The Los Angeles Dodgers Power Rankings Complex

Following a World Series title over the New York Yankees to cement Shohei Ohtani as one of the greatest to ever do it in his 50-50 season during the first year of his deal, the Dodgers went out and had a free agency that was deemed by some as “bad for baseball” because of how seemingly unfair it was.

Certainly, in a league with no salary cap, players wouldn’t want to take less money to join a World Series-winning, consistently stable organization with the best coaches and staff, and also get to live in sunny Southern California, right? The audacity!

PHOTO: Rick Scuteri/Imagn Images

The rich and wealthy who hung a banner only got richer. Cy Young Winner Blake Snell and prized reliever Tanner Scott left division rivals to join them on lucrative deals. Roki Sasaki, Hyeseong Kim, and Roki Sasaki immediately identified it as a great market and community to transition from Asia. Meanwhile, Tommy Edman and Teoscar Hernandez wanted nothing more than to run it back, and they’d be getting a lot of help that wasn’t there due to injury last year: Clayton Kershaw, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Tyler Glasnow, and Shohei Ohtani, THE PITCHER, back in 2025. It’s a perfect First Take “Is this the greatest team ever assembled?” debate that will go on during a slow news day in the summer.

They put themselves so far ahead of the rest of the league with a target on their back that it almost feels as if when you evaluate teams, you have to say “Aside from the Dodgers, ________” as a caveat because it’s just that unfair that their riches are in a different stratosphere.

However, the regular season is a marathon leading up to one of the most unpredictable, depth and health-driven postseasons in all of the major sports. Last season, not a single team won over 100 games, and the Dodgers had to limp into the World Series (literally. Freddie Freeman was hitting walk-off grand slams on one leg).

It puts us in a dilemma when it comes to ranking and evaluating teams in May, especially when you have a big, bad behemoth that could be looming come October.

Are the struggles real and legitimate, or are they just pacing themselves to be hot at the right time?

They got off to an 8-0 stretch to start the year, which brought the “they’ve ruined baseball” crowd out in full force, but we’ve since seen them have chinks in the armor; they had lost back-to-back series against the Nationals and Cubs and have had multiple 3-game loss stretches this year. The revamped starting rotation has already had Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow hit the IL, Roki Sasaki is winless and had a stretch of handing out walks and was visibly frustrated in adjusting to MLB, and touted prospect Bobby Miller was officially sent down after struggling again.

The bright spots that put them in that pantheon of “greatest team assembled” conversations haven’t been why they were kept afloat that first month- it wasn’t Mookie, Freddie, Shohei, or the Cy Young pitching staff. Their RBI leader is the all-time favorite clubhouse guy and free agent signing, Teoscar Hernandez. Tommy Edman randomly turned into Barry Bonds after being a contact hitter his whole career, and Andy Pages and Will Smith were the most-feared bats in the lineup. 

They’ve been the epitome of looking vulnerable because of how loaded the National League is with World Series contenders. However, the depth that helped them build a roster that won a World Series last year is still there. After Freddie Freeman has since come back from injury and is now leading the team in slugging, Shohei is back from paternity leave and is back and leading in on-base. Sasaki has looked a bit more comfortable; they had a stretch where they rattled off 7 wins in a row and are back with the best record in baseball.

That’s what creates the problem of writing Power Rankings articles- it feels simply pointless to compare teams with a behemoth that is living and breathing as a hydra that just sprouts another neck after you slice one off.

There are moments where the Chicago Cubs have looked like one of the best offensive lineups in baseball, that are far more exciting than the Dodgers, with Pete Crow-Armstrong finally hitting for power and being a demon on the basepaths. Seiya Suzuki is turning into a slugger, but there’s no way you would in good conscience put them ahead of the Dodgers with their shaky bullpen without sounding like a hot-take artist. The Padres were far more alive that first month of the year where we look at Fernando Tatis Jr. as an MVP candidate that has only been projecting upwards through his maturity, but why would we ever rank a top-heavy team that has been owned historically by the Dodgers on top of them in terms of World Series contenders?

The Mets have largely had the best record in baseball until recently, after putting together an unbelievable pitching rotation and developing new names out of the bullpen to make up for offensive slumps from Juan Soto and pretty much everyone not named Pete Alonso. Still, there’s so much newness to a team that doesn’t feel as deep offensively that you probably wouldn’t feel comfortable putting them there either.

Have the Dodgers at times looked vulnerable throughout the year? Yes.

That vulnerability has made us take a look at our power rankings articles and think to ourselves, “You know what? I like the way that this team has been playing a lot better and think they’re the better team! Best team ever assembled, WHO?” But after last season, and this season so far, we’ve learned that they adapt, and it’s simply trying too hard to make a statement when pitting them against other teams all year.

The NL is as loaded as ever this year, but the reason that they HAVE to be is that they’re aiming just wanting to have a date with the Dodgers in October, where all of the record books should be thrown out in the most unpredictable postseason in sports.

PHOTO: Rick Scuteri/Imagn Images