When the Dodgers were in the middle of spending a billion dollars to acquire players last winter, they couldn’t have expected to have this many holes to fill in July.
But they will open the second half of the season on Friday with a two-man starting rotation, a four-man lineup and a bullpen that staggered into the break running on fumes.
“Every season takes on its own life form,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “But near the end of winter, heading into spring training, we thought we were as well-positioned as we could be to be able to withstand injuries and not have to rely on the market in July. Right or wrong, we did not plan for the cluster of injuries that we’ve had.
“On one hand, that’s been tough. On the other, from a big-picture standpoint, our guys have played well with all the guys that have missed significant time. And so it’s really assessing when guys are going to return, what we can expect then how to augment on the trade market over the next two weeks.”
The starting rotation has been the hardest hit by injuries with Tyler Glasnow (back), Yoshinobu Yamamoto (rotator cuff), Walker Buehler (hip) and Clayton Kershaw (shoulder surgery) all on the injured list and Bobby Miller optioned to Triple-A after posting an 8.07 ERA in seven starts wrapped around a two-month stay on the IL with his own shoulder issue.
At the break, the Dodgers’ rotation consisted of three rookies (Gavin Stone, Landon Knack and Justin Wrobleski) and diminished veteran James Paxton. The Dodgers were so starved for starting pitching they promoted rookie Wrobleski for two starts before the break and will add Triple-A right-hander River Ryan after the break. Combined, the two have 26⅔ innings of experience at the Triple-A level.
In 25 games since Yamamoto’s last start, Dodgers starting pitchers have a 5.69 ERA. And it has only gotten worse. In the final 15 games before the All-Star break, the starters’ ERA was 8.22.
“No, absolutely not,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said when asked if he ever thought the team would be in this position with starting pitching after all of the winter expenditures. “I remember thinking at one point, you know, we’re 8-9 deep of legitimate major-league starters, and we’re not right now.”
They will be again soon, Friedman believes.
“We’re confident that Glas, Yamamoto, Kersh, Buehler and Bobby will be back,” Friedman said.
But that doesn’t mean the Dodgers aren’t interested in adding starting pitching. It’s just that those interests are focused on the top of the trade market – a familiar refrain from trade seasons past.
“For us, I don’t think our mentality is different than it’s been in previous years in that we feel we have a really good team and to the extent that we can add really good players we’re going to be aggressive to do so,” Friedman said. “What appears to be a marginal upgrade is not something we’re going to spend a lot of time on. That doesn’t mean something is not going to happen along those lines but that’s not where our energy and focus will be.”
The same mentality applies to an everyday lineup that shortened up considerably with injuries to shortstop Mookie Betts (fractured hand) and third baseman Max Muncy (strained oblique). Friedman pointed out the “back side of the lineup” has improved over the past six weeks and didn’t indicate any urgency to target improvements at positions like second base or the outfield.
The view in the trenches might be a little different. The Dodgers have been a .500 team (12-12) since Betts’ injury and Roberts said the lack of contributions from the bottom half of the lineup has been startling. He called it “essential” that that changes in the second half.
“We all knew it was going to be top-heavy,” he said of the Dodgers’ lineup, led by former league MVPs Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman. “But the delta between the top and the bottom – I don’t think anyone expected that. If you look at the baseball cards of those guys, it’s not this. I didn’t expect it to be this stark.”
For all of his attempts to underplay the Dodgers’ needs, Friedman and General Manager Brandon Gomes are undoubtedly stalking potential additions like starters Garrett Crochet (Chicago White Sox), Erick Fedde (White Sox), Chris Bassitt (Toronto) and Jack Flaherty (Detroit), relievers Mason Miller (Oakland) and Tanner Scott (Miami) and outfielders Randy Arozarena (Tampa Bay) and Tommy Pham (White Sox) as the July 30 trade deadline approaches.
But the most important additions in the second half still figure to be that long list of currently injured players – Betts, Muncy, Glasnow, Yamamoto, Buehler, Joe Kelly, Ryan Brasier, Brusdar Graterol, Jason Heyward and Michael Grove.
“I think each guy is a little bit unique. But there are also so many of them,” Friedman said. “There’s nine pitchers alone that we expect to return. … Each guy is obviously a little different but each day we gain more information and we have to balance that with the fact that July 30 is really the last time to make a move for an external player.”
