Does A Good Spring Record Translate to a Successful Season?

                                 Last year, the Dodgers compiled a 14-9 spring record. The team with the best spring record?  The Giants went 21-6. The Royals were the only other MLB team with 20 wins. The Brewers, who led all MLB teams in wins last year, finished 16-14 in the spring. In 24, LA was 14-7. Of course, they lost games because of traveling to Japan in 25 and Korea in 24.  In 24, the best teams in spring were the Orioles with 23 wins and the Tigers, who won 20.

Mattingly

                                  Since records for spring are usually not easily found, I found that on the Dodgers website, that I can look them up as far back as 2006. But I thought it best to just stick to the Guggenheim years. In 2013, the first really full season after the team was sold by McCourt, the Dodgers went 13-20 under Mattingly in the Cactus League. They scored 180 runs and gave up 207. The Cactus League champ that year was the Royals who won 25 and lost just 7. LA had the worst record of any NL West team. They won the West by 9 games over Arizona that year.

#13 Ramirez

                                  2014, the Dodgers were dead last winning just 7 games and losing 12. They won the West by 6 games over the Giants. They hit .240 as a team in spring and hit 18 homers, but several teams hit more than 30. The teams ERA was 4.54.  Hanley Ramirez led the team with 4 homers. In 2015, they went 16-11. Six games behind the Oakland A’s who won 22. In 15, they won the West by 8 games over the Giants. Those first 3 seasons, the Dodgers lost the LCS in 13, then lost twice in the division series in 14-15.  In 15, Kike and Joc hit 6 homers in spring training to lead the team, Puig hit 5.

Segedin

                                   2016 was another West title for LA. They won by 4 games over the Giants. The third straight year with SF finishing 2nd. In spring training, they once again had a losing record going 13-17. Their run differential was +3. Showing that it is not always the big power hitters who lead the team in spring homers, Austin Barnes and Rob Segedin led the team with 4 homers each. Justin Turner, Trayce Thompson and Scott Van Slyke hit 3 each.

                                  The 2017 Dodgers would finally do something no Dodger team had done since 1988, make it to the World Series. They were 1 game over .500 that spring going 18-17. Joc Pederson slugged 6 homers to lead the team and struck out 20. Justin Turner had 5 homers and drove in 18, most on the team. He struck out just once in 55 at bats. Bobby Wilson, a catcher, hit 4 homers in spring. The 17 Dodgers won 104 games, the second most in Dodger history. They finished 11 games in front of Arizona. They would avenge their 16 loss in the LCS to the Cubs by returning the favor and beating them in six games. Kike hit 3 homers and drove in 7 runs in the game six win. 

                                      The Dodgers went 17-15 in spring training in 2018. As a team they hit 55 homers that spring. Grandal and Kemp, who had been traded back to LA that winter, led the team with 5 each. Bellinger, Kike and Puig each hit 4. The 2018 race was the closest race they had been in for the West since the team was sold. They actually had to play game 163 to beat the Rockies by a single game. They were overmatched in the World Series by the Red Sox, whose hero was a part time player, Steve Pearce.

                                     In 2019, LA went 14-15 in the spring. Bellinger led the team with 4 homers, Turner, AJ Pollock, Pederson and Kike hit 3 each. LA went on to set a team record for wins with 106, beating the D-Backs by 21 games. They then got beat by the eventual World Champion Nats in the LDS. The Nats pitching made the difference. 2020 would be cut short by the Pandemic. Spring training was cut to just 20 games. The Dodgers went 13-7, best record in the Cactus League.

                                    Over the winter, LA had traded for Mookie Betts. Betts had just 27 at bats during spring. Cody Thomas, who did not make the team, led all hitters in spring with 5 homers in just 22 at bats. Chris Taylor had 4 and led the team with 12 RBIs.  LA went 43-17, beating the Padres by 6 games. They then swept the Brewers 2-0, swept the Padres, 3-0 with Will Smith setting a playoff record for most hits in a game with 5. They then battled the Braves in a 7-game series and won despite being down 3-1. They then won their first World Series since 1988 in six games over the Rays.

                                     Corey Seager had an awesome spring in 21. He hit .346 and clubbed 8 homers driving in 16 runs. He would hit 16 during the regular season in what was his last year as a Dodger. Taylor hit 5 with Bellinger, Muncy and Smith hitting 3. For the first time since 2013, the Dodgers would not win the West. Despite winning 106 games again, they lost by 1 game to the Giants. LA was 13-11 in spring; the Giants were 11-12. LA beat the Giants in the LDS, 3-2 but lost the LCS in six games to the eventual champion Braves and Freddie Freeman. Chris Taylor became the second LA Dodger to hit 3 homers in a playoff game when he did it in game 5.

                                    In 22, spring training was cut short by a labor dispute. LA wound up playing just 14 games. And by the way they played, one would never guess that they would win more games that season than they ever had. They were 5-9 in spring play. Eddy Alvarez and Edwin Rios led the team with 3 homers each. Freddie Freeman in his first spring with LA, hit .350 but had just 1 homer. LA won 111 games, finishing 22 games in front of San Diego. But all that good feeling went away when they lost 3 straight games to the Padres after winning game 1 of the LDS.

                                   Six different players hit 3 homers in spring in 23 to tie for the team lead, Betts, Freeman, Outman, Muncy, Taylor and Luke Williams. The team went 14-13. They then went out and won 100 or more for the third year in a row and the fifth since 2017. They finished 100-62, 16 games better than Arizona. Then they were immediately knocked out of the playoffs when Arizona swept them.  Arizona would eventually win the NL pennant but lose the World Series to Corey Seager’s Rangers. 

                                As we have seen, in most of these seasons, the Dodgers have not cruised through spring training with a great record. They only led the Cactus league once in 2020. Spring records do not mean much except the individual stats which can help some youngster impress the front office brass. It might make the difference between going to AA or AAA. For the Dodgers at least, with so many superstars and solid position players, rookies do not quite get the chances they did years ago. Breaking camp with on the 26-man, is not an easy thing to do with this team.