The Los Angeles Dodgers went into the offseason with a clear need for starting pitching that hadn’t been addressed until this past weekend through a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays to acquire Tyler Glasnow in addition to Manuel Margot.
However, the Dodgers traded Ryan Pepiot and Jonny DeLuca to the Rays, which still leaves them with the same number of starting pitchers on their depth chart as there was at the beginning of the offseason.
“It was a one for one swap, so we’re still looking to add talent and continuing to examine all avenues on the starting pitching front,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said during a media availability on Zoom.
“Ultimately, it’s just about continuing to add as much pitching talent and depth as we possibly can. So we’ll see how the coming months, weeks, play out.”
Glasnow raises the ceiling of the Dodgers starting rotation more than Pepiot did, but fact of the matter remains the team still needs at least two more pitchers. One of those could potentially end up being Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who reportedly is the Dodgers’ top target in free agency now that Shohei Ohtani was signed.
Other starters the Dodgers have been linked to this offseason include Corbin Burnes, Dylan Cease and Lucas Giolito. A probable outcome for the team could be signing Yamamoto to lead their rotation and Giolito being added as well to provide depth.
Meanwhile, a secondary focus for the Dodgers has been the corner outfield positions, particularly with the plan to have Mookie Betts become an everyday second baseman. Jason Heyward was re-signed and even with trading for Margot, the Dodgers still could benefit from adding another outfielder but may be open to a position player in general.
“As far as Manny, I think the beauty of that is he can play any (outfield) position and handles both sides pretty well as far as versus left and right,” Gomes explained.
“He can go up there and put together a high-quality at-bat versus right-handed pitching, so it allows us flexibility to see what else is available and not having to box ourselves in one way or the other. Just kind of let the offseason play out and be opportunistic.”
Dodgers not interested in Blake Snell
The Dodgers were among the teams connected to Blake Snell early into free agency but reportedly no longer are considering potentially signing the left-handed starter.
Although Snell is coming off a second career Cy Young Award season, his market has paled in comparison to Yamamoto’s thus far.
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