The Dodgers spent the 2026 regular season adding new names at every turn, and a few of them made themselves impossible to ignore.
At the top of the list is Tarik Skubal, whose arrival at the trade deadline ended a long-running Dodgers pursuit that had started back in December. The left-hander, a two-time Cy Young winner, logged 10 starts in Los Angeles and turned in a 2.61 ERA across 62 innings, striking out 70 batters along the way. Even with that kind of production, the sense from his first stretch in Dodger blue is that there’s still more in the tank.
Kyle Tucker’s season followed a different path. The four-year, $240 million signing came in with huge expectations, but his early months were uneven and his OPS slipped below .700 at points.
September changed the mood fast. Tucker posted six homers and 13 RBIs for the month, finishing with an .890 OPS, easily his best monthly mark of the season.
If that version shows up again in October, the Dodgers have a major weapon in their push for a three-peat.
Josue De Paula brought a different kind of energy. He arrived late in the year after Shohei Ohtani landed on the injured list and immediately gave a sluggish Dodgers offense a lift.
In just 11 games, De Paula put up a 1.081 OPS, hit one home run, drove in seven runs, and reached base 50% of the time. That kind of spark quickly won over fans looking for a jolt.
Eric Lauer also carved out a memorable run after the Dodgers claimed him off waivers from the Toronto Blue Jays in May and dropped him into the rotation to cover for Tyler Glasnow. He appeared in 14 games, pitched to a 4.50 ERA, struck out 46 batters in 72 innings, and helped fuel a remarkable stretch in which the Dodgers won each of the first nine games he started.
The Dodgers had no shortage of new faces making noise this season, but the fan favorite question is still open: which newcomer stood out to you most?
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For the Dodgers, the immediate intrigue is less about their own schedule than about which version of October they might be handed after Atlanta and Philadelphia sort things out. The two clubs enter with regular-season history against both the Braves and each other, and the broadcast setup for the wild card games only adds to the sense that this part of the bracket is the one worth tracking most closely from Los Angeles. [Read more 🡒]
Miguel Rojas Had An Emotional Message Dodgers Fans Need To Hear
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For the Dodgers, the story does not end when Rojas hangs up his cleats. The club has offered him a player development role after retirement, and Dave Roberts has gone a step further in seeing future leadership potential, believing Rojas could one day manage in the big leagues. For now, though, the focus is on a farewell season that clearly means a lot to him and, by extension, to a team that has leaned on his experience for years. [Read more 🡒]
Yasiel Puig Just Revived A Dodgers Rivalry Fans Will Never Forget
Yasiel Puig has a knack for stirring up old memories in Los Angeles, and his latest Instagram post did exactly that. The former Dodgers outfielder shared a viral AI-generated video of himself and Madison Bumgarner dancing and rapping to a popular song, a surreal bit of internet theater that instantly brought back one of the more combustible rivalries from Puigs time in Dodger blue.
The video leans directly into the history between the two, pointing back to the on-field incidents that made every meeting feel like it carried extra heat. Puigs path since leaving the Dodgers has taken him through several other teams, but the reaction to this clip shows how deeply those matchups still live in the minds of fans who remember when every Dodgers-Giants chapter seemed to come with a little more edge. [Read more 🡒]