Guggenheim Baseball Management, the consortium that owns the Los Angeles Dodgers, is apparently unsatisfied with a singular Commissioner's Trophy.
They want to make the Dodgers the team of the decade. This offseason, President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman and General Manager Brandon Gomes added Blake Snell, Michael Conforto, Hyeseong Kim, Roki Sasaki, Tanner Scott, and Kirby Yates while losing little of note besides starter Jack Flaherty.
Teaming Sasaki and Snell with Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Tyler Glasnow have fans asking if the Dodgers have the greatest rotation of all time (GROAT?).
The 2025 Dodgers will have multiple chances to prove it since Tyler Glasnow is the closest to free agency and has three years left on his deal. Their Achilles heel is a lack of durability; none of their projected 2025 starters topped 134 innings pitched in 2024, and Shohei Ohtani missed the entire year while recovering from his second Tommy John surgery.
Will he be as effective as he was in 2023? It wouldn't be unusual for a pitcher coming off their second TJ surgery to struggle, but where Ohtani is concerned, expect the unexpected.
What makes a great baseball rotation?
MLB lowered the mound in 1969 (an advantage for the hitter), so comparing today to before that is like comparing apples and oranges. The 1884 Providence Grays, for example, featured a two-man rotation of Old Hoss Radbourn and Charlie Sweeney, who went a combined 77-20, with 95 complete games and a 1.61 ERA (the lowest of all-time).
Teams like the 1954 Indians (Early Wynn, Mike Garcia, Bob Lemon, Art Houtteman, Bob Feller), 1966 Dodgers (Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Claude Osteen, Don Sutton), 1968 Cardinals (Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton, Nelson Briles, Ray Washburn, Larry Jaster) and 1927 Yankees (Waite Hoyt, Urban Shocker, Herb Pennock, Dutch Ruether, George Pipgras), are best observed within the context of their era.
What is greatness? First, the rotation must be talented, filled with Hall-of-Famers, Cy Young award winners and All-Stars, and overall impose statistical dominance.
Honorable mentions for dominant regular season rotations:
- The 2014 Tigers, with five Cy Young winners (Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Rick Porcello, David Price, and Robbie Ray).
- The 2003 Moneyball A's (Barry Zito, Tim Hudson, Ted Lilly, Mark Mulder, and Rich Harden) who could never get past the Yankees in the playoffs.
- The 2015 Cardinals (John Lackey, Michael Wacha, Carlos Martinez, Lance Lynn, Jamie Garcia), who combined for a 2.94 ERA, 3rd lowest since 2000, but got bounced by the Cubs in the NLDS.
- The 2021 Dodgers (Walker Buehler, Julio Urias, Clayton Kershaw, Trevor Bauer, Max Scherzer, Tony Gonsolin), who won 106 games but lost to the Braves in the NLCS.
- The 2011 Phillies (Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, Roy Oswalt, Vince Worley), who won 102 games with a 3.02 ERA.
- The 2014 Nationals (Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmerman, Tanner Roark, Doug Fister, Gio Gonzalez), who posted 3.03 ERA and were the NL East champions.
But talent isn't enough, and this is where the Dodgers rotation needs to prove itself — they need to win.
A rotation of multiple-time World Series Champions is vastly superior to a rotation of Cy Young winners who never won in October. Playoff baseball is different. Every pitch has life-or-death implications, and instead of feasting on inferior competition, you're facing the best of the best. True greatness blossoms under the bright lights and on the biggest stage.
Honorable mentions for dominant postseason rotations:
- The 2004 Red Sox (Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield, Derek Lowe, Bronson Arroyo) who broke the Curse of the Bambino but had a 4.18 ERA in the regular season.
- The 1998 Yankees (Andy Pettitte, David Wells, David Cone, Hideki Irabu, Orlando Hernandez), and while there's logic to the idea that the best team ever might have the best rotation, this group only has one Cy Young award, zero Hall of Famers and never led the league in ERA.
- The 2010 Giants (Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, Barry Zito, Jonathan Sanchez, Madison Bumgarner), who won 92 games and had the lowest ERA in the major leagues, Bumgarner is one of the GOAT playoff pitchers in MLB history, and the core (Cain, Lincecum, Bumgarner) won three world series titles in five years.
The best rotations of all time are a mixture of what we've talked about. Awards matter, longevity matters, regular season dominance matters, and, of course, championships matter.
With that in mind, these are my picks for the five best rotations ever assembled in the modern era of Major League Baseball. WIll the Dodgers join this list after 2025? Only time will tell.
5 best rotations in modern MLB History
5. 1986 Mets
Rotation: Dwight Gooden, Ron Darling, Rick Aguilera, Bob Ojeda, Sid Fernandez
The 1986 Mets led the majors with a 3.11 ERA en route to 108 regular season wins and a World Series title. Two years later, David Cone replaced Aguilera, and the Mets staff recorded a 2.91 ERA, the 11th-best mark post-1969.
In '86, Doc Gooden was in his prime and looked like a surefire Hall of Famer. Ron Darling and Bob Ojeda had the best seasons of their careers. Sid Fernandez was an All-Star. Rick Aguilera, the No. 5 starter, posted a respectable 3.88 ERA.
Gooden, Darling, Fernandez, and Ojeda played together from 1984 to 1990. The Mets won 90, 98, 108, 92, 100, 87, and 91 games in those years but only made the playoffs twice because, in the '80s, MLB playoffs were just two rounds (the League Championship Series and the World Series), meaning only four teams total (two from each league) made the playoffs. That holds these Mets back from a higher ranking.
4. 2016 Cubs
Rotation: Jon Lester, Jake Arrieta, Kyle Hendricks, John Lackey, Jason Hammel
The 2016 Cubs broke the Curse of the Billy Goat and ended the longest World Series drought in MLB history (108 years).
It may seem silly to put a rotation with zero Hall of Famers and one Cy Young between them fourth all-time, but the Cubs' championship wasn't a fluke. They were the best team in the NL, winning 103 games, and their 3.15 ERA was far ahead of the second-place Nationals (3.51 ERA).
Lester finished second in Cy Young voting, Hendricks third, and Arrieta ninth. Hendricks' 2.13 ERA was the lowest in the league, and Lester's 2.44 ERA was the second-lowest. Flags fly forever. These guys are legends, and I wish I could put them higher, but they didn't stay together long enough to have anything except one year of greatness.
3. 1970 Orioles
Rotation: Mike Cueller, Tom Phoebus, Jim Hardin, Jim Palmer, Dave McNally
Cueller, Palmer, and McNally pitched together from 1969-1974 and are all in the Orioles Hall of Fame. Palmer, the staff's ace, is the only pitcher to win a World Series game in three different decades (60's, 70's, and 80's), and his career 2.86 ERA is the fourth lowest among starters since the origin of the live ball (behind Kershaw, Ford, and Koufax). He was a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 1990.
In 1970, they won 108 games, had the lowest ERA in the league, and won the World Series. McNally, Cueller, and Palmer finished 2nd, 4th, and 5th in Cy Young voting. The same pitching staff had a 2.83 ERA the prior season, won 109 games, and lost in the World Series. The 1971 O's, with a 2.99 ERA, are the last team to have four 20-game winners.
And in 1972, they had a combined 2.53 ERA (the lowest from 1969-2024). However, 1970 was their only World Series title as a group, although Palmer and McNally also won a World Series in 1966.
2. 1995 Braves
Rotation: Steve Avery, John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Kent Mercker
Glavine, Maddux, and Smoltz pitched together from 1993 to 2002. During that time, the Braves won the NL East every year (except the strike-shortened 1994 season) and claimed three pennants, five 100-win seasons, and led the league in ERA every year except two, 1996 and 2001, when they were second. Combined, they have three Hall of Fame plaques and seven Cy Youngs.
They won five pennants in total in the decade: 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, and 1999. But 1995 was the only season they won the World Series, beating the Indians in six games. After the Steve Avery era, Kevin Millwood, Denny Neagle, and John Burkett became essential parts of the rotation. John Smoltz transitioned to the bullpen in 2001 after missing 2000 with Tommy John surgery.
1. 1972 A's
Rotation: Catfish Hunter, Ken Holtzman, Johnny "Blue Moon" Odom, Vida Blue, Dave Hamilton
Only two teams have ever won three World Series in a row — the Yankees (who've done it three times) and the A's, who did it from 1972 to 1974.
The '72 A's won 93 games with a 2.58 ERA (2nd in the league and 2nd all-time from 1969-2024). The following year, they won 94 games with a 3.29 ERA (5th in the league), and finally, they won 90 games with a 2.95 ERA (best in the league).
The A's hadn't won a World Series since 1930 when they played in Philadelphia (Owner Arnold Johnson moved the A's from Philly to Kansas City in 1955, but Johnson died of a heart attack in 1960. Charlie Finley bought the team and moved them to Oakland in 1968).
They entered the 1972 Fall Classic without their star outfielder, future Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson, who injured his hamstring in the ALCS. They were massive underdogs against the Big Red Machine, but the pitching staff held Cincinnati's bats in check, and the A's squeaked out a 7-game series victory, winning all games by one run, ending the 42-year drought. The same rotation won again in 1973, but in 1974, Odom made significant contributions from the bullpen.
Holtzman has the record for the most wins ever by a Jewish person (174) and played part of his career for the Cubs, where he threw two no-hitters and is in the franchise Hall of Fame. He did his best when it counted most. In October, he had a 1.97 ERA in 59.1 innings.
Odom was even better than Holtzman in the playoffs, with a 1.13 ERA in 39.2 innings. Blue, a six-time All-Star, was the first pitcher to start the Midseason Classic for the AL and NL. He also pitched one no-hitter in his career and won a Cy Young award and MVP in 1971.
Hunter, the only Hall of Famer in the group, is a five-time World Series champion who retired early at 33 due to injuries and diabetes. He's the last pitcher to throw 30 complete games in a single season.
The dynasty ended abruptly when Catfish Hunter became baseball's first big-money free agent and signed with the Yankees for $3 million in 1975. Odom, a hothead who picked fights with veterans Blue and Rollie Fingers, also left town in '75.
Still, while that rotation was together, the A's topped the O's in the ALCS in 1973 and 1974, even though the O's had better regular season numbers. That's the thing about this list: it isn't just about who has the highest WAR.
There's no better measure of greatness in baseball than winning the World Series. The A's are one of two uninterrupted dynasties since 1969, and the other, the 1998-2000 Yankees, were led by hitting. That's why the 1972 A's are the high water-mark that the Dodgers need to beat to be the G(R)OAT.