Opponents: The NL West

                                                         It is still a while before the season begins, but I thought we could take an early look at the Dodgers main opponents in the National League West. All of the teams made moves being trades or free agent signings. Some brought back players who had left, 0thers added some familiar faces. The Dodgers had maybe the best winter of all the teams in the NL West adding Kyle Tucker and Edwin Diaz, bringing back Kike and Phillips. Let’s just take a look at what the rest of the division did.

                                                                                                                                                               Arizona

                                                       Arizona had several players declare free agency after they were eliminated from the playoff picture in October. None of them were major pieces of the team. After the World Series ended, free agency was declared by a lot of players. Some teams began signing free agent players who were mostly fringe guys. First D-Backs of note to declare free agency was LHP Jalen Beeks on the 2nd. Zac Gallen, James McCann also filed that day. John Curtiss, Casey Kelly, and Elvin Rodriguez soon followed suit. Tory Lovullo is still the manager. 

                                                       Their first free agent signing came on November 13th when they signed Junior Fernandez, a relief pitcher from the Royals. They brought back McCann on the 23rd of November.  On December 4th, they signed former Dodger, Jacob Amaya as a free agent. On the 12th, they signed P Michael Soroka as a free agent. On the 19th, they brought back one of their own Merrill Kelly as a free agent. He had been traded to the Rangers during the 25 season.  They were pretty quiet the rest of December and on January 10th, they traded Jake McCarthy to the Rockies for a minor leaguer. They then signed P Jonathan Loaisiga as a free agent. 

                                                         On the 13th of January, they traded a minor leaguer to the Cardinals for Nolan Arenado and cash. This was probably their most impactful move. Coming back to the NL West, they look for Arenado to perform more like he did with Colorado than he did with the Cardinals. One thing he does for sure is bring gold glove defense at third to the D-Backs. On the 10th of February they signed Carlos Santans, then Paul Sewald on the 13th. They then resigned Zac Gallen on the 15th. 

                                                                                                                                                         Projected Starting Lineup

                                                         At catcher, most likely the starter will be Gabriel Moreno. Moreno just turned 26 on Valentines Day. His primary backup will be either James McCann or Adrian Del Castillo. Castillo hits left-handed, McCann and Moreno hit right. Moreno missed significant time last year due to a hand injury. He also had injuries during the 24 season. McCann is 36, a seasoned veteran who started his career in Detroit. Del Castillo got into 44 games last year. 

                                                         Carlos Santana is #1 on the Arizona depth chart at 1st base. Santana is 40 years old and obviously will not play every day. He will get some reps as the DH. Pavin Smith, is # 2 on the chart with Ildemaro Vargas, a free agent signee and utility man, behind them. 2nd base will be the primary position for veteran Ketel Marte. Marte was on the trading block this winter, but Arizona did not find a deal they liked. Vargas and Tim Tawa back him up.

                                                          The starting SS will be Geraldo Perdomo. Perdomo had a breakout season in 25, belting 20 homers and driving in 100 runs. He is also a very good defender. Jordan Lawlar and Vargas are his caddy’s. Third base will be manned by Nolan Arenado. He had the worst offensive season of his career in 25. Arizona is expecting him to have a rebounding year. He is a 10-time gold glover. His last one came in 2021. He is backed up by Vargas, Lawlar and Perdomo. 

                                                           The starting outfield will be Lourdes Gurriel in left, Alek Thomas in center and Corbin Carroll in right. Carroll cracked 31 homers last season, Gurriel 19, and Thomas just 9. Smith, and young Jorge Barrosa will be their primary backups. Offensively, the D-Backs lost their best power hitter, Eugenio Suarez, but picked up a perennial 20 homer guy in Arenado. Last season they hit 214 homers. I expect that will be close to the number they hit this year if all of their players come close to matching their career numbers. They finished 80-82 last year. In this division, I expect them to be at least at .500 or a little better. 

                                                                                                                                                             Pitching

                                                              The D-Backs brought in Corbin Burnes last season, but he ended up going down with an injury after just 11 games. He is currently on the IL recovering from TJ surgery. He is hoping to return around the All-Star break. Arizona re-signed Gallen and Kelly. Kelly pitched well last year before being dealt to the Rangers. He had a 9-6 record and a 3.22 ERA. Gallen had a bloated 4.83 ERA. Eduardo Rodriguez and Brandon Pfaadt both had ERA’s north of 5. Ryne Nelson, 3.39 ERA and free agent signee, Michael Soroka, round out the starter candidates.

                                                            Three of their bullpen arms begin the year on the IL, Justin Martinez, AJ Puk, and Andrew Saalfrank. Their closer from last year has moved on in free agency, Shelby Miller. But they brought back former closer, Paul Sewald and he will be backed up by Kevin Ginkel. Ryan Thompson, Taylor Clarke and Juan Morillo are their bullpen depth pieces. Overall, Arizona has a decent offense and very good defenders at most of their positions.  What they seem to lack is rotation depth and bench depth. Prediction 3rd or 4th in the division. 

                                                                                                                                                          Colorado Rockies

                                                            The Rockies made several changes during the winter, the most notable being the hiring of Paul DePodesta as the President of Baseball Operations and then hiring Josh Burnes away from the Dodgers to be their GM. Their four significant free agent signings were Willi Castro for 2 years, Michael Lorenzen for one year, Jose Quintana and Tomoyuki Sugano for a year each. The Rockies took the interim tag off of Schaffer and made him the manager. 

                                                           The one major trade they made brought Jake McCarthy from Arizona. DePodesta and Byrnes have their work cut out for them turning around a franchise that lost 119 games last season. They did not resign sixteen players from last year’s roster including, Kyle Farmer, German Marquez, Michael Toglia, Orlando Arcia, Thario Estrada, and Warning Bernabel. They have signed several to minor league contracts including former Dodger prospect, Drew Avans.

                                                                                                                                                       Projected Starting Lineup

                                                          Hunter Goodman will be the Rocks primary catcher. The 25-year-old slugged 31 homers and drove in 91 runs last season. The most on the team by a wide margin. His backup will be Braxton Fulford, a glove first guy. First base will be manned by Edouard Julien. He turns 27 in April and has played parts of 3 seasons in the majors with the Twins. The Rockies got him in a trade in January. He is listed mainly as a second baseman. Blaine Crim is the other first baseman on the roster. Cole Carrig is a non-roster invitee and the only other first baseman in camp. 

                                                       Ryan Ritter is listed as the starting 2nd baseman. Ritter, 26 this year, played in 60 games for the Rocks last season. Julian, Tyler Freeman and Willi Castro are listed as his backups. Castro is listed as the starting 3rd baseman backed up by Kyle Karros who got limited playing time last season. SS will be manned by Ezequiel Tovar. A solid defensive SS with some pop. One of the Rockies best players. 

                                                      The starting outfielders will be Jordan Beck in left, Brenton Doyle in center and Tyler Freeman in right. That could change though since former Angel, Mickey Moniak His best offensive season clubbing 24 homers and driving in 68. That put him second on the team to Goodman. Zack Veen is also in the mix. The DH will be rotated with Moniak, Goodman, and Freeman all getting time there. Kris Bryant, maybe one of the worst free agent signings in history, is on the 60-day IL again.  

                                                                                                                                                              Pitching

                                                     Pitching has always been a huge Achilles heel in Colorado. Pitching at Coors Field can be an adventure for sure, and Colorado has rarely been the destination for top arms. They released the pitcher, Austin Gomber, who was the main piece of the Arenado trade. Marquez left via free agency. Their starting candidates consist of Kyle Freeland, he would be their Ace, and he has had some very good games. Anthony Senzatela, Chase Dollander, Ryan Feltner, and newcomers, Michael Lorenzen, Jose Quintana and Tomoyuki Sugano. Five veterans with a lot of experience and two kids just getting their feet wet. The Dodgers know Quintana well and have owned him the last few years. 

                                                  The Rockies reworked their bullpen, bringing back Vodnik, Halvorsen, and Herget. Most of the rest of the pen are untested arms from AAA and other team’s castoffs. John Brebbia is in camp as a non-roster invitee. With this group, he has a good chance of making the team.  Overall, Colorado has a long way to go to become competitive in the NL West. They have some solid players, especially defensively, but a few too many question marks to be a serious contender. Prediction: Last place in the NL West.

                                                                                                                                                          San Diego Padres

                                               For several years now the neighbors to the south have been a thorn in the Dodgers side. Last season, the Padres finished 3 games back of the Dodgers with a 90-72 record. Even at that, the Dodgers had to win 2 of the 3 games they played the last week of the year to clinch the West. LA was 9-4 against San Diego last year. Most of the Padre’s starters have returned to the team, the one exception being Luis Arraez who is now a Giant. They added starting pitchers, German Marquez, and Griffin Canning to a deep starting pitching staff. Yu Darvish is not listed on the IL yet, but he is not healthy either and is contemplating retirement. The other big change was Mike Schildt leaving his managers job and the Padres hiring of Craig Stammen to be their new manager. He has no managerial experience. 

                                                                                                                                                           Projected Starting Lineup

                                              Catching will be handled by the duo of Freddie Fermin and Luis Campusano. Both are good defenders, with the better bat belonging to Fermin who shared duties last year with the since departed, Elias Diaz. Campusano spent most of the year in AAA. With Arraez gone, the primary 1st baseman will be Gavin Sheets. Sheets spent most of 25 as a solid bench piece for the Padres. He will be backed up by Jake Cronenworth, Miguel Andujar, and newly signed Nick Castellanos, who will also DH. 

                                              Cronenworth is the starting 2nd baseman, backed up by Sun-Mung Song, who they signed as a free agent from the KBO. SS will be handled by Xander Bogaerts. The veteran moves back to his original position. Cronenworth and Mason McCoy are his backups. Machado is once again the starting 3rd baseman for the Padres. He is basically their heart and soul. As goes Manny, so go the Padres. Song and Will Wagner back up Machado.

                                              The Padres have a very good starting outfield. LF is manned by Ramon Laureano, who made a huge impact after his trade to SD last year. Jackson Merrill begins his 3rd season in the majors and is a very good center fielder and a decent hitter who hopes to hit more like he did his rookie year than he did last year. Right belongs to Fernando Tatis Jr. He has adapted to right very well and is a very solid defender. His bat can be explosive. Once considered a 30 to 40 homer threat, he has not hit more than 25 in any of the last 3 years. He also strikes out a lot. Sheets, Castellanos, Andujar and Song are all backup outfielders. Castellanos, Andujar and Sheets figure to get most of the DH duties. 

                                                                                                                                                                 Pitching

                                               The Padre’s starting staff has the ability to be very good. Based on last year’s numbers, 32-year-old, Nick Pivetta is the teams ACE. He and reliever Adrian Morejon were the only Padres with double digit wins, both had 13. Dylan Cease left via free agency and Yu Darvish was hurt most of the year. They will be getting Joe Musgrove back, but how effective he will be after missing the entire 25 season remains to be seen. Michael King and Randy Vazquez are the best of the returning starters listed on the roster. Just how big of an impact the new guys, Marquez and Canning will make also remains to be seen. They do have the potential of making a very good staff.

                                              The Padres relief corps is scary. They have enough depth that they allowed closer, Robert Suarez to leave via free agency. Why? They traded for Mason Miller last year knowing he had one more season before he is arbitration eligible and is not a free agent until 2030. Behind Miller are some solid bullpen arms. Morejon, Estrada, Jason Adam, Wandy Peralta, Yuki Matsui and Bryan Hoening. Seems like you had better get to the Pads starters because scoring off of the pen is going to be a problem. 

                                               Overall, the Padres offense is deep, and they have decent team speed. They do not have the kind of power production the Dodgers have, but they are built well for their home field. They are very good defensively and the pitching staff has a lot of experience and depth. Will it be enough to overcome the Dodgers virtual All-Star roster/ I would say, close, but not at this time. They are a younger team than the Dodgers, but injuries could derail both teams. If LA loses a star, they have better depth to replace that star and the resources to trade for what they might need. Prediction 2nd place in the NL West. They are better than the two other possible contenders, Arizona and the Giants.

                                                                                                                                                          San Francisco Giants. 

                                               The Giants had some major changes this offseason, mostly on the team’s bench. Bob Melvin was let go as the team’s manager and he was replaced by Tony Vitello, a former college baseball coach at the University of Tennessee. So, this is his first try at managing in the major leagues. They also added several new coaches including Ron Washington, Jayce Tingler, who once managed the Padres, Hunter Mense and Justin Meccage, the new pitching coach. 

                                               They lost some players to free agency, Joey Lucchesi, Justin Verlander, Andrew Knizner, Dom Smith and Wilmer Flores. They were not especially active signing top free agents. Luis Arraez was the most prominent signing they made. They also signed Harrison Bader to a 2-year deal to be their everyday center fielder. On the pitching side, they signed starting pitcher, Tyler Mahle. 

                                                                                                                                                      Projected Starting Lineup

                                               The starting catcher is going to be Patrick Bailey. Bailey is more of a defensive guy than a big bat. He has won back-to-back Gold Gloves. Not much power and his OBP is below .300. His backup is Daniel Susac, 0btained in a trade with the Twins this winter. Susac is 24 and has no MLB experience. Jesus Rodriguez is the 3rd catcher on the 40-man. He is 23 also with no experience. Logan Porter, Eric Haase and former LA prospect, Diego Cartaya are non-roster invitees. 

                                                 The Giant’s starting infield has some hitters. Rafael Devers has finally accepted the move to 1st base. He has 30 homer power, but Oracle Park is not a power hitters paradise. 2nd base now belongs to 3-time batting champ, Luis Arraez. He signed a one-year contract when the Giants promised him, he could play 2nd. SS belongs to Willy Adames. Adames combines power with great defense. 3rd base is handled by Matt Chapman. Chapman is a 20-homer low average, good glove third baseman. Giants do not scare anyone power wise. 

                                               Casey Schmitt is the primary backup at 2nd, 3rd and 1st. Christian Koss is the backup SS. The starting outfield is Heliot Ramos in left, Harrison Bader in center and Jung Hoo Lee in right. Not much power out there and Ramos is not that great of a defender. Bader and Lee are very good. Drew Gilbert and Bryce Eldridge are the backups. Devers, Eldridge and Gilbert will share DH duties. 

                                                                                                                                                          Pitching

                                                  The Giant’s starting staff is anchored by Ace, Logan Webb. Webb was 15-11 last year with a 3.22 ERA. He struck out 224 batters in 207 innings. Robbie Ray, 11-8 3.65 and Landon Roupp, 7-7 3.80 are the two holdovers from last year. Verlander is back with Detroit. They added Tyler Mahle in free agency. Others in the mix, Carson Whisenhunt, Carson Seymour, Trevor McDonald and Adrian Houser. Not much in the way of experience there and not a lot of depth. No names of note on the non-roster list either. 

                                                  The closer is Ryan Walker, 5-7 17 saves and a 4.11 ERA. Randy Rodriguez, one of their better relievers last season is on the 60-day IL. Behind them are veterans Christian Beck, Matt Gage, Sam Hentges, J.T. Brubaker and Eric Miller. There is not much experience behind these guys. The bullpen is not very deep, and there is at this point no real lock own late inning reliever in camp. 

                                                   Overall, the Giants fortunes will rest on the ability of their pitching staff to keep opponents off of the scoreboard. The Giants infield will provide the bulk of their offense. They hit 173 homers last year, third in the division behind the Dodgers, 244, and the D-Backs 214. The Rockies hit 160, and the Padres 153. The starting staff is not deep, and neither is the bullpen. Giants will need some players to really step up their game. Prediction: 3rd or 4th. 

                                                  Well, there it is, my analysis of the Dodgers division rivals. The Padres have recently passed the Giants as the Dodgers most aggressive and disliked rival. That could all change, but the biggest change is the fact that three of the teams in the division have what amounts to new managers. Schaffer got some experience last year, but will be tested this year on his own merits.