The Los Angeles Dodgers might have the most starting pitching talent in all of baseball, but one problem is most of it will either be unavailable or returning from injury when the 2025 regular season begins.
Which makes shoring up the rotation the Dodgers’ highest priority this offseason, and luckily enough it happens to be the strength of the free agency class. That already was the case before it was confirmed Japanese sensation Roki Sasaki was going to be posted for 2025.
There are a plethora of starting options available and with good variety as well in the form of top-shelf options and plenty of solid middle-of-the-rotation candidates.
It appears the Dodgers will be extremely aggressive in acquiring at least one top starting pitcher, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN:
And don’t forget the Dodgers, who are targeting at least one high-end starter.
Corbin Burnes is inarguably the best starter available with three consecutive seasons of over 190 innings thrown with a 3.08 ERA and 624 strikeouts in that span. But with that pedigree comes the heftiest price tag of any starting pitcher in the class.
There is also a two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, who had a strong campaign with the San Francisco Giants after a prolonged free agency cycle caused him to have a sluggish beginning of the season.
Then there is Max Fried, who arguably represents a happy medium between the two aforementioned options. Fried won’t cost as much as Burnes and has been much more consistent over his career compared to Snell.
Starting pitching is need for Dodgers
While it is still too soon to tell which direction the Dodgers take in terms of adding starting pitching, they appear all but assured to make a move on that front.
Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes admitted starting pitching is one of the team’s top priority this winter.
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