Miguel Rojas has given the Dodgers’ veteran core a nickname with some bite, and it all traces back to the chatter that followed the Padres owner’s “dinosaurs” remark.
Speaking on MLB Network before World Series Game 1, Rojas said he and four other longtime Dodgers had formed a tight little group inside the clubhouse: Mookie Betts, Max Muncy, Freddie Freeman and Kike Hernandez. The five of them are all in their mid-to-late 30s, squarely in the later stage of their careers, and they became central figures in the conversation about the Dodgers being an older team.
That age talk picked up steam after Padres owner Jose Feliciano, who bought the team a few months ago, said that “the owner of the Dodgers owns a lot of dinosaurs.”
Feliciano said he was referring to Dodgers owner Mark Walter’s dinosaur fossil collection, but the line spread fast and took on a life of its own. Dodgers players leaned into it by wearing dinosaur shirts, and Rojas said the veteran group gave itself a name too.
“We’re called the viejitos because they started calling us the dinosaurs, old players, old guys. They didn’t know if we could still do it. In some form, we showed the world that we were able to do it,” Rojas said.
The Dodgers’ roster age was 30.8, the highest in the league. Most of that came from the position-player side, while the pitching group was described as having plenty of youth, both in the organization and on the postseason roster.
The “Viejitos” helped push that average up, but they were not alone in giving the Dodgers an older look. Other veterans across the lineup added little in the way of youthful balance.
And even with that World Series run in the rearview, the age question is still hanging over the roster heading into 2027. Fans want the team younger, Rojas is retiring, and that alone opens a spot for a younger player. Hernandez’s future, meanwhile, remains uncertain.
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