MLB Fans Overwhelmingly Predict Dodgers to Win NL West This Season

Oh, how the tables have turned.

The Los Angeles Dodgers may not have entered the 2023 season as the odds-on favorites to win the National League West like in years prior, but it didn't take long for them to quickly reassert themselves as the class of the division.

Entering Thursday, the Dodgers sit in first place in the NL West, with a three-game lead over the second place Arizona Diamondbacks and a seven-and-a-half-game lead over the third place San Francisco Giants. The San Diego Padres — the team many predicted to win the division this season — are an incredible eight games out of first place just 44 games into the season. The Colorado Rockies are nine games back of the Dodgers.

Good morning Dodgers Nation! pic.twitter.com/MOWdbh8eE8

— Dodgers Nation (@DodgersNation) May 18, 2023

The Dodgers sit at 28-16, good for the best record in the National League, and just three-and-a-half games behind the Tampa Bay Rays for the best record in all of baseball.

They've survived tons of injuries and paternity list leaves, and have currently won 15 of their last 18 games.

Over on Twitter, MLB Now, a show on MLB Network, ran a poll asking baseball fans who they think will win the NL West. Nearly 4,000 fans voted, and a whopping 60.4 percent of them voted for the Dodgers.

The Padres got the next-most votes at 15.8 percent, followed by the Giants/Rockies with 15.4 percent (I assume most of them were voting for the Giants), and the Diamondbacks in last at 8.5 percent of the vote despite being in second place right now.

Which team do you think will win the NL West?#MLBNow | #ThinkingFan

— MLB Now (@MLBNow) May 17, 2023

The results are staggering and likely very different from what they would have been had the question been asked just a month earlier — but that's how dominant the Dodgers are playing right now.

Despite the quiet offseason, and despite the Padres having the third-highest payroll in baseball, the Dodgers are still playing as the class of the NL West.

The Dodgers have won the division in nine of the last 10 seasons. A majority of fans expect them to make it 10 in 11 this year.