The Los Angeles Dodgers have responded to the eighth World Series championship in franchise history by setting themselves up nicely for a ninth.
As a result, the team is once again the presumptive favorite to win it all in 2025. But they might face a pivotal decision about how to celebrate their 2024 championship first.
Traditionally, the winning teams in the country’s biggest sports are invited to celebrate their victories at the White House. The Dodgers did so in 2021, posing with then-president Joe Biden after winning the 2020 World Series. But now that Donald Trump is in office, Kelly Candaele and Peter Dreier of the Los Angeles Times raised a question about how the team or its most visible players might respond to a potential invite.
“So what should we expect the hometown World Series champs to do in 2025?” they asked. “The logical time for a Trump-Dodgers rapprochement would be in just about a month, when Los Angeles will be headed to Washington to play the Nationals starting April 7. Don’t bet on it.”
Candaele and Dreier noted that Betts has already once refused a visit to the Trump White House, declining to join his Boston Red Sox teammates there in 2019. Now, they expect that the entire Dodgers team would decline a prospective invite given the city’s collective political leanings.
“All in all, it’s hard to imagine the Dodgers agreeing to a celebratory photo op with the president right now,” they wrote. “Los Angeles is not just Dodger blue, but Democrat blue. The president lost L.A. County by 33 percentage points. In his feuds with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Trump has threatened to withhold fire disaster funds without concessions… The World Champion Dodgers should stand up to, not next to, the president.”
There has been no public word about whether Trump will extend an invite to the Dodgers, though it would break a longstanding tradition for the World Series winner not to pay a visit.
Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts Provides Clarity on Team’s Closer
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitching staff has been the focus of the offseason. From Roki Sasaki being the latest acquisition to Shohei Ohtani returning to the mound, the focus has been on the starting rotation.
Manager Dave Roberts had been coy about who would be the team’s closer. But in a recent interview, he provided clarity surrounding the Dodgers closer role for 2025.
In a post on X from Dodgers Nation, Roberts named Tanner Scott as the player who “… is going to finish most games.”
The indication is that Scott will be the Dodgers’ closer for most of the season, creating some clarity surrounding the team’s $72 million man in the bullpen.
After signing the four-year deal, Scott was expected to be the closer in the Dodgers bullpen. But Roberts didn’t come out and say for certain who would have those duties until now.
Scott is an eight-year veteran who’s been a member of the Baltimore Orioles, Miami Marlins, and lastly, the San Diego Padres. Scott was the Padres’ big trade-deadline splash in 2024.
Scott has 55 saves in his career, with 54 coming in the past three seasons. With the Marlins in 2024, Scott was incredible. He had a 1.18 earned run average across 45 and two-thirds innings with the Marlins. Scott also earned his first All-Star nod in 2024.
In the three years since joining the Marlins, Scott has an earned run average of 2.71 in 212 and two-thirds innings, along with 278 strikeouts.
In 2025 Spring Training, Scott has a 4.50 earned run average and seven strikeouts in six innings. While his Spring Training hasn’t been the best, his whole body of work when it matters most is encouraging.
Roberts naming Scott as the closer clarifies the Dodgers’ pitching staff. With the staff settled, the Dodgers can now get ready for the beginning of their quest to repeat as World Series champions.
Leave a Reply