Dodgers’ core likely to return in 2015 despite another October failure

LOS ANGELES — Money can’t buy happiness — or a trip to the World Series.

The Los Angeles Dodgers spent approximately $475 million in player salaries over the past two seasons, but they bowed out in the National League Championship Series last year and even more quickly this fall, losing to the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Division Series.

The fall failure will cause cynics to chuckle over Los Angeles’ lavish spending. The Dodgers haven’t been to the World Series in 26 years. For most of the 2014 season, they acknowledged that anything short of that would be a failure.

“We were built to win the World Series, not make the playoffs,” left-hander Clayton Kershaw said in the jubilant locker room after the Dodgers clinched their second consecutive NL West title.

The mood was much darker after the early playoff exit.

“We know the type of team we are. And we came up short,” first baseman Adrian Gonzalez said. “That is how I’m going to remember the season.”

Ownership made it clear that the $240 million payrolls will not continue forever. The long-range plan is to build from within, and the Dodgers would like to get younger next year.

The problem is all those big contracts leave little flexibility. The same core group likely will return for another run in 2015 — and the Dodgers will be considered championship contenders once again. Gonzalez led the majors in RBIs. Kershaw is likely to win both the NL Cy Young Award and Most Valuable Player. Outfielder Matt Kemp was reborn in the second half of the season after two years of surgical repairs to his shoulder and ankle.

The changes will have to come on the periphery. The bullpen needs to be rebuilt (a difficult task with contract commitments to veterans Brian Wilson, Brandon League and J.P. Howell), the back of the rotation restocked and room found for top prospect Joc Pederson in the outfield.

“You don’t know how many chances you’re going to get to do this,” red-eyed catcher A.J. Ellis said in the locker room after another gut-wrenching elimination loss in St. Louis. “You don’t know how many times you’re going to be in this situation. There’s no guarantees in life. There’s no guarantees in baseball, for sure. We know how difficult it was, how draining it was to get here again. We can’t take it for granted that we’ll get here again.

“We’ve just go to let it motivate us, fuel us. Next year, start out with the same goals to win the division again and roll the dice when we get to the playoffs.”