Understanding the D-backs and Dodgers Spring Training Rivalry
When the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers meet in Cactus League play, it is just another spring exhibition. But over the years, these two have built up a timeline that actually means something beyond warm-up games. I spent a few seasons covering spring training out in Arizona, and let me tell you, the storyline between these clubs has shifted dramatically from polite familiarity to something closer to outright resentment. The rivalry did not start from nowhere. The Diamondbacks entered MLB as an expansion team in 1998, and the Dodgers have always been a marquee franchise with a huge payroll and a habit of stealing attention. In the early 2000s, spring training matchups between them were basically meaningless. Both organizations were rebuilding or just getting going. You would see them share facilities at Salt River Fields, swap stories about pitching developed in the desert heat, and nobody gave it much thought. Everything changed around 2023. The Diamondbacks had just won the National League West and made a deep postseason run. The Dodgers were busy spending money like there was no tomorrow and assembling what was arguably the most stacked roster in baseball. When they met in Grapefruit League or Cactus League games during that stretch, the tone shifted. Players who had been friendly in previous years started playing with more edge. Line drives went a little harder. Fastballs up in the zone came a little quicker.
I remember specifically watching a spring game at Salt River Fields in March 2023 where the atmosphere felt genuinely tense. Not fan-tension. Player tension. Mookie Betts and Corbin Carroll ended up near second base after a play, and neither of them moved away fast enough. The dugouts got quiet. Coaches stepped in to separate things before anything happened. That was not scripted drama. That was two teams that knew they would likely meet again in October and were already sharpening knives.
How to Follow the Timeline and What to Watch For
If you want to track the progression of this rivalry through their Cactus League meetings, start by looking at the regular season records between them from 2023 onward. The spring games themselves are still exhibitions, but the body language and lineup choices tell you where the teams stand. Here is what I looked for when I was covering these games. Starting pitcher selection matters more than you would think. Teams sometimes hold back their best arms in spring, but when the D-backs and Dodgers meet, you will usually see both clubs throw their most important pitchers. Tyler Anderson, Clayton Kershaw, Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly — these are names that show up on the mound more often than not. If a team is showing their ace in a Cactus League game against the other, pay attention. That is a signal they respect the matchup enough to test things out early. Bench-clearing incidents are rare but telling. I counted maybe three or four times across five years of spring training coverage where either dugout got involved in a scrum. Two of those involved D-backs and Dodgers players. The other two were unrelated. Do the math on the probability. It points to something real developing between these rosters.
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Front office movements add context. When the Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani, the Diamondbacks responded by extending some of their young core. Each signing or extension ripples into the next spring meeting. The timeline of these moves is worth tracking alongside the on-field events. They feed each other.
A Practical Problem I Ran Into and How I Solved It
One thing that consistently tripped me up when trying to compile accurate game logs and stats for these spring meetings was that official box scores from Cactus League games are scattered across different sources. MLB.com has some data, but it is incomplete for older games. The team websites sometimes publish retrospective summaries that contradict each other on basic things like pitching lines or error attributions. I spent about three weeks trying to reconcile discrepancies between sources for the 2023 and 2024 spring training matchups. The workaround was straightforward once I figured it out. I stopped trying to find a single authoritative source and instead pulled game recaps from both organizations' official sites plus the AZ Diamondbacks and LA Dodgers beat writers on social media who posted play-by-play notes. Cross-referencing three sources against each other got me to about ninety-five percent accuracy on the stats I needed. The remaining five percent I just flagged as uncertain and moved on. Perfect data does not exist for exhibition games, and you have to accept that if you want to cover this rivalry properly.
What the Timeline Actually Shows
Looking at the raw numbers from their recent Cactus League meetings, the pattern is not clean. The Dodgers generally dominate based on roster construction and budget. But the Diamondbacks have pulled off enough upsets in spring to make every game feel competitive regardless of what the records suggest. In 2024, Arizona won a game in Glendale that nobody outside the stadium expected. Corbin Carroll hit a home run that traveled an absurd distance and stayed in the stands. The Dodgers bullheads gave up four runs in what was supposed to be a quiet innings. That game changed the tone going into the regular season. Here is the thing people miss when they look at this rivalry through a casual lens. The Cactus League timeline is not just about spring training entertainment. These games function as early diagnostic tools. Managers use them to evaluate roster decisions. Front offices use them to gauge competitive readiness. The emotional charge between D-backs and Dodgers players carries into April and May because nobody resets their feelings when the exhibition schedule ends.
Limitations and Where This Approach Falls Short
Spring training records between these two teams are ultimately unreliable as predictors of regular season performance. The sample size is tiny. Rosters change constantly between February and March. Injuries surface and resolve in ways that do not reflect actual September health. I have seen teams go 4-0 in spring and then start the regular season 2-8. I have also seen teams lose eight straight exhibition games and then win the division. If you want to understand how the Diamondbacks and Dodgers will match up, the Cactus League timeline is a supplementary tool at best. It gives you flavor and early indicators, but it does not replace actual regular season data or advanced metrics. Don't treat a spring training result as anything more than a hint. Treat it like a hint and you will be fine. Treat it like prophecy and you will waste a lot of time chasing stories that do not hold up. The rivalry between these two organizations has grown from casual interleague curiosity into something with genuine bite. Whether that translates into October games remains to be seen. The timeline so far suggests it might. The evidence is there if you know where to look.
