This story was excerpted from Juan Toribio’s Dodgers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
LOS ANGELES — Dodgers manager Dave Roberts sat in the home dugout at Dodger Stadium and fielded a handful of questions regarding the Aug. 1 Trade Deadline. Every single one of them was about the Dodgers’ lack of starting pitching this season.
It’s arguably the largest — and most obvious — hole this team has had in quite some time. Don’t believe it? Just ask Roberts.
“Given the experience and health of our starters,” Roberts said, “this is probably as forefront of mind — just the bucket of pitching in general — as we’ve been in my tenure here.”
Every starter in the Dodgers’ Opening Day rotation has landed on the injured list at least once this season. Some of their depth options have also gotten hurt or haven’t panned out.
Julio Urías will have another chance to show progress on Tuesday, something the Dodgers desperately need down the stretch. Noah Syndergaard was at Dodger Stadium on Monday, but that has been a failed experiment since he landed on the IL in June, and it’s very unlikely that he pitches again for Los Angeles this season.
But perhaps nobody is more important than Clayton Kershaw, who has now been sidelined for nearly a month with a left shoulder injury. Since Kershaw went down, the Dodgers’ starters have a combined 6.12 ERA. Given the delicacy of a shoulder injury, paired with the club’s secrecy on everything that surrounds Kershaw and his health, it’s unclear when we’ll see him back on the mound.
So how can the Dodgers fix this problem? President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman will have to weigh all the options in a market that doesn’t have a lot of sellers, but a ton of teams looking for starting-pitching help. Getting said help, whether it’s Lucas Giolito, Jordan Montgomery or Jack Flaherty, will come at some cost.
Of course, making aggressive moves is something Friedman hasn’t shied away from in the past. He did swing a blockbuster trade for Max Scherzer and Trea Turner just two Deadlines ago. When the Dodgers needed a big-time shortstop, he landed Manny Machado.
Now it’s time for him to pounce on starting-pitching depth, or it could catch up in the long run.
“I’d be surprised,” Roberts said when asked if his rotation will look the same following the Deadline.
