Keri Puts Dodgers Second Only To Pesky Nats

Here's Grantland's Jonah Keri, ranking the Dodgers second going into the 2015 season:

2. Los Angeles Dodgers

Starting with the trade that sent Matt Kemp two hours south on I-5, the Dodgers’ offseason moved in the opposite direction of the Padres’. While the Pads loaded up on big hitters with questionable gloves like Kemp, the Dodgers, who also kissed Hanley Ramirez good-bye, happily unloaded such defenseless mashers. The addition of the veteran pair of Jimmy Rollins and Kendrick should fortify the middle of the diamond, while 22-year-old rookie Joc Pederson enters the season as an instant, major defensive upgrade over Kemp and everyone else who tried to play center in Chavez Ravine last year. These small moves are all right out of new president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman’s playbook of defensive obsession. That all three of the new guys could also provide better-than-average bats and contribute on the basepaths only increases the team’s already outsize potential.

That forgotten team up north ranks 18th.