The Los Angeles Dodgers are sitting pretty right now. They’ve clinched the best record in the MLB and will have home-field advantage throughout the 2024 playoffs. Shohei Ohtani is on a historic MVP tear and their sluggers are dialed in at the plate. However, all teams have an Achilles heel, and Los Angeles’ may be their rotation.
The Dodgers have three crucial weaknesses in their rotation heading into the playoffs
1. Dodgers have three of their top pitchers including ace Tyler Glasnow on the shelf
The Dodgers have an abundance of talent on their roster. The problem is, they’re not all healthy. Their ace, Tyler Glasnow, is destined to ride out the rest of 2024 on the 60-day IL with an elbow sprain and tendinitis, as is the case with Gavin Stone and his season-ending shoulder injury, both of whom combine for a 20-11 record on the year.
Then there’s Clayton Kershaw, the three-time NL Cy Young award winner, former 2020 World Series champion, and still capable starter. As of Friday, Sept. 27, it was widely reported that Kershaw isn’t expected to return for at least a couple of weeks due to a bone spur that has caused inflammation in his left big toe. Though his 4.50 ERA on the campaign is uncharacteristic, there’s no doubt that he’d be looked at to turn it on in the postseason.
2. Jack Flaherty and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are the strength of the Dodgers’ pitching rotation
Behind that injured triumvirate of star talent, Yoshinobu Yamamoto has bounced back from a midseason injury that kept him out from June 15 until Sept. 10 and put a stamp on his campaign with a convincing win in the Dodgers’ 13-2 rout of the Colorado Rockies on Saturday. He figures to be Los Angeles’ No. 2 arm behind Jack Flaherty.
Yamamoto hasn’t seen more than four innings since June 7. His ERA has been pristine, but it begs to question if he’s had enough time to round into form after such a long layoff. The Dodgers also have Walker Buehler and Landon Knack that they’ll have to rely on to deliver key wins midway through their upcoming postseason series.
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3. The help around Flaherty and Yamamoto on the Dodgers is questionable
Buehler’s stuff is there, to an extent, as he’s boasted a 95 mph fastball. However, the 30-year-old has not translated that to efficacy in the strike zone, as his 24.5 percent chase percentage and 19.4 percent whiff percentage rank in the ninth and seventh percentiles league-wide respectively, and his strikeout percentage of 18.6 percent places him barely any better in the 16th percentile. He also recently came out and stated that he had doubts about whether or not he had what it takes to still compete in the Majors.
Meanwhile, Knack owns a strong opponent batting average of .224 in his 2024 rookie season for the Dodgers, but has no playoff experience and has also only won back-to-back starts once this year, and both wins came 21 days apart from one another. To add to the uncertainty in the rotation, Bobby Miller saw his season end in Triple-A after seeing his ERA balloon up to 8.52 on the year.
Outside of them, Justin Wrobleski has seen an increased workload in September and could try to make a case for himself in these upcoming playoffs. The 24-year-old, also in his rookie year, has a 5.70 ERA across six starts and a 1.376 WHIP that the Dodgers will have to consider if they’ll need to deploy him against a stout Philadelphia Phillies batting order, or that of the winner of the Milwaukee Brewers and New York Mets’ incoming Wild Card series.
The Dodgers don’t have any other pitchers on their roster who have made more than four starts this year. Thus, they’ll need the guys they have active to stay healthy and play above expectations in order to give their sluggers support on the mound. The National League is filled with talent in the playoffs pool, and the Dodgers have too many question marks in their rotation to settle on their lees as a result.