LOS ANGELES — Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was asked this week the difference between the gap between the National League Championship Series and World Series last year, which was four days, to six days off this year.
“Well, Freddie’s not hobbled, which is a good thing,” Roberts said, laughing.
Last season, Freeman sprained his right ankle on September 26, an injury that would eventually require offseason surgery, in addition to a broken rib that hampered him in the early rounds. By the time the World
Series started, four weeks had passed since the ankle injury, and Freeman was healthy enough to hit home runs in each of the first four games of the World Series, including the first walk-off grand slam in Fall Classic history, to win series MVP.
Freeman this October hasn’t gotten results yet, hitting .231/.333/.410 with a 105 wRC+ with one RBI in 10 games, on a solo home run. His expected numbers are better, with a .389 xwOBA compared to his actual .320 wOBA so far.
Miguel Rojas dealt with various leg injuries in the second half of the 2024 season, then suffered a torn adductor muscle in late September that hampered him all October. He played in four postseason games, but had sports hernia surgery in November. This year in more of a reserve role, Rojas has three hits in eight at-bats plus a hit by pitch, and has played in five games thus far, one more than last year.
This postseason both Freeman and Rojas are healthy, and they are not alone.
“It’s really different, because all we’re trying to do here is get four more wins to win the World Series. Last year when we had the bye [through the wild card round], and the year[s] before, we were trying to get through one more month of baseball,” Rojas said this week. “You’re trying to prepare for that. You’re trying to get some guys healthy. And I think everybody is healthy right now, everybody is in a really good place.”
Max Muncy missed time in the second half with a left knee bone bruise and then an oblique strain. Tommy Edman dealt with a right ankle sprain most of the season, including two injured list stints. Both returned from the IL in the second week of September, but were limited in the final week of the regular season, Muncy by getting hit by a pitch on his leg, and Edman aggravating the ankle injury.
Both are healthy now, including Edman playing every inning of the last eight postseason games after sitting in Game 2 of the wild card round against the Reds as part of a load-management plan. Muncy this postseason has a 115 wRC+ and Edman is at a 118 wRC+ through 10 games.
“Just being healthy,” Edman said. “All of our starting pitchers have been healthy and throwing well pretty much the last two months. The offense is getting going as well. The depth of our lineup has been a big part of it throughout the postseason so far.”
Starting pitching is the biggest difference in the last two Octobers, and is probably the main reason why the Dodgers might win this World Series.
“It’s back-to-back years, and it’s winning in different ways. We had Walker [Buehler], we had Jack [Flaherty], and we had Yoshi[nobu Yamamoto] last year in the World Series,” Freeman said Tuesday. “This year we have pretty much four different ones healthy going into it, and that’s special.
“During the regular season we were trying to piece it together, waiting for Blake [Snell] to get back, getting Shohei [Ohtani]’s innings built up, but it was all kind of in flux, and now everyone’s clicking and rolling.”
Snell made only two starts before missing four months on the injured list with left shoulder inflammation. Similarly, Tyler Glasnow missed 10 weeks from April to July with right shoulder inflammation.
That meant opportunities for several others to make starts to get the Dodgers through the season. Clayton Kershaw was second on the team in starts (22) and innings (112 2/3), and is now an extra arm in the bullpen for the postseason. Dustin May was third in starts (18) and innings (104) and he was traded to the Red Sox on July 31.
Tony Gonsolin came back from Tommy John surgery to make seven starts before needing another elbow surgery, this time an internal brace procedure and flexor tendon repair. Emmet Sheehan was excellent in his own return from Tommy John surgery, putting up a 2.82 ERA in 15 games (12 starts) before moving to the bullpen this month.
“You have to give credit to our front office, to our player development for allowing guys to come in and hopefully plug some holes through the course of the season,” pitching coach Mark Prior said during the NLCS. “We’d love to have, you know, five guys throw out 30 starts. But unfortunately I don’t think that’s where we’re at in today’s game. So you’ve got to be able to adapt and be nimble with what you have.”
The Dodgers figured Glasnow and Snell’s injuries weren’t season-ending — unlike Glasnow’s elbow injury in 2024, for which he was shut down in September — which allowed them to be a little more conservative in planning for their return. Glasnow returned on July 9 and Snell came back on August 2. By the start of August, Ohtani was stretched out to four innings and would gradually escalate.
If we compare the Dodgers starting pitching for the first four-plus months through the end of July to the full rotation over final two months of regular season, the improvement is marked. The caveat here is this is a broad overview, in which openers are counted as starters, so take with a few grains of salt:
March 18-July 31: 4.24 ERA (20th), 4.45 xERA (21st), 4.55 IP/start (30th), 22.6 percent K rate (10th)
August 1-Sept. 28: 2.73 ERA (1st), 2.78 xERA (1st), 5.31 IP/start (4th), 30-percent K rate (1st)
An even further-consolidated Dodgers rotation has dominated in the postseason, with a 1.40 ERA, 2.09 xERA, and 33.5-percent strikeout rate. Their 64 1/3 innings through 10 games this year are already more than Dodgers starters pitched (60 innings) during 16 postseason games in 2024. Dodgers starting pitchers have lasted at least six innings eight times in 10 games, while the rest of the postseason field has 14 such starts in 70 games.
“I think it was a situation we had to be cautious, and you have to be willing to take a chance on having guys come back to full health and not pushing them to kind of use them in the regular season more,” Roberts said. “So, I credit the entire organization for having the depth to overcome it and the players and the staff and the training staff and all that stuff to kind of allow those players to get healthy at the right time.”
In this case, the mantra of getting healthy for October has worked out swimmingly.
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