Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations for the Los Angeles Dodgers, recently spoke about the way the Dodgers have splashed on pitchers over the past two seasons.
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The Dodgers struggled with injuries among their pitching staff in 2024 – especially in the postseason – and immediately fixed this weakness in their roster. They signed Roki Sasaki, Blake Snell, Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott in the offseason, bolstering their depth in both starting and relief pitching prior to the season.
However, with those additions — as well as the previous offseason additions of Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow — Friedman and the Dodgers knew they were taking a risk. Glasnow and Snell, for example, didn’t exactly have the cleanest injury history.
Friedman was asked if the Dodgers expected them to be fully healthy when they arrived, or if they planned for them to miss time during their tenure.
“Yeah, I guess we weren’t sure.” Friedman said prior to the World Series. “But it wasn’t something where we would really be surprised. I think the whole point of depth is that injuries happen. Sometimes they happen in clusters, ideally they happen where they are more spaced out. And the last thing we want to do is say, oh, we won 81 games this year because we just didn’t have depth, we had injuries and it was bad luck.”
“So it’s trying to be as prepared as we can, without knowing exactly what’s going to happen or when. But to have that depth to help replenish and keep our heads above water during periods where it’s more clustered – and we’ve been through some periods this year where it’s been very clustered, the injuries. So I wouldn’t say we knew for sure, but we know it’s a possibility and just trying to be as prepared as we can be.”
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The Dodgers’ depth build paid off, as they suffered a surreal number of injuries early in the season – including to Snell and Glasnow – but managed to maintain their position at the top of the NL West until their key pitchers were fit to return.
The Dodgers’ investment in their pitching staff has paid off so far this season and they entered the postseason with potentially the best rotation in the major leagues. The Dodgers’ starting pitchers have maintained a 2.54 ERA this postseason, which is the best among teams that reached their respective League Championship Series.
They’re hoping their starters can get back to work after a tough pair of games against the Toronto Blue Jays, who are on the verge of winning their first World Series championship since 1993. The Dodgers are eliminated in Game 6 and hope Yoshinobu Yamamoto can deliver another stellar performance to keep them alive.
Game 6 of the World Series takes place Friday at 5:00 PM PT.
Photo credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn images
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