Dodgers: Improvements That Can Take the Team to its Full Potential

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LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 15: Clayton Kershaw #22 of the Los Angeles Dodgers watches from the bench during the first inning against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium on June 15, 2018, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /

Get Healthy

This one is the most obvious. As the saying goes, ‘availability is the best ability,’ and the same can be said the other way. A team’s most prominent opponent is health, or rather the injury bug. And the Dodgers are probably the best team to tell you so. 2016 and 2017 saw terrible injury luck, and this year has been arguably worse.

80% of their Opening Day starting rotation (Clayton Kershaw, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Kenta Maeda, and Rich Hill) has started just 32 of 72 total games, or 44.4% of games. And that is obviously bad and unsustainable to succeed with.

That is $55.7 million, potentially more (depending on Maeda’s incentives), of pitching on the shelf and missing, combined, over half of the team’s games. The injuries led to a patchwork starting rotation of Alex Wood, Ross Stripling, rookie Caleb Ferguson, and others before Maeda and Hill returned.

Their 3.48 starting ERA shows they have bent but not broken. And as Maeda looks to shake off the rust and Hill builds off his best start of the season; they will get stronger. But what will take the rotation to the next level is a healthy Clayton Kershaw, Hyun-Jin Ryu, and Walker Buehler.

If you can get those three back, and throw in present-form Ross Stripling, that will be a quality four-man group that will give you quality and quantity by keeping you in games and preserving the bullpen.

Then you would have the luxury of choosing amongst Hill, Maeda, and Wood for the last slot, and insert the other two into the bullpen, further, bolstering it. Or you can move to a six-man rotation, or make Buehler the swingman to preserve his arm. Adding in a healthy Tom Koehler could give the Dodgers their new Brandon Morrow, and don’t forget old friend Julio Urias either.

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And keeping the position players healthy and getting Justin Turner to 100% will allow for the explosive offense they can have. Yasiel Puig, JT, and Logan Forsythe have missed time with injury; it will be best to limit that from hereon.

When healthy, the Dodgers have one of the best rosters around. But you could not tell that because of all the makeshift players they have been using. As they get healthier and hopefully remain that way, you can expect even more consistency and improved play.