The 2025 Dodgers may be the best team in MLB, but not in fantasy baseball

Anyone who thought that the 1998-2000 New York Yankees perfected the art of being villains needs to get a load of the 2025 Los Angeles Dodgers. After a dominant 2024 season in which they led the majors in regular-season victories en route to winning the World Series, the Dodgers showed that being great isn’t good enough by being the most aggressive team on the free-agent market.

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Cries rang out from across America that the Dodgers and their high-spending ways were bad for baseball. And these cries received statistical backing in early February, when the PECOTA projected 2025 standings were released.

Not only was Los Angeles picked to finish in first place, but its 103 wins were 10 more than that of any other team.

Surprisingly, the expected Dodgers dominance has not translated to fantasy draft season. Sure, there are some coveted L.A. players. Shohei Ohtani is the consensus No. 1 overall pick, while Mookie Betts comes off the board later in Round 1 and Freddie Freeman is often selected in Round 2. But overall, the Dodgers are not overflowing with fantasy stars.

For example, even though the Dodgers are projected to allow the fewest runs, the Mariners have more draft capital in their pitching staff, with top 100 picks Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Luis Castillo, Bryce Miller and Andres Muñoz. And on the hitting side, the Braves are projected to score 75 fewer runs than the Dodgers but have more top 60 picks in Matt Olson, Ronald Acuña Jr., Austin Riley, Ozzie Albies, Michael Harris II and Marcell Ozuna.

The lack of correlation between the Dodgers expected dominance and their fantasy draft capital leads to two possible conclusions:

1) The Dodgers aren’t going to be as good as we expect.

2) Fantasy managers are underrating some Dodgers.

However, neither of those points are true. The projections systems aren’t missing the mark on how good L.A. will be. And for the most part, the Dodgers are being priced fairly by drafters.

The secret lies in how the Dodgers have been constructed. Andrew Friedman and friends have built a team that is deep beyond compare. This team is perfectly built to withstand the rigors of seven months of regular season and postseason baseball. And this approach is going to drive fantasy managers crazy all season.

Let’s take a look at the likely sources of frustration.

Tommy Edman and the bench mob

Get ready, because Tommy Edman is ready to ruin the day for your Dodgers hitters. The versatile fielder is labeled as a bench player in the first official prediction of the team’s roster, but make no mistake that Edman is going to be in the lineup most days, spelling most of the regulars not named Ohtani, Betts and Freeman.

And the frustrations won’t end with Edman, as fellow bench player Chris Taylor can play multiple positions and Enrique Hernández amassed nearly 400 plate appearances last year. The bottom half of the team’s lineup will be productive, but it will keep daily league managers on their toes while testing the patience of those in weekly leagues.

The rotating rotation

Managers may have trouble getting a firm grip on the team’s rotation all season. The Dodgers will sometimes roll with five starters but will more often have six men in their rotation, especially once Ohtani is ready to join the group. The team’s ace, Blake Snell, has thrown more than 130 innings twice in his 9-year career. Among those who are candidates for the Opening Day rotation, only Tyler Glasnow threw 100 innings last year, and he’s one of baseball’s most fragile starters. Roki Sasaki is exciting but unlikely to have a massive workload in his rookie season.

Overall, this group should include a few men who are successful over 120-150 innings, which makes them fine No. 2-3 fantasy starters — but not aces. In fact, in this writer’s opinion, all of the notable Dodgers starters are being drafted too early in Yahoo leagues.

Bullpen by committee

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts recently said that Tanner Scott will get most of the save opportunities at the outset of the season. Of course, this is a manager who, despite having an effective bullpen, varied his reliever usage last year to the point where 14 pitchers earned at least one save and no one accumulated 20. Los Angeles hasn’t had a 25-save reliever in any of the previous three seasons, and this year Roberts can choose between an incredibly deep corps that includes free agent signees Scott and Kirby Yates, along with holdovers Evan Phillips, Blake Treinen and Michael Kopech. Scott is currently the 13th reliever off the board in Yahoo drafts, which is fair but definitely not a discount for someone who could get anywhere from 20-40 saves.

So, where do you find value?

I don’t want to confuse my main point in this article. The Dodgers are going to be great this year. Fantasy managers need to know how to use that greatness to their advantage. Drafting Ohtani, Betts or Freeman is a fine way to do that, but those players don’t offer any real advantage over the superstars who are options in the same range. And because Roberts is going to spread out the workload, the next tier of fantasy options may be underwhelming. However, there are some possible late-round gems who could benefit from being surrounded by greatness.

Max Muncy (Yahoo ADP: 192.6)

Muncy may be the most undervalued player on the Dodgers. Sure, his batting average is a nuisance in roto leagues. But the slugger can sit out 25 games and still produce 30 homers and 180 R+RBIs. There is no one else in the range of Pick 200 who can match Muncy’s power numbers.

Michael Conforto (Yahoo ADP: 247.1)

Conforto is very cheap in drafts and doesn’t lose much fantasy value by being platooned. The lefty slugger was surprisingly effective against southpaws last year, but most of his career production has come against righties. He can produce 25 homers and 70 RBI as a late-round pick.

Kirby Yates (Yahoo ADP: 162.9)

Yates was as effective as any reliever in baseball last year, ranking first or second among those who faced at least 200 batters in xERA, xBA, xSLG and xwOBA. He should get some save chances, especially by virtue of being a right-handed counterpart to the left-handed Scott. And if Scott falters, Yates could become a top 10 closer. As the buzz on Scott continues to grow, I expect Yates to fall outside the top 200 picks.

Tony Gonsolin (Yahoo ADP: 261.5) and Dustin May (Yahoo ADP: 258.6)

Four-fifths of the projected rotation is expensive in drafts, but securing the final spot is incredibly cheap. Gonsolin and May are both coming back from injuries and will battle for a rotation spot in Spring Training. There are also some dark horse candidates, such as Bobby Miller and Landon Knack. Those who draft in late March should be ready to grab the winner of this battle, as anyone who starts for this juggernaut is worth a spot in fantasy lineups.