Ray Olivier
Anchor Staff
When Don Mattingly took over as the Los Angeles Dodgers Manager in 2011, his goal was to build around star pitcher Clayton Kershaw and win the World Series. 10 years later and that goal was achieved with the Dodgers winning the World Series this year. Dave Roberts would end up being the right manager for the Dodgers earning their seventh championship to an already historic franchise. Roberts had led the Dodgers to the playoffs every year, since taking over in 2016, reaching the NLCS three times.
The recent success does not seem to be ending anytime soon. With a 40-man roster full of veterans like Kershaw and Mookie Betts, as well as young stars Cody Bellinger and Corey Seager, the Dodgers seemed to be poised for a dynastic run. Not only are they the best team in baseball currently, Los Angeles is considered to have one of the best farm systems as well. Bellinger and Seager have both established themselves as cornerstones for the franchise (evidence being Bellinger's MVP award in 2019 and Seager winning the World Series MVP this year). Taking the players previously mentioned and pairing them with young studs like Dustin May, Gavin Lux, Brusdar Graterol, Walker Buehler and Julio Urias keeps the Dodgers in World Series consideration for the next four seasons or so. Dynasties in sports seem to rise and fall all the time due to injuries occurring. The Dodgers have the potential to reign supreme over the rest of the league for many years to come if healthy.
This run by the Dodgers is comparable to the San Francisco Giants run from 2010-2014 when they won three World Series in five seasons. They do not have as many titles in this run, but the Dodgers are just getting started. Each season that the Giants did not win the World Series, from 2010-2014, they finished at the bottom of the NL West. The reason for this is the Giants had a pitching staff that needed a season to recuperate after each title, due to their lack of depth and young talent. The Dodgers, on the other hand, do not have that issue. Their pitching staff is headlined by veteran Clayton Kershaw but after him is Walker Buehler, Julio Urias and Dustin May in their starting rotation, all three of whom are 26-years-old or younger. In addition, Tony Gonsolin (26) and Brusdar Graterol (22) came out of the bullpen this postseason and impressed anyone who watched.
Major League Baseball has a hoard of young talent imposing themselves on the game. With players like Fernando Tatis Jr. (21), Austin Meadows (25) and Cody Bellinger (25) leading the new wave of phenoms the game of baseball is in position to reclaim its glory of the 1990s. If the marketing woes can be adjusted and baseball’s brightest stars can become household names, then more attention will come to the fact that baseball can be more entertaining than it has in the past decade.