During recent seasons of their seven-year reign over the National League West the Los Angeles Dodgers have begun to receive more and more contributions from young players in the organization.
That was particularly true in 2017 when Cody Bellinger made his MLB debut and went on to earn a unanimous National League Rookie of the Year selection. The Dodgers played to a Game 7 in the World Series, only to suffer heartbreak as the Houston Astros celebrated at Dodger Stadium.
That was again the case last year, with the Boston Red Sox winning the World Series in five games. Several Dodgers said the back-to-back defeats in the Fall Classic served as plenty of motivation, and the team demonstrated that by winning a franchise-record 106 games.
But October brought about more disappointment as the Dodgers fell to the Washington Nationals in the NL Division Series for their earliest postseason exit since 2015.
The team faces some questions moving forward — one of which was answered when David Freese announced his retirement — but several players remain optimistic over the direction of the franchise.
“It’s hard when you look at a Game 5, winner take all, for it to work out the way that it did, it’s just different,” Walker Buehler said after the stunning loss. “It’s one thing if we went out there and got our [butts] beat. That’s not how this game happened. This is probably one of the more special teams I think we’ll ever see in this clubhouse.
“We won 108 games. Most of the time that gets you past where we ultimately lost. But we’ll have a lot more chances at it. I think we’re built to keep putting ourselves in this position.”
The Dodgers had eight players make their MLB debut this season, and rookies Matt Beaty, Gavin Lux, Dustin May and Will Smith were included on the NLDS roster.
“The future is really bright,” Bellinger said. “We saw Beaty, Rios, Lux, May, Gonsolin, Will, come up and do big things this year. And there’s still more in the Minor Leagues that can come up and show up, too. So that’s pretty promising. We’re going to be good for a long time.”
Bellinger nonetheless conceded the 2019 season could be considered a failure, a sentiment that Kiké Hernandez agreed with. Hernandez also was on the same page with Bellinger in terms of looking ahead to 2020.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that come Spring Training when we meet as a group, we’re going to be talking about winning a world championship,” he said.
What next season brings for Rich Hill is unclear. He’s due to reach free agency, is coming off an injury-plagued season, but proved to be effective when healthy. Whether or not he re-signs with the Dodgers, Hill sees the team continuing down a positive path.
“First off, this is a great team, and it ended abruptly. And the future looks great here, too,” he said.
“I think for the fans, younger guys in this locker room and guys that are going to be here next year, this is going to be one of the best teams in baseball. This is very, very difficult. You don’t get a lot of times to do this.
“It’s just going to be a lot of fun watching these young players and a really good pitching staff coming back. A lot of guys that are going to have this great experience of being in the postseason and now understanding the magnitude of it and understanding how every pitch is important, how much this game means.”