Los Angeles Dodgers: Hyun-Jin Ryu may reinvent himself in the bullpen

The Los Angeles Dodgers have one of the best issues a team can have – they have too much starting pitching talent.

Clayton Kershaw, Alex Wood, Rich Hill, Kenta Maeda, Brandon McCarthy, and Hyun-Jin Ryu. Those six arms act as the anchor of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Owning the best pitching staff in all of baseball, the Dodgers have relied on a multitude of arms to help carry the team to the fourth best record in the National League.

After a rocky start, the Dodgers have rebounded quite nicely to surge themselves back into contention. Up to April 27th, the Dodgers held a 10-12 record, putting them in the middle of the MLB pack. However, since then, the Dodgers have rallied to an MLB-best 18-8 record.

During this stretch, the Dodgers have scored an MLB leading 147 runs while only allowing 94 runs, the third least in baseball. This has given the Dodgers a +53 run differential, the next best team being the Houston Astros with a +42 run differential.

A combination of dynamic bats and great pitching has led to this surge in the standings for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Despite thriving, however, the team has battled a multitude of injuries. The team’s best hitter in Justin Turner is currently out with a hamstring strain. Add in various injuries to pitchers, and it is quite clear we have not seen the best Dodgers unit on the field.

However, for the first time seemingly all season, the entire Dodgers pitching staff is healthy. Maeda and Hill recently returned from their DL stints, and Ryu has been off the DL for several weeks now. Finally, the Dodgers have to address what to do with six starting pitchers, and they have seemed to find the answer.

First, the Dodgers simplified things by sending phenom in the making Julio Urias back to the minors. Urias came up to help make starts for the MLB unit, either thriving in his appearances or getting rocked by veteran MLB hitters.

With Urias gone, this leaves the Dodgers with the much more simple task of managing six starting arms instead of seven. Running a six-man rotation is certainly an option for the Dodgers, however, Dave Roberts has taken a different route.

More from Los Angeles Dodgers

• Los Angeles Dodgers: Clayton Kershaw can bury the narrative
• LA Dodgers: Julio Urias was key to winning a championship
• LA Dodgers: All parties to blame for Justin Turner COVID debacle
• LA Dodgers: Corey Seager was rightfully named World Series MVP
• Los Angeles Dodgers: World Series Champions by the numbers

In last night’s 7-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals, we only saw two pitchers throw, starting pitcher Maeda, and new bullpen arm Ryu. Maeda threw for five innings while Ryu threw for four, garnering a four-inning save. This marked the first bullpen appearance for Ryu and may be a permanent fixture on our television screens.

The Dodgers made this exact same move with young starting pitcher Ross Stripling last year. This move has allowed Stripling to stay in the MLB and has given the team one of their best bullpen arms.

Moving Ryu to the bullpen allows the pen to eat innings, which is extremely important as we have seen the Los Angeles Dodgers struggle with how many arms to use.

Sure, one scoreless four-inning outing is not enough to write Ryu off as a tremendous bullpen arm, however, his career stats may be a signal of this transition. Hitters have hit .400 off of Ryu this season when facing him for the third time in a game. They also bat .309 in their first plate appearance, with Ryu’s best stat coming when hitters face him a second time – .228.

It is apparent, Ryu needs to get in his groove to get hitters out, however, if left in for too long he can suffer. Throwing him in the bullpen makes perfect sense. These hitters won’t be able to jump on him, especially if they faced a right-hander earlier in the night, and Ryu won’t stay in long enough to get banged up.

Next: How good is the Dodgers bullpen?

Of course, hindsight is always 20/20, but before last night’s game, I actually called for Ryu to move to the bullpen. Right now it seems to be the best move for the Los Angeles Dodgers.