Los Angeles Dodgers: Why a Manny Machado trade should not happen
By Jason Reed
1. The Los Angeles Dodgers first need to add relief pitching
To be fair, the Los Angeles Dodgers pitching staff has been pretty good this season. However, it has been carried by a starting rotation that has overachieved and the backend of the bullpen, AKA Kenley Jansen, who has been lights out since a slow start.
It is that bridge between the starting rotation and Jansen that gets a little shaky. Some nights, the bullpen comes in and delivers a master class performance. Other nights they are just decent and get the job done, some nights they can give up a lead entirely.
When it comes to the postseason, manager Dave Roberts needs more arms that he can trust in big situations. Last season we saw that he only really trusted Brandon Morrow and Kenta Maeda out of the bullpen in big moments. While they did fine, Morrow pitched in all seven World Series games, which obviously had an effect on his performance.
Plus, when the same team sees the same arm out of the bullpen every time they are going to grow accustomed to him. These are big league hitters, after all.
The last thing the Dodgers need is an arm in the bullpen that they rarely ever use, like Brandon McCarthy last World Series. Instead, the Dodgers need to look for relief help from the likes of Kyle Barraclough, Adam Conley, Raisel Iglesias and Brad Hand.