Undoubtedly, the Los Angeles Dodgers are one of the best teams in the majors, if not the best. Following an excellent 2023 season that saw them clinch the NL West title and lose in the Division Series to the eventual National League champions, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Dodgers are set to have another excellent campaign this upcoming season.
However, keeping the consistency they’ve displayed over the last few seasons might be a tough task to handle. FanDuel has their O/U set at 103.5 wins, the highest among MLB teams. Here are some reasons why they will fail to hit that mark.
2024 Los Angeles Dodgers O/U: Why the Dodgers Will Hit the UNDER
Expectations Are Way Too High
As mentioned before, the Dodgers have their O/U set at a league-high 103.5 wins, and rightfully so. They have the most stacked roster in the league, featuring superstars like Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, and their star signing of the offseason, two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani.
Despite the insane amount of talent present on this roster, hitting 104 wins is no easy feat. Moreover, we have seen teams enter the season with huge expectations only to fall apart mid-season and fail to meet expectations miserably. Without going too far back, let’s take the 2023 San Diego Padres as an example: a team that had made it to the NLCS the previous season, made excellent moves in the offseason, and was predicted by several analysts and experts to win the division, the National League pennant and even the World Series, only to finish with a mediocre 82-80 record, missing out on the playoffs entirely.
On the flip side, there are always teams that come into the season with low expectations and manage to upset bigger teams en route to the World Series championship. Last season’s World Series matchup is a prime example of that: an Arizona Diamondbacks team that finished with a league-worst 52-110 record in 2021 and 74-88 in 2022, and the Texas Rangers, who also had two terrible seasons before their World Series berth in 2023, finishing 60-102 in 2021 and 68-94 in 2022. If there’s anything we can take away from this, it’s that the Dodgers are not invincible, and the underdogs could be patiently waiting to prove the doubters wrong this season.
Injury Risk
As with the Yankees, the Dodgers present an extremely talented yet injury-prone roster, especially in the pitching department. The team enters the season with three pitchers on the 60-day injured list: former ace Clayton Kershaw, 2022 All-Star Tony Gonsolin, and former top prospect Dustin May. Furthermore, ace Walker Buehler will miss at least the first few games of the season and hasn’t pitched since 2022 following Tommy John surgery.
The truth is, there’s no escape from injuries. It affects all teams and can happen at any given time. And when a team is as injury-prone as the Dodgers are, it’s almost guaranteed that it will happen at any point in the season. All they can do is work on their players’ conditioning, see how the season plays out, and do their best to replace any injured players.
No Team is Invincible
As mentioned above, fortune usually plays a big part in the game of baseball. We’ve seen some of the best teams in history fall short of expectations, like the 2001 Seattle Mariners, who won 116 regular season games and eventually failed the World Series. The 2024 Dodgers may not be any different. They have, without question, the best team on paper, but their on-field performance may tell a completely different story. For now, all we can do is wait until the season starts, and then we can have a proper assessment of how the season will play out for the Dodgers.
Main Image: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
