Dodgers continue to waste time with recent free agency (ex-Astros) bullpen plunge

The Los Angeles Dodgers are in dire straits with their pitching staff. The unit is surviving at the moment, but will undoubtedly fall victim to the 162-game marathon if injuries continue to mount and proper reinforcements aren't added.

Thankfully, top prospects Gavin Stone and Bobby Miller have picked up the slack in the starting rotation for the time being (though Stone hasn't exactly been impressive). Still, they have to keep trotting Noah Syndergaard and his 5.88 ERA out there.

And the bullpen? Your guess is good as ours! As long as Phil Bickford and Yency Almonte are regularly contributing, that unit is in trouble. Sorry to say, but at this rate, those guys can't even represent the last arms in the bullpen with how ineffective they've been.

But that won't stop the Dodgers from adding underwhelming options with the hope of resurrecting long lost careers. Fans already took issue with the Shelby Miller signing, and thankfully that one, so far, has yielded good results.

The team is already interminably waiting for Daniel Hudson, JP Feyereisen, Jimmy Nelson, Alex Reyes, Blake Treinen and Ryan Pepiot to return/do something, so adding former Astro Ken Giles into the mix does nothing for anybody.

Dodgers signed former Astro Ken Giles. But why?

Former cheating Astro, too! He was on the 2017 Houston team despite logging one of the worst single postseasons for a reliever you'll ever see. That year, Giles appeared in the ALDS, ALCS and World Series, only to log an 11.74 ERA and 2.22 WHIP in 7.2 innings of work.

The Astros got rid of him the very next season in a trade with the Blue Jays. Giles recorded a 4.65 ERA, 3.08 FIP and 1.21 WHIP in 55 games between Houston and Toronto in 2018. Not bad, but not good. He dominated with the Jays in 2019, but then went down with an elbow injury in 2020 and required Tommy John surgery.

He's pitched in nine total games since the beginning of the 2020 season. He's been cut loose by the Jays, Mariners and Giants over that span. Are the Dodgers just signing a pile of injured/down on their luck pitchers hoping that one or two will hit?

Now in his age-32 season, Giles' last respectable campaign came in 2019 when he was 28 years old. And the fact he's largely had a rollercoaster of a career in terms of production doesn't bode well for him getting back on track after a major surgery and two releases.

But the Dodgers will keep trying, no matter how many times this fails for them (Nelson, Almonte, Tommy Kahnle and Danny Duffy). And there will be more duds once this most recent batch runs its course.