After Kershaw, Dodgers’ Rotation Remains Team’s Biggest Question
As you can see, a rotation once considered incredibly deep has taken hit after hit thanks to injury lack of development and, now with Greinke, free agency. So, how can the Dodgers right that ship?
The Dodgers have already been tied to every single pitcher on the market. Zack Greinke, David Price, Jordan Zimmerman, Johnny Cueto, other free agent pitchers, and possible trade targets will all be explored and considered during the winter.
While the Dodgers have depth, and that is surely important, they will need to make sure they assemble as dominant a rotation as possible to set themselves up for a World Series run. During the regular season, depth is much needed in order to be successful. When pitchers get injured or need a day off, it is extremely important to have viable options to fill in for them.
However, when the postseason comes, you can throw depth in the trash. Starting rotations in October thrive off of quality starters keeping you in the game, then handing the ball to the bullpen to finish up the job. And while the Dodgers bullpen is a completely different conversation, the lack of dominant arms behind Kershaw and Greinke was certainly made more apparent after the Dodgers were again bounced in the NLDS.
The Dodgers have a lot of pitchers they can theoretically choose from to be in their starting rotation on Opening Day. The front office is going to look at everything possible to ensure the Dodgers rotation will be set up to be more balanced and more talented than it was in 2016.
They’ll have their work cut out for them.
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