From Dodger Insider magazine: Heavy courage – the Dodgers take their fight into the 2024 postseason | by Cary Osborne | Oct. 2024

Editor's Note: This story is from the pages of Dodger Insider magazine, 2024, Volume 12. Magazines are available at the parking stall entrance at Dodger Stadium.

by Cary Osborne

THis answer was final. So clearly that manager Dave Roberts replied before the question was even finished: “Do you remember a season where there was so much individual adversity?”

“No, not at all,” Roberts said. “That’s at the top of the list.”

The Dodgers should be here.

Not that it was her right.

They needed to secure their 12th consecutive postseason berth. But they should be here because they had one of the deepest, most talented rosters in baseball from the first day of spring training. So deep and so talented that they could cover crises, disasters and the unexpected.

All of that happened.

But who would have thought that all five members of their starting lineup would be on the injured list to start the season, that two of them would suffer season-ending injuries (Tyler Glasnow and Gavin Stone), and that one would have his season ended this season Minor Leagues (Bobby Miller) and another would be on another team (James Paxton).

This left Yoshinobu Yamamoto alone at the end of the regular season. The Japanese league's most decorated pitcher of the last half-decade and a historic offseason free agent signing himself missed three months of the season with a rotator cuff injury. The injury raised some doubts about Yamamoto's ability to impact the Dodgers in October. Doubts from others. Not from the pitcher.

“Absolutely zero,” Yamamoto said of the doubts he had about returning.

The Dodgers endured Mookie Betts and Max Muncy missing several months of the season due to injuries. They remained a winning club despite extended slumps from others – in the lineup, in the rotation and in the bullpen.

“This is a remarkable achievement,” says Roberts. “We never ran away from it or made excuses. It was a challenging year. I do think it will be a lot sweeter when it's all said and done. But getting an invite to the postseason isn't a rite of passage. I really believe in it, just like some people think it is when you wear that uniform. It takes a lot of work and we’ve overcome a lot this year.”

Since Roberts took over as Dodger manager in 2016, every team has faced some sort of adversity — major injuries, player departures, COVID — you name it.

The first Roberts team — the 2016 squad — lost veteran star Andre Ethier to a broken leg for most of the season and Clayton Kershaw, who had a Cy Young Award-like season, to a herniated disc in his back for two and a half months.

The most recent Roberts team before 2024 — last year's unit — wasn't at its best on the starting pitching side heading into the 2023 postseason. The options were reserved for injured Clayton Kershaw, rookie Bobby Miller and trade deadline pickup Lance Lynn.

Still, every Roberts team was part of October baseball in his nine seasons.

The difference with the 2024 season is that so few players had a continuous season from Opening Day in Korea on March 20 to Game 162 in Colorado on September 29.

Even players who had standout seasons, like Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández, experienced some adversity.

Freeman, one of baseball's few Iron Men, missed eight games while his son Maximus was hospitalized with an illness. He missed the final three games of the season due to a sprained ankle.

Hernández had a scare when he was struck in the ankle on September 6th. Luckily, he only missed four games. Hernández finished the season as one of the majors' best offensive outfielders, hitting a career-best 33 home runs.

In the end, Freeman was one of the most productive hitters in the National League, ranking fourth in on-base percentage and sixth in OPS.

Other players overcame difficult phases and became integral parts of the team. Gavin Lux, for example, had three home runs, a .213 batting average and one of the lowest OPS in the majors at .562 at the All-Star break.

At the end of the season, he set career highs in home runs (10) and extra-base hits (36) and was one of the Dodgers' best offensive players in the second half.

The Dodgers used 40 different pitchers this season, a club record.

But the difficulties meant the Dodgers weren't the runaway train that won the division by double-digit games in 2024. They were the team that had to compete with the Padres for the NL West crown in the final week of the season.

Many believe this is a good sign for a team that had a disappointing recent postseason finish.

“I think we've been tested more this season, and we're hoping that as we get healthy and look more and more like the team we planned to be in the spring, it pays off for us in the long run.” says substitute Evan Phillips. “We still have to perform. This test will still take place on the field. But I think about the last few months where we were missing a man here, missing a man there, underperforming here, waiting to perform here, little things like that where we just didn't feel like it, like we've done it If we all click together at once, let's hope we continue to achieve the form we expected.”

Much of that spring hope was sparked by the arrival of Shohei Ohtani.

Ohtani actually had a straight line in 2024 – and it was vertical.

The Dodgers designated hitter was ever-present in the lineup and had one of the best offensive seasons in Dodger history. He broke single-season franchise records for home runs (surpassing Shawn Green's 49 in 2001) and extra-base hits (surpassing Babe Herman's 94 in 1930), while also becoming the first 50/50 player (50 home runs and 50 stolen bases) in major league history.

Ohtani also led the major leagues in added win probability statistics.

“I’m just glad we have Shohei on our team,” said Mookie Betts. “It seems like he gets through every big challenge.”

Ohtani is an obvious player to lead the Dodgers to the postseason. Miguel Rojas, winner of the Dodgers' 2024 Roy Campanella Award (the award given to the most inspirational Dodger), mentions Ohtani's name among the players who have steadied the ship. But he adds Lux, Kiké Hernández and Teoscar Hernández as those who promoted the team during the difficult times due to their availability throughout the season.

“They're kind of the main characters in this whole movie because they were there every day,” Rojas says.

Rojas even went through it this season. He missed 14 games because of a strain in his right forearm. Then he missed the season's Final Four because of a torn adductor muscle. Still, his contributions — arguably the best offensive season of his career, another outstanding defensive season and the immeasurable contribution of his leadership — were crucial.

This regular season was different for the Dodgers. Because of this, the hope is that the 2024 postseason will be different than the last three.

“Every year is different. Every trip is different,” says Rojas. “Even though you still have the same core of people – you added an additional great player who was with us this year and is having a historic season – we suffered a lot of injuries this year, a lot of personal issues off the field for really important ones Player. It's a slightly different mindset that we have this year.

“I can talk about the experiences of last year. Everything came pretty easy for us during the regular season. But this year, everything that happens in September and knowing how hard we have to fight for every win kind of prepares us for what comes next. I don’t know what the outcome will be, but I’m pretty sure the fight will happen.”