Five thoughts about the Dodgers' six-game skid, their worst stretch this season
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Manager Dave Roberts makes a pitching change as the Dodgers were en route to a sixth consecutive defeat. Michael Reaves / Getty Images
CHICAGO — Dave Roberts wanted to cut the tension amid the worst stretch of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ season. He had yet to sit down for his pregame session with reporters Wednesday before cautioning against panic.
“The sun came up today,” Roberts said with a chuckle before looking up at an overcast morning at Wrigley Field.
Then the Dodgers went out and lost 7-6 to the Chicago Cubs. It was their sixth defeat in a row, and Los Angeles is winless since winning the deadline with the acquisition of Tarik Skubal. This is the longest losing streak of the season for the back-to-back World Series champions.
Add in that their first baseman and hottest hitter spent some of the afternoon in the X-ray room, and it becomes a little more difficult to find the sun. Freddie Freeman was hit on the side of his right hand when he got jammed on a foul ball in the fifth inning, causing it to swell. Roberts took him out of the game after the at-bat ended with a flyout.
“That’s what I get for swinging at a ball at my face,” Freeman said.
X-rays on Freeman’s hand were negative. Freeman expects to be back in the lineup Friday against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Dodgers need him.
They have not played well. The Boston Red Sox whooped them for three games at Dodger Stadium, including on “Sunday Night Baseball.” After boarding for a red-eye flight to Chicago, the Cubs outplayed them, too.
“We do need to put it together,” Freeman said. “It’s what, 50 games left? We all want to play better.”
Last year’s Dodgers lost seven consecutive games in July. Before that, they hadn’t lost more than five in a row since April 2019. The last 47 games of the regular season are plenty of time to get right.
“It’s easier when you look around our clubhouse,” Freeman said. “We’re going to be fine. We just got a really good team. It’s a 162-game schedule. We’re going to go through it at some points.”
Some more things I think:
This deadline showed one way the Dodgers build equity with players
Any conversation between a front office executive and a player this time of year usually means a trade is brewing and, in the case of Alex Call and Eric Lauer, it was hard to ignore the possibility.
But Monday’s deadline passed. Both are still Dodgers. They knew their names bandied in trade talks. They knew that, in part, because Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman spoke individually with Call and Lauer to lay out the stakes. The Dodgers listened in trade talks for both players but did not execute a move. Still, Friedman wanted to let them have a heads-up.
“It’s very rare,” Lauer said, to have that kind of transparency.
Such openness, in turn, reinforced how Lauer was feeling. The pitcher wanted to stay. Now he’s appreciative that he will.
Lauer started Wednesday against the Cubs and allowed six runs in four innings. The Dodgers acquired him as a short-term fill-in after he was designated for assignment by the Toronto Blue Jays. In Los Angeles, Lauer exceeded every expectation and even made himself into a trade candidate. He entered this deadline with a 2.96 ERA in 51 2/3 innings as a Dodger. The team did not lose any of the first nine times he pitched.
Lauer’s time in the rotation was limited, no matter how Wednesday went. Blake Snell is expected to rejoin the rotation next week, Roberts said.
As part of Lauer’s conversation with Friedman, the executive explained that Lauer might shift to long relief. Lauer could’ve had starting roles elsewhere if the Dodgers traded him. Friedman wanted to know how comfortable Lauer was with that.
“We talked through every possible scenario and got my comfortability level with it, their comfortability with it,” Lauer said. “It all just kind of lined up.”
The Dodgers explored deals for Call because he represented a rarity in a seller’s market. Several contenders were seeking right-handed hitting outfielders. There weren’t many available.
“I didn’t really think that my name was gonna be brought up too much this year, but you don’t really know whether it’s just speculation or whether it was really coming from Andrew and those guys,” Call said in the hours leading up to the deadline. “But I had a good talk with Andrew and, you know, whatever happens, happens.”
One of the teams interested in Call, the Texas Rangers, only traded for reliever Adam Macko on deadline day. Another, the Philadelphia Phillies, reconfigured their lineup by adding infielder Luis Arraez and shifting Bryce Harper to the outfield for the first time since 2022.
“I always joke like it’s tough to make a trade in fantasy football, let alone real life Major League Baseball,” Call said. “You never know until it’s finalized.”
Friedman communicated that the Dodgers appreciate what Call brings. Call appreciated the honesty.
Call’s place on this roster feels redundant, but he’s still here. The Dodgers faced Shota Imanaga on Wednesday, the fifth lefty starter the Dodgers have faced in the last week. Call didn’t start against any of them and hasn’t started a game since July 21. As it stands, the Dodgers’ bench is unbalanced with too many right-handed hitters.
That has made it difficult to rotate guys in, something the Dodgers would like to do with the oldest position player group in the sport.
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The Dodgers really miss Will Smith
That’s something that goes without saying after the club has been without its franchise catcher since June. But it matters even more now. Dalton Rushing is unlikely to catch again this season after a small tear in his ulnar collateral ligament.
Dave Roberts said he thinks there’s a “very small” chance Dalton Rushing catches again this year. They want to keep him as an option as a left-handed bat, though. https://t.co/kAeiRUwnac
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) August 5, 2026
Catcher’s ERA is not everything, but Dodgers pitchers had a 3.03 ERA, the best in baseball, when Smith last played on June 5. They entered Wednesday with a 4.58 ERA in the two months since, which ranks 23rd in baseball. That number went up Wednesday with the Cubs’ onslaught.
The Dodgers knew they needed to overhaul their catching tandem to make sure the bottom doesn’t fall out of their run prevention, even after adding to their supremely talented group of pitchers in trading for Skubal. That’s why Ben Rortvedt and Hunter Feduccia are here. The transition won’t be seamless, even for two players familiar with the demands the Dodgers put on their catchers.
They could also use Smith’s bat. The catcher has not had a typical Will Smith season, with a.720 OPS, the lowest mark of his career. But his presence matters. The Dodgers ranked first in wRC+ (116) when Smith got hurt. Ever since, they’ve been the 11th-best offense in baseball (107 wRC+).
The Dodgers hope to put off surgery for Rushing to be available as a left-handed hitter
That reveals a lot about what they feel about their unbalanced bench. They want to keep the possibility of having a left-handed bat off the bench, even one who can’t throw at the moment and wouldn’t be able to play a defensive position.
“That’s a part of it,” Roberts acknowledged Wednesday morning. “Just kind of like looking at the roster and having a potential left-handed bat could be really helpful.”
The Dodgers already have a designated hitter, so keeping Rushing around as an option has its limitations. They can use September’s roster expansion to play around with some extra bats. Alex Freeland, a switch hitter, could be an option to balance out the bench but is also boxed out by the number of infielders already on the roster. Same goes for Hyeseong Kim, who has a.671 OPS in Triple A.
Ryan Ward is another option, hitting at essentially a league-average rate in his 60 big-league plate appearances this season. He’s suffered a dip in his production at Triple A from last year (.937 OPS down to.826).
Alek Thomas is on the 40-man roster. The Dodgers envisioned him filling a role similar to what Justin Dean did last September and October as a pinch runner and defensive replacement. But he swings from the left side and entered Wednesday with an.821 OPS at Triple-A Oklahoma City.
They could also try for a jolt from their prospect pool.
James Tibbs III got off to a torrid start offensively with Oklahoma City but has tapered off lately. The Dodgers love his approach, but there is still some swing-and-miss to his game.
Josue De Paula also might be overdue for a promotion to Triple A, and there is finally an opening at that level after the Dodgers dealt veteran Jack Suwinski to the Tampa Bay Rays for Feduccia. Moving hitters straight from Double A to the majors is not something this front office has done, but maybe De Paula could have a stopover in Oklahoma City rather than a longer stay.
There’s an argument to be made that De Paula’s bat could help: every Dodgers person thinks he will hit. He is one of the best prospects in the sport. The defense is a concern, but if the Dodgers want him as a break-glass emergency bat off the bench, his offensive upside brings temptation.
A big-league cameo for De Paula in 2026 is unlikely, but there are a couple of factors in his favor. De Paula has to be added to the 40-man roster this winter, and if the Dodgers call him up in September, they can still preserve his rookie eligibility for 2027 (and possibly keep him eligible for prospect promotion incentives that could net the Dodgers a draft pick).
The bullpen will look different than this in October
But it’s certainly an issue now, and the Dodgers are waiting for some semblance of good news. Edwin Díaz is back but has not been sharp — his average fastball velocity has gone up from 95.7 mph to 96.3 mph in his return from surgery, but the execution is not there.
The group has been one of the worst in baseball since the start of July, entering Wednesday tied for 23rd in bullpen ERA (5.07). Reinforcements are coming, but they aren’t a silver bullet. Ben Casparius has struggled to throw strikes on his rehab assignment. Maybe Seth Halvorsen is an option after the Dodgers have gotten him back up to 102 mph since trading for him from the Colorado Rockies. Blake Treinen and Brock Stewart are still on the shelf.
So is Will Klein. The Dodgers are deciding next steps after an MRI showed bone chips in his elbow, league sources told The Athletic. Those sources spoke on the condition of anonymity so they could speak candidly about the fluid nature of the Dodgers’ plans. If Klein needs surgery, it would put his season in jeopardy.
The Dodgers haven’t been themselves with runners in scoring position
This has not been a season-long issue. Entering Wednesday, they were tied with the Atlanta Braves for fourth with a.268 batting average in those spots. But since July, they’ve slid toward the middle of the pack at 15th (.251).
Those numbers will go down after Wednesday. They had runners in scoring position in the second, third and fifth innings against Imanaga and failed to push across a run in those spots.
All 12 of the Dodgers’ runs at Wrigley Field came via the long ball, including their lone hit Wednesday with a runner in scoring position — a three-run home run from Max Muncy that came as part of a five-run eighth-inning outburst to make the game close.
Home runs are good. But those spots wound up mattering in a one-run game.
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