The Cream has Risen
Of course, that isn’t the soon-to-be 24-year old Corey Seager’s problem. The shortstop hit .295/.375/.479 and 22 home runs last year and is young enough to get better.
And the same is true for even younger 1B Cody Bellinger. He managed a slash of .267/.352/.581 in his truncated first campaign.
But the headline for his age 21 season was his 39 home runs in only 480 AB’s. If he can add 20 points to his batting average, he will join Seager and 3B Justin Turner as resident superstars.
Turner will be playing this year at 33 and so has every reason to expect a similar outcome to last year, when he hit .322/.415/.530 and 21 home runs, even with a late start to 2018.
If so, he will once again be a part of a line-up with six players likely to hit at least 20 home runs each.
But while the Dodgers have plenty of power, their overall batting was average: Center fielder Joc Pederson (.212); 2B Logan Forsythe (.224); UT Enrique Hernandez (.215); catcher Yasmani Grandal (.247); and, enigmatic RF Yasiel Puig (.263).
There is still plenty of talent here to keep this team in the Supergroup. And they are taking a small step backward this year to be able to spend a lot next year. Imagine this offense with Nationals slugger Bryce Harper; Dodgers fans are.
That might make them more of a favorite next year, but they look like the most suspect of the NL’s win-now teams for 2018.
The Indians share a similar designation in the AL, the difference being that Cleveland’s window is just about to close.