The Dodgers enter October with a rotation that looks built for the moment.
That’s the big change this year. A season ago, Los Angeles survived with a patched-together staff and a dominant bullpen.
In 2025, the script flipped, with the rotation carrying the load while the bullpen wobbled. Now the club believes it may have both pieces working at once.
“We have a lot of really talented arms,” general manager Brandon Gomes said Tuesday. “I think this is about as deep of a pitching staff as we’ve ever had. There’s a lot of really good options to work through as a group.”
The headliner move came on August 2, when the Dodgers brought in Tarik Skubal, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, to fill the spot left by Shohei Ohtani, who has not pitched since July 3 and will not pitch this postseason.
Skubal joins a rotation that has been sturdy all year. Yoshinobu Yamamoto again served as the anchor, making every start for the second straight season.
Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow both lost significant time to long injured-list stints, then returned with enough time to build back up for October. All four have posted strong numbers.
Skubal finished with 26 starts, 158.7 innings, a 2.72 ERA and a 30.0 percent strikeout rate. Yamamoto went 28 starts and 185 innings with a 2.53 ERA. Snell worked 9 starts and 62 innings with a 1.90 ERA, while Glasnow logged 13 starts and 74 innings with a 3.53 ERA.
“To be honest, we can kind of really put all four guys in a hat, and run them out there,” manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday.
That kind of confidence is rooted in what the Dodgers did a year ago. Yamamoto, Snell, Ohtani and Glasnow started every one of the team’s 17 postseason games, combining for a 2.55 ERA over 113 innings with 127 strikeouts.
They all took part in Game 7 of the World Series, with Yamamoto closing it out after starting Game 6 the day before. Last October, Yamamoto also pitched the Dodgers’ first two postseason complete games since 1988, and Snell delivered starts of eight and seven innings.
The quality-start numbers back up the broader picture. Across MLB this regular season, teams went 1,094-484 when they got one, and starters in those games posted a 1.74 ERA.
The Dodgers led the majors with 83 quality starts this season, eight more than the Phillies, and it was their highest total since 2015. They went 60-23 when they got a quality start.
The October track record was even stronger. Dodgers starters produced 10 quality starts last postseason, the most by any staff since the 2013 Tigers.
That was also one more than the Dodgers had across their previous five postseasons combined. In those 10 games, Los Angeles won every time, and the starter allowed zero or one run in seven of them.
Ohtani accounted for two of those quality starts, but this year Skubal steps into that role. In his three postseason starts last year for Detroit, he turned in three quality starts, struck out 36 and allowed four runs in 20 2/3 innings.
“Watching Tarik Skubal pitch in the playoffs last year was must-see TV. I was in awe, watching the energy, the dominance he exhibited there,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “I can’t wait to see it on our club.”
In Other News...
Padres Just Left The Dodgers With A Brutal NLDS Opener
The Dodgers NLDS opener landed in an unwelcome spot almost as soon as San Diego finished off the Cubs in the Wild Card round. Instead of a prime-time atmosphere, Game 1 was pushed to a 1 p.m. local start under an extreme heat watch, with temperatures expected to climb to 101 degrees and humidity adding to the discomfort.
Dave Roberts made it clear he would have preferred a night game, and the concerns went beyond convenience. Player safety has been part of the conversation, and the scheduling shift came on the heels of the Padres sweep, even if the exact reason for the change still wasnt fully clear. For the Dodgers, it was one more layer of irritation before a matchup that already carried plenty of October pressure. [Read more 🡒]
Dodgers NLDS Opener Comes With A Stadium Twist Fans Will Notice
Dodger Stadium is getting a postseason menu refresh as the NLDS opens, with Levy rolling out a batch of new food items for fans coming through the gates. The additions are built for the kind of October crowd that likes to make an event out of every inning, and the list includes a Spam musubi dog, orange chicken fries, a colossal burger, a wing sampler, chicharron and guacamole, and a churro waffle ice cream sandwich.
The new offerings will be available for all NLDS games, and there is at least a chance they stick around into the NL Championship Series if the Dodgers keep advancing. For fans, it adds another layer to a postseason atmosphere that already comes with plenty to track, from the action on the field to what ends up in hand during the long nights at Chavez Ravine. [Read more 🡒]
Dodgers Braves NLDS Opens With One Huge Pitching Question
The National League Division Series gets underway Saturday at Dodger Stadium, and for the Dodgers the first layer of strategy comes before the first pitch is even thrown. Atlanta arrives fresh off a wild-card sweep of the Phillies, while Los Angeles had the benefit of a bye, giving both sides a different kind of edge as the matchup shifts from survival baseball to a best-of-five series.
Chris Sales status for the opener is the biggest pitching question hanging over the matchup, with his recent workload creating real uncertainty for the Braves. From the Dodgers side, the bye gives them some flexibility in how they line up their own rotation for Game 1, a small but meaningful advantage in a series where every decision around the mound could shape the tone early. [Read more 🡒]