The Los Angeles Dodgers, the team with the busiest off-season, is the team you should pay attention to in the 2024 season. Among 30 different MLB teams, the Dodgers was selected by players and fans as the team with the highest probability of winning the 2024 season of Major League Baseball.

In the off-season, the Dodgers signed two Japanese superstar players, Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. By adding them to an already star-studded roster, it became one of the greatest collections of superstars, with Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, and Freddie Freeman starting the lineups.

All three players are capable of hitting 30 home runs in a season, and have a history of winning MVP awards. For opposing teams, facing these three guys is truly terrifying. Aside from these three players, the rest of the Dodgers’ lineup is also all superstar players, including Will Smith, Max Muncy, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Clayton Kershaw, among other great players.

The Dodgers, founded in 1883, were originally based in Brooklyn, New York. In 1958, the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to the West Coast and became the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers are one of the most successful teams in MLB history: they have won a total of seven World Series championships, in 1955, 1959, 1963, 1965, 1981, 1988, and 2020. Also, the Dodgers are known as a “big market” club, or a market in a city exceeding eight million people. The Dodgers invested a huge amount of money in this 2024 off-season. For context, according to Sportrac, while the Oakland A’s, a “small market” team with the least funds among the 30 MLB teams, spent $47.1 million for the 2024 season, the Dodgers spent over a billion dollars this winter.

Andrew Shelffo, a Williston JV baseball coach, thinks that the Dodgers will make the World Series, but will not win it all.

“I think the Dodgers are gonna make it to the World Series, but they are going to lose. Because the gambling scandal of Shohei Ohtani will impact the Dodgers’ season.”

Right after of beginning of the 2024 season, Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, was fired from the Dodgers for stealing Ohtani’s money to pay off a large debt incurred through illegal gambling. The FBI and the Dodgers found out that Mizuhara had transferred money amounting to $4.5 million from Ohtani’s bank account on several occasions. Ohtani clarified that he was not part of this incident at a press conference, but no new facts or evidence were presented from Ohtani, and suspicions have not yet been resolved as to how Ohtani did not know the money was being withdrawn from his bank account.

After the scandal, it took a total of nine games for Ohtani to hit his first home run of the 2024 season, the longest since his major league debut.

Teppei Morrita, Williston junior, is a fan of the L.A. Angels, a team that Shohei Ohtani played before he transferred to the Dodgers. He thinks the Dodgers will win the World Series championship again for the first time in four years.

“The Dodgers will be much stronger this year,” Teppei said “The batting order of Mookie Betts #1, Shohei Ohtani #2, and Freddie Freeman #3 will be really strong.”

Calvin Klumpp, a huge baseball fan, also thinks the Dodgers should make it to the World Series.

“I think baseball is a very flooky sport. They should have made it last year and the year before,” Calvin, a senior, said. “They are the most talented team among 30 teams. It will be weird if they don’t make it this year.”

As of April 5, the Dodgers had a 7-2 record and ranked first in the National League West with a winning percentage of 0.778. Meanwhile, although it has not been long since the 2024 season began, Shohei Ohtani is recording a batting average of .270 with one home run, which is falling short of expectations.