Entering the 2025 MLB season, the Los Angeles Dodgers are second to none when it comes to raw talent from top to bottom in their organization. What's funny is that they entered the offseason with arguably the best team as well. They took that information and put the pedal to the metal even further and landed multiple high-end free agents.
The Dodgers already had Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Shohei Ohtani, Gavin Stone, Bobby Miller, Landon Knack, and Nick Frasso as starting pitchers on their 40-man roster as the offseason commenced. Then they went out and signed both Roki Sasaki and Blake Snell for funsies.
Now that the injury bug is starting to run rampant through their spring training camp, it's obvious why the Dodgers' decision-makers went out and added, added, added. Stuff happens in baseball, and injuries are something you can never predict. The Dodgers flexed their financial muscles and added to a position where they didn't have a need on the surface, and now it's about to pay off.
The New York Yankees, led by GM Brian Cashman, appear to be taking a different route when it comes to addressing their own injury-ravaged roster.
Brian Cashman's comments after Gerrit Cole injury show stark difference between Yankees, Dodgers
With both Luis Gil (strained lat) and Gerrit Cole (Tommy John) on the shelf to start the year (Cole is out for the season), the Yankees have seen their own rotation take quite a hit before the regular season even gets underway.
At one point this past offseason, Marcus Stroman was viewed as nothing more than trade bait and a possible sixth-starter/long-relief option for the club. Now, he's made his way up to No. 3 on the Yankees' projected starting rotation. Top prospect Will Warren has also been pushed up the depth chart thanks to the latest injury developments.
The Yankees are without a true No. 5 starter as Clarke Schmidt works his way back from injury, and Cashman's coming out and telling the media that he's going to stay internal on addressing the pitching issues. With a handful of solid starters still available in free agency and some higher-end names (mainly Sandy Alcantara and Dylan Cease) potentially available via trade, this is a real head-scratcher.
Cashman's unwillingness to make a big Yankees-like move (or get ahead of the same issues that plague his team every year) is confusing, but it shows how different the Dodgers and Yankees run their organizations the last couple years. One will go to any means necessary to upgrade and fill roster holes when needed, while the other prefers to be content with what they have.
Now the outcome of last year's World Series makes much more sense.
