One of the highlights of the 2024 MLB season will take place in the early morning hours of March 21 when the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres open the regular season with a game in Seoul, South Korea.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto will be the likely starter for the Dodgers, and that will certainly engage our curiosity, but I’m looking forward to seeing how Dave Roberts lines up his magnificent trio of hitters: Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani (probably in that order, putting his best slugger behind the other two).
Is there a nickname yet for these guys? I’m sure Dodgers fans will come up with one soon enough. Among those unavailable, due to copyright infringement of previously adopted monikers: Murderers’ Row, The Bombers, The Lumber Company, The Big Red Machine (wrong team color anyway), Harvey’s Wallbangers, The Blake Street Bombers, The Killer B’s, Crush City, the Bomba Squad and Slam Diego.
Ohtani, Betts and Freeman were all among baseball’s best hitters in 2023, ranking, respectively, first, fifth and seventh in both OPS and slugging percentage; third, seventh and ninth in batting average; and third, fifth and six in total bases. If all three repeat those performances, they have a chance to become one of the greatest trios of offensive teammates of all time.
With the offseason crawling along, let’s dig into some of the numbers at Baseball-Reference.com to see how the Dodgers’ three might compare to some of the other all-time trios.
Where to start? We could just look at home runs:
1. 1961 Yankees, 143: Roger Maris (61), Mickey Mantle (54), Bill Skowron (28)
2. 2023 Braves, 135: Matt Olson (54), Ronald Acuna Jr. (41), Marcell Ozuna (40)
3. 2001 Giants, 132: Barry Bonds (73), Rich Aurilia (37), Jeff Kent (22)
4. 1997 Rockies, 130: Larry Walker (49), Andres Galarraga (41), Vinny Castilla (40)
5. 1996 Mariners, 129: Ken Griffey Jr. (49), Jay Buhner (44), Alex Rodriguez (36)
That’s a fun list — and note the presence of the 2023 Braves. Ohtani (44), Betts (39) and Freeman (29) combined for 112 home runs, an impressive total, but hardly a historic number. Of course, we know there is more to offense than just home runs. Consider the top team on the list: Maris set the single-season home run record that stood until Mark McGwire broke it in 1998, and Mantle was right with him all season until tailing off in September. That was an expansion year in the American League, and there were monster offensive seasons all over the place. Check out the OPS leaders:
Norm Cash, Tigers: .361/.487/.662, 41 HR, 1.148
Mantle, Yankees: .317/.448/.687, 54 HR, 1.135
Jim Gentile, Orioles: .302/.423/.646, 46 HR, 1.069
Harmon Killebrew, Twins: .288/.405/.606, 46 HR, 1.012
Maris, Yankees: .269/.372/.620, 61 HR, .993
OPS is a better barometer for offensive performance than just home runs, and in the context of the 1961 season, Maris was arguably only the fifth- or sixth-best hitter in the AL. And the National League had Frank Robinson, Willie Mays, Henry Aaron and Orlando Cepeda all putti
ng up monster numbers as well.
