The Los Angeles Dodgers come out of the break in Washington with a 4 1/2-game lead on the San Francisco Giants in the NL West.
It should be an exciting second half with L.A. positioned to make another postseason run. Here are five things to watch for:
1. The Pipeline. The Dodgers' Triple-A Oklahoma City team went a blistering 56-32 before its All-Star break. Most attentive Dodgers fans are aware of the impact Hector Olivera or Corey Seager could make to the team in the coming months if only there were room on the infield, but there are other players jostling for attention from the front office who also could provide a boost. Catcher Austin Barnes has an .854 OPS; Darnell Sweeney has 25 doubles and 26 home runs. Darwin Barney is still around and could become a key late-inning defender, particularly if Jimmy Rollins' bat doesn't come around and the Dodgers decide Seager is ready. Scott Baker and Zach Lee are fallback options if president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman can't land a starting pitcher in the coming weeks.
2. When to change shortstops? Rollins considers himself a second-half player and the numbers bear that out. His lifetime batting average is 14 points higher after the All-Star break. His OPS is 56 points better. Even if those trends hold, Rollins would bat .227 in the second half and his defense hasn't been so good that those deficiencies would be easily forgotten. Seager (.287/.341/.470) has been good at Triple-A, but hasn't dominated the league. He also has nine errors in 63 games, a fairly concerning number when paired with some of his previous defensive issues. The Dodgers would like to wait until September to call Seager up, but they can't deny that the major league club's needs will dictate his timetable to some extent. An injury to Rollins or Justin Turner would be Seager's clearest path to the major leagues, but underperformance is another one.
3. Rotation Watch. The likeliest impact pitcher to join the Dodgers, most people seem to feel, is Johnny Cueto, one of two National League pitchers who struck out more batters than Clayton Kershaw in his MVP season (in which he missed six weeks with a back injury). Imagine a rotation that goes Zack Greinke-Kershaw-Johnny Cueto-Brett Anderson-anybody. The Dodgers would be many people's World Series pick at that point, but it wouldn't necessarily solve a looming dilemma. General manager Farhan Zaidi admits the upcoming offseason will be one of flux for the team's rotation and Cueto wouldn't change that. Cueto will be a free agent, as will Anderson and, most likely, Greinke. Brandon McCarthy won't be ready until midseason in the best-case scenario and nobody really knows how Hyun-Jin Ryu will respond to shoulder surgery. If the Dodgers make a trade by the deadline, it might just be for a mid-rotation piece they'll have club control over beyond November. The Dodgers don't necessarily want to go to next December's winter meetings needing to add three starting pitchers.
4. The Clubhouse. The fact that Yasiel Puig creates some turmoil in the Dodgers' clubhouse is pretty much out in the open by now. Author Molly Knight explores some of those issues in detail in her recently released book and enough Dodgers players have grumbled about it privately over the years to mark it as a real thing, not a media creation. But is it a big deal? Because newcomers Rollins and Howie Kendrick are quiet and other large-ego stars have moved on, the clubhouse seems to be more tranquil and professional. There's just no telling what will happen when a team has unstable dynamics, particularly if it hits a long losing streak. The Dodgers have tended to avoid those in the past two seasons, so it has never been seriously tested.
5. Manager Moves? No matter what happens, Don Mattingly never seems entirely secure. After the 2013 season, when his 2014 option triggered and the Dodgers decided not to announce it, Mattingly grumbled publicly and got himself an extension. Now that Friedman's group has taken over the front office, Mattingly has embraced advanced analytics and the marriage seems to be working well. But most people expect ownership to come looking for a fall guy if the Dodgers don't play deep into October and Mattingly still looks like the most susceptible person in power. Some informed people think farm director Gabe Kapler is a manager-in-waiting if Friedman decides to let Mattingly go.