Fans of the Los Angeles Dodgers everywhere got an early holiday present with the signings of Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Although these two moves seemingly put Los Angeles in a very strong position to contend for many years, the team still might need some help to get over the hump in the short term.
We already know that Ohtani won’t be available to pitch until at least the beginning of the 2025 season, but there have already been whispers circulating that Walker Buehler might have a delayed start to his 2024 campaign, according to Los Angeles Times reporter Jack Harris.
Harris writes, “it is becoming increasingly likely that Buehler might have a delayed start to his 2024 season, given he’ll be facing a likely innings limit in his return from a second Tommy John surgery.”
It’s probably a good thing that the Dodgers will be cautious with Buehler because he figures to be a prominent part of the starting rotation picture towards the end of the season should the team be in contention for a playoff run. However, with his absence, the team may have to dig deep into the minor league reserve early, especially if dealing with some type of unfortunate injury like we saw last season.
In 2023 spring training, the rotation was lining up with Julio Urias, Clayton Kershaw, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin and Noah Syndergaard. It’s not quite clear if and when Kershaw will return to the team, but early indications are that May could be in a position to join the team in some capacity towards the All-Star break. Gonsolin is out for the year after having UCL surgery last fall, and both Syndergaard and Urias are long gone.
That said, the 2024 Opening Day rotation is setting up as an all-righty staff. Yamamoto leads the way — if healthy — followed by Bobby Miller and the newly signed Tyler Glasnow. Someone like Emmet Sheehan could slide into the fourth spot, with the fifth spot going to a youngster like Landon Knack, Gavin Stone, Nick Frasso or Michael Grove, should the team decide to utilize Grove as a starter rather than a reliever.
Lefty Ryan Yarbrough, who was omitted from the 2023 NLDS rotation, could also slide into a starting role, especially when considering the lack of southpaws.
If indeed the Dodgers decide to limit Buehler’s work significantly, it probably makes more sense to do it sooner rather than later. Bill Plunkett of the OC Register recently reported that the club is likely to be flexible regarding the specific innings total Buehler is allowed to reach and his schedule for the 2024 campaign as a whole.
The Dodgers used a total of 17 different pitchers last year as starters. More realistically, that number was 13 if you throw out openers like Brusdar Graterol, Alex Vesia, Shelby Miller and Victor Gonzalez. Still, it could be a wise move to secure at least another innings-eater type of security blanket before the start of spring training.
Free agents like Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery have been at the top of the Los Angeles rumor list all winter, primarily because they are lefties. However, there’s still plenty of time to orchestrate some type of trade in the coming weeks. If front-office boss Andrew Friedman is approaching the upcoming season with high caution regarding his rotation, there’s a very good chance of another high-quality arm coming to the Dodgers.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
I really hate the way they baby pitchers today. In 1965 a 20 year old Don Sutton threw 249 innings in the minors while winning 23 games. The next year he threw 225 innings for LA as part of a four man rotation of Koufax (323 innings), Drysdale (273 innings) and Osteen (240 innings). Seems ridiculous but probably more to do with protecting their investments.
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Different era’s. Sutton wasn’t making millions. There was also only one level of playoffs. The World Series.
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Sliders and cutters can cause death to the UCL. Especially with the torque that pitchers throw them with today.
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I’m with you Gary. No Tommy John in those days. Just 4 pitchers, 40 starts each. Simple. And the joke about protecting their investments is they baby them starting in the minors, they get 2/3 years out of them then they are in their prime and free agents. Not that we have ever had a prospect reach free agency, with arm injuries and all.
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Koufax was 31, and Drysdale, 33, when their arms were shot and they had to retire. Snell is 31, and looking to sign a 6 year plus contract for around $200 million. Koufax would be watching baseball from his couch at that age, and Drysdale not far behind. Maybe modern surgeries could have extended their careers, but maybe not. Pacing pitchers is not necessarily a bad thing.
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Saw a report today that said the dodgers are have interest in, and are monitoring the Teoscar Hernandez market. This caught me by surprise, I know they were interested in him earlier, but after the other signings, I didn’t see them spending the kind of money it would take to sign him.
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He made $14M last year and is 31 years old. This is an age where performance is often declining (except for Freddy and Mookie). His stats were decent except for the 211Ks!! But he will want $20M+ per year. Is that really the kind of player they should go after? For that performance? Train Vargas to play LF.
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I’m not saying they should or shouldn’t, more so that it surprised me.
He did have good stats away from Seattle, but he’s RH and I didn’t think they would be looking at a RH bat.
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Keith, they are lefty heavy power wise. Ohtani, Freeman, Muncy, Outman, Heyward. Only RH bats with true power, Betts and Smith. Vargas is an unknown quality and Taylor is very streaky.
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Lots of rumors out there. Sorting out which one has any credibility is not easy. But I have read more than a couple stating that Freidman wants to add a RH power bat. LADT is now shut down.
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I was only thinking that they would be looking for a LH bat to platoon with Taylor, but after reading your post, I get it, I wasn’t looking at it from that direction.
I guess I’m looking at it from the way teams used to work, you had a starting eight, then you had a bench with a mixture of right, and left handed batters coming off of the bench.
What was LADT, if you don’t mind me asking?
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LADT is/was LA Dodger Talk, a long-running Dodger blog.
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Thanks for clearing that up for me Jeff, I’m guessing that’s where bear used to write a few articles.
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Teoscar is coming.
Incredibly, only a one year deal (can’t believe he couldn’t have done better somewhere else, but the Dodgers are the place to be these days).
1 year/23.5 mil with 8 mil of that deferred.
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So assuming the usual 4 man bench, that would currently be Barnes, Taylor, Rojas and Margot. The Dodger brass has stated they have confidence and believe in the talented Busch and Vargas. I guess it’s just smoke designed to convince some other team to acquire them. A damn shame IMHO. Paying $23.5M to a guy who just struck out 211 times makes no sense to me.
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Normally his Ks are around 150 per season, hopefully 2023 was an anomaly, not the new norm. He hit 35 HRs with 116 RBIs in 2021, but that was when the blue jays were playing their home games in Buffalo, so you can’t put too much stock in the stats for that season.
I’ve followed him for a while (because of fantasy baseball) I think if he stays healthy he will do a great job for the dodgers, but I can see how fans that are proponents of the prospects like Busch, or Vargas would be disappointed. I’m excited about the signing, but I would have been fine if Busch or Vargas would have started the year in LF.
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I feel badly for both Busch and Vargas, but I don’t see any way they both make the roster (barring injuries). And unless they trade Margot now (which I’m hoping they do), there won’t be room for either Busch or Vargas.
Could definitely see one or both going in a trade for Cease or to the Marlins for one of their pitchers. I could see sending Vargas to OKC to start the year, but Busch is older and has absolutely nothing left to prove there. If they aren’t going to roster him, do him the favor of trading him.
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The about 150 Ks per year were while playing 130-140 games, not the 160 he played last year. he has averaged 191 Ks per 162 games in his MLB career. It also amazes me in today’s baseball, that we consider 150 Ks per year as OK.
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Holy crap, it seems like he could have done a lot better, but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I’ve been a fan of his for a while, he’s slipped a little last year, but I blame some of that on his home field.
I kept hearing the bosox were real interested in him, plus the Giants SHOULD have signed him, so I’m very shocked, and happy he signed here.
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Every year we read about Dodger fans who don’t think the team is doing everything it can to win the World Series, nobody can say that this year.
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Jeff, another thing is the Dodgers still have a bunch of prospects that have no place to move up to, especially Busch, and Vargas, so I won’t be surprised if there is a trade for a pitcher. Clase or one of the Miami SPs would look good in Dodger Blue.
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Hernandez also has some incentives built into his contract.
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Who gets released or designated for assignment when Hernandez is officially added to the roster??? They will need a spot.
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His k percentage last season was less than CTIII, his 211s were in 625 ABs that’s a lot of ABs, doubt if get quite that many with the Dodgers.
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I’m not sure about who goes, but I’ll bet the FO is working on possible trades right now, as we speak.
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