Who can Dodgers count on offensively after Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman?
This October will be unlike most for the perennial National League West champs.
This time, it is on the Dodgers' offense to carry them.
After taking a step back in spending, many prognosticators expected the Dodgers to take a step back in the standings as well. That was before they lost Julio Urías. And Dustin May. And Tony Gonsolin. That was also before they found out they wouldn't have Walker Buehler at all this year and would be counting on a handful of rookies to keep their pitching staff afloat.
Their rotation felt the impact. A Dodgers team that led the NL in starting pitching ERA each of the past six seasons entered Thursday sporting a 4.60 starters ERA that was tied with the crosstown Angels for the 11th-worst mark in the sport.
And yet, led by one of the most lethal top-of-the-lineup duos in the game's history, the Dodgers find themselves in the same familiar place, winners of their division for the 10th time in 11 years.
Their offensive stars paved the path.
Mookie Betts is in the midst of his best season since his 2018 MVP year and is challenging Ronald Acuña Jr. for the league's top honor. The catalyst of the Dodgers' lineup has launched 39 home runs — including 12 to lead off a game, one shy of Major League Baseball's all-time single-season record held by Alfonso Soriano — and has knocked in more than 100 runs, an extraordinary feat for a leadoff hitter. Betts' ability to play the infield against right-handed pitchers, which has allowed the Dodgers to utilize a lefty-heavy outfield platoon, only further adds to the six-time Gold Glove Award winner's value.
Freddie Freeman, meanwhile, just became the first Dodgers first baseman ever to post a 20-20 season. At 34, he's in the midst of arguably the best full season of his illustrious 14-year career. His 26 home runs, 20 steals and a franchise-record 56 doubles is already a stat line never before reached by any player in MLB history. Freeman has 14 more doubles than Corey Seager, who ranks second in the category this season.
Those two players would give any team a chance for a deep postseason run. On this team in particular, which will be turning to a clearly not-100 percent Clayton Kershaw and a makeshift supporting cast of starting pitchers, their presence is crucial.
But winning a championship often includes at least a third star performance. Look at the Astros' Jeremy Peña last year or the Braves' Eddie Rosario in 2021. Each of the past three champions have had at least three players post an OPS of .850 or better during their title runs.
So, who might join Betts and Freeman as the Dodgers' third force?
For years, manager Dave Roberts has advocated for his standout catcher to be an All-Star. This year, he finally got his wish.
Back in May, it looked like Smith was on his way to his best season yet, a tall task for a catcher who hit better than 20% above league average in each of his first four major-league seasons. Smith had a .947 OPS in March/April and an even better .963 mark in May, demonstrating no signs of a physical affliction that would eventually catch up to him.
Smith's pedestrian second-half slash line (.244/.321/.376, five home runs) looks nothing like his first (.279/.396/.494, 13 homers).
"With Will, I think the easy look is fatigue," Roberts told FOX Sports last week. "But I do think him getting hit in the ribs earlier this year affected the mechanics a little bit, and I think as a result he hasn't gotten to the fastball like he typically does."
Smith went to the injured list early this year with a concussion after taking a medley of foul tips off the catcher's mask, but he never missed time with a rib issue this year. So, initially, it was difficult to pinpoint exactly when that occurred. A perusal through the video archives looked like the injury might've happened May 26, when he was hit by a pitch in the midsection in Tampa Bay. But the catcher revealed last weekend to AM570's David Vassegh that it actually happened before that.
On April 30 at Dodger Stadium, a 91 mph sinker from Jake Woodford tailed so far inside that Smith caught the pitch near his armpit. The ball wedged between his arm and his ribcage. He casually tossed it toward the home dugout, then jogged to first base. Smith not only stayed in the game, he later doubled. He homered the next day. There were no obvious signs of discomfort, but his production has tailed off in the season's second half, perhaps the result of mechanical compensations due to the injury.
Smith finally admitted last week that he had played through a broken rib.
"Feels 100 percent now," Smith told AM570. "Haven't felt it for a month or two months, really, but I think I was probably still guarding it unknowingly."
Smith's offensive numbers have continued to descend as the second half has progressed — .726 OPS in July, .716 OPS in August, .645 OPS in September — though Roberts feels he has seen more positive signs and better mechanics from his catcher in recent weeks.
"After that rib situation, he didn't lift as much," Roberts told FOX Sports. "I think he lost some strength, but he's getting that strength back, too."
For Roberts, there will be a balance between keeping Smith as rested as possible for October while allowing him to build some offensive momentum ahead of the playoffs. He has already demonstrated the impact he can make in October. During the Dodgers' 2020 title run, it was Smith's go-ahead, three-run homer in Game 5 of the NLCS off the Braves' reliever bearing the same name that turned the tide of the series.
"Will's going to be in the middle of everything," Roberts said. "To have those productive at-bats, to be able to drive in runs in front of (Max) Muncy and J.D. (Martinez), it's imperative. It allows for our offense to do what it's capable of doing."
J.D. Martinez
Martinez wanted to go somewhere he could win, but Los Angeles offered more than that last offseason.
Signing with the Dodgers allowed him the chance to team back up with Betts — the teammate with whom he had built a lasting relationship while winning the 2018 World Series in Boston — and be in closer proximity to his good friend and private tutor Robert Van Scoyoc, the Dodgers hitting coach who helped fix Martinez's swing and jumpstart his career a decade ago.
In Los Angeles, Martinez began working on getting back to basics and the fundamentals of his swing.
"The way I gather, and my transition moving my hands, is what makes me, me," Martinez said earlier this year. "I feel like in Boston, I kind of broke that a little bit, and I feel like I was good enough to kind of get by but not good enough to be the player I think I can be."
About a month into the 2023 season, shortly after Martinez's back flared up and forced him to the injured list, Van Scoyoc noticed something off in his pupil's swing. Martinez was trying so hard to stay inside the ball and go the other way to right field that he had developed a bad habit of not rotating his chest enough. It was zapping his power.
The thought had never crossed Martinez's mind.
"When I started just opening up my chest more, I got my power back," Martinez explained during All-Star week in Seattle. "It was like, ‘Oh crap, there it was. Where has that been?' So then, it just felt completely different."
Under Van Scoyoc's watchful eye, Martinez has found his way again. He earned his sixth career All-Star nod in what has been one of his most powerful seasons in years. While his strikeout rate has climbed above 30%, he's hitting the ball harder than ever before at age 36.
Now, it's just a matter of staying on the field.
A mysterious groin/tailbone issue lingered throughout the season's second half, forcing him in and out of the lineup throughout August and eventually back to the IL. In his first game back on Sept. 8, he homered. He continued to demonstrate what his presence in the middle of the Dodgers' lineup can do this week, smashing two dingers on Monday against the Tigers, another on Tuesday and his 30th of the season Thursday versus the Giants. The Dodgers plan to keep running him out through season's end, building on a season in which he has his highest slugging percentage (.570) since 2018.
Max Muncy
The Dodgers are one of three teams — along with the Braves and Rangers — with four players who've knocked in at least 90 runs on the year.
Those players are Betts, Freeman, Martinez and Muncy, the last of whom continues to personify three-true-outcome baseball, ranking second on the team in homers, walks and strikeouts. For the fourth straight year, Muncy has blasted at least 35 homers. And for the fourth time in the last six years, he is running a walk rate better than 14% with a strikeout rate over 25%.
But this year is, by all accounts, a bounce-back season for the Dodgers third baseman, who last year was still dealing with the lingering effects of a torn elbow ligament that he suffered on the final day of the 2021 regular season. Another year removed from that injury, Muncy's ability to hit for power and get on base is again benefiting the Dodgers' lineup, particularly in a second half in which he has an .860 OPS with a team-leading 15 home runs and 49 RBI.
Muncy has looked more consistent at the plate as the year has progressed. He has hits in 22 of his past 26 games, including 11 straight before going hitless Thursday. With plenty of chances to hit with runners on base, behind Betts, the Dodgers' cleanup hitter — who recorded his second walk-off hit of the year Tuesday — has recorded a career-high 102 RBI on the season, one short of Betts for the team lead.
James Outman and the outfielders
Given all the strength at the top of the lineup, it is the production of the bottom half that could decide the Dodgers' fate come October.
This will be the first postseason experience for Outman, who took home Rookie of the Month honors twice this year and ranks eighth among all qualified MLB rookies with 21 home runs this season. Outman has found that the more relaxed he is at the plate, the better he plays, so the 26-year-old Sacramento State product is trying not to think too far ahead and stress himself out.
"I don't know what it's going to be like, so I just try and play the same game," Outman told FOX Sports. "That's ultimately what it is, just more eyes."
As Outman breaks out as the Dodgers' everyday center fielder, 14-year vet Jason Heyward is enjoying a resurgent first season in Los Angeles as the team's right fielder against right-handed starters.
He has accepted his platoon role without complaint, thriving in a part-time gig while emerging as a team leader. His .846 OPS ranks fourth on the team and represents his highest mark over the course of a full season since he was a rookie All-Star in 2010.
Heyward now has a .894 OPS since the All-Star break while batting .336 since the start of August. The second half has also seen a significant uptick from veteran Chris Taylor, who has an .829 OPS since the start of August.
While the Dodgers' pitching staff will feature a plethora of rookies, there's still plenty of postseason experience in this position player group, which includes Heyward, Taylor and midseason acquisition Kiké Hernández, who tallied a 1.260 OPS during his last trip to the postseason with Boston in 2021.
"This group, we do it in a bunch of different ways," Heyward said. "We've got a lot of guys that came from different spots and a nice group of young guys as well that are making a name for themselves, and they've done it their own way, too. We've got a good mix."
Rowan Kavner covers the Dodgers and MLB as a whole for FOX Sports. He previously was the Dodgers' editor of digital and print publications. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.