Guessing The Dodgers Bullpen After League’s Injury

Peter Llewellyn-USA TODAY Sports

The roster situation is getting really convoluted, in case you haven’t noticed. A slew of injuries has hurt the team significantly, and the resolution likely lies in some potentially intriguing roster moves. So lets break down what’s happened in the past couple of days as the team prepares to open the season on April 6th (less than 2 weeks away)

• Dodgers sign Hector Olivera to a 6 year 62.5 million dollar deal.
• Hyun-Jin Ryu will begin the season on the disabled list
• Brandon League will join him on the DL, which is bad news for a bullpen that kinda needs him

All of these moves impact each other in some way, Hector Olivera being inked means that there’s an impending roster crunch on the 40 man roster, luckily for the pitchers -think Dustin McGowan and Daniel Coloumbe- there is a greater need for them, so i’d be surprised if one of those two were DFA’d.

It’s probably bad news for Darwin Barney who seems like the odd man out considering the amount of depth the Dodgers have acquired. And heck, this isn’t even mentioning Sergio Santos, David Huff, Mike Adams, or *gulp* not that injured pitcher, Chad Gaudin, it seems like there will be trades to deal with the situation the Dodgers have, and the one thing that will need to addressed is the entirety of the Dodgers bullpen.

One thing that favors the competitors, is that the Dodgers will likely go with a pretty large bullpen during April. Considering that the team could manipulate the rotation to not need a 5th starter until the 14th of next month, there are 8 open spots in the bullpen to be decided over. There will be some surprises considering that the bullpen will have many different components.

Chris Hatcher– He’s a flamethrower coming in from Miami. He tossed 56 innings last season with a 2.56 FIP, made up of a 9.64 K/9 and 1.93 BB/9. The front office brought him in for a reason, and struggles in spring training (1.875 WHIP) aren’t going to change their opinion on the potential closer.

J.P. Howell– He was good last season, held lefties to a .511 OPS. And then faltered down the stretch, likely due to overuse/regression. But he has a good grip on a spot considering that none of the other left handed options have much experience in the big leagues

Sergio Santos- Somehow he’ll be added to the roster, not necessarily because of his performance in Spring Training -even though it’s been impeccable (6IP/9 K’s- 0BB’s/1ER). He’s had success before, he’s closed before, and he appears to be fully healthy and if that continues, Santos appears to be the main beneficiary of League’s injury.

Paco Rodriguez– He gets the nod over Adam Liberatore because of a 3.05 career FIP and a 10.0 K/9 strikeout rate. Paco struggled with injuries last season, most notably a strain of his major teres muscle (that affected Clayton Kershaw last season). It’d be an upset if Liberatore didn’t see time with the major league club this upcoming season, but initially, Rodriguez looks to be the 2nd left hander in the bullpen on April 6th.

Joel Peralta– This guy is easily the most accomplished reliever on the team. He’s pitched in 4 games this spring, after being sidelined with shoulder discomfort a couple weeks ago. As long as he’s healthy, the team is going to go with him, especially considering they traded Jose Dominguez for him. He had a respectable 3.40 FIP last season and the team clearly sees him as a bounceback candidate regardless of his age.

Dustin McGowan– This pick mostly comes from the fact that he’s already apart of the 40 man roster. He’s thrown 107.2 innings since 2012, so it’s not like this is a lock by any stretch of the imagination, but he looked okay as a reliever last season, holding hitters to a .213/.284/.405 line, and a 4.13 xFIP. It’s not great, but this is the pick I feel least comfortable in. (I’d bet McGowan is the first guy to go if they aren’t impressed with his showing this spring, or need to jettison somebody to make room for Kenley)

Juan Nicasio– They acquired him to be a reliever, because he’s also really bad away from Coors as a starter. Last season he had a 3.40 K/BB which is over a point higher than his career line of 2.18, and he held opposing batters to an OBP under .300. If he gets his home run issues under control, it seems like he’ll be a solid member of the bullpen. He throws hard, he’s a 2 pitch pitcher, he’s a failed starter, these things frequently result in solid relief pitchers.

Yimi Garcia– This spot is probably a toss up between Pedro Baez and Yimi Garcia. I’ll guess Garcia only because he has shown a propensity to generate swings and misses more frequently than Baez. Yimi’s minor league strikeout rate sits at a great 11.0 K/9, this is probably directly linked to his high spin fastball rate. Granted, Baez has better stuff than Garcia, but the high spin fastball, the consistently high strikeout rates, and the pitching experience leads me to prefer Garcia, at least initially. -To be fair, I don’t think the Dodgers lose much if they choose Baez, but I do feel like it comes down to this-.

It’s not a great bullpen, there is a chance that it’s only marginally better than last year’s group. Only, instead of walking everybody, the pen serves up an uncomfortable amount of dingers. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dodgers traded for an option in the wake of League’s injury, maybe Edward Mujica is a fit, maybe (hopefully) Jonathan Papelbon is a fit, but right now the bullpen probably looks something like the thing above. And if nothing else, Chris Perez and Brian Wilson aren’t in the mix, and that (hopefully) counts for something.