Dodgers Team News

Dodgers Starting Rotation Not Among Top 10 in Baseball, According to MLB

Heading into the 2023 season, MLB.com ranked the top 10 starting pitching staffs in all of baseball. While I don’t think anyone was expecting the Dodgers to be at the top, with the talent they had, it would have made sense for them to be somewhere in that top 10. However, they were left out of the top 10 completely, and just put as an “honorable mention” at the end of the article.

While I didn’t agree with this list heading into the season, now, six games in, I think it’s safe to say the disrespect was real.

Not including Michael Grove’s start, who was battling illness and 25 mph wind gusts, the first four Dodger starters — the guys who were expected to be in the Opening Day rotation — were flat out dominant to open the year.

Julio Urias, Dustin May, Clayton Kershaw and Noah Syndergaard each threw quality starts, combining to throw now 31 innings, and allowing just four earned runs while striking out 31 batters.

With those four guys, and a returning Tony Gonsolin — you know, someone who was a leading candidate for the NL Cy Young Award last year before he went down with an injury — the Dodgers could have one of the better rotations in all of baseball.

Urias has looked sharp, and he’s entering a contract year where he knows every good start could earn him a couple more million dollars.

May looked as healthy as ever, and will raise the ceiling of this rotation by a mile.

Kershaw is Kershaw, and he looked as good as ever in his beatdown of the Diamondbacks.

And the wild card, Syndergaard, looked really sharp in his first outing in LA, and proved that he could be his old, dominant self once again.

The Dodgers starting rotation — which was one of baseball’s best last year — has a chance to be a real strength for this team again in 2023. And with the inconsistencies in the lineup and bullpen to start the year, the Dodgers are probably going to need it.

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Noah Camras

Noah is an Editor for Dodgers Nation. He graduated from USC in 2022 with a B.A. in Journalism and minor in Sports Media Studies. He's been a Dodger fan his whole life, and his all-time favorite Dodgers are Matt Kemp and Russell Martin.

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