Latest Dodgers free agency report feels like a massive mistake after last offseason

Non-Dodgers fans were already losing their minds about the 2025 Dodgers' offseason, but signing Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates in the later months was a final straw for some of them.

It's easy to understand how adding two dominant relievers might've seemed like a hat on a hat. The Dodgers' bullpen carried LA through their 2024 World Series run, they didn't lose that many arms to free agency, and they had internal options to fill in some gaps. But Andrew Friedman made it pretty clear after signing Blake Snell that the Dodgers weren't going to take any chances.

Friedman's caution actually didn't end up working out for him or his team. The Dodgers had some extra bullpen help, sure, but they lost even more of it to injury throughout the season, and neither Scott nor Yates performed as expected. In fact, they were the Dodgers' third and fourth least valuable relievers by bWAR.

The Dodgers are still stuck with Scott through 2028 and owe him around $45 million, so they might as well do everything they can to fix him up into the closer that they expected him to be, right? Surely they'll want to avoid overpaying another reliever who doesn't work out.

Per ESPN's Alden Gonzalez, the Dodgers are expected to be "really aggressive" when looking for a closer and right-handed, late-inning arms this offseason.

Dodgers expected to be aggressive in looking for closer, right-handed relievers in the offseason

Dodgers fans could've seen this one coming. Relievers are generally the most replaceable guys on a roster — why honor the investment you made in one of them if you could just buy more?

The Dodgers probably won't ignore Scott altogether even if they sign a new closer in the offseason, but he'll turn into a $72 million middle reliever. That really puts into perspective how little the Dodgers actually seem to care about financial constraints: they can pay a middle reliever an average of $18 million a year.

And if the relievers they sign to take over for Scott, Yates, Michael Kopech, Evan Phillips (who underwent Tommy John this season), and maybe Blake Treinen (who will hopefully be DFA'dafter the kind of expensive performance he put on this year) don't work out? Then they'll just buy more at the trade deadline.

And they should get their jollies out now. If a lockout does actually happen and a salary cap is implemented, then they'll want as many players grandfathered in on the luxury tax system as possible.