SAN DIEGO — Andrew Friedman got the last laugh last year, and another ring. At the trade deadline, you screamed he had to do SOMETHING BIG to get a left fielder and a closer. He did neither. The Dodgers rode a parade of starters to win Game 7 in Toronto, before they rode in a parade in L.A.
There are few things Friedman despises more than a deadline trade. The price in prospects is too high, the guarantees are too few.
Friedman might well face that same dilemma this year. We are two months from the trade deadline, and he just might need to trade for a starting pitcher by then.
Blake Snell undergoes elbow surgery Tuesday. Tyler Glasnow is back to square one in his recovery from back spasms. The Dodgers believe both will be back by the trade deadline, but you never really know for sure when an injured pitcher will return, and whether he will need some time thereafter to regain his sharpness.
There is something else Friedman despises: finishing second. It is not just about getting into the playoffs. It is about winning the National League West, with one of the two best records in the league, thus ensuring a first-round bye.
However, in a division race that was projected to be a runaway, the Dodgers find themselves in second place. With a 1-0 loss in San Diego Monday, the Padres leapfrogged the Dodgers for the lead in the NL West.
The Dodgers also figure to have a short time frame to determine whether they might need bullpen help at the trade deadline. The Dodgers have said closer Edwin Díaz is expected to return from elbow surgery sometime after the All-Star break, which would confine that time frame to two weeks, if that.
On Monday, Friedman said he was confident that the three key pitching injuries would not push him toward the July trade market.
“It’s more that the timing of the injuries would be way easier if they were spaced out,” Friedman said in a text message. “Obviously, injuries are part of the game and we can’t be shocked when it happens.
“It’s the overlapping nature that is tough in the moment, but that doesn’t really change July thoughts (at this point) or October outlook.”
In the third week of May, nothing is urgent.
The Dodgers are supplementing where they can, picking up three pitchers cut by their former clubs. The only one with name recognition: Eric Lauer, who posted a 6.69 earned-run average for the Toronto Blue Jays and complained about the team using an opener ahead of him.
The Dodgers can mix and match for awhile, but a team that prides itself on positioning its starters best for October success finds itself in an awkward position.
With Snell and Glasnow out, the Dodgers have little choice but to ask Shohei Ohtani, Justin Wrobleski, Emmet Sheehan and Roki Sasaki to take regular turns. No one but Yoshinobu Yamamoto has done that recently.
“You have to deal with the circumstances that are presented to you,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We’re not pushing any of these guys right now. It could be a different conversation in September.
“Right now, they’ve got to take the baseball. In May, I don’t think it’s much cause for concern.”
Before the season, Fangraphs projected the Dodgers to win the NL West by 15 games, and to finish 17 games ahead of the fourth-place Padres. However, if what we see in the NL West right now is close to what we get all summer, that “different conversation in September” could involve not how to put a starter on a glide path toward October but whether that starter has exhausted himself to the point where he could not be counted on in an unexpected pennant race.
Ohtani is on pace to pitch 149 innings, a figure he last reached in 2022. He pitched 47 last year, none the year before.
Wrobleski is on pace to pitch 171 innings, 39 more than the professional high he set last season. He pitched 117 innings last year.
Sheehan is on pace to pitch 141 innings, 18 more than his professional high. He pitched 93 innings last season, none the year before.
Sasaki is on pace to pitch 137 innings, eight more than his professional high. He pitched 57 innings last season.
Maybe Lauer turns from a Dodger killer into a Dodger asset. Perhaps prospect River Ryan gets promoted into the starting rotation next month and sticks.
But July trades for starting pitchers need not be such a scary proposition. Friedman acquired Yu Darvish at the trade deadline in 2017 and Jack Flaherty at the trade deadline in 2024, and no one in Dodger Land is bemoaning the loss of Willie Calhoun, Trey Sweeney and Thayron Liranzo.
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