When Rich Hill left before the second inning of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ win over the San Francisco Giants last Wednesday, the team’s Major League-best starting rotation took a huge blow.
After an MRI revealed a strained flexor tendon in his left forearm, the Dodgers placed Hill on the 10-day injured list. He conveyed his UCL was in good standing but that he would be shut down for at least three to four weeks.
Although Hill avoided an injury that could have ended his 2019 season and perhaps career, his extended absence leaves a hole in the biggest strength of the Dodgers’ pitching staff.
Their bullpen issues are well-documented at this point, and already rumors are popping up about their interest in trading for an elite reliever.
But Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman was in a similar position two years ago, with a playoff-bound juggernaut that endured a setback when Clayton Kershaw was sidelined for a month with a back injury.
Almost immediately after Kershaw went down, the Dodgers were connected to Texas Rangers ace Yu Darvish. Although it took until just before the trade deadline, the Dodgers did end up acquiring Darvish.
He gave the Dodgers a top-tier starting pitcher to replace Kershaw in the short term and bolster their postseason rotation in the long term. And that is more or less what Darvish did until is infamous implosion against the Houston Astros in the 2017 World Series.
With Hill likely to be sidelined at least until August, could the Dodgers make a similar move before this year’s July 31 trade deadline?
While it seems like the stars may be aligning once again, there are some big differences between the Dodgers’ position in 2017 and the one they are in now.
The biggest change is the presence of Hyun-Jin Ryu and Walker Buehler. In 2017, Ryu was struggling and still seemed injury-prone in his first season back from career-threatening surgery on a torn shoulder labrum. Buehler’s prospect star was rising, but he was still months away from his MLB debut.
Fast forward two years, you could make a case that Ryu, the current National League Cy Young favorite, and Buehler, one of the best young pitchers in the game, should both slot ahead of Kershaw and Hill in a projected postseason rotation.
Buehler in particular gives the Dodgers something they did not have in 2017 until Darvish arrived — an elite right-handed starter. After his 16-strikeout complete game masterpiece last week, Buehler’s numbers over his four starts in June look like this: 31 innings, three earned runs, 42 strikeouts, one walk.
Hill, as great as he has been this season and throughout his time in Los Angeles, is the Dodgers’ fourth-best starter. He can be replaced until he gets healthy. Ross Stripling, perhaps in tandem with Julio Urias, is a worthy fill-in.
When Kershaw went down two years ago, the Dodgers were losing their still-dominant ace while their other All-Star starter, Alex Wood, was starting to unravel. No depth pieces could replace that.
There is also no clear star rental out there this year that would fit cleanly into a potential Dodgers postseason roster because the team doesn’t have no gaping holes. The most 2017 Darvish-like name on the current trade block is Madison Bumgarner.
In fact, the Dodgers have so many quality players that Stripling is in the bullpen less than a year after becoming an All-Star himself and Joc Pederson is trying to play first base because A.J. Pollock’s return from injury will give manager Dave Roberts four outfielders worthy of starter-level playing time.
Of course, their rotation depth still took a hit with losing Hill, and replenishing it with a smaller deal is not a bad idea. There are plenty of trade options in a swingman starter/reliever tier if the Dodgers do not want to keep rolling out Stripling and maybe Urias.
Tanner Roark of the Cincinnati Reds and Jordan Lyles of the Pittsburgh Pirates, for instance, are both having nice years as starters but also have experience pitching out of the bullpen.
While the Dodgers should also hunt for elite setup arms to help stabilize their mediocre relief corps, having another pitcher who could both start now and relieve down the stretch seems very useful.
Roark and Lyles are ranked 13th and 14th, respectively, on MLBTradeRumors.com’s list of top 50 midseason trade targets. As it becomes more difficult to envision the Reds or Pirates jumping over the three other National League Central teams to get back into contention, neither would demand a huge prospect package.
Neither of them are stars, but the Dodgers do not need someone of the caliber of Darvish or Manny Machado. Not when they have the frontrunners for both NL MVP and NL Cy Young on their roster.
They just need to put the finishing touches on what is already one of the most talented rosters in baseball.
