Starting pitching was expected to be a major strength for the Los Angeles Dodgers last season, and it turned out to be the case even if it took until the end of the season to see the group at full strength.
This year’s group has the chance to be even better, with the added depth of River Ryan and, hopefully, Gavin Stone returning from injury to raise the floor even higher. Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group that he believes it’s the most gifted group this current regime has ever had.
Add in a bullpen that just acquired Edwin Díaz and a group of guys looking to rebound from last season, from injury, performance or both, and it’s easy to understand why Friedman has such a high opinion:
“I think we are breaking camp with the most talented group of pitchers one through 20 that we have ever had,” Friedman said. “Obviously, last September-October we got real exposure to how talented our starting staff was and how they kind of keyed off one another. We’re looking forward to them going out and being a huge part of our success this year.”
This team won back-to-back World Series championships with two very different styles of play. A high-powered offense and a shutdown bullpen carried the Dodgers in the 2024 postseason. Their offense in 2025 was hit or miss, and their bullpen was the stuff of nightmares, not in a good way, so they had to rely on their elite starting pitching to carry them as long as possible.
In 2026, the hope is that both halves of the pitching staff can come together to make life a lot easier.
The thing that stands out the most is how much talent the Dodgers have in the rotation. Not only is the rotation overflowing with talent that has been moved to the bullpen to make the roster, but guys like Emmet Sheehan, Justin Wrobleski, and River Ryan could all start postseason games if the Dodgers really needed them to.
It’s a far cry from the position the Dodgers were in just a few years ago, where they were scrambling to find adequate starters to fill vacancies left by injury.
The Dodgers open the season with a rotation consisting of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani, Roki Sasaki and Sheehan. That can change and probably will over the course of the season when Blake Snell and Gavin Stone are healthy again, in addition to the potential for other injuries.
Dodgers placed seven players on IL to start the season
The Los Angeles Dodgers placed Tommy Edman, Snell, Stone, Brusdar Graterol, Brock Stewart, Landon Knack and Bobby Miller on the injured list ahead of 2026 Opening Day.
With six of those being pitchers, the Dodgers should have even more pitching depth and talent added to their group later in the season.
All seven are retroactive to March 22, but there is a wide array of timelines.
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