In the wake of losing Zack Greinke to the Arizona Diamondbacks, and not signing other free-agent pitchers they were linked to, the Los Angeles Dodgers reportedly agreed to a one-year contract with Chase Utley on Sunday.
In some cases — Greinke, Jeff Samardzija and Ryan Madson it’s certainly plausible the Dodgers bowed out of bidding as the price continued to rise.
The Dodgers now head into Major League Baseball’s Winter Meetings still in need of starting pitching and bullpen help.
Although the free-agent market of starting pitchers no longer boasts the marquee names of Greinke, David Price or Jordan Zimmermann, a bevy of second-tier options remain available.
Among them is Yovani Gallardo and the right-hander is someone the Dodgers may view as an option, according to Chris Cotillo of SB Nation:
Source: Gallardo may be fallback option for Dodgers, who are expected to meet with his reps in Nashville.
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) December 6, 2015
Naturally, the Dodgers are also expected to be in contact with Johnny Cueto, Mike Leake and a slew of others:
Dodgers are going to at least talk to all of the best remaining SPs. Among them: Cueto, Iwakuma, Gallardo, Kazmir, others.
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) December 6, 2015
Los Angeles was said to be pushing to sign the 34-year-old Hisashi Iwakuma on Saturday, though the Seattle Mariners appear to have a strong interest in re-signing the right-hander.
Gallardo went 13-11 with a 3.42 ERA, 4.00 FIP and 1.42 WHIP over 33 starts with the Texas Rangers last season, which was his first with the club. He had 121 strikeouts to 68 walks in 184.1 innings.
Prior to joining the Rangers, Gallardo spent the previous eight seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers. He was named to the National League All-Star team in 2010. The Dodgers reportedly had interest in Gallardo even after trading for Mat Latos and Alex Wood.
Like with Iwakuma, signing Gallardo would require Los Angeles to forfeit their first-round pick in the 2016 MLB Draft as they both declined the qualifying offer from their respective 2015 team.
