The Los Angeles Dodgers went into free agency needing to address their starting rotation, bullpen and second base.
Zack Greinke signing with the Arizona Diamondbacks placed more of an importance on the Dodgers to acquiring starting pitching.
As other clubs were active, Los Angeles didn’t get much accomplished at the Winter Meetings this week.
They did attempt to trade for Cincinnati Reds closer Aroldis Chapman, only for the deal to come undone due to an alleged domestic violence incident that’s led to a Major League Baseball investigation.
The lone bit of official news was Chase Utley re-signing on a one-year deal. While many expect the Dodgers to focus on signing or trading for a starting pitcher, team president of baseball operations isn’t necessarily locked in on doing so.
According to Ken Gurnick of MLB.com, Friedman is mindful of improving the Dodgers’ roster in any capacity:
“There are certain scenarios in which we would be much stronger in one area than another, others where we’d be more balanced across. For us it’s about adding as many good to impact players as we can. If you narrow it down to any one area, it makes things more difficult. So we take a more open approach, it can be in different areas as long as it’s improving either scoring runs or preventing runs.”
While Friedman downplayed the notion of focusing on one area of need, the Dodgers are undeniably working to land a pitcher to slot behind Clayton Kershaw, with Johnny Cueto now appearing to be the top target.
Although the club has yet to make the signing official, Hisashi Iwakuma is expected to be in the fold on a three-year, $45 million contract.
One marquee free agent reportedly came off the board Friday morning with Jason Heyward reportedly agreeing to an eight-year, $184 million contract with the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs previously signed Ben Zobrist to a four-year deal.
Yoenis Cespedes and Justin Upton are among the free agents still available, though the Dodgers would first need to trade from their surplus of outfielders before adding another to their roster.
