4 free agent pitchers Dodgers now need to consider that they previously weren't

On top of the Los Angeles Dodgers' 2023 World Series hopes continuing to dwindle because of their pitching woes, their upcoming offseason has now been put into question because of Shohei Ohtani's injury and Juilo Urías' arrest -- two very sad realities we must address for very different reasons.

Even without those players' absences, however, the Dodgers would still be in dire need of starting pitching. Clayton Kershaw's either no guarantee to return or no guarantee beyond 2024; Bobby Miller is promising, but can't have too much pressure heaped on him; Walker Buehler hasn't pitched in the bigs since June of 2022; Dustin May probably won't be returning as a starter in 2024 after undergoing his second elbow surgery since 2021; and Tony Gonsolin is out until 2025.

And even if you're high on prospects Emmet Sheehan, Gavin Stone, Ryan Pepiot, Nick Frasso and Landon Knack, it's hard to stake any amount of your future on arms that have yet to truly prove themselves at the big-league level. Especially not five of them at once.

That's why the Dodgers capitalizing elsewhere in free agency and on the trade market when it comes to securing starters this offseason will be paramount in dictating the foreseeable future. Another reason why that's so important? The 2025 free agency class will feature Tyler Glasnow as the only unrestricted ace-like target (unless Gerrit Cole opts out of his contract with the Yankees).

But the Dodgers can't leave anything up to chance. They have a winner right now and need to properly supplement it instead of risking flushing another season down the tubes.

4 free agent pitchers Dodgers now need to consider that they previously weren't

Sonny Gray

Sonny Gray is a good pitcher. Though his career has featured a sort of roller coaster trajectory, he owns a 3.50 ERA and 1.21 WHIP with 1,498 strikeouts in 1,550 innings since 2013. And he's having a potential career year in 2023 (2.98 ERA, 2.91 FIP, 1.17 WHIP with 160 strikeouts in 28 starts totaling 163 innings).

He'll be entering his age-34 season in 2024 (excuse me??) so the Dodgers probably won't have to offer him anything insane, but his recent run of play and projectability to slot into the rotation as a rock-solid No. 3 or luxury No. 4-5 for the next three years cannot be denied.

We seriously doubt the Dodgers were eyeing Gray before we even considered writing about it, but now that he's put together back-to-back promising campaigns and is entering free agency when teams are lining up for top-end starters, they might have to circle back to this possibility.