For the first time in four years, the Dodgers are once again World Series champions.
That doesn’t mean they enter the offseason without any questions.
Just as soon as the team had descended its rally stage at Dodger Stadium on Friday, following the first Dodgers parade in Los Angeles in 36 years, manager Dave Roberts remarked it might be the last time the group is all together.
“The landscape of the roster is certainly going to change,” Roberts said. “That’s the nature of baseball.”
Read more: L.A. toasts its World Series champion Dodgers: ‘The city needed this parade’
And in Major League Baseball’s offseason, changes can happen quickly.
As the offseason gets underway, here’s a primer on where the Dodgers stand, and the questions they’ll face as defending champions this winter.
Who will be back?
Much of the Dodgers’ title-winning core will remain intact for next year.
At the plate, Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith are all signed to long-term contracts. Tommy Edman, Max Muncy and Chris Taylor are entering their final year under contract, too. Gavin Lux and Andy Pages are under team control as arbitration-eligible players. The club also picked up 2025 club options on Austin Barnes ($3.5 million) and Miguel Rojas ($5 million) on Saturday, ensuring they will return next year.
On the mound, Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto will once again top a rotation that will also add Ohtani as he resumes two-way duties. Clayton Kershaw has said he will be back (either by picking up his $10-million player option or working out a new deal with the Dodgers) but is scheduled to undergo toe and knee surgeries next week, leaving his status for opening day unclear. Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May will both be returning from surgeries that sidelined them for all of 2024. The Dodgers’ other healthy starting pitching options include Bobby Miller, Landon Knack, Ben Casparius and Justin Wrobleski.
Gavin Stone, River Ryan, Emmet Sheehan and Kyle Hurt will all start next season recovering from 2024 surgeries.
Veteran pitchers in the bullpen who remain under contract for next year include: Evan Phillips, Michael Kopech, Ryan Brasier, Brusdar Graterol, Alex Vesia and Anthony Banda.
Read more: Clayton Kershaw revels in his first World Series parade, reveals additional injury
The Dodgers could have several prospects push for roster spots at some point next year. Catcher and left fielder Dalton Rushing was the organization’s minor league player of the year, and could serve as a platoon option in the outfield. Shortstop Alex Freeland also finished the year in triple-A, having impressed team evaluators and rival scouts.
Another name that will be returning is Roberts, who is expected to negotiate a new, potentially lucrative contract with his current deal set to expire at the end of 2025.
Who is a free agent?
Outside of retiring outfielder Kevin Kiermaier and reliever Daniel Hudson, six players from the Dodgers’ World Series run are free agents this offseason.
Outfielder Teoscar Hernández will be back on the market, and in line for a big pay raise, after taking a one-year, $23.5-million deal from the Dodgers last winter and posting an All-Star season, including 33 home runs, 99 RBIs and a .272 batting average.
Hernández is 32 years old, and will certainly be looking for a higher-dollar, longer-term contract this offseason. But, after Friday’s parade, he sounded hopeful of working something out with the Dodgers.
“My hopes are really high,” he said. “Like I’ve said before, the Dodgers are the priority, obviously. I’m going to do everything in my power to come back.”
Another free agent who sounded interested in a return on Friday was starting pitcher Jack Flaherty, a Los Angeles native who said during the parade: “I love this city. I never want to leave. I never want to leave.”
Read more: Hernández: Freddie Freeman will forever be the name and face of the Dodgers’ 2024 championship
Fellow starter Walker Buehler is also set for free agency, after bouncing back from a woeful regular season with a memorable postseason performance.
When Buehler was discussing his future before the World Series, he said, “I would love to stay here for as long as they’ll have me,” but intimated that the team’s decision whether to extend him a one-year, $21-million qualifying offer or not — the deadline to do so is Monday — could serve as an early indicator on if he’ll return.
“The first step in all that stuff is on the team,” Buehler said, “and that will happen really quickly one way or the other.”
The Dodgers’ other three free agents are Blake Treinen, Kiké Hernández and Joe Kelly. While Kelly missed the playoffs with an injury, Treinen and Hernández played big roles in the postseason. All three were also members of the 2020 and 2024 World Series teams.
Where does the team need to add?
The most obvious holes on next year’s roster, as things currently stand, are in the outfield and starting rotation.
Even if the Dodgers keep Betts in right field (a position he only switched back to late this year after initially moving to the infield), the club is without a left fielder with Teoscar Hernández entering free agency. They can play Edman in center, but only if they have another option at shortstop. They also have Pages, Taylor and James Outman on the roster, but none of those three could cement everyday roles this year.
It’s part of the reason why, even after spending more than $1 billion last winter, the Dodgers might get involved in another high-priced free-agency sweepstakes for superstar Juan Soto this offseason — especially if they don’t re-sign Hernández.
As for the rotation, the Dodgers will likely need at least one, if not multiple, new starting pitchers.
Between the limited workloads Ohtani, May, Gonsolin and Kershaw are expected to be under coming off their injuries, and the six-day routine Yamamoto stuck to this year after coming over from Japan, it’s possible the Dodgers use a six-man rotation for parts of next season.
And unless they plan to rely entirely upon unproven prospects, they’ll need to bolster their depth.
The top of the free-agent starting pitching market is rich with talent, including former Cy Young award winners Blake Snell (whom the Dodgers made an unsuccessful late play for last offseason) and Corbin Burnes (whom the Dodgers once had trade interest in), as well as Atlanta Braves left-hander Max Fried.
The Dodgers are also high on Japanese pitcher Rōki Sasaki, a budding 23-year-old talent who might be posted to MLB clubs this winter.
Another name the Dodgers will be monitoring this offseason: shortstop Willy Adames, who has connections with president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman going back to their days in Tampa Bay.
If the Dodgers elect to make Edman a full-time center fielder, someone like Adames could fit as another potential big-name addition to fill the shortstop opening, especially after hitting a career-high 32 home runs last year.
Read more: Complete coverage: Dodgers defeat New York Yankees in 2024 World Series
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
