Injuries force Dodgers to shake up playoff roster ahead of NLCS matchup with Mets

Eric Cole

San Diego Padres v Los Angeles Dodgers / Katelyn Mulcahy/GettyImages

After a hard fought NLDS win against the Padres, the Los Angeles Dodgers were always going to shake up their playoff roster a little bit. While the Dodgers' core was going to be largely the same no matter what, the reality is that LA is very banged up at the moment and their roster choices before the NLCS would tell fans a lot about where they stand.

One change was almost a give as the description of Alex Vesia's injury strongly suggested that he was going to left off the roster. However, the fates of guys like Freddie Freeman and Miguel Rojas were at least somewhat less clear as well as who LA would carry to replace any and all of their walking wounded.

Well, the Dodgers announced their NLCS roster on Sunday with Vesia and Rojas being left off in exchange for veteran outfielder Kevin Kiermaier as well as RHP Brent Honeywell.

Dodgers announce their NLCS roster

Miguel Rojas was left off, after re-aggravating his adductor injury at the end of the NLDS. Alex Vesia was also left off, as expected, with his intercostal injury

Kevin Kiermaier and Brent Honeywell were added. All else the same pic.twitter.com/t2wawZ5JUS
— Jack Harris (@ByJackHarris) October 13, 2024

Dodgers 2024 NLCS playoff roster features a pair of notable swaps to cover for injuries

This is a notable shift over how the Dodgers handled their NLDS roster where they went with an infusion of youth, but the change was mostly out of necessity. Vesia's injury necessitated the need to add another arm especially with some bullpen games likely to be in the Dodgers' future during the NLCS against New York.

LA ultimately landed on Honeywell as that arm. Honeywell posted a very solid 2.63 ERA in 20 appearances this season and, importantly, he has the ability to throw multiple innings if needed which is extremely likely to be useful.

As for Rojas, fans have been looking for the Dodgers to replace him on the playoff roster even before there was a hint that he might not be healthy. Interestingly, LA went with Kevin Kiermaier as the next bat up which does make sense as the Mets don't have a lot of lefty arms and Kiermaier is still an excellent defensive outfielder. Some fans may have preferred Chris Taylor to get that spot, but those fans are clearly haven't watched Taylor play this year.

With that, the Dodgers' playoff roster is set ahead of their showdown with the Mets. Here's hoping that this series goes a bit more smoothly than their first round matchup for the sake of Dodgers fans' blood pressure.

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Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.