For much of the season, the Los Angeles Dodgers starting rotation has been depleted by injuries, forcing young pitchers like Walker Buehler, Ross Stripling, Dennis Santana and Caleb Ferguson into roles that they weren’t expected to be in this early in the season, or perhaps even in 2018 at all.
The team’s usual crop of starters are finally getting healthy though, with Kenta Maeda, Rich Hill and Clayton Kershaw all recently returning from the disabled list. Buehler, who has missed the last few weeks due to a microfracture in his ribs, is the next in line to return.
Buehler threw a second bullpen session on Tuesday afternoon as he continues to go through the rehab process. Barring any other injuries, once Buehler returns the Dodgers will have six capable starters.
Thus, manager Dave Roberts may have a bit of a decision to make. It appears instead of sending someone to the bullpen though, the team could utilize a different strategy, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
Roberts also said the club is considering using six starters for a brief period when Buehler returns to give the other five an extra day of rest.
Considering how the first half of the season has gone in regards to injuries in the starting rotation, the Dodgers having enough healthy bodies to use a six-man rotation would be a bit ironic.
It has plenty of advantages though as it would help keep starters who typically don’t throw 200 innings in a season like Alex Wood, Hill and Maeda, fresh for a potential pennant race down the stretch.
Additionally, the plan for this season was to limit Buehler’s innings in just his second year coming off Tommy John surgery, so a six-man rotation would also do help with that. Moreover, the Dodgers are in the midst of playing 23 games in 24 days before the All-Star break.
It will be interesting to see if the team still pitches Kershaw every fifth day though, as he historically has liked to remain on a standard routine. But with Kershaw dealing with a recent string of back injuries, he conceivably could benefit from extra rest between starts.
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