Dave Roberts thinks the Brewers may have started a shift.
After Milwaukee knocked off the Dodgers in the 2026 National League Championship Series and went on to win the first World Series title in franchise history, Roberts pointed to the way the Brewers played as something other clubs will try to copy. In his view, the takeaway goes beyond one hot October run. It’s about teams chasing more athletic players, more range on defense and more pressure on the bases.
Roberts said the Brewers showed how much value there is in players who can cover ground and change innings with their gloves. He singled out Brice Turang, Jackson Chourio and Sal Frelick for the kinds of plays that can swing a series, and he also mentioned Lara taking away a Freddie Freeman ball in Game 3 at Dodger Stadium.
“I think you’re going to see teams try to get more athletic. I think the defense part of it - Turang took numerous outs away from us, Chourio, Frelick on a Freddie Freeman ball - those are game-changing plays.
Lara took a ball away from Freddie at our place, in Game 3, I think it was. And I think then you look at the offensive side, where they can take extra bases, they can steal bases.
I think teams are going to really try to get more athletic,” Roberts said to Buster Olney on the Baseball Tonight Podcast.
He also said the Brewers’ offense offered a different blueprint, one that leans more toward contact and situational execution than pure power. Roberts noted that slugging is still valuable, but not always the answer when the goal is to stack singles and doubles, move runners and keep innings alive.
“Slug is always great. It’s just hard to slug those ones and twos.
I think even with Chourio, who can still slug you, and you mentioned that Freddy Peralta at-bat, you see his path? He took his swing instead of trying to create loft or more, and he found a way to get a hit.
Even Contreras has shortened up in the postseason to move the ball forward to hit a line drive. Might run into a homer here or there, but he’s able to see balls a little bit longer.
“I think short answer to your question, I think teams are going to try to get more athletic. Ball in play is still king, in my opinion.
The Blue Jays did it really well last year, and certainly the Rays do it. You look at their averages, the on-base, OPS, it’s not good - talking about the Rays.
But they put the ball in play, they get hits with runners in scoring position. Obviously they’ve run into a buzzsaw here in the World Series, though.”
That idea has already shown up in the Dodgers’ own draft approach. In the early rounds, the organization has leaned more and more toward players who can run, defend and create value in ways that don’t always show up in the home run column.
Kendall George was the Dodgers’ first pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, and his game fits that mold. The left-hander brings elite speed, a disciplined approach at the plate and a willingness to put the ball in play. In 2025, he posted the lowest pull rate in the Minors at 23% and finished with the 10th-highest groundball/flyball ratio at 2.93.
The Dodgers then used their first selection in the 2024 MLB Draft on Kellon Lindsey, another player with speed at the center of his profile. He drew Trea Turner comparisons because of his top-end burst, which he flashed with multiple sub-6.3-second times in the 60-yard dash at the MLB Draft Combine. Lindsey also projects as a potential plus defender at shortstop, second base or center field.
Those two draft classes have helped push the Dodgers’ farm system to MLB Pipeline’s No. 1 ranking.
Miguel Rojas was also in Arizona, watching Dodgers prospects in the Arizona Fall League as he observed the Glendale Desert Dogs against the Mesa Solar Sox and unofficially began the second phase of his career in the Dodgers organization.
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