What an opening week

The Dodgers are ROLLING!

What a start to the season for the Dodgers.

They’re 8-0. They’ve set a number of records. Oh, and they haven’t even played their best baseball yet.

Here are my biggest takeaways from LA’s historic 8-0 start to the 2025 campaign.

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There are no words for Shohei Ohtani

We’re really running out of things to say about this man, aren’t we? Last season was a historic one for Shohei Ohtani. At this point, you know everything that happened. Well, even after one of the greatest season’s we’ve ever seen, he’s still managing to find ways to surprise us.

After a five-run comeback last night, Ohtani was due up in the bottom of the ninth. With the game tied, he had a chance to walk it off with a homer on his bobblehead night. There’s just no way, right?

When Ohtani is in the batters box, anything is possible.

On the first pitch, Ohtani hit one 102.5-mph off the bat. The crazy part is that it wasn’t even that good a pitch to swing at. I mean, look at where this ball is. That’s almost a perfect pitch from Raisel Iglesias. There’s nothing more he could have done. Well when you’re facing Ohtani, you can’t be almost perfect. You need to be perfect.

It’s impossible to follow up the incredible season Ohtani had in 2024. Well, he’s doing a pretty good job so far this year.

Through the first eight games, Ohtani has put up a 0.6 fWAR. Obviously that is such a small sample size, but that is a 162-game pace of a 12.1 fWAR. That would be a pretty good season. Not to mention, he’s going to take the mound at some point this year!

Through eight games, he also has a higher on-base percentage, slugging percentage and wRC+ than he did in 2024. His walk rate is higher than his strikeout rate. Oh, and he’s on pace for 61 games.

Again, it’s only been eight games so the 162-pace might look a little out of control. Who knows. At this point, there are no numbers this man could post that would surprise me.

The bullpen might be historically good

Entering the season, we knew the Dodgers’ bullpen was expected to be really good. That was with a healthy bullpen, something the Dodgers don’t have at the moment. They’re missing three high leverage arms in Michael Kopech, Evan Phillips and Brusdar Graterol. That doesn’t matter, as LA’s bullpen has been unstoppable.

The Dodgers’ bullpen has accounted for 39.1 innings this season, by far the most in baseball. They’ve played more games than anyone, but they’ve also had to cover a lot of ground. Through eight games, the Dodgers haven’t had a starter pitch into the sixth inning yet.

Here’s where LA’s bullpen ranks across baseball through the first eight games:

1.83 ERA (4th)

1.58 FIP (1st)

1.2 fWAR (1st — next closest is 0.6 fWAR)

35.3 K% (1st)

28.8 K-BB% (1st)

1.85 SIERA (1st)

0.92 WHIP (7th)

Oh, and all of those numbers are with Tanner Scott being their worst reliever. Their prized bullpen signing of the offseason is the reason those numbers aren’t BETTER! Once he gets going, this bullpen is going to be something else.

Kirby Yates has been un-hittable. He has nine strikeouts in only four innings and has allowed only two hits. He finished eighth in AL Cy Young voting last year. If he continues to dominate, I have a feeling he’ll finish higher than eighth in voting this year.

Alex Vesia has been nearly un-hittable as well. He has nine strikeouts in five innings and has allowed only one run.

Anthony Banda and Blake Treinen have each tossed four scoreless innings. Banda has six strikeouts while Treinen has seven.

It’s not just the veterans who have looked good. The rookies have really impressed as well. Ben Casparius, who pitched meaningful innings for LA in October last year, hasn’t allowed a run in five innings. Jack Dreyer, who was only added to LA’s 40-man roster during the offseason, has a 1.69 ERA in 5.1 innings. He’s retired 85 percent of the batters he’s faced.

Again, this is without Evan Phillips, Michael Kopech and Brusdar Graterol. Oh, and while Tanner Scott has been terrible.

I said it numerous times this offseason, but this bullpen has a legitimate chance at being the best bullpen in MLB history.

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