A lockout is coming and the Dodgers don't care

LAS VEGAS — Brandon Gomes tried to watch the World Series. He made it through a couple of games.

"I tried to watch the first couple games, and then after that, I was like, this is personally too painful," the Dodgers general manager said Tuesday at the GM meetings. "I think I'll just check the box score afterwards."

It's hard to blame him. The Dodgers were trying to become the first team in a quarter-century to win three straight World Series titles. Instead, the Milwaukee Brewers swept them in the National League Championship Series, a year after the Dodgers had swept Milwaukee in the same round and then beat Tampa Bay for the first championship in franchise history.

Asked whether it took any sting away that the team that knocked them out went on to win it all, Gomes didn't hesitate.

"No, it doesn't take any sting away," he said. "You just don't feel good if you don't win."

That's the part of the Dodgers that should worry the rest of baseball. Two championships didn't make losing any easier for them. If anything, it made it worse. And while most of the sport spent this week in Las Vegas bracing for a lockout when the collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1, the Dodgers sounded like a team that hasn't changed a thing.

"For us, we're totally focused, business as usual," Gomes said, "Trying to make sure we're as prepared as possible in case things happen in different ways, whether that's a trade or free agency."

That's not a slogan. It's how the Dodgers have operated since Guggenheim bought the team, and nothing about a work stoppage or a salary cap proposal is going to change it.

Gomes was asked about salary cap proposals that would put the Dodgers well over the line before they sign a single new player. He shrugged it off.

"I think the biggest thing is we're going to function like we always do," Gomes said, "and whatever it is, it is, and we'll figure it out."

Asked for his best guess on when opening day will be, he laughed.

"I don't even know what opening day schedule is right now," he said.

Every other front office in Las Vegas is trying to figure out how to plan for a season that may not start on time under rules that don't exist yet. The Dodgers are planning to be the best team in baseball whenever it starts, and the oddsmakers agree. Even after Milwaukee's 103-win season and championship, the sportsbooks in Las Vegas opened the Dodgers as the 2027 World Series favorite at +310, ahead of the Brewers at +500.

The easy narrative after a sweep is that the Dodgers got old. Gomes isn't buying it.

"Worry? No. Are we cognizant of it? Sure," he said when asked about the age of his roster. "We certainly had a team capable of winning the World Series, and my assumption is had we won, everybody would be saying, 'You have to run that team back.'"

He's right. The same core that couldn't hit in October is the core that won the previous two Octobers. Gomes said the Dodgers "really like our core" and believe it can "be a championship caliber team" again. He also said the front office "certainly" doesn't feel compelled to trade from it.

That doesn't mean they'll stand still. They never do. Tarik Skubal is a free agent, and Gomes left no doubt about how the Dodgers feel about him. "We know we love the player," he said. "We love the human." If Skubal doesn't return, Gomes pointed to Roki Sasaki's second half, Emmet Sheehan and a healthy Gavin Stone, and he named the Brewers as proof that a team can cover innings without one big name.

The Dodgers are also looking at how they prepare for the pitching they'll see in October. Gomes said the league's average fastball was about 94.5 mph last season, and hitting velocity will be a focus this winter. The front office is taking a fresh look at how it delivers scouting reports, and he expects the players who were swept to come back motivated.

"Knowing guys are hungry after the way things ended," he said.

Then there's Shohei Ohtani, who gets a normal offseason. Gomes said the Dodgers will bring Ohtani into the conversation about how to manage his two-way workload, with options like more days off as a hitter, so that he is at his best in October. "Shohei's open to putting the team in the best position to win," Gomes said. "He cares deeply about the Dodgers winning." Yoshinobu Yamamoto, he said, was as disappointed as anyone. "I don't know if he can be more motivated than he is," Gomes said.

None of this sounds like a team that's worried about what happens Dec. 1. It sounds like a team that's annoyed it didn't win.

"The goal is to be better than we were the year before," Gomes said, "and continuing to find ways to improve and get back to being a world champion."

Baseball may shut down in a few weeks. The rules may change. The schedule may shrink. But when the games come back, whenever that is, the Dodgers will field the most talented team in the sport. Again.

As Gomes put it, the goal is "a very long window and making sure that stays open."

The Brewers closed it this year. The Dodgers are already working on prying it back open.