The Amato Report - Dodgers
- Jim Santora
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
The first real powerhouse of these outlooks. The Dodgers came into 2025 with high expectations after drafting Shohei Ohtani, Jackson Merrill, James Wood, and Andy Pages but ultimately came up short of the playoffs. But man this team is the great blizzard that needed all of the working parts to come together to make it work in 2026...and it did: all of the names noted had great years (Pages had a breakout that I don't think many saw coming), and all their keepers had fantastic years (Goodman, Rasmussen, Priester, Yamamoto). I laughed at Josh for keeping Priester because he looked left for dead, but sir, kudos to you for getting the last laugh.
NOTABLE OFFSEASON TRANSACTIONS
Acquired: Ezequiel Tovar, Chris Bassitt
Departed: Ivan Herrera, IKF, Sean Manaea, Adrian Del Castillo
The trade of Ivan Herrera was interesting; I actually think he is going to turn out to be a great hitter, but the Dodgers had the depth to move him, especially with some guy slated at DH named Ohtani, which is where Herrera is slated for. So if you're going to trade Herrera, getting a 2nd round pick like the Dodgers did was a solid move. Overall, it wasn't a busy offseason for the Dodgers; you don't need one when you already have a stacked team...
Strengths
The offense will be a tank. If you want to walk Ohtani, you have to still deal with Merrill, Wood, Riley, Turang, Goodman, Pages and others. There's just no easy out aside from maybe SS. The team has youth AND is good...a scary combo for years to come for the rest of the league. Oh, and most of these guys play good defense, too and the OF all have -2 or -3 arms!
Pitching wise, the rotation may not be top 3 in the league, but I'd certainly take it! Their top rotation pieces are Rasmussen, Yamamoto and Priester and could go against any top 3 in the league. The bullpen doesn't make it any easier for opposing teams with Aroldis Chapman (did you see this card???), Jason Adam, and Kenley Jansen leading the way with monster cards.
Opportunities
While the Dodgers have depth at SP, I could see them top loading the rotation in the draft as there's a gap between the top 2-3 pitchers and the next tier (Mitch Keller, etc). But what do you know, the Dodgers are also loaded with draft picks, having 2 picks in each of the first 2 rounds. So they can easily nab one of the best available pitchers in this draft.
There are some depth issues at 3B and maybe there's room for a 1B upgrade, but yeah, good luck finding a true weakness on this team, because I sure as hell cannot lol
Projected lineup (as of now vs RHP)
C - Hunter Goodman
1B - Spencer Steer
2B - Brice Turang
3B- Austin Riley (innings limited)
SS - Ezequiel Tovar
LF - James Wood
CF - Jackson Merrill
RF - Andy Pages
DH - Shohei Ohtani
Projected rotation
Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Drew Rasmussen
Quinn Priester
Mitch Keller
Chris Bassitt
Keep an eye on these players in 2026 (in real life)
Andy Pages - can he replicate this semi breakout? Remember he stalled out in the playoffs where he hit like .091.
Hunter Goodman - see Andy Pages. The sophomore campaign after the breakout will be one to watch...Goodman was pretty awful in the first couple years prior to the breakout.
2026 projection based on Ed's power rankings: 1st place (9.96, almost 1.25 more than the 2nd place Cardinals)
Yeah this team is easily making the playoffs lol it reminds me of Jordan's Braves team a few years ago where you really won't have to do a lot of managing with it in order to win games. Josh's biggest concern is just hoping everyone stays healthy, but even so most of his guys are ROG injuries. The biggest thing for the Dodgers is just staying confident when they hit that 'bump' in the season. But I really don't see one happening; this team is too good.
Josh already has the bling from the Revs, but this may be his best chance to get one with his SOM squad.
