LA Instances Columnist and ESPN analyst Invoice Plaschke mentioned he doesn’t assume the Los Angeles Dodgers will win the World Collection in 2026.
The Dodgers gained their second consecutive World Collection in 2025, taking down the Toronto Blue Jays in an exhilarating seven-game collection, and have solely gotten higher within the offseason after including two of free company’s largest stars, however Plaschke isn’t satisfied.
“That is all of a sudden an older staff,” Plaschke wrote. “They’re seasoned, they’re savvy, however they’re more and more weak. An excessive amount of age can knock you flat with accidents and fatigue. Hangovers are a teenager’s sport. Hangovers are hell on the previous timers.”
The Dodgers have the oldest core of place gamers heading into the 2026 season, however that didn’t cease them final yr. Whereas age and damage appear to correlate closely on this league, the Dodgers nonetheless managed to maintain a wholesome staff on the sector attributable to their in depth depth.
Age wasn’t the one problem Plaschke wrote about, although, as LA’s latest struggles with damage all through the common season and their bullpen issues in the direction of the tail finish of final season additionally caught his eye.
“Sure, they added the most effective free agent reliever in nearer Edwin Díaz, and the followers will go wild on the first notes of Timmy Trumpet, however will the Dodgers have sufficient center reduction to get to him?” he wrote.
“Tanner Scott is again. Blake Treinen is again. Potential chaos is again. The Dodgers will want extra revelations like Will Klein and Justin Wrobleski to outlive.”
On high of these points, Plaschke worries in regards to the talents of Dodgers with poor 2025 seasons to step up whereas they chase their three-peat. Among the many names he listed have been Dalton Dashing, Andy Pages and Mookie Betts.
The ultimate problem he listed is one thing the Dodgers aren’t in charge of: Luck.
“Even the Dodgers admit that there have been many key performs within the final two postseasons that would have gone the opposite manner and adjusted historical past eternally,” Plaschke wrote. “Seemingly each a kind of breaks broke for the Dodgers. How can this maintain occurring?
“Is Aaron Decide going to drop one other fly ball? Will Gerrit Cole overlook to cowl first base once more?
“Backside line, can any staff create that many breaks three years in a row?”
Do you assume Plaschke’s issues are warranted? Or will the Dodgers stroll their strategy to the World Collection?
