Dodgers Taking Cautious Approach to 2025 Season

The defending champs are taking a cautious approach to the 2025 season.

As spring training gets underway, the Los Angeles Dodgers have reported to camp in Arizona hoping to repeat as champs. News and notes have been consistently trickling out of the home base — and some have been pretty surprising.

Various reports indicated that the likes of Clayton Kershaw, Evan Phillips, Michael Kopech, Will Smith, Shohei Ohtani, and Freddie Freeman are being slow-played.

For most teams, this might be a major catastrophe. For the Dodgers? It’s just another example of the depth that they’ve built up over the off-season and the last few years.

The depth of the rotation is what makes these decisions especially interesting. The Dodgers have upwards of 10 starting pitching options for this upcoming year. Kershaw has the chance to ramp up accordingly as his body adjusts to life post-surgery. Ohtani also likely won’t be back pitching until May at the earliest.

Phillips and Kopech both have had minor shoulder issues stemming from last year’s playoff run. Although neither of them are slated to have surgery, the Dodgers have the ability to have them sit out.

The same goes for Freeman, who had his heroic run in last year‘s World Series despite playing on a bulky ankle. The expectation is that he will be ready for opening day, though we might not see him very much during spring training games.

This is a microcosm of what we can expect from the Dodgers during this current regular season. With the amount of talent and depth the team has, coupled with the injury history for a number of their players, it only makes sense for the Dodgers to truly expand their roster creatively while keeping their players fresh and ready for another postseason run in October.