Dodgers: 3 Creative Options for Right-Handed Starting Pitching

The Dodgers’ rotation is one of the best in the league but they are still missing something, and that is some balance.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have the third best starting rotation ERA in the league so your initial reaction would be of confusion when reading this. Yes, they have a staff that has been pitching very well this season. In fact, they have too many starters. Last month they used seven different starting pitchers at least three times each and not solely because of injuries.

The Dodgers utilized the disabled list to make room for all of their starters, and outside of Julio Urias, they got good to great performances from everyone. The locks for the rotation, when healthy, appear to be Clayton Kershaw, Alex Wood, and Brandon McCarthy. After them, there are questions, whether it be inconsistency or health.

No matter how good the starters have been, the Dodgers can still improve. Five of the seven starters are left-handed, so balance is needed, especially in the playoffs. The two righties are Kenta Maeda and Brandon McCarthy, and they are ones who you can’t and shouldn’t place all your chips on.

Maeda has been inconsistent and has struggled to go deep into games. McCarthy has been a much-needed surprise, but his injury history says you can’t put all your trust in him. He left yesterday’s start due to a blister problem. And here I thought only Rich Hill would have the blister problems. McCarthy’s hopeful for Tuesday’s start, but you can never be too sure with him.

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports recently reopened the rumor mill linking Sonny Gray to the Dodgers via trade. However, to make things fun, let’s stay away from the obvious and get creative. Let’s take a look at right-handed arms that haven’t been linked, heavily or at all, to Los Angeles but who would still be great fits. So this means no Chris Archer or Justin Verlander and a pitcher such as Alex Cobb has already been covered.

Gerrit Cole- Pittsburg Pirates

The Orange County product has some experience pitching in La La Land. He went to high school at Orange Lutheran and then pitched at UCLA for three years before going number one overall in the 2011 draft. The 26-year-old was on the verge of breaking out and becoming a full-fledged ace last season before injuries limited his season and affected his performance. Nonetheless, Gerrit Cole profiles as a true frontline arm.

Gerrit Cole is a hard thrower, averaging 96.1 mph with his four-seam fastball. He mixes in a two-seamer, an excellent slider, a knuckle-curve, and a changeup, so he has variety in his arsenal which helps in keeping hitters off balance.

This season, Cole has a 3.65 ERA and 1.20 WHIP. Now those don’t scream ace-level, but like a lot of things, you must look at them in context. During his first nine starts of the season, Cole had a 2.84 ERA and 1.02 WHIP in 57 innings. He just ran into trouble over his past two starts, but there’s no doubt that he will right the ship.

For his career, he has a 3.27 ERA (3.13 FIP), 1.20 WHIP, and has been solid at missing bats (8.3 K/9). The Pittsburg Pirates sit last in the NL Central and may look to sell off their more valuable pieces to jump-start a rebuild, and Cole is the name everyone is looking at.

He is young, talented, and is under team control through the 2019 season. In 2015, his best season yet, he threw 208 innings and posted a 2.60 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, made his only All-Star Team, and finished fourth in Cy Young voting. All this at the age of 24, so we know how good he can be.

2015 is more like the pitcher Gerrit Cole will resemble once he starts to settle in again, so it will cost a lot to get him. He is still young enough where giving up a package quality prospects would be bearable.

Cole is busy pitching with the burden knowing he can’t allow a single run because he has one of the worst offenses supporting him. Coming to LA would allow him to pitch more freely, especially when he doesn’t have to be the guy in the rotation. He’d form a formidable trio with Kershaw and Wood. The red flag with him would be his health as he missed time during both 2014 and 2016 but he’s a risk worth taking.

Yu Darvish- Texas Rangers

Admittedly, this is probably a pipe-dream, but it would signal an “all-in” mentality by the front office, and be the big blockbuster many fans have been clamoring for. Yu Darvish is tied with Evan Longoria as my favorite non-Dodger and is one of my four favorite players in general.

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In his 11 games this season, Darvish has a 2.97 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, and a 9.3 K/9. In his 111 starts in the majors, the 30-year-old has a 3.26 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, and an absurd 11.1 K/9. Darvish is in the conversation of having the nastiest stuff in the game and, when he’s on his game, he’s one of the most dominant arms in the league.

In my opinion, when he has everything working, only Chris Sale, Clayton Kershaw, and Max Scherzer can compare in the combination of dominance, swing-and-miss ability, and entertainment value. Back in 2013, he had 277 strikeouts in just 209.2 innings (11.9 K/), striking out an elite 33% of batters faced, and that shows the type of filth he can throw.

He’d give LA a legitimate second ace and another much-needed innings-eater. A duo of Kershaw and Darvish would bring back memories of the Kershaw-Greinke days. The Dodgers would once again have the best pitching duo in the league, and if Alex Wood can pitch close to anything like how he did in the month of May, then that trio would have an argument for being the scariest one around.

Health is a big red flag with the Japanese pitcher, as he had his 2014 season cut short due to Tommy John surgery, causing him to miss all of 2015, and see limited time in 2016. But he seems healthy now and is a gamble worth taking a risk on. Plus, who wouldn’t want to see the dynamic between him and his fellow countryman Kenta Maeda?

One thing to consider is that Darvish is a free agent after this season so he’d only be a rental. Still, if renting a dominant closer cost the Cubs their best prospect last year, Darvish would require a package built around one of the Dodgers’ top prospects with the risk of losing him at the year’s end.

The Dodgers have a surplus of talent in the majors and minors, so turning some of that into Yu Darvish would make sense for a team that has World Series aspirations. But, if the front office isn’t comfortable with resigning a 30-year-old pitcher, who had Tommy John just over two years ago, to a big money contract, letting go of top value doesn’t make much sense.

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Still, I do not believe that he would cost as much as Cole. Use the David Price-to-Toronto deal as a good barometer, but even then, Darvish should not be as expensive as Price was. Ultimately it depends on how the pitching market shapes up and whether the Texas Rangers choose to sell off. They have no shot at the AL West title, and the AL Wild Card race has the makings of a loaded one.