3 reasons Dodgers fans shouldn't panic about the struggling bullpen

The starting rotation getting healthy will only benefit the Dodgers bullpen

This is perhaps the most overlooked aspect of the Dodgers' current pitching situation. The team has been absolutely destroyed by injuries in the starting rotation and that's going to have an effect on the bullpen. It has taxed the bullpen more and caused Dave Roberts to use low-leverage guys in high-leverage spots.

The Dodgers starting rotation getting healthy will help take some of the stress off of the bullpen in the regular season. However, in the postseason, the Dodgers will have the ability to move certain starters to the bullpen.

We've seen this strategy work several times in October baseball. Look at the 2019 Washington Nationals. That was a team with a great offense, good starting pitching, and a bad bullpen with only a few reliable arms. Washington finished with the second-highest bullpen ERA in the sport! So what did they do? They leaned heavily on their great starting pitching both in starts and out of the bullpen.

The Dodgers can do the same if they get closer to full strength. Just picture this: the Dodgers have a playoff rotation of Julio Urias, Clayton Kershaw, Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin. In the bullpen, the team now has Bobby Miller, a healthy Ryan Pepiot, and a returning Walker Buehler. Hmmm. That sounds a lot better, doesn't it?

Obviously, no team gets through a season with a clean bill of health. But let's continue this thought experiment. In addition to the trio of starters in the bullpen, the Dodgers also get Daniel Hudson and Jimmy Nelson back from injury.

Suddenly, the Dodgers could have a bullpen that's nothing like the one currently pitching. Those five arms are better than just about everyone currently in the Dodgers bullpen. Add in 2-3 trade deadline acquisitions and 1-2 big-league call ups and all of a sudden the bullpen is a strength, not a weakness.

Things are bad right now. And it's easy to forecast future success based on the status quo at this point in time. But let's not forget that what we're seeing right now is the worst it can possibly get, and the Dodgers are only going to go up from here.