Dodgers Trade Targets, Starting Pitcher Department
Forget the bullpen. Deal for starters.
I almost don’t know where to begin. Almost.
The Dodgers followed up a 4-1 homestand against the Angels and Astros with a 3-3 week at Colorado and Kansas City against two of the worst teams in baseball. Sunday’s 9-1 defeat was a cornucopia of bad baseball, from Tony Gonsolin’s frustrating start to the serial fumbling of grounders to an anemic one-run-on-a-sac-fly attack opposite a guy with a 5.88 earned run average coming in.
In evidence were the continued position players struggles, on both sides of the ball, from girth-challenged Max Muncy (.189 in 2023, .196 in ‘22) and Miguel Vargas (.128 in the last four weeks) to the simply awful showing by Victor Gonzalez (20.25 ERA, .462 opponents batting average in the last week), who for the life of me, I cannot imagine what management sees in him.
Los Angeles has issues. Many issues. Issues fielding a lineup of major leaguers, issues hitting left-handers, lefty starters in particular, and an almost incomprehensible issue defending the stolen base. There are only two explanations for that last one and I’ll fight any man who argues otherwise: either Dave Roberts has chosen not to work on the key fundamental during the season — drill baby drill! — or he simply does not know how to fix the problem. It doesn’t matter which. It’s unprofessional and completely unacceptable.
But of all the issues facing the Dodgers today, and that’s a mere sampling above, the most pressing is the need for a fully functioning starting rotation.
I do not believe we will see Dustin May again this season, and it’s fair to worry about his 2024 season. The notion of Walker Buehler returning in September is folly. God knows what the organization has done with Ryan Pepiot, but it doesn’t take four months to recover from an oblique strain. Clayton Kershaw has shoulder inflammation. With any luck we’ll see him after the All-Star break, but don’t hold your breath. Because you’ll die. Gonsolin has allowed 15 earned runs in the 14 1/2 innings of his last three starts, good for a 9.42 ERA. Or bad for. Julio Urias, coming off a hamstring and who knows what else boasts a miserable 4.94 ERA. The career mark prior to the 2023 campaign? 2.82.
That leaves the inspiring Emmet Sheehan and possible-ace-in-the-making Bobby Miller. But the last I looked, sports fans, no team has gone far with a two-man rotation. In Little League maybe.
There is a solution, however. Deal baby deal! Not at the August 1 trade deadline. Right now, today. Not for a rotation’s worth of men, but for at least one. One now, immediately, this week, and one later. Or two later. Or just go ahead and punt the season, which I believe is a path being pondered in the bowels of the building at Chavez Ravine.
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