Mets signing Juan Soto doesn't scare Dodgers whatsoever for one key reason

Even though the Los Angeles Dodgers lost out on Juan Soto to the Mets, who signed him for 15 years and $765 million on Dec. 8, you'd be hard-pressed to find a Dodgers fan who was too broken up about it.

As things with Soto came to a head over the preceding few days, it was pretty clear that the Dodgers weren't going to be the ones to sign him. In the end, they were the only team not to offer $700 million or more.

That left room for LA to focus its attention fully on Teoscar Hernández, whose market was unleashed as soon as Soto was off the board. Things with Hernández look a little more tenuous than fans would like at this point, but the Dodgers have plenty of money in the budget to re-sign him.

The Mets and Dodgers met in the NLCS this year, in a ridiculously lopsided contest from which LA emerged victorious. There's a decent chance this will be a postseason matchup again in the future, maybe even in 2025, but even with Soto in Queens now, there's no reason for the Dodgers to be concerned about that for one pretty important reason: the Mets' rotation is the opposite of scary.

Dodgers have nothing to fear from Juan Soto, Mets as New York's rotation fills out

Kodai Senga is probably the most fearsome pitcher on this list, but he was hurt for pretty much all of 2024. He made a surprise return in the postseason, only to get blown up once in the LDS against the Phillies and twice in the LCS against the Dodgers.

The Mets will attempt to rework Clay Holmes into a starter when he's never pitched more than 70 innings in his career, and that sounds like a recipe for Tommy John if there ever was one. Frankie Montas bounced between the Reds and Brewers in 2024 before signing a contract with the Mets in free agency. His 4.84 ERA this year doesn't exactly make him look like a huge threat.

David Peterson, Paul Blackburn, and Tylor Megill are holdovers from 2024 (Blackburn was traded from the Athletics at the deadline), and Peterson was the only one who managed to pitch over 80 innings last season. He looked pretty good while doing it (2.90 ERA), but his season debut was delayed until late March because of a torn labrum surgery.

Soto is only one guy, and while the Mets lineup does have some other heavy hitters, it won't matter if the rotation can't hold up against a team like the Dodgers. If they do meet in October again in 2025, the Mets aren't looking like much of a threat.