Dodgers Rumors: Dodgers Interested In Matt Garza, Ricky Nolasco
With all the injuries the Dodgers have dealt with this season, the injury to Chad Billingsley has been mostly forgotten since he’s out for the season.
Billingsley was slated to be one of the most important pieces of the Dodgers rotation as he brought stability and innings to a rotation that had several candidates for the fifth spot in the rotation.
However, Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com reported the Dodgers are interested in two starting pitchers:
“Four of the five teams in the West — the Giants, Dodgers, Padres and Rockies — have expressed interest in Nolasco, according to major-league sources. The Padres and Dodgers also are among the teams pursuing Cubs right-hander Matt Garza, sources say.”
It looks like the entire NL West is interested in adding pitching as the Marlins are reportedly aggressively pursuing a trade for Nolasco and Garza will be a free agent at season’s end.
Nolasco is 4-7 with a 3.68 ERA and wouldn’t fetch a steep price since he’d be a rental player while Garza is the better of the two starters as he’s 2-1 with a 4.25 ERA.
While money is an issue for the rest of the NL West in acquiring Garza, the Dodgers owners have made it clear that they are willing to spend.
Most of the rumors so far have surrounded the Dodgers trading Andre Ethier, but trading for Nolasco or Garza would help stabilize the rotation after Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu.
Garza could be a candidate to be re-signed as he’s from California, but it’ll be interesting to see if another team like the Orioles would join the race for him.
Regardless, it sounds like the Dodgers are looking to trade for starting pitching and it’d make more sense if they can get back into the NL West race.
Update at 1:50 PT from Hank Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle:
Hearing Dodgers are on blitzkrieg to get Nolasco. Makes sense. They can absorb $$$, keep him away from #sfgiants, #padres. Could be soon.
— Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) June 25, 2013
3 Comments