Dodgers News: Mookie Betts Proves Talk is Cheap as LA Overachieves

The NL West STILL runs through the Dodgers.

Though many NL contenders around them made offseason moves to improve their rosters, only two teams can call themselves the class of the National League this season. 

While the New York Mets and San Diego Padres dished out big contracts to marquee free agents with gusto, it's only the Atlanta Braves that are ahead of Dodgers' superstar Mookie Betts and his teammates in another year of the same old song and dance for LA. 

"Hey, you go to do what you’ve got to do," Betts said in regards to other NL teams running their mouth ahead of the 2023 season. "If that’s how you pump yourself, do it, by all means. For us, that’s not just the way we operate. We operate in a different fashion. So, it’s like, you can talk all you want, say all you want, but nobody cares what is being said, you’ve still got to go play the game. In between the lines is what’s going to dictate the outcome."

via Bob Nightengale, USA Today

For the past decade the Dodgers have been the class of the league with smart moves in drafting and enough funding to afford superstars of their own. 

Taking advantage of veteran players discarded from other teams in Chris Taylor and Max Muncy, trading for superstars in unhappy places such as Mookie Betts and signing their own big free agent pieces like Freddie Freeman, the team continues to thrive under the leadership of Andrew Friedman as the architect of the roster. 

Not even mentioning drafted superstars such as Will Smith and Clayton Kershaw, the team's makeup is like no other in the league and the results show it. 

Aside from 2021, the Dodgers have won the NL West crown and have guaranteed themselves playoff spots in each of the last 10 seasons. 

Though the team only has one trophy to show for their efforts to this point in that time frame, the Dodgers are looking to double that total in the coming months.