We are currently two months into the off-season and the Dodgers, and basically every team, except for a select few, have yet to make any big moves. So with that in mind, I decided to give my two cents in and discuss what positions, and in a later blog who specifically, they should be targeting and trying to sign.
The Dodgers are the defending World Series champions and thus don’t have that much to have to work on, in regards of making the team better. There are a few areas, though, that the Dodgers should focus on more than others this off-season. Although, they have been linked to potentially acquiring All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor or All-Star 3rd Baseman Nolan Arenado, I believe that they shouldn’t prioritize trying to acquire either one over a possible upgrade to let’s say the bullpen.
Now, I get that that getting Lindor or Arenado is a game changer for almost every team. But Dodgers are in the minority where we don’t have to get Lindor or Arenado to make sure our future is just as a good as our present. We could not get Lindor and Arenado, and they both go to other teams and we would still be the team to beat in the National League. And because of that, I say that we shouldn’t prioritize acquiring either one. On another note, if we do miss out on Lindor and Arenado, we wouldn’t miss a beat. We wouldn’t miss a beat because we have Seager in house, we have Lux and Muncy, we can bring back Justin Turner, give Rios a shot as our everyday 3rd Baseman, etc.
Instead of putting all our eggs into one basket, we should focus on strengthening one of our biggest weaknesses that has been a constant on the Dodgers for years. That being the bullpen. Kenley is continuing to lose life on his fastball, and this generation of managers are not letting their starters go deep into ballgames and taking them out once they see them in a little bit of trouble. Dave Roberts is at the forefront of that, and he relies on the bullpen a lot. But there’s an obvious problem with that; if you don’t have that many arms that are performing ideally, then the ideology behind “bullpening’ goes out the window. Yes, we have great arms that get it done when need be, but there are arms out in the free agent market that would be very beneficial to the Dodgers. Relievers like Liam Hendriks, Brad Hand, Chaz Roe are all free agent arms that the Dodgers should consider bringing in to bolster the pen. Not to mention, Blake Treinen is a free agent after coming off a great year. With Treinen, the Dodgers should definitely consider bringing him back and use him as leverage to bring in fellow former A’s closer, Liam Hendrik. Having a four-headed monster of Jansen, Treinen, Hendriks, and Graterol will more than help improve our bullpen woes.
Another area, Dodgers should look into upgrading is starting pitching. So far, as locks, we have Kershaw, Buehler, May in the rotation. Question marks include Julio Urias, David Price, and Tony Gonsolin. With Urias, we don’t know if the team want to use him as a reliever with the way he performed out of the pen in the World Series, or as the starter executives all viewed him as when they signed him out of Mexico at the age of 16. For me, I would use him as a starter, unless we don’t have any lefties in the bullpen. If there are no lefties in the pen, then we should most definitely use Julio as a reliever. Moving onto Price, news just came out over the last several days saying that Roberts was unsure whether or not Price was going to participate in the following season due to Price sitting out the 2020 season because of COVID. If Price decides to sit out again, I will decide to look at it as a positive, and go with the mindset that the Dodgers wouldn’t have to pay him his salary, so they should use it to try and sign free agent pitchers, starters or relievers. Lastly, Gonsolin exceeded expectations in the regular season but underperformed in the postseason. I’ve been thinking, if the Dodgers decide to get Lindor, Arenado or another player to use Gonsolin as a trade piece because he is a young player on his rookie contract that has a high upside. If we don’t, then I see May as the better option as a starter and Gonsolin as the better option as a reliever.
One last area the Dodgers should look into is depth. Kike Hernandez is a free agent and rumors are, its unlikely he is brought back to LA. With that being said, Chris Taylor remains as one of the few utility players that remain on the roster. The Dodgers do have young players down in the minors that they can use for depth, but that can come at the price of ruining them by only giving them a handful of ABs. Edwin Rios is another option that can be used as a 1st Baseman/3rd Baseman/corner outfield option.
There are areas that can be and should looked at before prioritizing Lindor or Arenado. If I was in the front office, I would suggest we focus on bolstering up our bullpen due to the fact, it has been a constant weakness and our Achilles Heal. As far as ranking, bullpen would be number 1, starting pitching would be number 2 and depth would be a distant 3rd.
