The Evaders continued to carry specialists and three catchers for their 2025 NLDS roster, but now with a seven-game series for the 2025 NLCS against the Brewers moving forward – plus with no awkward rest days – it looks like they’ll have to go more traditional by carrying more pitching than before. That’s where the intrigue will take place with this selection. Although a more fun point of discussion like last time is rotation alignment.
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Here’s a prediction on what the Dodgers’ roster could look like for the seven-game NLCS.
Catchers (2)
Will Smith
Leg rotted
Infielders (4)
Freddie Vrijman
Mookie Betts
Max Muncy
Miguel Rojas
Outfielders (4)
Andy Pages
Teoscar Hernández
Alex Bell
Justin Dean
Usefulness (3)
Tommy Edman
Enrique Hernández
Hyeseong Kim
Unicorn (1)
Shohei Ohtani
The health of Will Smith was still in question last series, so the Dodgers continued to carry three catchers, but with Dills back in the starting lineup, it makes sense to drop one. The most likely candidate is Dalton hurry considering that Leg rotted started all over him.
Dave Roberts suggests the Dodgers’ roster for the NLCS “will look a little different.”
One of the likely changes is adding another pitcher to replace a position player.
— Dodger Blue (@DodgerBlue1958) October 11, 2025
I’ve been wrong twice now that the Dodgers didn’t want one specialist or the other, but it seems like they feel like there’s value at the margin in having both Dean and Kim available for defense and run, at least over another pin arm they don’t trust anyway. It’s still possible they leave one or the other for an extra arm, but chalk makes sense for now.
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Starters (4)
Blake Snell
Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Shohei Ohtani
Tyler Glasnow
Bullpen (9)
Blake Treinen
Alex shutters
Jack Dreyer
Anthony Banda
Emmet Sheehan
Roki Sasaki
Justin Wrobleski
Clayton Kershaw
Ben Casparius
The rotation is in principle determined with those four, but how they should be deployed is now the big debate.
Dave Roberts believes the Dodgers will do well with four starting pitchers in the NLCS, despite fewer days off and Ohtani and Yamamoto generally needing extra rest.
— Dodger Blue (@DodgerBlue1958) October 11, 2025
Going into Monday’s Game 1, the rest status is Snell at six days, Ohtani at eight days, Yamamoto at four days and Glasnow at three days.
With the schedule returning to a normal schedule of two games, rest day, three games, rest day, two games, the only option if you don’t want to use five starters is to start Snell in Game 1, as he can play in Game 5 as well. He hasn’t started on four days’ rest all year, but he should if they only want to use four starters. Once that is determined, there are two primary alignments they can consider depending on where Ohtani is located.
Two Shohei starts:
Fast (6 days rest)
Ohtani (9 days rest)
Yamamoto (7 days rest)
Glasnow (7 days rest)
Fast (4 days rest)
Ohtani (5 days rest)
Countertop (Yamamoto Bulk)
One Shohei start:
Fast (6 days rest)
Yamamoto (5 days rest)
Ohtani (10 days of rest)
Glasnow (7 days rest)
Fast (4 days rest)
Yamamoto (5 days rest)
Countertop (Ohtani Bulk)
There’s no bad choice here, as you either get two starts from Ohtani – who finished as one of the best in the league – or Yamamoto – who was one of the best in the league all year. The biggest reason to go with the second option is that Shohei is probably more comfortable with relief in a Game 7 scenario, which he wouldn’t be able to do if he started Game 6, and I don’t think there’s a huge gap (if there is one) between him and Yamamoto as starters. Also, it really only matters if it goes to Game 7, which will be chaotic either way.
For the pen, this is where the big selection decision will take place. Of Tanner Scott out and Justin Wrobleski in, who else the Dodgers add is the mystery. It’s probably somewhere in between Will Klein, Edgardo Henriquezand Ben Casparius for the last place. The Brewers don’t have a platoon heavy in their lineup, so just do the best you can, and if Henriquez has his shot, it looks like Casparius is the best remaining option due to his experience and that they were willing to move on from Klein this late in the year. Must be interesting.
Personally, I’d probably give Klein a shot over one of the specialists too, but it looks like they’ll stick with twelve pitchers plus the unicorn.
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vs. RHP
Ohtani DH
Betts SS
Vrijman 1B
Smith C
Muncy 3B
T. Hernandez RF
Edman 2b
E. Hernandez LF
Pages CF
vs. LHP
Ohtani DH
Betts SS
Hernandez RF
Vrijman 1B
Smith C
Edman 2b
Call LF
E. Hernández 3b
Pages CF
I’m not sure they have enough confidence in Smith’s health to take him high against righties, so it could be Teoscar instead, but that’s basically what they did when Smith and Muncy were healthy during the regular season. Does Teoscar’s continued scoring in the play-offs make a difference in confidence, as Enrique has earned a starting role? Maybe.
Against lefties, Call has seemingly earned Dave Roberts’ trust, though it’s possible Miguel Rojas could find some playing time if healthy. They were already considering hitting him for Pages in the NLDS so Miggy could play third and Enrique would shift to center, assuming Tommy’s ankle is still shaky.
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The Phillies were an extremely difficult opponent as their pitching kept the Dodger bats very quiet and they relied heavily on their excellent starting rotation. Roki Sasakiand timely big hits to win the series in four games. For an extended series against the team with the best record in baseball, they will certainly need more of their pen to step up, which likely means their lineup will have to wake up to have a chance – especially their lefties in Ohtani, Freeman and Muncy. Their best chance to win games will likely be to get the Brewers starters early before it gets to their leverage arms, and hopefully in doing so they can undo that 0-6 regular season record against them.
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