The Los Angeles Dodgers learned in 2024 that a team can truly never have enough pitching.<\/p>\n
While the Dodgers entered the year expecting to have a surplus of starting pitching, come October, they only had three viable starters \u2014 Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jack Flaherty (who they acquired at the trade deadline), and Walker Buehler (who was coming off the worst regular season of his career).<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the Dodgers managed to win the World Series, and they\u2019re expecting to get plenty of pitching reinforcements back next year such as Tyler Glasnow, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, and, of course, Shohei Ohtani. However, that doesn\u2019t mean the team won\u2019t be active in search of even more starting pitching help as L.A. hopes to avoid a similar situation as they faced in the 2024 postseason.<\/p>\n
The most obvious starting pitching target for the Dodgers is Japanese sensation Roki Sasaki, who will likely be posted in January and command just the team\u2019s international bonus pool.<\/p>\n
However, even if the Dodgers land Sasaki, they plan to be active in search of another top-end starting pitcher.<\/p>\n
According to the New York Post\u2019s Jon Heyman: \u201cThe Dodgers are looking into ace free agents Blake Snell, Corbin Burnes and Max Fried, and word is that assuming they land Sasaki, they\u2019ll try for one more big pitcher. They\u2019ll also consider re-signing Walker Buehler, a frequent October hero.\u201d<\/p>\n
MLB Network\u2019s Jon Morosi recently called the Dodgers one of two front runners for Corbin Burnes alongside the incumbent Baltimore Orioles. Moreover, Fried is an obvious fit as he\u2019s from Los Angeles and would be returning to the team he grew up watching.<\/p>\n
Finally, there\u2019s Snell, who the Dodgers have had interest in before, and could very well try to bring back again.<\/p>\n
If the Dodgers were able to sign Sasaki and one of those top three pitchers, they could field a 2025 rotation that looks something like this (assuming everyone is healthy):<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t even include the expected return of Clayton Kershaw, and the potential return of Walker Buehler (although Buehler would probably not be re-signed if L.A. signed two starting pitchers).<\/p>\n
Either way, the Dodgers know they need to address their biggest issues from a year ago if they want to go back-to-back in 2025. Adding starting pitching is the first step toward doing just that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Los Angeles Dodgers learned in 2024 that a team can truly never have enough pitching. While the Dodgers entered the year expecting to have a surplus… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n