Offseason champion Dodgers' 3 biggest concerns heading into the 2024 season

High-Variance Rotation

The first, and biggest, issue the Dodgers could run into comes with starting pitching. As it stands, the rotation is:

1. Yoshinobu Yamamoto (RHP)
2. Tyler Glasnow (RHP)
3. Walker Buehler (RHP)
4. Bobby Miller (RHP)
5. James Paxton (LHP)

It also includes a few injured players, including Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May. That rotation has the potential to be the best in baseball, but the floor could be deceivingly low. Yamamoto seems like a sure thing; his ERA in his last three seasons in the NBP's Pacific League has been 1.39, 1.68, and 1.21. In two of those three seasons, he’s also recorded over 200 strikeouts. 

But remember, there’s no such thing as foolproof in professional sports, and Yamamoto is not immune to that notion. Pitching in MLB will be an adjustment for Yamamoto, which is not a knock on the NBP, the highest level of baseball in Japan. It’s just that everything will be different. The batters he faces, the environment, the umpires, the coaches, the literal baseballs —nothing will be the same. That can be a hard ask for anyone in any profession. His pure talent will likely help with the adjustment, and no one should overreact if he happens to get off to a slow start. Yamamoto was given $325 million for a reason: he’s extremely good.