The Dodgers are still sitting in a strong place as the calendar turns toward October, but the real issue isn’t their standing in the NL West. It’s whether the group that gets there will actually be whole.
Los Angeles enters games on Tuesday, August 25 at 80-51, and while it has picked up some ground on the Atlanta Braves in the race for a first-round bye, there’s still a layer of uncertainty around this team. That’s the point Grant Brisbee of The Athletic zeroed in on when he identified the Dodgers’ biggest postseason question: “How's everyone feeling?”
Brisbee’s answer comes down to health, and not just a little of it. “Tyler Glasnow is close to rejoining the rotation.
Shohei Ohtani is throwing again. Will Smith is close to a rehab assignment,” Brisbee writes.
“The Dodgers still have a bullpen's worth of arms on the IL, and they'll be without Andy Pages for a while, but they're still in the montage sequence of the season.”
That’s the tension for the Dodgers. On paper, they look like a machine built for another deep run.
In reality, the roster is carrying plenty of baggage right now. Will Smith, Dalton Rushing, Andy Pages, Tyler Glasnow, and a number of relievers are all dealing with injuries, and that matters a lot more once the postseason starts.
The Dodgers don’t need every player to be perfect. They’ve got enough talent to absorb one bad week or one quiet stretch from a star. But if the injury list stays crowded, or if a key hitter gets stuck in a slump like Kyle Tucker, the path through October gets a lot tougher.
That’s why this question matters so much. It’s not really about one name or one problem. It’s about whether the Dodgers can enter the postseason with most of their core available and the team in the right rhythm.
They’re still the World Series favorites. But if too many of the important pieces are not feeling well, whether because of injury or because the bats go cold at the wrong time, a long October run gets harder to imagine.
In Other News...
Clayton Kershaw Is Back In A Dodgers Role Fans Will Love
Clayton Kershaw is finding a new way to stay close to the Dodgers just months after ending his 18-year playing career in Los Angeles. The longtime left-hander, who retired from MLB in September 2025, is set to step into a broadcast booth role for the first time, bringing a familiar voice and perspective to a fan base that spent nearly two decades watching him on the mound.
Kershaw had already lined up a deal with NBC Sports to work as a pregame and studio analyst, but this assignment gives him a different kind of spotlight. He will join Joe Davis and Kirsten Watson for Tuesday nights game against the Atlanta Braves, with coverage beginning at 3 p.m. PT, and it will be worth watching to see how naturally one of the franchises most iconic players settles into a role Dodgers fans have long wanted him to embrace. [Read more 🡒]
Dodgers Fans Have A Right To Worry About Their New Star
The Dodgers brought in another star with the idea that he would lengthen the lineup and give the club a clearer margin for error, but the early returns have looked a lot shakier than anyone around Chavez Ravine expected. Around baseball this season, several established names have taken noticeable steps back from the standards they set in previous years, and that backdrop matters for a team that has built its identity on star power and October expectations. Los Angeles can usually absorb a slow stretch or two, yet even for a roster this deep, performance drift from a headline addition tends to change the conversation fast.
For the Dodgers, the concern is less about one bad week than about what it means if this keeps going. When a new arrival is supposed to be part of the answer, any hint of decline becomes part of the roster math, the lineup construction and, eventually, the pressure that comes with playing in Los Angeles. The Dodgers have spent enough time around big names and big stages to know how quickly patience can fade, and this is the sort of storyline that will keep following them until the star in question starts looking like the player they thought they were getting. [Read more 🡒]
Clayton Kershaw Adds An Unexpected Twist To Braves Dodgers Opener
Clayton Kershaw is due for a different kind of assignment when the Dodgers open their series against the Braves on Tuesday, taking a seat in the SportsNet LA booth as a color analyst. It will be his first game in that role on the network this season, adding an unexpected wrinkle to a night that already carries some weight for a Los Angeles club still closely tied to its former ace.
Since retiring from MLB after the 2026 season, Kershaw has moved into media work while also serving as a special assistant with the Dodgers, keeping him around the organization in a way that feels fitting for a franchise icon. His latest appearance behind the mic gives fans another chance to hear from him in a new setting, even if the bigger on-field story will still be the matchup with Atlanta. [Read more 🡒]