The Los Angeles Dodgers faced severe crises with starter injuries towards the end of last year. They had to rely on bullpen games to get them over the line during the postseason.
This offseason, they tried to correct it by signing Blake Snell before getting Roki Sasaki at a bargain through the international bonus pool. They will have a returning Shohei Ohtani pairing up with the last of their offseason signings Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow to round out the rotation.
As per insider Todd Zolecki in a conversation with The Phillies Show, the new signings and players coming back still do not make the Dodgers the overall best rotation. He feels the Phillies with Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suarez, Cristopher Sanchez and Jesus Luzardo are an even match if it comes to choosing the best rotation in all of baseball.
Zolecki understands that the Dodgers starters are all injury-prone and the Phillies will have a chance in the playoffs against the star-studded Dodgers roster.
"If you had to put money on which rotation is going to hold up the best, you’d probably give the edge towards the Phillies with Wheeler and Nola at the top. I know Ranger’s had a lot of injuries over the years, but Sanchez has been pretty durable the last couple of years. Lazardo's coming off an injury," he said.
"But Snell gets banged up, Glassnow’s always hurt, Yamamoto was hurt last year, and Ohtani is coming off Tommy John. You assume he's going to be healthy and pitch well, but yeah, 1, 1-A, however you want to slice it. I don’t think it’s doom and gloom for Phillies fans. Once you get to the postseason, anything can happen," Zolecki said. [12:25]
Mark Feinsand has question marks over Dodgers bringing back Clayton Kershaw
Apart from the big guns, the Dodgers also have backups with Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and Landon Knack. As per insider Mark Feinsand, there might not be enough room left for veteran Clayton Kershaw who refused a player option in his contract for $10 million.
"We have all assumed that Kershaw would be back with the Dodgers at some point, but given the glut of starting pitching on the roster, is there even room for him?" Feinsand wrote (via MLB.com).
Kershaw has had a rough few years dealing with injury. The 10x All-Star pitcher has been one of the faces of the Dodgers organization. In the last fifteen years, he has had a 212-94 win-loss career with a 2.50 ERA and is nearing 3,000 strikeouts.