The $328.7 Million Dollar Mess
- Aaron Gandia
- Jun 21
- 3 min read
After spending over $450 million dollars in the offseason, the Los Angeles Dodgers were regarded as the consensus favorites to repeat as World Series Champions. As of June 21st, the Los Angeles Dodgers have a 47-30 record and are currently first in the NL West. Despite their record, it hasn't been smooth sailing for the Dodgers as they have 14 pitchers currently on the injured list. Before the season, the Dodgers were expected to dominate due to the quality and enormous quantity of pitchers on the roster.
The Dodgers lost a significant amount of their young starting pitching depth, including Edgardo Hernandez (foot), Kyle Hurt (elbow), River Ryan (elbow), Michael Grove (shoulder), and Gavin Stone (shoulder). Even though this group of pitchers wasn't expected to crack the starting rotation, if they weren't hurt, they would've served as phenomenal young depth, as a majority of the pitchers listed were former Top 100 prospects that all have either pitched two or fewer years in the majors.
Along with the injuries to the younger arms in the Dodgers' system, a majority of their bullpen has been plagued by injuries, including Kirby Yates (now active), Luis Garcia (unknown), Blake Treinen (forearm), Evan Phillips (elbow), and Brusdar Graterol (shoulder).
What has significantly hurt the Dodgers are the pitchers in the rotation that have been consistently unavailable due to injury.
Blake Snell is one of the many Dodgers pitchers currently on the IL, as he was supposed to be a big contributor to the rotation. The Dodgers signed him to a 5-year, $136.96 million deal in free agency to headline one of the best rotations in the game. Snell has been a consistent performer when he's been healthy, which isn't very common, but he's posted a 3.18 ERA throughout his career and has won two Cy Young awards, in 2018 and 2023, respectively. In 2025, he only pitched two games at the start of the season before being placed on the IL due to shoulder inflammation. He has yet to pitch since, and his timetable is uncertain.
During the 2023-2024 offseason, the Dodgers traded top prospects Ryan Pepiot (SP) and Jonny DeLuca (OF) to the Tampa Bay Rays for Tyler Glasnow and immediately signed him to a 5-year, $136.56 million contract. Glasnow was originally considered a top prospect and has always been dominant when healthy. However, he is never healthy, and he's been hurt every season in his major league career and has thrown only a maximum of 120 innings in a single season throughout his 10-year career. Glasnow performed to a 3.49 ERA supported by a 2.69 FIP in 130 innings to begin his Dodgers tenure in 2024. Unfortunately, his season was ended by an elbow injury midseason. Coming into the season, Glasnow hoped for an injury-free season, but after five starts, he suffered a shoulder injury that placed him on the 60-day IL. He's currently expected to begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A on Sunday.
During the offseason, the Dodgers signed Roki Sasaki to a $6.5 million signing bonus, which was less than what the San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays offered. Sasaki was regarded as the best international free agent in the 2025 class and one of the best pitchers to come out of Japan in recent history. However, the 23-year-old phenom didn't perform well at all in the eight games he started for the Dodgers. He posted a 4.72 ERA along with a 6.13 FIP and only had two more strikeouts than walks. Along with that, his fastball velocity is down to 96.3 mph compared to 98.4 mph in Japan. Sasaki was eventually placed on the 60-day IL due to a shoulder injury, and his timetable to return this season is uncertain.
The Dodgers have remained one of the most consistent teams in the league, making the playoffs 12 seasons in a row while finding ways to acquire new talent each season. Despite this, their recent track record of signing pitchers has backfired on almost every one of their pitchers, mostly not due to performance but due to injury. The team was always considered a great hive mind for developing pitchers but has now garnered a reputation for not being able to keep pitchers healthy. The Dodgers have still persevered throughout their enormous amount of pitching injuries and will most likely continue succeeding.
The Dodgers acquired a lot of depth in the offseason because they didn’t want to overpay at the deadline. It has saved them