4 big whiffs by Dodgers’ front office before the lockout

1. Max Scherzer

Regardless of how much money he was going to cost, Scherzer’s return to LA felt like a foregone conclusion after his unbelievable cameo during the second half of the 2021 season. The Dodgers added the three-time Cy Young winner at the trade deadline to supplement the losses of Bauer, Kershaw and Dustin May, and he delivered with a 7-0 record, 1.98 ERA and 0.82 WHIP in 11 starts. He struck out 89 batters across 68.1 innings. He saved Game 5 of the NLDS. Guy’s a legend.

You might wonder why we’re considering this a whiff. Yes, the New York Mets came in and offered the right-hander a three-year, $130 million contract ($43.3 million AAV), which, even though Scherzer’s presence in your rotation is priceless, seems ridiculous. But the Dodgers gave record-setting money to Bauer the offseason prior. And he’s infinitely worse than Scherzer.

Additionally, the Dodgers reportedly didn’t offer more than two years in the $36 million AAV range. That’s Gerrit Cole money, the undisputed highest-paid pitcher in baseball now that Bauer’s no longer a person of note. Scherzer, again, is better than Cole. Way better. If he was getting a short-term deal, he had every right to beat Bauer and Cole. But, for some reason, the Dodgers didn’t feel that way.

Typically, we wouldn’t be that concerned. But now we’re staring down the barrel of months without transactions. And the Dodgers’ decisions during last offseason came back to haunt them. The departures of Kiké Hernandez and Joc Pederson killed this team’s depth and eventually led to their early-ish (for their standards) postseason exit. What makes you think letting arguably the best pitcher of his generation leave is going to yield different results?

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