Mookie Betts: Dodgers 'can't keep talking' about World Series repeat

When you the dominate the offseason the way the Los Angeles Dodgers did coming off a World Series title, imaginations are wont to run wild on what's possible for the new superpower in Major League Baseball for its encore in 2025.

Miguel Rojas believes the Dodgers — "if everybody's healthy" — can reach 120 wins, which would break the MLB single-season record of 116 victories by the 1906 Chicago Cubs and 2001 Seattle Mariners. "I don't think it's the goal, it's the expectation," Rojas told Chris Rose last week.

On the first day of spring training at Camelback Ranch, Mookie Betts put the kibosh on all of the talk about 120 wins and a World Series title repeat.

“We can’t keep thinking about being champions again,” Betts told reporters Thursday. “We haven’t even played Game 1. We have to take care of spring training and then when Game 1 comes, then Game 1 comes. But we can’t keep talking about the World Series."

“We didn’t win last year because we were talking about the World Series every day," Betts added. "I think we won last year because we talked about the task at hand.”

Betts' one-game-at-a-time mindset doesn't mean the Dodgers don't have championship ambitions. They didn't add Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates to the pitching staff and re-sign fan favorites Teoscar Hernandez and Kiké Hernandez just to make the playoffs again.

Getting caught up in the hype is what Betts is trying to prevent. Max Muncy echoed that sentiment.

"The thing about this sport is that it doesn't matter what kind of roster you have," Muncy told reporters. "Time after time, teams have shown that once you get into the playoffs anything can happen."

Muncy "could care less" about the lofty regular-season expectations being placed on the Dodgers. "“As long as we’re in October, that’s more what I care about," he said.

“You can’t look at what we’ve already done. You can’t look at what we’re trying to do," Muncy added. "We’re just focusing on what we can do at this moment.”

Mookie Betts says Dodgers 'can’t keep talking' about World Series repeat

By Joe Lago | Feb 11, 2025