Dodgers

PHOENIX —  Where’s Charlie?The question from Shohei Ohtani caught Freddie Freeman by surprise.Freeman had introduced his then-5-year-old son to Ohtani at the All-Star Game in Los Angeles in 2022.Now here they were, back at Dodger Stadium 17 months later as part of a contingent of players enlisted to recruit Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Ohtani was asking Freeman about his son by name.Ohtani has continued asking about Charlie in camp.“Every single day, ‘Where’s Charlie?’ ” Freeman said.Freeman will have his son accompany him…

When Los Angeles last saw Clayton Kershaw, his head was buried in his hands and boos were ringing in his ears.His shoulder was shot. His postseason was shredded. He was surely finished as a Dodger. He was probably finished as a pitcher.Kershaw trudged quietly out of Dodger Stadium that October night after giving up six runs to the first eight Arizona Diamondbacks hitters in a nightmarish playoff opener, his pitiful appearance draped with the saddest of questions.Is this really how a future Hall of Famer was going to walk…

The nickname “Mr. Clean” has lingered since the height of Steve Garvey’s fame as a sweet-swinging first baseman for the Dodgers and Padres, as much a reflection of his success on the field as the wholesome, All-American image that followed him off of it.Charming. Handsome. Unfailingly polite. Eager to sign autographs. Devoted to helping charities. A media darling. A successful businessman. All with a made-for-television grin.Garvey is “a devoted family man,” read a biography once posted on his website. “As a father of…

Eight former Dodgers are on the Hall of Fame ballot, although chances are that not a single one would wear the team’s cap should he be inducted. Several follow a long, curious tradition of future Hall of Famers playing with the Dodgers for an eye blink near the end of distinguished careers, their greatness mostly a memory. An outlier is Adrián Beltré, a shoo-in as a first-ballot inductee this year. He signed with the Dodgers at age 16, broke into the majors with them at 19 and left as a free agent after seven seasons,…

Alex Wood was preparing for his first full season with the Dodgers in 2016 when then-general manager Andrew Friedman approached him in the team’s spring-training clubhouse and handed him a three-page analysis of his pitching patterns.“The gist of it was that I was one of the best in baseball at getting to two strikes — I was elite, like in the 99th percentile, of getting to 0-and-2 and 1-2 counts,” said Wood, a left-hander who had been traded from Atlanta to Los Angeles the previous July. “But I was at the bottom third…

Former Dodgers pitcher Julio Urías will not be charged with a felony by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, according to a document filed Tuesday, stemming from his arrest last September on suspicion of domestic violence.According to the office’s charge evaluation worksheet, Urías on the night he was arrested was engaged in an argument with his wife when he “pushed against a fence and pulled her by the hair or shoulders.” The document, however, stated, “neither the Victim’s injuries nor the Defendant’s…

The Dodgers’ December spending spree has spilled into the New Year.After doling out more than $1 billion on three star acquisitions last month, the Dodgers made another splash Sunday night by agreeing to a one-year, $23.5-million deal with free-agent outfielder Teoscar Hernández, according to a person with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly.The deal, first reported by ESPN, gives the Dodgers the right-handed hitting outfielder they coveted to complete their offseason overhaul.Hernández, 31, is an…

The Dodgers unveiled yet another Tokyo giant on Wednesday, officially adding highly touted Japanese right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a $1.025-billion Pacific Rim portfolio that is anchored by two-way star Shohei Ohtani.Yamamoto’s introductory news conference in Dodger Stadium resembled the one announcing Ohtani’s 10-year, $700-million deal two weeks ago with about 100 media members in attendance — Ohtani had 300 — and fans watching Yamamoto don his blue-and-white No.18 Dodgers jersey on live television in the U.S. and…

As the center fielder for Team Japan in last spring’s World Baseball Classic, Lars Nootbaar had a unique view of the jaw-dropping four-pitch repertoire of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Japanese right-hander who agreed to a 12-year, $325-million deal with the Dodgers on Thursday.Nootbaar, the St. Louis Cardinals outfielder whose mother is Japanese, marveled at the way Yamamoto’s fastball, which sits in the 94-95-mph range and touches 97 mph with good ride from a lower release point, seemed to “jump out of his hand.”He described…

Shohei Ohtani made this happen.Shohei Ohtani is why the Dodgers have agreed to terms with Yoshinobu Yamamoto.This wasn’t about Ohtani’s recruiting pitch to Yamamoto, who already was said to have an affinity for the Dodgers.This was about the $680-million loan Ohtani made to the Dodgers.With Ohtani practically printing money for them, the once-cautious Dodgers made a previously unthinkable move by committing $325 million over 12 years to the undersized Yamamoto.The Dodgers refused to spend that much on Gerrit Cole when…