As the Los Angeles Dodgers are preparing to host the New York Mets or San Diego Padres in the National League Division Series, they still have a few questions left to answer on their postseason roster.
For the position players, Hanser Alberto and Miguel Vargas are likely competing for the final bench spot, while the pitching side may be dependent on health.
Blake Treinen and Dustin May are still trying to return from their respective injuries, and overall, the Dodgers have 16 pitchers for 13 spots. Regardless of which 13 pitchers the Dodgers end up putting on their roster, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman is confident in the staff.
“I think this arguably will be our deepest 13-man pitching staff, and that’s with missing a few guys,” Friedman said.
“Daniel Hudson obviously would be incredibly helpful. We’ll see where Blake Treinen is, we’ll see where Dustin is, but I think we’re going to have a really deep 13-man pitching staff that can match up in different ways and we’ll be really good at preventing runs.”
Of their starting pitchers, Clayton Kershaw, Julio Urías, Tyler Anderson, Tony Gonsolin and Andrew Heaney are locks to make the staff, although Heaney is likely to end up in the bullpen for at least the opening series when only four starters are needed.
In the bullpen, Evan Phillips, Tommy Kahnle, Chris Martin, Yency Almonte and Alex Vesia are the locks, which leaves three spots for Treinen, May, Brusdar Graterol, Caleb Ferguson, Craig Kimbrel and David Price.
Whether or not Kimbrel will be on the Dodgers’ postseason roster will likely depend on the health of the other pitchers and the overall bullpen composition.
“I don’t know,” Friedman said when asked if Kimbrel will be on the Dodgers postseason roster for the NLDS.
“We’re still meeting and talking through the composition of our position-player group, of our pitching staff. I think as we learn more from some of our players in terms of health and where they’re at, I think we’ll have a lot more information to be able to figure out exactly what we’re going to do.”
Andrew Friedman believes postseason schedule will benefit Dodgers
The NLDS schedule doesn’t have an off day between Games 4 and 5 and the NL Championship Series has five consecutive games.
That would be a challenge for many teams to manage, but Friedman believes it will be a benefit to the Dodgers. “I think that’s where our depth will serve us,” he said.
“I think having a really deep 13-man pitching staff is going to help. Have different looks and able to kind of mix will help keep guys fresh and keep us in good position to prevent runs.”
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