3 lessons the Dodgers should learn from Phillies and Astros

2. There’s a Need for More High-Energy Players

The Phillies are such a great story. This is a team that has been starved of successful baseball and the moment they get a chance they catch fire and walk through their opponents.

Highlighting this run for the Phillies are the hot bats of Rhys Hoskins and Bryce Harper, both of whom bring a unique energy to the game that the Dodgers simply lack. This energy is huge in the postseason. Los Angeles should know that.

Obviously, talent is going to be more consistent than having someone who just gets amped up in the playoffs, but as we see every year, the hottest team makes the run, not the most talented. High-energy players that absorb the moment and don’t shrink are the ones that get hot in October, plain and simple.

This was a huge issue with the 2022 Dodgers roster. Is there anyone here that’s actually a high-energy, emotional player? Sure, Mookie Betts will get hyped every now and again, but the only one that fits this billing is Alex Vesia, a relief pitcher.

And let’s go back to the 2020 World Series run, shall we? The Dodgers had two key bats in that lineup that were high-energy and produced in big spots: Enrique Hernandez and Joc Pederson. Hernandez and Pederson are not the most consistent regular-season players, but the duo has more postseason heroics than a lot of the players on the Dodgers.

Heck, look at 2018! Yasiel Puig hit the biggest home run of the year in the NLCS and then hit what should have been the biggest hit of the World Series before Dave Roberts botched it.

The Dodgers don’t need to bring in 26 wild horses. But all October we kept hearing how the team was “not worried” and that it was “just another day” once the playoffs arrived. They can downplay October all they want, but it obviously doesn’t lend itself to results. Maybe some urgency would actually help this team.