The Los Angeles Dodgers have once again found themselves searching for starting pitchers, even after making significant investments into the position group during the offseason.
To help address that, one idea the club had was to stretch out Ben Casparius and move him from the bullpen into the rotation. The right-hander has been a starter in the Minor Leagues, but has worked out of the Dodgers bullpen for the majority of his young career.
The Dodgers instead decided to go with Landon Knack to fill their final rotation spot, leaving Casparius in the bullpen. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he wants to continue using Casparius in a hybrid role as someone who can pitch either one inning or multiple innings.
“I think ideally, two to three innings is something we see of value from Ben,” Roberts explained.
The Dodgers view the multi-inning relief role as one that’s harder to fill than their final starter spot. The club has multiple options who could fill the rotation with Knack, Justin Wrobleski, Matt Sauer and Bobby Miller, but not anyone else they fully trust to be a hybrid reliever of sorts.
“Very difficult,” Roberts said of the role Casparius is filling. “Certainly, you’ve got to be talented, you have to be adaptable, and you have to be ready when called upon.
“Ben has done a fantastic job. I think given the struggles with the starters for the first six weeks of the season, guys like Ben have been invaluable. Even what Jack Dreyer has done for us as well with the multiple innings. It’s hard to use four relievers every night.”
The Dodgers are also in a difficult position with their bullpen at the moment. Evan Phillips, Blake Treinen, Kirby Yates, Michael Kopech and Brusdar Graterol are all on the injured list, leaving the Dodgers without a right-handed high-leverage relievers in their bullpen.
Ben Casparius helping solve Dodgers bullpen issue?
The group of right-handers in their bullpen currently consists of Casparius, Sauer, Luis García and Lou Trivino, which will cause problems for Roberts in the late innings. Casparius is the only one who could conceivably pitch in leverage and provide quality production, but that would require him to be removed from the hybrid role.
“That’s going to be interesting,” Roberts said when asked how he’s going to utilize his bullpen in spots where they need a high-leverage right-hander. “Ben’s kind of been a guy that pitches two, three innings, and so there’s certain games that he’s offline.
“We got Trivino here, he threw two innings [Sunday]. He’s a guy that really handles right well throughout his career, but he’s going to be down for a couple days, giving us two innings. We just have to piece it together. It’s a good question, though.”
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