Be a greyhound.
"Just looking forward," Roberts said. "There's going to be distractions, but we just got to keep our blinders on and not worry about who's to the side of us and who's chasing us."
Here's a look ahead at what could be a statement season for the Dodgers.
What needs to go right: Do the little things, all year long
They may be back-to-back champions, but the Dodgers went through some ugly stretches last season. Once the calendar flipped to October, they played their best baseball, but that wasn't the case from start to finish. They don't need to vie for a regular-season win record, but it would serve the Dodgers well to secure a first-round bye for the postseason. Other than the obvious -- staying healthy -- they need to produce more consistent offense and play cleaner defense on a regular basis to accomplish that.
Great unknown: Roki Sasaki
Sasaki had a redemptive postseason, thriving in a new relief role. He will start this season in the Dodgers' rotation, but he has not done much to give the team confidence this spring. If we learned anything from his bullpen stint, it's that it may only be a matter of putting things together for Sasaki, who dominated in Nippon Professional Baseball and came to the Majors with sky-high expectations last year. He'll get the chance to do so at the big league level -- and should get an extended look with starters Blake Snell and Gavin Stone beginning the season on the injured list.
Team MVP will be ... Shohei Ohtani
This feels like a lazy choice, but what else can you say? There are multiple Dodgers who could be in the MVP conversation this year. New addition Kyle Tucker could be primed for his best season yet. Mookie Betts is determined to get himself back into consideration, and it's hard to count out Freddie Freeman, even in his age-36 season. But if Ohtani stays healthy and effective on the mound for the whole year -- in addition to what he contributes at the plate -- there's really no contest. He's won four unanimous MVPs for a reason.
Team Cy Young will be ... Yoshinobu Yamamoto
A healthy, dominant Ohtani could make a serious run at this piece of hardware, but the World Series MVP gets the nod. Yamamoto showed the baseball world exactly why the Dodgers committed $325 million and 12 years to him before he had thrown a big league pitch after he emerged as the team's ace and astonished on the postseason stage last year. He came to L.A. as a three-time winner of NPB's top pitching honor, the Eiji Sawamura Award. It feels like only a matter of time until he earns the Major League equivalent.
Bold prediction: The three-peat bid will succeed
Does this really count as bold when the Dodgers are the favorites? Historically speaking, yes. Being a back-to-back champion is uncommon enough. Three-peating is a rarity. The Dodgers learned how difficult it was to defend their title last year, and that experience should inform how they handle this year. Going back to back to back is unlikely. But this Dodgers team might just get it done.