by Rowan Kavner
The first message manager Dave Roberts wanted to deliver to his team, which gathered for its first full-squad workout as reigning champions on Tuesday, was congratulations.
Winning a championship in a pandemic-shortened 2020 season meant the inability to fully celebrate the accomplishment. In a speech to his team before Tuesday’s workouts, Roberts welcomed back the group and let his players know how proud he was of last year’s work.
“First time we’ve all been together since the World Series,” Roberts said. “A lot of those guys, checking in on them as far as the offseason, getting back to work, appreciating what took place last year and how we got there, talking about what it means to be a Dodger and all that it encompasses on the field, off the field.”
Roberts’ message also touched on the absence of a notable, larger-than-life figure. He said it’s going to be different at Spring Training without visits from Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda, who passed away in January.
“I talked about Tommy (Lasorda) and his passing and what it meant for me personally, and all that knew him for him to make the trip out to Arlington to watch us win the World Series, and what it’s going to take for us to go through the season and win a championship in 2021 — every year’s different, every team’s different — and how we’re going to get there.”
A motivating source
Clayton Kershaw said it felt different getting going again this winter after winning a championship.
“I’m trying to explain that,” Kershaw said. “It’s not that I didn’t have, ‘All right, I gotta get going again and get ready for the season,’ because I did feel that. But it was for different reasons.”
In past seasons, Kershaw said he felt like he had to get going again because the team didn’t succeed and he felt like he needed to be better. Now, coming off the Dodgers’ first World Series title since 1988, the motivation was more upbeat. He prefers it that way.
“It’s like, I want to get ready and be at my best for this team because we’re really good, we have a chance to win, I don’t want to squander that,” Kershaw said. “It’s almost more positive, as opposed to, ‘I can’t have that happen again.’ I think the mindset shifted a bit this offseason.”
But the mindset once returning to Spring Training is no different. He said with the talent in place, the expectation is still to win a World Series again.
“I’ve said it before, but there’s not many teams that have gone all in year after year like we have to try to bring home a World Series, so I don’t take that for granted and that’s our motivation for this year — not trying to squander that opportunity,” Kershaw said.
Roberts said winning the title last year brought some added relief heading into camp. But the Dodger manager believes his team still understands the work ahead in 2021, and he hopes that will avoid any sort of hangover to start the year.
“Knowing our organization, we like to take that proactive approach,” Roberts said. “I think that there’s a reason why no team has repeated since 2000, because it’s not easy. For us to acknowledge that, but really understand the pillars and foundations of what make us great, keeping that the focus I think will allow for us to have that same opportunity this year.”
Max Muncy said the way the season ended abruptly, with the COVID-19 pandemic tabling any parade to celebrate the accomplish, it didn’t feel much different this year entering camp as a reigning champion.
“To me, if anything, I’m hungrier than ever to go out there and win a championship again,” he said.
That hunger seemed to be shared throughout the clubhouse. Roberts said Walker Buehler articulated it well on a phone call a few weeks ago: “We want to do it again to ultimately enjoy all the fruits of winning a championship.”
“I think understanding what the situation was, the climate was last year, we couldn’t,” Roberts continued. “That’s something that’s a carrot that’s out there for all of us, to understand, number one, we have a lot of work to do, long way to go, but to that question being able to celebrate in a clubhouse, to ultimately have a parade with our fans, we didn’t get to do that. Every player looks at it differently as far as a motivation.”
Added Austin Barnes: “Whatever gets the guys going.”
Stripling trade complete
Last September, the Dodgers acquired right-handed pitcher Kendall Williams from Toronto as the first of two players to be named in the Ross Stripling trade. Five months later, the trade is complete.
The Dodgers announced they acquired outfielder Ryan Noda from the Blue Jays as the second player to be named later in the Stripling deal.
The 24-year-old spent the 2019 season at High-A Dunedin, posting a .790 OPS with 13 home runs and 14 stolen bases. The year prior at Low-A Lansing, Noda had 20 home runs and 109 walks in 124 games.
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