And then they rested.
One hundred and eighty-seven days after they returned from South Korea and opened their domestic schedule at Dodger Stadium against the St. Louis Cardinals, the Dodgers had nothing to do on Monday. It is their reward for finishing with the best record in the National League (in baseball overall as well) for the third time in the past five seasons.
It hasn’t been much of a reward.
When MLB changed its playoff format in 2022 and added a third wild-card team in each league, creating another round of postseason games (the best-of-three Wild Card Series), compensation for watering down the regular season was added – a first-round bye for the two teams with the best records in each league.
In the first two years with that format and the five-day layoff it creates, the gifted teams haven’t stuck around long – particularly in the National League.
The Dodgers and Atlanta Braves had the top two seeds in 2022 and 2023 and neither won a series, going a combined 3-12 in playoff games those years. The Baltimore Orioles finished with the best record in the American League last year and didn’t win a postseason game.
The Houston Astros are the only power that seems to have figured out a successful stop-start strategy for October. They got the bye in 2022 and went on to win the World Series. They were a top-two seed last year again and reached the ALCS before losing to the Texas Rangers in seven games.
“I don’t know if anything makes sense for those five days. There’s really only been one team that’s figured out how to handle it and that was Houston,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said Sunday. “It’s tough. The toughest part of it is flipping the switch. You spend all year – with the exception of the All-Star break and the All-Star break isn’t as long as people think it is because you have to be traveling to get to places – you spend all year, every single day, performing. From the start of spring training until tomorrow really. You spend every day performing. You might have an off day. For us, those off days are usually travel days. Now you’re talking about having five days off after doing that for eight months.
“You have to find a way to be able to flip that competitive switch back on. It’s not as easy as people think it is. And you also have to find a way to flip it and match a team that’s already had to grind through a Wild Card series. You’re talking about postseason atmosphere, already having been in that for a week.”
Gifted the five-day layoff again this year, the Dodgers probably need it more than the previous years. Those five days could be critical for first baseman Freddie Freeman’s sprained right ankle, giving him over a week to heal before Game 1. Shortstop Miguel Rojas (adductor strain) can certainly use some more time to heal after receiving an injection for his injury last week. And it will be welcome rest for a bullpen the Dodgers have leaned on heavily this season.
Beyond those things, the Dodgers have tried to re-think their approach to the down time and decided that less might be more.
“We’re trying to figure out, hey, how do we cram some intensity into the back end without it dragging and feeling like that five-day layoff?” Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes said.
Instead of trying to maintain their season-long rhythm for all five days, the Dodgers took Monday off with the exception of NLDS Game 1 starter Jack Flaherty, who was scheduled to throw to minor-league hitters. Tuesday will be an optional workout before they go back to full team workouts on Wednesday.
A year ago, the Dodgers tried to up the intensity by pitting teammates against teammates, playing intrasquad games for much of the week. The approach will be different this time, Gomes said.
“We’re going to play some games on Wednesday and Thursday and try to make it so that our guys aren’t facing our guys,” Gomes said. “We’ll have enough ‘stay-hot’ guys (players who won’t be on the NLDS roster but will continue working out in case they are needed) or guys from Triple-A, guys that are on the roster but haven’t been here. Make it such that we’re not pitching tentatively to one of our own players so guys can get after it more like they would normally.
“I know our pitchers don’t like throwing to our guys. So eliminating that I think is helpful. And – I know I wouldn’t want to face (Michael) Kopech or Blake (Treinen), you know what I mean? You can just throw those at-bats out the window as far as being productive.”
The five-day layoff is more of a hurdle for hitters than pitchers. The Dodgers will try to address that with more work against specialized batting machines – “velo” machines that match major-league pitch velocity and the high-tech Trajekt Arc, which can replicate any major league pitcher’s arsenal including velocity and pitch characteristics.
“Talking with our hitting guys, they’re coming up with some stuff we’re going to do so our guys can face high-velo and things they’re going to do to face high-octane stuff between to get additional reps,” Gomes said.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said his concern is more about the team’s “mindset” on Saturday rather than the schedule Monday through Friday.
“There has to be the ultimate sense of urgency, and I just don’t think that that has much correlation to the work prior,” Roberts said. “It’s an overall team mindset that I just want to make sure we have going into this postseason.”
It could be easier to get that in place this year thanks to an important difference from the past two years. The Dodgers clinched the NL West with 21 games left to play in 2022, 15 games in 2023. In both years, they had double-digit leads in mid-August and were never challenged.
This year, the Dodgers had to fend off the San Diego Padres down the stretch and didn’t clinch their 11th division title in the past 12 years until the 159th game of the season.
“We’re going to find out (if that makes a difference). The last two years we definitely didn’t have that,” Muncy said. “The whole month of September was resting guys. You’re talking about losing the competitive edge for a month and then you get the five days off and you’ve got to find a way to flip that switch back on. That’s really hard to do.”
The five-day layoff breaks the daily nature of life for baseball teams in many ways. At the suggestion of a few players (Roberts credited Muncy, catcher Will Smith and Rojas), the Dodgers will have team “watch parties” on Tuesday and Wednesday to follow the Wild Card Series and keep the team bond tight.
Whether any or all of that unlocks something that has been lacking the past two years won’t be known until the Dodgers go back to work in the NLDS.
“We’ll change things up, how we go about our business. Try something new,” Smith said. “If it works this year, it works this year. But obviously we’ve got to show up when the games come, be more prepared, show up and play better. That’s what really counts.”
