5 former players the Dodgers missed most during latest failed championship run

Kenta Maeda

Ok, truth be told, this was a tough one. The Dodgers needed more starting pitching this postseason, no matter the source. As it turns out, they might not have even possessed one viable starter. Is that good?

So it would've been silly to go through this entire exercise, spitting out every clutch bat from days gone by without also adding an arm or two. Only problem is, unless you included a time machine in the deal, there aren't many ex-Dodgers out there who would've been excellent fits with this year's model. Walker Buehler would've been nice.

Rich Hill? You would have to do a lot of hard work convincing me that a 5.41 ERA and -0.6 bWAR this year would've been a better Game 3 fit than Lance Lynn. Hyun-Jin Ryu? 11 starts and 52 innings this season. Not quite. Tyler Anderson? 1.5 WHIP. Would've been an edge-of-your-seat affair.

So we're going with Maeda here, who's been more of a swingman in recent years, but would've acquitted himself more competently than Emmet Sheehan in a huge spot. 1.1 bWAR, 117 Ks in 104.1 innings ... yeah, that would've played. That would've played better than what we watched, ultimately.