Philadelphia – For about two months, the Dodgers were a .500 team.
And the biggest problem right now — the lack of reliable pitching in a rotation plagued by injuries and rookies — only seems to get worse by the day.
This season, the Dodgers thought they had fixed their recent problems. They traded for Tyler Glasnow. They signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto. They spent nearly $500 million to strengthen both the top of their rotation and their depth options behind it.
However, this week, in a series against the Philadelphia Phillies, he was bolstered by a line drive. 5-1 defeat on ThursdayClearly, club rotation is another area of concern.
And not with an easy and obvious solution.
“If you would have told us in spring training that we would be where we are with the depth of our starting pitching, I would have doubted it,” manager Dave Roberts said before Thursday’s game. “But we are.”
In fact, the Dodgers’ pitching staff is riddled with question marks almost everywhere.
This week, in what should have been a historic matchup between the National League’s two best teams, the Dodgers struggled to share production on the mound, a problem compounded by a declining lineup that allowed just five runs in three games . . . at Citizens Park.
The team was unable to call up Glasnow, the lone All-Star pitcher, after he joined Yamamoto on the injured list. They decided they could no longer rely on second-year right-hander Bobby Miller, demoting him to triple-A after a nine-run homer Tuesday night.
And while rookies Gavin Stone and Landon Knack, who allowed three runs in 4 ⅓ innings of public relief Thursday, were the best performances by a Dodgers pitcher this week — against a very top Phillies lineup — neither came close to being spectacular, a poignant reminder of the suddenness the team is facing amid all the other key absences it is grappling with.
“I’m trying not to worry too much about the guys that can’t help us right now,” said Roberts, whose lineup includes Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Dustin May and several other injured arms. “(We’re) hopefully going to get them back soon.”
Glasnow is expected to return shortly after next week’s All-Star Game.
Philadelphia’s Trea Turner walks the bases after hitting Dodgers pitcher Anthony Banda in the first inning Thursday.
(Matt Slocum/Associated Press)
Beyond him, the other injured pitchers currently in the organization offer no guarantee of success in the future.
Yamamoto has yet to resume trapping, suggesting a return is a month or more away.
Buehler is working out at a private facility in Florida and is trying to find some form of consistency after eight rough starts in his return from Tommy John surgery.
Kershaw will resume his minor league rehab assignment this weekend, but as a 36-year-old veteran coming off a season-ending shoulder injury, it’s not a given that he has the raw materials needed to succeed in October.
And while Miller has that natural talent highlighted by his triple-digit fastball, he plans to start the second half of the season back in Triple-A, looking to clean up the inconsistencies in his pitching that led to an ERA above 8.00 in seven years this year.
Typically, this is where a contending team looks for answers at the trade deadline and targets a former arm to bolster their postseason plans.
Finally, in the Dodgers’ 22-22 stretch over their last 44 games, their starters have a 4.91 ERA, fifth-worst in the majors over that span.
However, the trade market is slow this year with such impressive pitchers.
The Dodgers are interested in Garrett Crochet, according to people unfamiliar with the situation, but the Chicago White Sox left-hander is already nearing the innings limit in his return from Tommy John surgery, and that doesn’t mean he can continue to be a regular rotational fielder from now until October.
Detroit Tigers’ Tarik Skubal is the latest potential target to have a Cy Young-caliber season. But with two and a half seasons under club control, the Tigers are unlikely to move him, and certainly not for anything less than a massive trade, the kind the Dodgers are typically wary of offering this time of year.
There are potentially cheaper but still effective options; such as the Tigers’ Jack Flaherty, the Toronto Blue Jays’ Yusei Kikuchi or the White Sox’s Eric Feddi.
But depth isn’t the Dodgers’ biggest need. In the short term, they can rely on young arms like Stone, Knack and Justin Wroblski to cover innings and maintain a big lead in the NL West.
“I just look at it because these guys have a great opportunity in the playoffs, in the pennant race,” Roberts said.
The eventual return of Glasnow, Kershaw, Buehler, Miller and, at some point, Yamamoto would also stabilize their roster.
Until then, what’s missing once again is a healthy, solid, true arm at the front of the rotation, the kind that could tip the balance in this week’s series against the Phillies and almost certainly will be key to any extended playoff run needed. Push.
Maybe Glasnow can go back in time and be that pitcher again. Maybe Stone can build on his strong first half of the season and become a true postseason weapon. It’s not impossible that Yamamoto returns and looks like the All-Star-caliber pitcher he was before his injury.
The thing is, none of these outcomes seem inevitable at this stage. Neither of these pitchers can be taken lightly.
Once again, the Dodgers are struggling to strengthen a rotation they thought they had fixed.
And as things stand now, they may have no choice but to cross their fingers, wait for their health to improve and hope they have enough talent on the mound to hold out through October and into October.
This week’s cleanup was a reminder that there are no guarantees.
