Before a clubhouse celebration this month, Dave Roberts told his Dodgers they were smarter, better and tougher. Teoscar Hernández added one more word from the corner. "And we're dinosaurs!" It was meant as a joke. On Thursday, Oct. 15, the Milwaukee Brewers finished a four-game sweep, 6-4, at Dodger Stadium. The joke had turned into the scouting report.
It was Milwaukee's first pennant in 44 years, and it came against baseball's richest team. The Dodgers were two-time defending champions. They've made the playoffs 14 straight years and reached five World Series since 2017. The Journal's Jared Diamond summed up the series in four words that sting. "They simply looked old."
Los Viejitos
Look at the ages. Freddie Freeman, 37, was the oldest player in baseball to qualify for the batting title this season. Max Muncy, 36, was the oldest everyday third baseman. Mookie Betts, 34, was one of the oldest shortstops. The two second basemen in the playoffs, Miguel Rojas and Enrique Hernández, are 37 and 35. Hernández recently posted a photo of himself and four teammates and captioned it Los Viejitos, Spanish for the old guys. Their average age was nearly 36.
The Dodgers had a plan for this. They rested their stars through the regular season to be fresh in October. They still won 100 games. Then the sprint came, and the younger Brewers ran past them. "The train finally ran out of steam I guess," Muncy said. The cracks were there before the series. Freeman's .792 OPS was the lowest of his career. Betts has slipped at the plate for two years. Shohei Ohtani starred in the first half, then his health let him down. No National League team has ever won three titles in a row.
Tuesday's paper filled in the other half. The Tampa Bay Rays won the American League and face the Brewers in the World Series. In Los Angeles, Andrew Friedman, who runs baseball operations, says the front office has a split personality. One half squeezes every last drop from the aging stars. The other half builds for what comes next. Now they have to decide when the young players get their turn. A possible labor fight looms too, partly over the Dodgers' money edge.
Our read
Retirement · M10, with a behavioral lesson. The Dodgers didn't do anything dumb. They had the best roster money could buy, and they planned for the age curve. The curve won anyway. It always does. Rest slows it. Money slows it. Nothing stops it. Friedman's split personality is the right answer, and it's the same answer we give a 60-year-old with a big winner in the account. Harvest the veteran. Build the bench.
The piece of your plan this story touches is your stock-and-bond mix. Many people pick it once, at 40 or 45, and never look again. The Dodgers planned for age and still got caught by it. A mix that suited you at 45 can carry more risk than you want at 60. This week, open your 401(k) and find two things. Check your stock share against the age you are today. Then see whether one fund or company stock has grown well past the share you meant it to have. Bring both numbers to your next review with us, and we'll set the lineup for the years you're actually in.