Rotation attrition hits acceptable levels

Phil Gurnee ♦ March 26, 2017 ♦ 4 Comments

The Dodger rotation depth headed into spring was eleven deep which was what allowed the front office to trade Jharel Cotton / Frankie Montas / Grant Holmes / Jose DeLeon / Chase De Jong over the past eight months. That and  Walker Buehler /  Yadier Alvarez / Trevor Oaks / Imani Abdullah / Mitchell White.

A few fans were worried that ten deep would not be deep enough given the health histories of Rich Hill, Ryu, Wood, McCarthy, and Kazmir. With a week left before the season starts, the spring has left only two behind and not two that the team was really depending on in April.

Scott Kazmir got hurt early and has been unable to get on track. His start on Sunday did nothing to help his cause, and he seems certain to hit the DL to start the season.

Brock Stewart who had no history of health problems has been sidelined most of the spring and will not be pitching until May. He was ticketed for AAA anyway unless an epidemic of health or trades hit the names in front of him on the depth chart. The good news is that his innings will be shortened in 2017, the bad news is that his innings will be shortened in 2017 thus possibly creating inning issues in 2018 if you want him in the rotation from the get go but that is a long way away from being anything.

Have to say, if someone told me I had to pick two pitchers to get hurt this spring, those two might have been my choices.  Nothing against Kazmir, but I would rather have a healthy McCarthy, Ryu, Wood, and Hill if I was given a choice.

Things continue to be fluid but at this point,  it is easy to make a case for an opening season rotation of Kershaw / Kenta / Hill / McCarthy / Ryu.  Ryu keeps stretching out and putting him on the DL seems harder and harder the better and longer he pitches. He’s not going to AAA and he’s not going to the bullpen. Last year at this time the rotation was Kershaw / Kenta / Kazmir / Wood / Stripling. I don’t know about you, but this version looks better to me.

And that is with Urias simply biding his time. Oh my

Which leaves what to do about Alex Wood. Bullpen or AAA?  We might address that tomorrow.