Dodgers conferences: Urgency for pitching, Clayton Kershaw replace

Blake Snell might be a possible goal for the Dodgers as they attempt to improve their beginning pitching.

(Jeff Chiu / Related Press)

The Dodgers have wanted beginning pitching in previous offseasons.

Nonetheless, in Andrew Friedman’s tenure as president of baseball operations, they’ve by no means entered a winter coming off the type of rotation struggles they endured this previous yr.

After main the majors in rotation ERA every of the earlier 4 years (and rating top-five within the 4 seasons earlier than that), the Dodgers slipped to twentieth in that class with a 4.57 ERA within the common season, then watched their beginning pitching implode in a three-game sweep in opposition to the Arizona Diamondbacks within the playoffs.

Due to that regression, Friedman acknowledged that the membership must be extra aggressive in its pitching pursuits this winter — signaling a possible shift in technique after the Dodgers settled for lower-cost alternate options Tyler Anderson, Andrew Heaney and Noah Syndergaard the previous couple offseasons.

“It’s cheap to say that [our aggression level in the pitching market] can be greater than what it has been after we come off years of prime manufacturing,” Friedman mentioned.

Normal supervisor Brandon Gomes echoed that sentiment.

“Proper now, [we’re focused on] including a beginning pitcher or two,” he mentioned, “and ensuring that we’re hanging the steadiness of depth and conserving a high-end prime tier of pitchers.”

There needs to be loads of targets to pursue.

Blake Snell, Aaron Nola, Jordan Montgomery, Sonny Grey and Japanese star Yoshinobu Yamamoto will headline the free company class. Corbin Burnes, Tyler Glasnow and Dylan Stop are all established aces who may doubtlessly be traded by their present groups.

Any of them would instantly improve a Dodgers rotation at present anticipated to incorporate Walker Buehler (in his return from a second Tommy John surgical procedure), Bobby Miller (who can be getting into his first full-length MLB season) and a pair different youthful arms resembling Ryan Pepiot, Emmet Sheehan or Gavin Stone.

Such an addition would additionally signify the Dodgers’ largest offseason pitching acquisition since their notorious signing of Trevor Bauer three years in the past.

In fact, a transfer of that caliber wouldn’t come cheaply (Snell and Yamamoto may command greater than $200 million, whereas any commerce would require vital prospect capital in return). Lately, the Dodgers have usually bypassed pitchers requiring such lofty costs.

Then once more, the workforce hasn’t encountered rotation woes as pronounced as this previous yr both, seemingly leaving them no selection however to be extra aggressive within the pitching market this winter.