Winter has come early in Los Angeles this year.
asserted
Winter → come → Angeles
Instead, despite a 100-win regular season and league-record $432 million payroll, the two-time defending champions were eliminated in the National League Championship Series by the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday, ending their bid for history and sending them into an uncertain offseason –– one that could include an extended lockout, notable changes to the roster, and existential questions about how to retool around their aging veteran core.
uncertain
that → defend → core
Many questions loom about where the Dodgers go from here.
asserted
Dodgers → loom → ?
Many unknowns remain about what the sport at large will look like in 2027 –– and when next season, amid what figures to be a protracted labor battle, will even begin.
asserted
what → remain → 2027
But for now, the focus will be on why a team with the most talent in the sport, the most October experience on their roster, and the best statistical odds of winning the World Series couldn’t even get back to it.
asserted
team → win → it
As a long winter begins, here are the five biggest reasons the 2026 Dodgers came up short.
asserted
Dodgers → begin → ?
On paper, no team in the majors has a better-looking lineup than the Dodgers.
asserted
team → have → Dodgers
In reality, however, cracks in their offensive production have grown increasingly evident in recent postseasons.
asserted
cracks → grow → postseasons
Dating back to the 2024 World Series, the club has batted .219 in postseason play.
asserted
club → date → play
Even in regular-season play, they have endured extended lulls and repeated second-half slumps.
asserted
they → endure → slumps
They’re a supremely talented unit, to be sure.
asserted
They → ’re → ?
But, despite all the big names they boast, they haven’t performed all that different from most other playoff teams, either.
asserted
they → boast → teams
And this October, he was in no condition to help the club compensate for its other shortcomings offensively.
asserted
club → help → shortcomings
That’s why the team’s mismanagement of Ohtani’s injury saga this year proved so costly.
asserted
mismanagement → ’ → saga
And this season, the toll of his attempted return to full-time two-way duties rendered that all-important skill set void.
asserted
set → attempt → duties
After all, it was no real surprise that some of the team’s other aging star hitters suffered inconsistent postseason campaigns.
asserted
some → age → campaigns
Ohtani’s eight playoff home runs and 1.096 OPS helped them overcome it.
asserted
them → help → it
But this fall, the four-time MVP’s right arm and left knee injuries limited his capabilities in the box.
asserted
injuries → limit → box
Where the Dodgers needed a superstar to spearhead their offense, all they had for most of the month was a physically diminished slap hitter who struggled to even reach base consistently instead.
asserted
who → need → base
And even when the old Ohtani finally re-emerged in Game 4 on Thursday, hitting a mammoth home run that gave the Dodgers an early 4-0 lead, it was too little, too late, with Ohtani later coming up short again on a three-pitch strikeout with the tying runner at third and one out in the seventh.
asserted
Ohtani → re → seventh
That Ohtani and the team couldn’t better manage his health this season will be the biggest regret from this failed three-peat pursuit.
asserted
manage → manage → pursuit
While he was far from the only slumping bat in their lineup, he was the one who, if fully healthy, could have made the biggest impact.
uncertain
who → make → impact
A mortal rotation
The other way the Dodgers overcame their offensive inconsistencies last year, of course, was through superhuman starting pitching.
asserted
Dodgers → overcome → pitching
In the 2025 playoffs, their rotation posted a 2.68 ERA and while averaging more than six innings per start.
asserted
rotation → post → start
Replicating that kind of production again always felt like an unlikely challenge.
asserted
Replicating → replicate → challenge
Indeed, this October, even an equally star-studded staff encountered inevitable struggles.
asserted
staff → stud → struggles
Outside of Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s seven-inning, one-run gem in Game 3 of the NL Division Series, the Dodgers only had one other pitcher get past the sixth inning.
asserted
pitcher → have → inning
And that, of course, was in Game 3 of the NLCS, when Blake Snell gave up back-to-back seventh-inning home runs in a gut-wrenching loss that all but ended the Dodgers’ season.
asserted
that → give → season
That didn’t mean the Dodgers’ rotation pitched terribly this postseason.
asserted
rotation → mean → ?
They still finished the playoffs with a 3.89 combined ERA from their starters.
asserted
They → finish → starters
Given the fine margins that came with their lackluster offense, however, that wasn’t nearly good enough.
asserted
that → give → offense
In the NLCS, the Brewers got to each of their big arms, chasing Tarik Skubal after five innings of two-run ball, knocking out Yamamoto in less than three innings the following day, ambushing Snell for three home runs in Game 3, then erasing their four-run deficit against Glasnow in Game 4.
asserted
Brewers → get → Game
In the same way Ohtani couldn’t put the team on his shoulders, neither could the rotation.
uncertain
rotation → put → shoulders
After every loss this postseason, the Dodgers’ explanations boiled down to the same futile failure.
asserted
explanations → boil → failure
They generated plenty of chances for themselves.
asserted
They → generate → themselves
But, as manager Dave Roberts said for the umpteenth time after Game 3, “we’re just not getting those timely hits.”
asserted
we → say → hits
No stat better epitomized that than the Dodgers’ 5-for-43 mark in these playoffs with runners in scoring position.
asserted
stat → epitomize → position
Entering Thursday, the league-wide batting average with runners in scoring position was .221.
asserted
average → enter → position
Still, the Dodgers’ output fell far below that mark.
asserted
output → fall → mark
For a team that prided itself on “winning the big moments” each of the past two Octobers, they were repeatedly unable to do so en route to this year’s early exit.
“It’s just one of those points in time where it seems to go that way,” utilityman Kiké Hernández said of the Dodgers’ RISP struggles.
asserted
Hernández → pride → struggles
…and 14 more, not listed.
The Aporia
