Throughout the offseason the CBS Sports MLB experts will bring you a weekly Batting Around roundtable breaking down pretty much anything. The latest news, a historical question, thoughts about the future of baseball, all sorts of stuff. Last week we discussed Blake Snell’s future. This week we’re going to debate whether the Dodgers are the best team in baseball.
Are the Dodgers now the best team in baseball? If not, who is?
Matt Snyder: I think they probably are but I also think it’s laughable how much of a mass freakout there’s been over the signings of Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, flanked by the trade for and extension of Tyler Glasnow. The Dodgers are still very top heavy and a few injuries would expose their lack of depth. By no means is this team a call for sweeping changes to the game. Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman is a generational top three, but we’re looking at James Outman, Chris Taylor, Jason Heyward and Gavin Lux at the bottom portion of the lineup. The rotation is all question marks. Yamamoto has never thrown a pitch in the majors. Glasnow hasn’t thrown more than 120 innings in a season and he’s 30 years old. Walker Buehler is coming off Tommy John surgery. Bobby Miller was a rookie last year, falling shy of 125 career innings pitched. The bullpen has a lot of questions, too.
So, yes, this is probably the best team, but I don’t think others like the Braves or Astros are all that far behind and, most of all, I think a lot of people need to settle down.
R.J. Anderson: They’re clearly in the running for that designation right now. Are they definitely the best? If you go off the early forecasts from projection systems, the answer is no. Now, I think the Dodgers are a riddle for those systems because they have so many unanswered questions about workload. Will Glasnow find a way to 150 innings? How will they handle Yamamoto transferring to an MLB workload? And so on. I could see them being only the second- or third-best team during the regular season before really maxing out come October. That might even be the front office’s intent — it’s not like this team is going to be defined by how many games they win during the regular season anymore, it’s all about the playoffs and lifting another World Series trophy (or three).
Dayn Perry: Yes, I’d call them the best team on paper as of the Yamamoto signing. They won 100 games last season and backed it up with a similarly strong run differential. Add Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, and Yamamoto to that baseline and put Walker Buehler back in the mix, and, yes, I’ll give them the on-paper edge over the Braves. It’s a close call, though. As always, though, I’ll take the field over any one team when it comes to predicting the World Series winner.
Mike Axisa: Right now I lean slightly toward the Braves because I like their overall depth more, particularly on offense. The Dodgers’ lineup is top heavy — the top is Betts, Freeman, and Ohtani, of course — and there were times the bottom of the lineup got exposed last year. Both teams could use another sturdy innings guy to round out the rotation. They have their impact starters already. It’s just about adding depth. Also, I like Atlanta’s bullpen a little bit more. The Braves play in a tougher division (though who knows what the Mets will look like in 2024) and maybe that evens their records out a bit. On paper, I just like Atlanta’s roster better, which is not meant to be a slight against the Dodgers. I think they’re the two best teams in baseball and are within a win or two of each other.
