Dodgers: Andrew Friedman Speaks On State of The Bullpen Nearing The Deadline
Once before in June, Dodgers’ president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman spoke on the Los Angeles bullpen. Now, we are just over a week from baseball’s trade deadline.
Furthermore, Friedman is speaking again on the same tepid subject. This time, he talks to Bill Plunkett of the OC Register about the muddled trade market for relief pitching.
The makings of #Dodgers October bullpen is already on the roster (Jansen, Kelly, Baez, Maeda, Urias). Supplementing that group before next week’s deadline is the challenge https://t.co/yiQPS5p0T9
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) July 22, 2019
Without question, baseball’s parity has created a problem for teams like the Dodgers who need to find capable relief help.
This is the strangest market that I can remember. Just with the number of teams seemingly in it, within five games of a playoff spot. I’ve had way more conversations with teams that are more on the fence and haven’t decided if they’re going to be on the buy side or the sell side.
For those that want to see the Dodgers make a move – this likely means dealing a top prospect. While many in Dodgers circles feel a reluctance, a look at the recent past shows the organization is willing to do this in the right situation. Friedman has no problem referencing this notion.
I would argue we’ve traded more prospects than any team in baseball the past four years. And while we’d love to have a completely flawless team where we didn’t feel like we needed to engage with the other teams, that’s not the case – and I guess it probably never will be where you just don’t feel you couldn’t do something to make yourself better in July. But there are certainly players that we feel like adding them will help us in our pursuit of winning a world championship and that’s what we’re working towards.
Plunkett goes on to chat about the current bullpen stablemates – and the likely ones to make the postseason roster. Indeed, Kenley Jansen, Pedro Baez, Joe Kelly, Julio Urias, and Kenta Maeda are likely to be in uniform in October. However, a few open spots remain; and how Friedman goes about filling those spots in the next several days could very well define a legacy.
LIsten to the Brooklyn Dodgers on the Radio in the 50’s when Duke Snyder, Pee Wee Reese, Sandy Koufax, Roy Campenella, Gil Hodges were all star players and have continued as a loyal fan , why you ask. Because the Dodgers are a consistent baseball team, you never have to wait until next year, Icannot ever remember a year that they ever finished below .500. I even have the nick name ” Tommy LaSorda”. The Dodgers do what they have to do, and because they can take high school talent and make ball players out of them, they are able to trade good players for a player to fill any position that would benefit the team , so let them build up the bull pen to win the 2019 World Series, to be remembered as the greatest team to ever play baseball.
They’ll be the greatest team to ever go to waste and it’ll be because of the bullpen and Roberts pulling a starter too early because of matchups
NODH – sadly, you are correct – look at the number of blown saves and bullpen losses this year. Can anyone convince Freidman?
How many catchers do we really need in our farm system? With both Ruiz and Smith now in OKC, it appears Freidman is getting ready to pull the trigger on something. Lets see how well May does tonight in OKC. If he does not impress, I’d like to see us go for another starting pitcher along with 2 relievers. I wouldn’t bet the house on Hill being OK in October, and Stripling is too inconsistent. Gonsolin is currently going in the wrong direction and White has been even more of a dissapointment. I’ve got my bet on May as a keeper and the others as trade bait. As much as I like Keke, he just doesn’t hit for a high enough average, so I’d like to see Keke as trade bait along with Joc and Lux brought up to play 2nd base, or move Corey to 2nd.
Well whoever is brought up to the 25 man roster will mean a couple players or so will have to be moved off to make room Trades could in a way assist in that but wss.