The 2014 Los Angeles Dodgers were a weird, expensive, and utterly fascinating experiment in what happens when you mix a historic pitching peak with a clubhouse that felt like a pressure cooker. Honestly, looking back, it's easy to just point at Clayton Kershaw’s MVP trophy and call it a day. But that does a massive disservice to the chaos of that summer. It was the first full year of the Stan Kasten and Andrew Friedman transition era, a time when the payroll soared past $235 million, making them the most expensive team in baseball history at the point.
They won 94 games. They took the NL West. Yet, if you ask any fan who sat through those games at Dodger Stadium, they’ll tell you it felt like they should have won 110.
The Summer of the No-Hitter and the MVP
Everything in 2014 started and ended with Clayton Kershaw. It’s hard to overstate how dominant he was. He missed the first month of the season because of a back injury suffered in Australia, yet he still managed to put up numbers that look like they belong in a video game. We’re talking about a 1.77 ERA. He went 21-3.
The highlight? June 18 against the Rockies.
I remember watching that game and thinking it was the closest thing to pitching perfection I'd ever see. He didn't walk a single soul. The only reason it wasn't a perfect game was a Hanley Ramirez throwing error. He struck out 15. The slider was biting so hard it looked unfair. That night cemented the 2014 Los Angeles Dodgers as "Kershaw’s Team," for better or worse. He became the first National League pitcher since Bob Gibson in 1968 to win the MVP and the Cy Young in the same season. It was legendary.
But a team is more than one left arm. While Kershaw was carving up lineups, the rest of the rotation was... interesting. Zack Greinke was his usual stoic, brilliant self, posting a 2.71 ERA and winning a Gold Glove. Beyond those two? It was a bit of a gamble. Dan Haren struggled with consistency, and Josh Beckett—who actually threw a no-hitter himself earlier that May against the Phillies—was dealing with the physical toll of a long career.
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The Outfield Logjam and the Puig Phenomenon
The biggest headache for manager Don Mattingly wasn't the pitching; it was the ego management in the outfield. You had Yasiel Puig, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, and Carl Crawford. All four were paid like superstars. All four wanted to play every day.
Puig was in his second year, and the "Wild Horse" energy was at its peak. He hit .296 and made the All-Star team, but he also drove everyone crazy with missed cutoff men and baserunning blunders. Then you had Matt Kemp. People forget that by the second half of 2014, Kemp was arguably the best hitter in the league. After being benched and moved to right field, he caught fire, finished with 25 homers, and reminded everyone why he almost won the MVP in 2011.
The chemistry was off, though.
You could feel the tension through the TV screen. There were rumors of clubhouse fights. Zack Greinke famously threw Puig’s luggage off the team bus at one point. It was a high-priced soap opera played out on grass. The 2014 Los Angeles Dodgers were a collection of incredible individuals who didn't always feel like a cohesive unit.
That Infamous NLDS Against St. Louis
If you want to know why 2014 hurts for Dodgers fans, you have to talk about the St. Louis Cardinals. Specifically, the seventh inning of Game 1.
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Kershaw was cruising. He looked untouchable. Then, the wheels didn't just come off; the whole car exploded. A string of hits, a bases-clearing double by Matt Carpenter, and suddenly the best pitcher on the planet was human. It happened again in Game 4. Matt Adams hit a three-run homer off a hanging curveball, and just like that, a 94-win season was over in the first round.
It was a brutal reality check.
Critics pointed to Mattingly’s bullpen management. Others blamed the lack of a lockdown bridge to closer Kenley Jansen. Honestly, it was just baseball being cruel. The Cardinals had this weird hex over the Dodgers back then, and no amount of payroll could break it.
Why 2014 Was a Turning Point
This season was the catalyst for the modern Dodgers. It was the year the front office realized that stars aren't enough. You need depth. You need "grinders." Right after the season ended, the team overhauled the front office, bringing in Andrew Friedman from the Rays.
They traded Matt Kemp to the Padres. They let Hanley Ramirez walk. They started prioritizing defense and versatility over raw, expensive power. If 2014 hadn't ended in such a frustrating collapse, the 2020 World Series title probably never happens. They had to feel that specific pain to change their philosophy.
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Real Insights for the Baseball Historian
If you're looking back at this specific era, don't just look at the win-loss column. Look at the peripheral stats that defined the 2014 Los Angeles Dodgers:
- Dee Gordon’s Breakout: This was the year Dee Gordon finally clicked, stealing 64 bases and becoming an All-Star before being traded in the offseason.
- The Bullpen Bridge: The middle relief was a disaster. Guys like Brian Wilson and Chris Perez struggled, leaving a massive gap between the starters and Jansen.
- The Justin Turner Arrival: Most people forget 2014 was Justin Turner's first year in LA. He was a utility guy who hit .340 in 109 games. Nobody knew he’d become the face of the franchise.
The 2014 season was a beautiful, chaotic mess. It featured the greatest individual pitching season of the modern era and a lineup full of All-Stars, yet it couldn't get past the gritty, fundamentally sound Cardinals. It remains a "what if" year—a season where the talent was undeniable, but the timing was just a little bit off.
To truly understand the 2014 Dodgers, you have to watch the tape of Kershaw’s no-hitter and then immediately watch the Matt Adams home run. That is the duality of that team. High highs, crushing lows, and a payroll that demanded more than they could ultimately deliver.
Next Steps for Deep Diving into 2014:
To get a better sense of the locker room dynamics, look into the specific reporting from Andy McCullough or Dylan Hernandez from that era; their archives provide the best "fly on the wall" perspective of the Puig-Kemp-Greinke tension. Also, compare the 2014 spray charts of Matt Kemp to his 2011 season; you'll see a fascinating shift in how he adjusted his power stroke after his ankle surgeries. Finally, watch the condensed game of the June 18 no-hitter to see how many times Kershaw actually hit the catcher's mitt without the catcher moving an inch—it's a masterclass in command that stats alone can't explain.