Dodgers: 5 things L.A. Should Not Do at the Winter Meetings

By Mike Margy | Dec 5, 2017

LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 01: Dave Roberts, center, speaks as Farhan Zaidi, left, Los Angeles Dodgers general manager, and Andrew Friedman, right, Dodgers President of Baseball Operations, look on during a press conference to introduce Roberts as the new Los Angeles Dodgers manager at Dodger Stadium on December 1, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images) /

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(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /

Do not leave the meetings without a bullpen arm or two

This one’s a toughie. Bullpen arms grow on trees, but picking the right apple is harder than it looks. The Dodgers struck gold with Brandon Morrow last season.

Beset by injury, inconsistency and ineffectiveness throughout most of his 11 years in the Majors, Morrow hit his sweet spot in 2015 with San Diego. Morrow posted a 2-0 record with a 2.73 ERA and 23 strikeouts to seven walks in 33 innings of relief.

He bettered that in 2016 and 2017, combining to go 7-0 with an ERA below 2.00 and 58 strikeouts with only 12 walks across 59.2 total innings.

While those numbers will be hard to match in one player, the Dodgers love the bullpen-by-committee idea. There are several available arms on the free agent market. The Dodgers surely will be passing on closers Wade Davis and Greg Holland.

But names like Addison Reed, Matt Albers and Steve Cishek are all guys with low ERAs, fantastic WHIPs and great strikeout-to-walk ratios, something the Dodgers value highly in bullpen arms.

All three are right-handed, so re-signing someone like Tony Watson to go along with Tony Cingrani and Luis Avilan might not be a bad idea.

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