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By Those DeferredBenchWarmers

Looking Back at Our Bold Predictions for the 2025 Dodger Season

Before the start of the season, we made some BOLD predictions for the Dodgers. And we really did mean BOLD: we said predicting an NL West Crown, Ohtani repeat MVP, or even a World Series aren’t too far out there, so we looked beyond that. Now that we are at the All Star Break, it’s time to take a look at how our predictions are looking/ 

Major Baseball Awards:
Derek Chen: Cy Young: Blake Snell
Rob Diaz: Gold Glove : Andy Pages
Riley Saxon: Comeback Player of the Year: Clayton Kershaw 

Outlook: Well, two of the three could happen. Kershaw has the comeback moment (3,000 strikeouts), is an All Star, and has been solid through the season. Pages is among the leaders in several defensive metrics and has really improved since the start of the season. 

Team Cy Young:
Derek: Blake Snell
Rob: Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Riley: Tyler Glasnow 

Outlook: Great job, Rob!!

New Fan Favorite:
Derek: Tommy Edman – What’s not to like about Tommy Tanks, another Swiss Army knife for the team who can play anywhere and hit for power and contact.
Rob: Blake Snell – Not sure if he still does his video game streams, but the ones I’ve seen have been entertaining. Could give Kike a run for his money. 
Riley: I really think Conforto is going to go the Teó route of last year: a bit of an under-the-radar signing, but comes on strong and embraces the Dodgers… and become a guy that fans clamor to re-sign in the offseason. 

Outlook: Edman was definitely among the most-liked favorites at the start of the year, but we think Hye-seong Kim is going to take that mantle, pending the trade deadline acquisitions. The big story here is that no prediction on this list may be as bad as Riley’s in this category. 

HR Celebration (does seed throwing stay or go?):
Derek: don’t see a need to change the hr celebration, I like this simple celebration more than the props used by other teams.
Rob: Hopefully stays! But it would be awesome if they bring back the bubble machine to piggy-back off the seed throwing. 
Riley: I am sure they’ll think of a new one, but I really just want Kiké back in the Banana Suit at least one time this season 

Outlook: The seeds are here to say! 

Trade Deadline Acquisition (position-wise): 
Derek: bullpen, can never have too many arms 
Rob: Surprisingly another starting pitcher.
Riley: I think another Edman type trade – a versatile veteran who brings some surprising pop

Outlook: These all seem likely, so we’ll see! 

Most Starts at 2B: 
Derek: Alex Freeland
Rob: Tommy Edman
Riley: Edman 

Outlook: Edman leads the team in starts at 2B, although we could see Kim challenge him for the most starts. 

Team Leader in Strikeouts (pitching)
Derek: Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Rob: Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Riley: Tyler Glasnow

Outlook: Yamamoto leads the team with 116 strikeouts. The next closest is Dustin May with 88. Glasnow has 28.

Team Leader in Saves
Derek: Kirby Yates
Rob: Blake Treinen
Riley: Tanner Scott 

Outlook: Scott has 19 saves. Vesia is the next closest with 3. Treinen and Yates each have 2. 

All Stars: 
Derek: Shohei, Freddie, Mookie, Snell, Glasnow, Yamamoto
Rob: Shohei, Yamamoto, Will Smith, Teoscar Hernandez, Treinen
Riley: Ohtani, Betts, Freeman, Conforto, Smith, Yamamoto, Glasnow, Snell, Scott

Outlook: The Dodger All Starts: Ohtani, Freeman, Smith, Yamamoto, and Kershaw. We all got the two most deserving – Ohtani and Yamamoto – and two of three got Freeman and Smith, but no one got Kershaw. The misses include Betts, Snell, and Glasnow (2 of the 3 of us), with Conforto (LOL), Snell, and Treinen predicted by one person. 

Predict the Playoff Rotation: 
Derek: Snell, Yamamoto, Shohei, Glasnow
Rob: Yamamoto, Glasnow, Snell, Bullpen game
Riley: Glasnow, Snell, Yamamoto, Kershaw 

Outlook: Too early to tell, but Yamamoto as ace, Ohtani as a starter, and Kershaw getting a chance all seem like good calls at this point. 

How many times will Dave Roberts be ejected for arguing calls? (Career: 12 ejections in 10 years): 
Derek: 0
Rob: 2 
Riley: 1

Outlook: He has one so far. There are six games left against the Padres. The thought here was needing to spark the Dodgers after a ho-hum stretch, and that recently just happened (7 game losing streak), but Roberts remained calm, cool, and collected. 

One BOLD Prediction: 
Derek: Alex Freeland makes his major league debut and takes over at 2nd for good.
Rob: 1) Andy Pages hits 25 home runs. 
2) Lefty hitters attempt to bunt at least 10 times to beat the shifted 3rd basemen.
3) At least one Dodger pitcher has 200 strikeouts (last time was Walker Buehler in 2021)
Riley: Landon Knack becomes a bullpen force and the Dodgers have what many call one of the best bullpens ever. 

Outlook: Off from Derek and Riley, especially that final bullpen comment, yeesh! Derek technically still has a chance, though. Pages has 17 HRs and Yamamoto has 116 strikeouts. Here’s hoping they both make Rob correct!