Dodgers: Three things to remember to help soften the World Series loss
By Jason Reed
1. The core is still intact
Although there may be some question marks for the long-term World Series window of this team, the core of the Los Angeles Dodges is at least intact for one more season. If anything, 2018 may be their best year to finally cash out and win it all. If they do not, well, the snowball effect could take place and LA could find themselves as a mere wild-card contender.
However, for now, they seem to be set. Every all-star pictured above is with the organization moving forward. Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger are still on their rookie contracts. Justin Turner and Kenley Jansen just resigned last offseason and Alex Wood cannot go anywhere until the 2020 season.
Clayton Kershaw is under contract through the 2020 season, although he can opt out of his deal following the 2018 season. Rich Hill, Kenta Maeda and Hyun-Jin Ryu are all back. Joc Pederson is back, Enrique Hernandez is back, Yasiel Puig is back and the team owns a team option on Logan Forsythe.
The losses are minimal this year. Brandon Morrow is a free agent, however, he may walk to become a closer elsewhere. Andre Ethier is a free agent, and although the team can resign him to a small deal, it may be time to part ways like with Chase Utley. Curtis Granderson can walk no problem as can Franklin Gutierrez.
Los Angeles really only needs to pursue Morrow, Tony Watson and maybe Yu Darvish. Outside of that, the core that makes the team who they are remains intact.