With the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline rapidly approaching, there’s speculation that the Los Angeles Dodgers may look to bolster their depleted starting rotation with a significant addition in the coming weeks.
The club is currently without the services of Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Dennis Santana, who have all landed on the disabled list with various injuries — some more serious than others.
The Dodgers recently saw the returns of Kenta Maeda and Hill, with the latter outperforming the former. Despite his struggles, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts maintained Maeda is not dealing with lingering effects of a hip strain.
Meanwhile, Kershaw may be inching closer to claiming his spot back in the starting rotation as well. The three-time Cy Young Award winner is due to join Triple-A Oklahoma City on Saturday for a rehab assignment.
With the Dodgers slated to receive multiple key reinforcements in the near future, presidnet of baseball operations Andrew Friedman doesn’t believe there’s a pressing need to acquire starting pitching at this time, per Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“It is (a need) for the next week or two. But, no, we expect to get all these guys back in June and July which is going to put us in really good position,” Friedman said. “The silver lining of some of the injuries is obviously Walker’s performance and Strip’s performance which gives us even more confidence about our rotation as we look ahead. We don’t need to (trade for starting pitching). Does that mean we won’t? I don’t know. But we don’t need to.”
As Friedman points out, the Dodgers could soon have another logjam in the starting rotation after each pitcher makes his respective return from the disabled list. When fully healthy, the Dodgers’ starting corps is arguably among the best in baseball.
But if Friedman changes course over the next six weeks, he has proven capable of swinging a blockbuster trade when deemed necessary. Over the past three seasons, Los Angeles has acquired the likes of Hill, Alex Wood and Yu Darvish to fortify its midseason rotation for the stretch run.
All but Wood were in the final year of their respective contracts. What might make a trade more difficult this season is the Dodgers’ desire to remain below the $197 million luxury tax threshold.
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