Plaschke: No Soto! Dodgers should focus on keeping World Series champs together

So the Dodgers begin their title defense this week by flirting with baseball’s hottest available star. So the Dodgers can strengthen baseball’s best lineup, deepen their historic batting order, tighten their versatile defense, become even more exciting, more enchanting, more unbeatable. Thanks, but no thanks. It’s not that Juan Soto would be a bad acquisition. He’s one of baseball’s best young players, he raked the Dodgers for a 1.084 OPS in the World Series, he was everything Aaron Judge was not, and heaven knows the Dodgers can afford him. But to sign the New York Yankee free agent outfielder, they would need to make him the highest-paid annual salaried player on the team, his no-deferred paycheck close to $50 million a year, and that just doesn’t work in a clubhouse that doesn’t need a new leader. This is Shohei Ohtani’s team, it’s Mookie Betts’ team, it’s Freddie Freeman’s team, and there’s no way you can send the message that it will now also be Juan Soto’s team. Soto has never been a clubhouse problem, but his flamboyant aura — while great for baseball — won’t so easily work in the Dodgers grind-it-out culture. Ohtani is known for his professionalism, Betts is known for his unselfishness and Freeman is known for his guts. Soto? He’s known for his batter’s box shuffle. Agreed, he’s a 26-year-old superstar who would be worth every penny. He just needs to get paid somewhere else, anywhere else, while the Dodgers should focus their attention on the gleaming product directly in front of them. You know, the 2024 World Series champions. Keep them together. Strengthen that chemistry. Build on that bond. Andrew Friedman did such a spectacular job in shaping such a special team, it would verge on heartbreaking if he allows some of their important free-agent pieces to go their separate ways. Remember when the Lakers’ Rob Pelinka tore apart the 2020 championship team by ridding them of important role players so they could add Russell Westbrook? Here’s hoping a similarly bad remodel job doesn’t happen here. The Dodgers have shown they have the money, and the smarts, and everything else required to sign the cornerstones who can keep the championship foundation strong. Now they just need to fight the urge to turn everything upside down with a shiny new toy. They have six free agents. They should maximize their efforts to bring back four of them. Certainly, they will add another starting pitcher or two — Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki is one leading candidate — and they will probably add a bullpen arm and veteran journeyman outfielder. But they should focus their attention on those four free agents. He’s 32, and bound to regress from last year’s 33-homer, 99-RBI numbers, but goodness, outside of Ohtani, did any other Dodger make a more consistent impact? When the regular-season Dodgers needed a lift, he was there. When the postseason Dodgers needed a hero, he had big hits in the division series opener, the division series clincher, and the clinching World Series Game 5. He’s more than just a shower of sunflower seeds. He’s a big part of this club’s soul. Yes, he’s had two Tommy John surgeries and, yes, he made an awfully slow recovery from his most recent operation, going 1-6 with a 5.38 ERA in the regular season. But perhaps no Dodger is more unhittable in October. He has an 0.47 ERA in four career World Series appearances and the steely nerve to take the mound on one day’s rest for the last three outs of this fall’s clinching Game 5. The Dodgers value players who get stronger under the spotlight. Buehler has made a career out of being one of those players. This one is simple. You endure a regular-season OPS of .654 for a postseason of two homers, eight RBIs, and a go-ahead dinger against the San Diego Padres in the deciding Game 5 of the division series. Hernández has a career .874 OPS in 86 postseason games. He is Señor October. You keep Señor October. He has struggled through injuries and he’ll be 37 next October but he had a 1.93 ERA in 50 appearances during the regular season and when the Dodgers needed him for 2 ⅓ innings in the World Series clincher, he shut down the Yankees. It was one of the biggest moments of the postseason, one of the most strenuous moments of his career, yet he performed like a champion. The Dodgers should be in the business of retaining champions. There’s at least one more member of the title team that has earned a new contract. He’s not a free agent, but he’s on the verge of becoming a lame duck. There’s no doubt the Dodgers will take care of him before the final year of his contract, but it would be nice if it happened soon enough to have an impact with potential incoming free agents. He is Dave Roberts, and there’s very few managers walking this earth who could have matched his deft handling of all the October bullpen games and injuries and intrigue. Tommy Edman and Freeman each received special trophies, but Roberts was the Dodgers’ overall postseason MVP. It’s time to pay him like it.