When the Los Angeles Dodgers were at their lowest, Dave Roberts did something he hardly remembered doing in any of his first nine seasons as a manager: He called an in-season meeting. The Dodgers were reeling. Their injuries were mounting, the latest blow coming with the news that Tyler Glasnow would be out for the remainder of the year after his sprained right elbow wouldn’t cooperate enough to throw a scheduled simulated game.
“I was just feeling that there was a little bit of wavering with the roster as far as enough talent to win 11 games in October,” Roberts recalled recently to The Athletic.
That meeting, a call by Roberts for the players to show faith in one another, prompted the Dodgers to draw inward, gird for the stretch drive and embark upon a new approach to the postseason. While the Dodgers sometimes are perceived to be a top-down operation, with the front office dictating virtually every move, it was the players who took control of the team’s October plans, from watch parties during the Division Series to players-only bus and plane rides.
The players say the time they spent with one another brought them closer together, helping put them within four wins of their first World Series title since 2020, and the first in a full season since 1988.
“We’re not letting the organization tell us what we’re doing,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “The players are saying, ‘This is what we’re doing.’”
Shohei Ohtani, Kiké Hernández and Yoshinobu Yamamoto celebrate in a tight-knit locker room after eliminating the Mets. (Harry How / Getty Images)
The day Roberts called his group together in Atlanta, the timing was important. The team was fresh off a couple of losses, with Walker Buehler on the mound and suddenly becoming more prominent in the organization’s October plans. The message was even more critical.
“They realized beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was enough talent on this team to win a championship,” Roberts said. “As a coach, the messaging is also, I can believe in you until the cows come home. But if you guys don’t believe in each other more than I believe in you guys, then it’s all for naught. It was a challenge to the guys.”
The Dodgers absorbed the message. If they were going to achieve their goals, the push needed to come from the talent remaining in the room from an organization hit hard by injuries. Throughout an October in which they rallied back from a series deficit to knock out the San Diego Padres in the National League Division Series and scored a postseason-record 46 runs to beat the New York Mets and return to the World Series, the Dodgers bucked their recent October history. They came closer.
And they’ve done it their way.
What began with suggestions from the likes of Muncy, Mookie Betts, Will Smith, Miguel Rojas, Kiké Hernández and others blossomed into a different approach to how the Dodgers viewed October. Rather than lean into what they’ve done in years past, they sought to recreate the circumstances of their title run in 2020, when teams spent the entire postseason in a bubble designed to protect players from COVID-19. Rather than focus on winning, they focused on each other.
“We’ve done it one way for so long, and we haven’t won anything,” Betts said. “So, switch it up.”
The plans started coming together before the Dodgers began their five-day bye. Smith, Rojas and Muncy each formulated ideas to keep the group together during the layoff. Over the first two years under the postseason format, the organization tried several methods, from simulated games to allowing season-ticket holders into the stands. It was businesslike, with players entering the ballpark for a few hours but rarely spending that time like they would during a season.
“Everyone gets so stressed out about the five days off when you get the bye,” Muncy said. “The reality of it is, it’s a reward. You earned the bye. We wanted to treat it like that.”
So they arranged players-only watch parties to see who they’d draw. They catered food, from chicken parmesan and pasta to other nice restaurants in the area. They stocked the Yaamava’ Dugout Club at Dodger Stadium with ping-pong tables and pool tables. The emphasis was on being together, just them.
As Max Muncy put it: “The more time we spent with each other, the closer everyone got.” (Harry How / Getty Images)
Muncy said time away from the ballpark during past playoffs made it more difficult for the players to snap back into competitive mode. Yet, this year, it was not as if the Dodgers spent their bye week obsessing over the task at hand.
“We didn’t talk about baseball,” Teoscar Hernández said. “We didn’t talk about anything that has to do with our jobs. It was just, have fun. The guys who drink, drink. The guys who play cards, play cards. Just doing little things.”
“Shooting the s— and just have a nice evening,” Alex Vesia said, “it’s perfect.”
“The more time we spent with each other, the closer everyone got,” Muncy said. “We were already a close team. And now it seems like we’re closer than we even were before.”
That continued into the postseason itself. Rather than drive themselves or ride with their families down Interstate 5 from Dodger Stadium to San Diego during the NLDS, as is standard practice during the regular season, they commissioned a separate bus and made it mandatory for the players to ride together. “It was almost reminiscent of a minor-league trip,” Muncy said.
When they arrived, the players and coaches were ensconced in a separate hotel from other Dodgers staff and personnel.
When the team advanced to the NLCS against the Mets, the same concepts applied. The players took a separate flight from their families to New York, and took part in separate, team-only dinners (wives and families, for their part, did the same on their own).
The idea came from the Dodgers’ veterans, who broached it with Roberts.
“I love it because there are no excuses,” Roberts said. “This is what you guys wanted. You guys get on your player thread. You guys all talk about it. This is what you want? OK, done.
“Back in the day, players patrolled the clubhouses. It’s not the same anymore. When you have skin in the game, when the players are controlling it and managing themselves, that’s the strongest way it goes. That’s the way it should go. Always.”
Roberts took it to the Dodgers’ brass, including the business side. The extra hotels, buses and flights came with an added cost, but were immediately approved.
“Our one and only goal is to win as many games as possible,” club president Stan Kasten said. “And to do that, we want to provide our players with the best possible conditions. If they have ideas that are logical, that are sensible, we don’t mind spending a little money or going a little farther to help them achieve that.”
The idea was simple, to remove distractions and foster an environment where the players remained close at all times. Just like in the artificial bubble that was 2020, the Dodgers were collectively in the same place as one another for weeks on end.
They’ve reaped the benefits. Conversations in the cage, Betts said, have gone beyond just baseball. The bus ride to San Diego, Kiké Hernández recalled, was “like a party bus.” The team-only flight to New York featured a constant stream of music, even as Shohei Ohtani chuckled his way through comics.
“Regardless of the results, we’re going to live through this as a team, as an organization,” Miguel Rojas said.
“I think that’s what’s different from the last two years … just hanging out and making sure we’re together,” Freddie Freeman said.
It’s gotten them back here, four wins away from winning it all. Even if it meant sacrificing time with their loved ones.
“I love being with my family, just like anybody else,” Betts said. “But right now, we need to be teammates, laughing, joking, whatever it is. Together.”
(Illustration: Meech Robinson, The Athletic. Photos: Sean M. Haffey, Kevork Djansezian / Getty Image; Brian Rothmuller / Icon Sportswire)
