Honestly, if you look back at the Los Angeles Dodgers 2014 season, it feels less like a standard baseball year and more like a high-budget Hollywood script that accidentally lost its final ten pages. It had everything. You had Clayton Kershaw turning into a literal god on the mound. You had Yasiel Puig doing things that made old-school scouts want to pull their hair out. And, of course, you had that crushing October exit that still makes fans in Echo Park wince when they see a highlights reel of Matt Adams.
It was a weird time. The team finished 94-68. They won the NL West by six games. On paper, they were a juggernaut. But numbers don't really capture the chaotic energy of that locker room or the sheer dominance of a peak Kershaw.
The Summer of Clayton Kershaw
You can't talk about the Los Angeles Dodgers 2014 campaign without mentioning that we were basically witnessing one of the greatest individual pitching seasons in the history of the sport. Clayton Kershaw went 21-3. His ERA was a microscopic 1.77.
Think about that for a second.
In an era where offense was starting to tick back up, Kershaw was treating professional hitters like high schoolers. He won the NL Cy Young. He won the NL MVP. He threw a no-hitter against the Rockies in June that should have been a perfect game if not for a Hanley Ramirez throwing error. He struck out 15 guys that night. No walks. It was arguably the most dominant single-game pitching performance of the modern era. He was the sun that the entire Dodgers universe orbited around. When he pitched, you just assumed a win was coming.
But the rotation wasn't just him. Zack Greinke was sitting right there as the "number two" with a 2.71 ERA. Most teams would have killed for Greinke as an ace, but in 2014, he was the secondary protagonist. Then you had Hyun-Jin Ryu, who was incredibly solid before the shoulder issues really started to derail things. Dan Haren provided the veteran stability at the back end.
Yasiel Puig and the "Wild Horse" Energy
While Kershaw was the stoic professional, Yasiel Puig was the lightning bolt. In 2014, "Puig Mania" was still a very real, very volatile thing. He hit .296 with 16 home runs, but stats didn't tell the story. It was the bat flips. It was the way he’d try to take third base on a ball hit to shallow left. It was the cannon of an arm that would occasionally hit a cutoff man but more often than not was aimed directly at a runner’s soul.
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Don Mattingly, the manager at the time, basically spent the whole year looking like a guy trying to keep a tiger on a leash. Some veterans in the clubhouse reportedly weren't thrilled with the antics. There was a lot of talk about "playing the game the right way." But for the fans? Puig was electric. He was the reason you didn't turn the TV off in the seventh inning of a blowout. He brought a swagger to the Los Angeles Dodgers 2014 roster that they hadn't had in decades.
The Outfield Logjam Nobody Liked
One thing people forget about that year was the absolute mess in the outfield. The front office had too many expensive bats and not enough spots. You had Puig, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, and Carl Crawford.
Kemp, specifically, had a wild year. He started slow, people thought he was washed, and there were rumors he’d be traded for pennies. Then, in the second half, he caught fire. He finished with 25 homers and 89 RBIs. He looked like the 2011 version of himself again. But this created a massive headache. Ethier, a franchise icon, was basically relegated to the bench. Crawford was making a fortune to be a platoon guy. It was a chemistry experiment that frequently bubbled over.
The October Heartbreak (Again)
We have to talk about it. The NLDS against the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Dodgers entered the playoffs as favorites. They had the best pitcher on the planet. And yet, the Cardinals just... had their number. Game 1 was a disaster. Kershaw was cruising, and then the seventh inning happened. Eight runs. It was like watching a glitch in the Matrix. Kershaw, the invincible MVP, looked human.
Then came Game 4. The Dodgers were up 2-0. Again, Kershaw was on the mound. Again, the seventh inning. Matt Adams hit a three-run home run off a hanging curveball that still hasn't landed. Just like that, the Los Angeles Dodgers 2014 season was over. It was a brutal reminder that regular-season dominance doesn't mean anything if you can't close the door in October.
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The narrative around Kershaw changed that day. People started calling him a "playoff choker," a label that would haunt him for the next six years until he finally got his ring in 2020. It wasn't fair, but baseball isn't fair.
Why 2014 Was a Turning Point
This was the last year of the Ned Colletti era as General Manager. Andrew Friedman was hired away from the Tampa Bay Rays shortly after the season ended. It was the end of "Old School" Dodgers management. The team was spending massive amounts of money—the payroll was over $230 million—but the results weren't there when it mattered.
Friedman brought in the "efficiency" era. He traded Kemp to the Padres. He started focusing on depth and analytics over star power and massive contracts for aging outfielders. If you want to understand why the Dodgers are the juggernaut they are today, you have to look at 2014 as the catalyst for that change. It was the year they realized that having the best pitcher and the most money wasn't enough.
The Realities of the 2014 Bullpen
If you want to blame someone other than Kershaw for the playoff exit, look at the bullpen. Beyond Kenley Jansen, it was a shaky bridge.
- Brian Wilson: The "Beard" was a shell of his former self.
- Brandon League: High contract, inconsistent results.
- J.P. Howell: Good lefty specialist, but overworked.
- Pedro Baez: Just a rookie then, still learning the ropes.
The lack of a reliable setup man meant Mattingly pushed Kershaw too far in those playoff games. That was the fatal flaw.
What We Can Learn From That Roster
Looking back, that team was a lesson in peak performance vs. longevity. You had Josh Beckett throwing a no-hitter in May and then basically disappearing due to injury. You had Dee Gordon stealing 64 bases and looking like the future of the leadoff spot, only to be traded months later.
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It was a team of "moments" rather than a cohesive unit.
If you are a student of the game, the takeaway from the Los Angeles Dodgers 2014 season is that chemistry matters as much as WAR. You can have a 300-million-dollar payroll, but if your outfielders are miserable because they aren't starting, it seeps into the dugout.
Actionable Takeaways for Baseball Historians and Fans
If you're revisiting this era, don't just look at the box scores. There are better ways to digest what happened:
- Watch the Kershaw No-Hitter: It’s available in full on YouTube. Watch the slider. It’s the best that pitch has ever looked.
- Analyze the 7th Inning of NLDS Game 1: Seriously. Watch the pitch selection. It’s a masterclass in how a game can spiral when a manager waits too long to go to a shaky bullpen.
- Appreciate Matt Kemp's August/September: Before his injuries and trades, that two-month stretch was vintage "Bison." It’s a reminder of how high his ceiling actually was.
- Study the Dee Gordon Trade: Look at what the Dodgers got back (including Austin Barnes and Kike Hernandez). It shows how a "failed" 2014 led directly to the 2020 championship core.
The 2014 Dodgers didn't win a World Series, but they changed the way the organization thought about winning. They stopped trying to buy championships and started trying to build them. That's a legacy worth more than a trophy.
Next Steps for Deep Context:
To truly grasp the shift in the Dodgers' philosophy, compare the 2014 roster's defensive metrics to the 2015 "Friedman-era" squad. You'll see a massive leap in Range Factor and Defensive Runs Saved, as the team moved away from the "hit-first" mentality of Kemp and Ramirez toward the versatile, athletic defense that defines the modern era. Analyzing the trade of Dee Gordon to the Marlins specifically reveals the blueprint for how the front office began valuing controllable assets over flashy stolen base totals.