The Los Angeles Dodgers are on the brink of elimination, and some are calling out the age on the roster.
Seven of the nine players on the Dodgers roster are over 30 years old and some are pointing to that as a reason as to why the team has struggled down the stretch. Freddie Freeman, the second oldest player on the team, spoke on the criticism.
"I haven't heard that because I don't really pay attention outside the lines, but I don't know what you can really say to that," Freeman told reporters before the game, per a video posted by "Dodgers Nation" on X. "That's just people's opinions of what that is. We do know we have an older team. That doesn't mean we're old and we're playing bad because we're old. We're just not playing that great in my mind. But that's people's opinions. I can't change your opinion because we are, in this game, a little bit older than everybody else. But I don't feel old. So hopefully when you watch us play tonight, you can say we don't look old."
The Dodgers were the oldest lineup in baseball last season as well. They have a ton of veterans, but they are still playing at a high level. They had four position players named to the All-Star game and had two starting pitchers selected as well.
The reality is, the Dodgers' age is not the reason they are down 3-0 to the Milwaukee Brewers. The problem is that their bats have gone cold. It's something that happens to every team, and all they can do is hope it doesn't happen in October. The Dodgers have been fortunate over the last two seasons that their entire lineup was not in a funk at the same time.
This year, that's not the case. It's actually very similar to what happened to the Brewers against the Dodgers last year. Their offense just disappeared. On top of that, they are playing an elite pitching staff that keeps the ball in the ballpark and does not make many mistakes.
The Dodgers have actually been better defensively than the Brewers in this series, and have gotten deeper outings than the Brewers from their starters overall in the postseason. The big difference is timely hitting, and that has nothing to do with age.
For as much as can be made about the Dodgers' age, the same can be done for the Brewers on the other end of the spectrum. The Brewers have a ton of young players and inexperienced players. That too could be seen as an issue, but it has not been called out like the Dodgers.