PHOENIX – In the hypothetical scenario given to him, Dave Roberts was not the manager of the Dodgers.
He was a reporter assigned to pick up the team, and he had a passion for messing around.
What was he going to write about?
“It can be difficult to wake things up in this camp,” said Roberts.
Didn’t Roberts want to add excitement to spring training by suggesting that Roki Sasaki might be demoted to the minor leagues?
Roberts laughed.
“That won’t happen,” he said.
Welcome to the Most Boring Spring Training Camp in the major leagues.
No arguments, no big worries. The program is set. There is only one starting spot up for grabs, and that will be the team’s left tackle at second base until Tommy Edman recovers from ankle surgery.
The Dodgers are built to withstand the loss of any player in the regular season, which explains why Roberts doesn’t care when he talks about how Blake Snell is still playing catch.
The team is playing Snell lightly this spring, knowing it has a rotation that includes three other Cy Young-caliber starters: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani and Tyler Glasnow. They have enough starting depth in the likes of Sasaki, Emmet Sheehan, Gavin Stone, Justin Wrobleski and River Ryan to make it to the postseason. The real season starts in October, and all the Dodgers care about is if Snell is healthy then.
Mookie Betts? He is also being played lightly to recover from a tough World Series game. He won’t make his Cactus League debut until Sunday or maybe early next week, but what will happen? The Dodgers have the luxury of playing the long game.
There are some questions about the extent to which Betts, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez can fight the effects of age. But any return to top form feels like a luxury rather than a necessity after the addition of 29-year-old All-Star forward Kyle Tucker.
Another high-profile acquisition, along with Edwin Diaz, has introduced a sense of stability to what was the team’s biggest weakness last year, the bullpen. This team looks to be a force, as Diaz’s presence in the ninth inning will allow Roberts to throw in more relievers in favorable situations.
Speaking of Roberts, the former manager is now a three-time World Series champion who is in the first season of a four-year extension he signed last year. Roberts enjoys anything that is the opposite of the hot seat.
The Dodgers are stable, and really good.
Towards the end of the growing story is about Sasaki, a second year firefighter from Japan. No matter what he does, Sasaki will neither lift nor sink the Dodgers. His ongoing story is impressive because he is a generational talent, not because of how he will impact the team in the short term.
The Dodgers have a $400 million payroll, and that has bought them huge margins for error. Another way of looking at their situation is that a lot they must make a mistake not to win the National League West.
“I like it in the sense that it’s peaceful, but it’s very deliberate,” Roberts said. “I think when you watch our guys work all day, it’s thoughtful and intense but still a lot of fun. I think that’s sustainable.”
The Dodgers had to move up and shorten spring training the past two years because of season-opening trips to Japan and South Korea. Yamamoto, Diaz, Will Smith and Hyeseong Kim will soon leave to join their respective national teams in the World Baseball Classic. Ohtani is already gone.
Ohtani’s exit dramatically reduced the number of reporters in camp, as many Japanese reporters who were here followed the two-time player to Japan. Then again, it’s not like there are players looking for more room to ride horses.
“Guys are focused on preparation,” Roberts said. “Boys are smart, they don’t want distractions, we don’t need them.”
As for resurrecting anything, Roberts said, “Good luck with that.”
