The Los Angeles Dodgers pitching staff was an area of concern at several points this season because of injuries, but the group has gotten much healthier over the last few weeks and now can be considered a strength as the team approaches the stretch run of their schedule.
The Dodgers recently saw the returns of Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell, while Shohei Ohtani continues to build up his workload as a starting pitcher.
With the Dodgers rotation nearly at full health, the team felt confident enough to trade Dustin May to the Boston Red Sox at the deadline so he can get more immediate opportunities to start.
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman believes the team can have the most talented pitching staff in the postseason, via “Dodger Talk” with David Vassegh:
“For us, going into the trade deadline, we felt not only is our pitching in a place where we felt comfortable moving a pitcher the caliber of Dustin May, but we feel there’s a real chance we go into October with the best 13-man pitching staff we’ve ever had. So we feel really good about that.”
The Dodgers are currently going with a six-man rotation of Glasnow, Snell, Ohtani, Clayton Kershaw, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Emmet Sheehan, though the latter could ultimately be moved to the bullpen.
Assuming those six are included on the Dodgers’ postseason roster, that would leave seven spots for some combination of Justin Wrobleski, Jack Dreyer, Alexis Díaz, Anthony Banda, Brock Stewart, Blake Treinen, Ben Casparius and Alex Vesia.
Of course, the Dodgers are still hoping that Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, Michael Kopech and Brusdar Graterol will all be able to return before the end of the regular season.
L.A. could also get back Roki Sasaki, but it’s unclear what his role would be.
Andrew Friedman confident in Dodgers’ offense
During the same interview, Friedman discussed the Dodgers’ recent offensive struggles and believes things will turn around for the better.
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