Since Andrew Friedman took over as president of baseball operations of the Los Angeles Dodgers after the 2014 season, a significant portion of the money the front office has spent has been on starting pitching.
Dating back to December 2014, the Dodgers have signed Brett Anderson, Brandon Beachy, Scott Kazmir, Kenta Maeda and Brandon McCarthy, among others.
While the jury is still out on Kazmir and Maeda, the only successful signing thus far has been Anderson.
McCarthy made just four starts last season before undergoing Tommy John surgery, while Beachy, who debuted in July after recovering from a second Tommy John operation, struggled in his two starts with the Dodgers.
Nonetheless, Friedman and the Dodgers continue to take risks on pitchers with a checkered medical history. Anderson accepted the club’s qualifying offer, Beachy re-signed a one-year deal, and the Dodgers moved forward with signing Maeda in spite of “irregularities” cropping up in a physical.
“I think [signing pitchers with high injury risk] gets back to we don’t have any hard-and-fast rules. To the extent we acquire a pitcher or sign a pitcher who has zero injury risk, great,” Friedman said recently.
“To the extent we have someone who has a little bit of injury risk, that’s fine as long as it’s factored in and accounted for and as long as we don’t treat it as if it’s not going to happen.”
Whether the Dodgers add a pitcher with a clean medical history or one coming off surgery, Friedman added having depth needs to remain a focal point. “I think you always have to be of the mind to have pitching depth. Injuries happen, things happen over the course of a season,” he said.
“We feel like we’re in a much better position this year in terms of our depth than we were last year. A large part of that is our group of young arms that will now be in Triple-A.”
Should the Dodgers manage to get through a season without significant injury to any of their starters, the rotation will allow for the club to get creative in moving a starter to the bullpen.
