en-us SportSpyder - The Latest Los Angeles Dodgers News https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/news Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani finally busted out of his slump on Tuesday night, hitting a home run for the first time since April 26. The Dodge Wed, 13 May 2026 15:12:12 GMT Mark Powell https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56606406 https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56606406 false false The Los Angeles Dodgers are suddenly spiraling at the worst possible time, and even Dave Roberts seems to be searching for answers during this brutal collapse. The San Francisco Giants tightened the pressure in the NL West race after handing bitter rivals Dodgers another brutal defeat. According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, the Dodgers […] The post appeared first on . Wed, 13 May 2026 15:08:45 GMT Yasmin Edañol https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56606372 https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56606372 false false Outfielders have a lot of time on their hands to be alone with their thoughts. The San Francisco Giants don't win a lot of baseball games. Put those two things together and you get magic. Erotic magic. The history of the outfield post-win celebration is short but storied. When a team closes out a win, that fielding triad will convene to revel in their victory. Often they high five; sometimes that involves jumping. Or they slam asses. Maybe they . They are limited only by their creativity, and the boundaries of good taste, and sometimes not even that. On Monday night, the Giants, winners of two straight and fresh off a big cross-California win over the Dodgers, felt like celebrating. Outfielders Drew Gilbert, Harrison Bader, and Jung Hoo Lee vigorously slammed into each other groin-first. I mean, they really got after it. https://bsky.app/profile/parkermolloy.com/post/3mlnti3q34c2z When three outfielders like each other very much... Wed, 13 May 2026 15:05:18 GMT Barry Petchesky https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56606318 https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56606318 false false There's no clear fit in Los Angeles. Wed, 13 May 2026 14:57:25 GMT Conor Liguori https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56606220 https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56606220 false false It's been a long time coming for the Padres. Wed, 13 May 2026 14:57:20 GMT Conor Liguori https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56606219 https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56606219 false false The Atlanta Braves MVP candidates are each delivering incredible seasons to start the 2026 campaign. Still, not all MVP cases are created equal. Some are fun. Some are credible. Some are “please stop laughing, I brought spreadsheets.” And some are standing over the whole conversation like a redwood tree with designer stubble that knows exactly how to mash a baseball. So yes, , , , and Olson all belong somewhere in the Atlanta Braves MVP conversation. MLB.com made the case recently that all four had laid early groundwork for MVP candidacies during Atlanta’s best 35-game start of the Modern Era, and the Braves have only kept rolling since then. After beating the Dodgers on May 10, Atlanta improved to an MLB-best 28-13, leading to . Just who are the Atlanta Braves MVP candidates? But if we are ranking them by actual MVP viability, which means production, narrative, playing-time certainty, stat-sheet loudness, and whether voters will be able to ignore them without looking foolish, there is a clear order. Here is the Atlanta Braves MVP candidates ladder, from “great start, tough case” to “this might actually happen.” 4. Michael Harris II Michael Harris II being fourth on this list is less an insult than a reminder that this Braves lineup is rude. On a normal team, Harris would be treated like the engine. In Atlanta, he is somehow the fourth name in the MVP discussion, which is how you know the Braves are operating with a slightly unfair amount of offensive nonsense. His role was become even more important after losing to . The case is real. Through 38 games, Harris is hitting .313/.341/.516 with seven home runs, 23 RBI, 15 runs, five doubles, and two stolen bases. That is a strong surface line, and Baseball Savant likes what is happening underneath even more: Harris owns a 95.2 mph average exit velocity, 59.4% hard-hit rate, .424 xwOBA, and 17.0% barrel rate. That is not “nice little center fielder having a moment” contact. That is “the ball is leaving the bat like it has somewhere better to be” contact. The fun part of Harris’ profile is that he does not need to become some completely different hitter to stay valuable. He can run. He can defend center field. He gives the Braves athleticism in a lineup with plenty of thump already. When he is driving the ball like this, he becomes one of the more complete players on the roster. The problem is the shape of the MVP case. Harris has the tools, but the counting stats are not quite obnoxious enough yet. His OPS is excellent, but it trails Olson, Baldwin, and Albies among this group. He has the best expected-contact argument of the non-Olson candidates, but MVP voters are not usually handing out hardware because someone’s xwOBA looks like it took pre-workout. Harris also has the kind of athletic ease that makes the numbers feel more believable, not less. When he is right, everything about his game looks fluid and natural. The defense sparkles. The speed is stunning. The bat speed looks sharp. The MVP issue is not whether Harris looks like a star. He does. The issue is that Atlanta has three other candidates currently making louder arguments, and “very good at almost everything” can get drowned out when Olson is swinging a telephone pole and Baldwin is trying to rebrand catcher offense in real time. 3. Ozzie Albies Albies is No. 3 among Atlanta Braves MVP candidates, though he feels easiest to underrate because we already know him. That is dangerous. Familiarity is where good baseball discourse goes to put on sweatpants and make lazy assumptions. Through 41 games, Albies is hitting .306/.356/.506 with eight home runs, 25 RBI, 30 runs, 49 hits, and an .862 OPS. FanGraphs has him at 1.5 WAR with a 140 wRC+, which means he has been 40% better than league average at the plate after adjusting for park and league context. That is the clean version of the case: Albies is producing, playing second base, striking out at a low rate, and looking like a major piece of the Braves’ early-season machine. The messier version is that the underlying data is not quite as convinced. has Albies at an 86.4 mph average exit velocity, 28.4% hard-hit rate, .376 wOBA, .307 xwOBA, and 4.3% barrel rate. In normal human English, that means the results have been excellent, but the contact quality is not screaming “MVP monster” in quite the same way Olson, Harris, or Baldwin are, which does not kill the case. It just makes it more complicated. Albies has always been a slightly odd statistical creature. He is compact, aggressive, switch-hitting, occasionally streaky, and capable of looking like he has solved baseball for three weeks at a time. His MVP argument is not built on raw punishment the way Olson’s is. It is built on balance: average, power, middle-infield value, lineup presence, and the bounce-back narrative after a frustrating 2025 season. That rebound angle matters. Albies hit just .240 with a .365 slugging percentage in 2025, so this version looks like a player who has very much found ... Wed, 13 May 2026 14:46:37 GMT Chris Guest https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56606109 https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56606109 false false Deadspin | Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani to focus on pitching vs. Giants Wed, 13 May 2026 14:44:48 GMT Adam Warner https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56606078 https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56606078 false false Three one-run losses and a blowout win for the Ontario Tower Buzzers—that’s how the day went in the Dodgers’ minor league system. Player of the day While the first-place Drillers might not have gotten the result they wanted in a loss against the Cardinals, it most certainly didn’t come due to a lack of trying […] Wed, 13 May 2026 14:39:48 GMT Estevão Maximo https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56606014 https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56606014 false false Los Angeles Dodgers vs San Francisco Giants Game Preview Wed, 13 May 2026 14:32:11 GMT Vaughn Dalzell https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56605926 https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56605926 false false Santiago Espinal performed well during Spring Training and earned a spot on the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Opening Day roster, but he has largely struggled through the first month-and-a-half of the regular season. That prompted speculation about Espinal’s future with the team, particularly as Mookie Betts was getting set to return from the injured list. However, […] Wed, 13 May 2026 14:24:32 GMT Matt Borelli https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56605836 https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56605836 false false Ohtani has hit just two home runs in his last 27 games Wed, 13 May 2026 14:11:05 GMT Mike Axisa https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56605676 https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56605676 false false The long and short of it is this: has to be added to the San Diego Padres’ roster by May 16. In order to do that, someone else needs to leave the club. Newcomer , and have cemented their places in the rotation. Beyond that, is on the IL with a nerve injury. and have filled out the final two spots in the starting group. It’s those last two who seem the likeliest to be replaced by Giolito. They’ve both performed adequately, but someone has to leave with Giolito’s imminent debut. So who will it be? The Longtime Rival Buehler had spent almost the entirety of his career with the rival Los Angeles Dodgers before becoming a Padre this offseason. He’s certainly a far cry from the pitcher he was during his time in L.A., but he’s been serviceable for the Friars. So far this season, he owns a 5.20 ERA across 36 1/3 innings. It’s definitely not an inspiring line, but Buehler’s been a serviceable back-end starter for San Diego. His underlying metrics paint a very interesting (if somewhat convoluted) picture. His xERA (4.87) is half a point lower than his actual ERA, suggesting that he’s run into some bad luck. But, at the same time, his xBA (.284) is higher than his actual batting average allowed (.257). So has he run into bad luck or benefited from good luck? It’s honestly hard to say, and it’s maybe a bit of both. His pitch mix has changed significantly since his time with the Dodgers. Buehler now primarily utilizes a cutter and knuckle curve, while employing a sweeper and wipeout slider as secondary pitches. Though his fastball velocity is down significantly (95.3 mph in 2021 to 93.9 in 2026), the cutter has still been a solid pitch. But the secondary pitches have been incredible. His slider is generating a whiff percentage of 27.3 while the sweeper is at 32 percent. If Buehler can rely on those pitches a little more, while still maintaining their ability to miss bats, it would be a massive improvement to Buehler’s game. Even beyond that, he’s been much more successful than Waldron over a larger sample size. Buehler also has a better pedigree at the MLB level than the knuckleballer, making his chances of keeping a rotation spot much better. The Dying Art of the Knuckleballer The knuckleball used to be a much more common pitch than it is now. That isn’t to say it was common, it wasn’t, but it was more common. Pitchers like and built their careers on that pitch. Now? Nobody throws it. Well … almost nobody. Waldron has been the sole thrower of the knuckleball at the big-league level for a number of years now. He’s done so with varying degrees of success, with his most extensive MLB action coming in 2024. He made 26 starts for the Padres and ended the year with a 4.91 ERA. He hasn’t not found immense success with the pitch, never finding the right way to utilize it in his pitch mix. With ace , Waldron earned a spot in the San Diego rotation for the time being. In five starts with the club he owns a 9.28 ERA and 1.83 WHIP (21.1 IP). That line isn’t terrific, but his two most recent starts were solid. Across 10 innings, Waldron had only allowed four runs, pitching more consistently than he ever has. That all came crashing down on Tuesday night, when the righty surrendered six runs to the Milwaukee Brewers in the Friars’ loss. With that in mind, Waldron seems more likely to give way to Giolito but he’s out of options. If San Diego wants to move him from the active roster, he’ll need to be designated for assignment. Giolito’s Potential Impact Giolito was to the San Diego starting rotation. The debuting righty has started four games between Single-A Lake Elsinore and Double-A San Antonio in the Padres’ minor league system. Giolito’s 4.76 ERA is certainly uninspiring, but he’s had a much more impressive 3.60 ERA in his two most recent starts with the Double-A club. The Friars’ pitching staff has been solid, , but it’s needed a little something extra to tread water until Pivetta returns from injury. It will likely be a few months until that happens, so Giolito will have plenty of opportunities to make an impact with San Diego. Main Image Credit: Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images Wed, 13 May 2026 13:37:01 GMT Lincoln Zdunich https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56605332 https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56605332 false false It was an underwhelming trade deadline for the Los Angeles Dodgers last summer. After weeks of rumors suggesting the Dodgers would pursue a trade for Cleveland Wed, 13 May 2026 13:24:55 GMT Jordan Campbell https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56605165 https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56605165 false false LOS ANGELES — The lights were bright, the energy was loud and for a moment Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium felt more like a celebration than the middle of the Dodgers’ worst stretch in nea Wed, 13 May 2026 13:08:41 GMT Fredo Cervantes https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56604989 https://sportspyder.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/articles/56604989 false false