MLB playoffs 2026: Could Dodgers be more vulnerable than you think? - ESPN

To the Los Angeles Dodgers, the bye used to be an obstacle. In 2022 and 2023, they won enough games to skip the wild-card round, only to be on their heels against inferior division series opponents who easily dispatched them. The break, in their minds, helped trigger an early exit. And yet, it remains the overwhelming preference.

They don't want their season distilled to a best-of-three series, which amounts to a coin flip.

Besides, they could use the rest.

«There's a lot of us kind of limping toward the end here,» Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said. «A lot of aches and pains this year.»

Freeman is at the center of a Dodgers position-player group that is the oldest in the sport — one that has also played a lot more baseball than any other over these past 40 or so months. The Dodgers conquered the bye on their way to a championship in 2024 and experienced the toll of having to overcome four playoff rounds en route to last year's title.

Now, as they look to become the first National League team to three-peat, they'll watch as the Atlanta Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies fight for the right to play them in the NL Division Series, which begins Saturday.

The Dodgers lost each of their past five series against playoff teams this season, going a combined 2-14 against the Braves, San Diego Padres, Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts dismissed those struggles recently.

«I don't put any stock into it,» he said. «Once you get to the postseason, it's a different season.»

The Dodgers believe their toughest battles are waged internally. If their pitchers are healthy, if their hitters are on track, if their roles are defined, they consider themselves superior. But this season has