This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider.
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The Dodgers have to get their production from the top. Shohei Ontani not only had an MVP season, he carried the offense in September, the first time in eight years he’d gotten to play meaningful baseball late in the year. Mookie Betts hasn’t been the same guy since his broken hand, hitting .267/.314/.497, and even before spraining his ankle, Freddie Freeman was having his worst season since 2021. The Dodgers, at full strength, go deeper than those three, but it’s hard to see them beating the Padres without this group playing well. It is their primary advantage over the Pads, and arguably their only one.
