The Los Angeles Dodgers greeted their fans at the tail end of their championship parade on Nov. 3, and virtually every player who grabbed the microphone atop a makeshift stage at Dodger Stadium expressed the same goal:

Three-peat.

Only two franchises, the Oakland Athletics of the early 1970s and the New York Yankees of the late 1990s, have won three consecutive World Series titles since Major League Baseball introduced divisional play in 1969. And yet the current Dodgers are unabashed in their desire to do the same.

“It’s not whether or not [or] how we’re going to do it,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said, “it’s just that we’re going to be extremely driven and do everything we can to put ourselves in the best position to do it again.”

What that looks like, exactly, is a source of intrigue throughout the sport.

The Dodgers have spent the past two offseasons throwing around money at jaw-dropping levels. In signings and extensions, they added five nine-figure contracts to their payroll, which, for competitive-balance-tax purposes, stood at roughly $415 million in 2025. The industry seemed to bend to their will because of it. Now the Dodgers operate as a sort of boogeyman. Agents attach them to their clients in an attempt to drive up prices, rival executives worry they’ll swoop in on trade targets they’re eyeing.

The Dodgers, though, continue to fight an internal battle, one voiced by general manager Brandon Gomes at last week’s general managers meetings in Las Vegas.

“How do you win this year,” he asked rhetorically, “without falling off that cliff?”

Friedman, Gomes and the rest of the Dodgers’ decision-makers are constantly trying to balance winning now with winning later, an inexact science that periodically strays them from the middle. Over these past two winters, the Dodgers leaned heavily into the present. Now they hope to find more of a balance, said multiple sources familiar with their thinking, though to what degree remains to be seen.

On one side, the Dodgers are cognizant of how much depth they have coming back and how much older their roster has become. On the other, they’re determined to maximize what Friedman has deemed this franchise’s “golden era,” mindful of how a third straight title can cement that legacy.

“I think definitionally, it’s a dynasty,” Friedman said after watching his team claim a third championship in six years. “But that to me, in a lot of ways, kind of caps it if you say, ‘OK, this is what it is.’ For me, it’s still evolving and growing, and we want to add to it and we want to continue it and do everything we can to put it at a level where people after us have a hard time reaching.”

How they do that will depend on how they answer three key questions.

How do they fix their bullpen?

With everything on the line in Game 7 of the World Series, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts deployed six starting pitchers, including his entire postseason rotation (Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto) and two young starters who had become relievers out of necessity (Emmet Sheehan and Justin Wrobleski).

It said everything about how hard the Dodgers’ bullpen fell in 2025, and yet it runs in stark contrast to the front office’s staunch belief at this moment, according to sources — that their bullpen depth should inspire confidence in 2026.

There’s some truth to that. If everyone is healthy, seven of the Dodgers’ eight bullpen spots are already accounted for: Tanner Scott, Blake Treinen, Alex Vesia, Evan Phillips, Brock Stewart, Brusdar Graterol and Anthony Banda. Then there are as many as eight optionable relievers on the 40-man roster, all of whom are promising in their own right: Edgardo Henriquez, Ben Casparius, Will Klein, Jack Dreyer, Paul Gervase, Bobby Miller, Kyle Hurt and Wrobleski, assuming the latter three remain in the bullpen.

This certainly does not mean the Dodgers are set here. Their bullpen is coming off a season in which it posted a 4.27 ERA, 21st in the majors. And there are a litany of questions surrounding their returning arms, whether it’s coming back from injury (Graterol and Phillips), advanced age (Treinen and Stewart), control issues (Henriquez, Klein, Hurt and Gervase) or stark memories of a disastrous 2025 (Scott). But if there is one thing to take away from all that, it’s this:

The Dodgers will carry a high bar when it comes to their pursuit of bullpen help.

A solidified closer, or at least one leverage arm capable of handling the ninth inning on a championship team, will be what they spend the most time on in the coming weeks. And though the trade option remains their ideal path, free agency is primed with standout closers. The headliner is Edwin Diaz, though the thought of a long-term deal and the presence of a qualifying offer might scare away the Dodgers. More likely is someone such as Devin Williams, who they’ve already expressed interest in, according to sources. And a tier below are a host of others who, like Williams, can be had for the type of short-term deal the Dodgers prefer, including Brad Keller, Pete Fairbanks, Emilio Pagan, Kyle Finnegan, Luke Weaver, Raisel Iglesias and Robert Suarez.

How badly do they need another bat?

You know what else the Dodgers didn’t do all that well this past season? Hit. For a decent chunk of it, at least. Over a 33-game stretch from early July to mid-August, they batted .235 and averaged the sixth-fewest runs in the majors. Over their past three playoff rounds, they slashed a combined .213/.303/.364. If this sounds a bit harsh, well, it might be: 33 games represents only about 20% of the regular season, and hitting in the playoffs has proved to be quite difficult for any team. Keep this group intact, and on paper, it would represent arguably the best lineup in the sport.

But last season’s lulls help to underscore another important point about the Dodgers’ offseason: They can stand to add another bat, and chances are they will.

The easiest path is to add an outfielder, and this year’s free agent options just so happen to be headlined by two of them in Kyle Tucker and Cody Bellinger. The Dodgers aren’t expected to be one of the more aggressive suitors for Tucker, sources have indicated, but they’ll remain on the periphery if his market collapses and a short-term, high-dollar deal becomes appealing to his representatives at Excel. They’ve also expressed interest in a reunion with Bellinger, according to sources, though it remains to be seen whether they’d be motivated enough to win a potential bidding war with the Yankees.

ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel projects an 11-year, $418 million contract for Tucker, who turns 29 in January, and a much more modest six-year, $165 million contract for Bellinger, who will be 31 in July.

The cost for a Bellinger deal makes more sense, but so does his ability to play center field. The Dodgers are a far better defensive team if they can slide Andy Pages to right and shift Teoscar Hernández to left. Doing so would require an everyday center fielder, and perhaps it would be unfair to ask Tommy Edman to take that on in the wake of offseason ankle surgery. Bellinger — a fourth-round pick by the Dodgers in 2013, a Rookie of the Year in 2017, an MVP in 2019 and a champion in 2020 before being non-tendered only two years later — would fit the bill, and perhaps even slide to first base after Freddie Freeman‘s contract expires.

But the Dodgers can also sign someone such as Harrison Bader, whom they targeted at midseason, for less money, or, given the dearth of free agent outfielders beyond him, pivot to a trade option. Two players who might fit are Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan and St. Louis Cardinals utility man Brendan Donovan, both of whom have a knack for putting together good at-bats and making contact. Some high-ranking members of the organization believe there is a need for more of that in their lineup, given the swing and miss of guys like Pages and Hernández. Addressing that could help limit the lulls.

Do they need to get younger?

Mookie Betts gathered his teammates for a post-parade podcast recently, and at one point the 18-inning World Series game came up. Betts argued that the second half of it was boring, to which Clayton Kershaw playfully responded that, for everyone’s sake, the offense should have ended it early.

“Our team’s so old,” Kershaw said. “We were tired the next two [games].”

What Kershaw said off the cuff was something felt by many who watched the Dodgers, both inside and outside the organization. Playing the equivalent of two full games in Game 3 of the World Series seemed to drain them more than it did their opponents, as evidenced by lethargic performances in Games 4 and 5, during which the Dodgers totaled three runs and suffered back-to-back losses.

The average age of the Dodgers’ position players was 30.7 this past season, making them the oldest group in the majors (slightly ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies at 30.3). Seven of their starting position players are now heading into their age-31 season or older, and all but one of them — Max Muncy, whose 2026 option was picked up earlier this month — are signed for multiple years.

Friedman’s longtime quest to balance the present with the future faces a difficult test with this current construction. Freeman, Betts, Ohtani and Will Smith will continue to be cornerstone players for years, but the Dodgers will spend some time this offseason wondering how they can plug in more youth around them.

They can do it the more conventional way, by slowly transitioning some of their upper-level prospects into everyday players (infielder Alex Freeland, outfielder Ryan Ward and catcher Dalton Rushing, who will return as Smith’s backup but could get time at first base and in left field in 2026). Or they can make impact moves via trade.

The Dodgers have a glut of highly regarded outfield prospects at the moment, namely Josue De Paula, Eduardo Quintero, Zhyir Hope and Mike Sirota. The Dodgers’ preference is to pluck from that group to address needs through a trade, according to sources. And though they can use them to access the closer they desire, they can also add young, controllable position players, ideally at second base, shortstop or center field. And if they need to dip into their starting pitching, River Ryan and Gavin Stone are returning from injury and don’t have a spot in a six-man rotation given the presence of Yamamoto, Snell, Glasnow, Ohtani, Sheehan and Roki Sasaki.

Ryan and Stone, though, have options. The Dodgers, coming off setting franchise records by deploying 40 pitchers in back-to-back seasons, can simply stash them in the minors and wait until they’re inevitably needed.

Once again, they can do everything and nothing.

NEW YORK — Right-hander Tatsuya Imai is entering Major League Baseball’s posting system and will be available to teams to sign as a free agent from Wednesday through Jan. 2.

He joins power-hitting corner infielder Munetaka Murakami, whose 45-day window to sign expires Dec. 22.

A 27-year-old right-hander, Imai went 10-5 with a 1.92 ERA this season with the Pacific League’s Seibu Lions. He struck out 178 batters in 163⅔ innings.

Imai is 58-45 with a 3.15 ERA in eight seasons with Seibu, with 907 strikeouts in 963⅔ innings. He is a three-time All-Star.

Imai pitched eight innings of a combined no-hitter against Fukuoka on April 18. He struck out 17 against Yokohama on June 17, breaking Daisuke Matsuzaka’s previous team record of 16 from 2004.

Under MLB’s posting agreement with Nippon Professional Baseball, the posting fee would be 20% of the first $25 million of a major league contract, including earned bonuses and options. The percentage drops to 17.5% of the next $25 million and 15% of any amount over $50 million.

There would be a supplemental fee of 15% of any earned bonuses, salary escalators and exercised options.

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A former Los Angeles Angels teammate of deceased pitcher Tyler Skaggs testified Tuesday that the two players and the team employee who provided them with illicit pills were secretive about their drug use, and that the team was not responsible for what they did.

Former pitcher Mike Morin told jurors in the Skaggs family’s wrongful death case against the team that during the 2017 season, he believed only he, Skaggs and Eric Kay, the then-Angels communications employee who provided them with pills, knew about the illicit drugs.

Morin said he didn’t tell his wife or his family, and he testified he knew what he was doing was illegal. He also testified to how he thought Skaggs felt.

“I think that he wanted to not have a bunch of people know what he was doing,” Morin said. “That’s it.”

Morin was asked three versions of the same question: Does he believe Skaggs was responsible for his decision to drink alcohol and chop up and snort opioids on the night he died in a Texas hotel?

“I think that he is responsible for his actions,” Morin said after a long pause.

The statement supports a critical point for the Angels, who have contended it was reckless decisions by Skaggs that led to his death from an accidental drug overdose in 2019. The Angels have maintained they were not responsible for Skaggs’ death and that they were not aware of Skaggs’ drug problems.

The Angels have said they did not know Kay distributed drugs to Skaggs and other players. The Skaggs family lawyers allege the Angels put Skaggs in harm’s way because they knew about Kay’s drug usage and continued to employ him.

Skaggs connected Morin with Kay in 2017 after Morin suffered an injury. Before this, Morin said he would not have anticipated Kay provided illicit pills to players. Kay is serving a 22-year prison term after his conviction in 2022 for providing Skaggs with the fatal fentanyl-laced oxycodone pill. During his criminal trial, multiple players testified to receiving pills from Kay.

“I had been on the team for multiple years,” Morin said. “I had no idea Eric Kay was doing what he was doing.”

Morin testified Kay provided him and Skaggs with blue, 30-milligram oxycodone pills they called “blue boys,” and how there were times he and Skaggs crushed up a pill and snorted it on a toilet paper dispenser in the clubhouse bathroom, as he once did with Pixy Stix candy in high school French class. Defense attorneys showed multiple sets of text messages between Morin and Skaggs in which the two discussed their pill usage.

Morin said pill distribution was typically “extremely discreet.” Morin left money in the cubby space in his locker. Kay came and took the money, dropping the pills in the same cubby space. He said during the 2017 season, he received pain pills from Kay five to eight times.

Once, though, he said he waited with Kay outside the player’s parking lot for someone to deliver the pills. He didn’t feel comfortable in the situation, so he left. Morin, though, said he never questioned how Kay received the illicit pills. He thought Kay was obtaining pharmacy quality medications.

“I was completely unaware in a very naïve way that a prescription pill could be tainted with,” Morin said. “So I assumed that any pill we were going to be getting wouldn’t be fatal.”

Morin emotionally explained the pressures professional players feel to stay in the major leagues and how it is difficult for others who aren’t in clubhouses to understand “the immense highs and immense lows” that come with it.

He said he would tell young players about his experience and how he handled his injury was not the correct way to go.

“I am 100 percent embarrassed to sit here and say this is what I did,” Morin said. “That is my own burden.”

Morin’s testimony came a day after Skaggs’ mother, Debbie Hetman, told jurors she did not make anyone at the Angels aware of her son’s Percocet addiction in 2013. She did say she would have told the Angels had they asked her about it.

During her continuing testimony Tuesday, defense attorneys questioned Hetman on parts of her earlier sworn testimony, in which she said she didn’t believe her son had a Percocet addiction in 2013.

“I just didn’t use the word addiction,” Hetman said of her deposition testimony. “You can use whatever word you want. Problem, issue, addiction, it’s all the same.”

The trial continues Wednesday with testimony from expert compensation witnesses who are expected to explain how much Skaggs could have earned for the remainder of his career.