Dodgers have opportunity to be greatest, most decorated MLB team — of all time

PHOENIX — Dave Roberts made the case over the winter that the Dodgers will have a chance to be the greatest team in baseball history.

Listening to Roberts in the first two weeks of spring training, it sounds as if they will also have the opportunity to be one of the most decorated.

Every couple of days, Roberts has mentioned how he believes one player or another will contend for a major award. He said in the winter that Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani will be Cy Young Award candidates. He recently elevated Tyler Glasnow into that category, saying the 6-foot-8 right-hander should compete with “the best pitchers in the National League” if he remains healthy.

Blake Snell, who has been slowed in camp by a shoulder injury, has won the award twice. Roki Sasaki has said he wants to be the first Japanese pitcher to win a Cy Young.

Ohtani is the preseason favorite to win the National League’s version of the MVP Award, and rightly so. He’s a four-time MVP, twice with the Dodgers and twice before that with the Angels.

However, by Roberts’ estimation, Ohtani will have competition from at least a couple of his teammates. Roberts has “no doubt” that Mookie Betts “will be in the MVP conversation this year.” He has also said newcomer Kyle Tucker can “absolutely” be a candidate for the prize.

“I mean, when you have the talent, you should expect (that),” Roberts said. “I expect a lot for myself, and everyone should expect that of themselves. That’s how you get good and great, and not be complacent. With the talent that we have in this room, in the clubhouse, they should expect individual great things as well as collective.”

The Dodgers most recently swept the MVP and Cy Young awards in 2014 when Clayton Kershaw claimed both prizes. The last time the Dodgers had separate players win the two awards was in 1988, when Kirk Gibson was the MVP and Orel Hershiser the Cy Young Award winner.

The 2013 Tigers are the last team to have two players win its league’s two major awards, with Miguel Cabrera taking the MVP and Max Scherzer the Cy Young.

The Dodgers could do the same this year, but what could distinguish them is their potential volume of legitimate candidates. They very well could do what the Braves did in 2023 when they had three of the top seven finishers in MVP voting — Ronald Acuna Jr. first, Matt Olson fourth and Austin Riley seventh. Betts and Freddie Freeman were second and third, respectively.

Three teams in history had players go 1-2-3 in MVP voting. The first was the 1941 Brooklyn Dodgers. Dolph Camilli, Pete Reiser and Whit Wyatt were first, second and third in the vote, with Kirby Higbe seventh and Dixie Walker 10th. That team went on to lose to the Yankees in the World Series.

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The Dodgers were swept in the 1966 World Series by the Orioles, the last team to have its players claim the top three spots in MVP voting. Frank Robinson won the award that season, with Brooks Robinson and Boog Powell behind him.

The Big Red Machine’s championship teams were well-represented in MVP races. Joe Morgan won the award in 1975 and 1976. He was joined in the top five by Johnny Bench (fourth) and Pete Rose (fifth) in 1975, and George Foster (second) and Rose (fourth) in 1976.

Not every dynasty was loaded with MVP candidates. The Giants teams that won three World Series from 2010 to 2014 never had more than one player finish in the top 10. The Yankees who three-peated from 1998 to 2000 had multiple top-10 finishers just once, and that was when they had two in 1998.

Considered the greatest pre-integration team, the 1927 Yankees placed only one player in the top 10: Lou Gehrig, who won. Babe Ruth batted .356 with 60 homers and 158 RBIs that season, but rules at the time prevented a player from winning the award multiple times. Ruth won his only MVP Award in 1923.

Occasionally, the same team will have pitchers who go 1-2 in the Cy Young vote — Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole earned that honor in 2019 — but placing three pitchers in the top five is relatively uncommon. In the seven years Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz played together, the Braves had three top-five finishers just once — in 1998, when Glavine won the award and Maddux and Smoltz tied for fourth. Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels of the 2011 Phillies’ Four Aces were in the top five, but none of them won the award, which went to Kershaw.

Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior chuckled when asked about the number of Cy Young contenders on his staff.

“Obviously, you have to take a step back and try to get some perspective,” Prior said. “But being around these guys on a daily basis, as a fan and as a coach, it’s pretty incredible.”

And potentially history-making.