The Los Angeles Dodgers have several avenues to improve their roster, and no team takes advantage of all of them quite like LA.
They have money to bring in expensive free agents, but they also like to bring in veterans on one-year “prove-it” deals, make trades, and develop and promote their own pitchers through the minors.
The only problem with low-risk, short-term deals is that when the player proves to be effective and enters the free agent market, he becomes harder to retain.
There are worse problems to have, though: it means that the the Dodgers did their job and gave these pitchers the tools to succeed, and they mostly did.
The Dodgers’ rotation has several pitchers hitting the market: Clayton Kershaw, Tyler Anderson, and Andrew Heaney.
The Dodgers Will Be Hunting For Pitching During The Whole Offseason
All of them were great in 2022, and while the Dodgers would like most of them to return, they may not be able to convince them all.
As a result, the organizational goal for the offseason is clear: get pitching.
A lot of it.
“How high up the agenda is for the #Dodgers to get starting pitching this winter? ‘Very,’ Andrew Friedman said,” Dodgers insider Juan Toribio tweeted.
How high up the agenda is for the #Dodgers to get starting pitching this winter?
"Very," Andrew Friedman said.
— Juan Toribio (@juanctoribio) November 9, 2022
Kershaw is perhaps the likeliest to return, but Anderson and Heaney are question marks.
The Dodgers do have Dustin May, Julio Urias, and Tony Gonsolin under contract, but they know they need significantly more than five starters to navigate the grueling MLB season.
They do have some good pitching prospects ready to be tried at the MLB level, but they do need more sure things, too.
It will be an interesting offseason in Los Angeles.
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