Los Angeles Dodgers: What a perfect offseason would look like
By Jason Reed
The finished product:
The Los Angeles Dodgers would still have just over $10 million as a cushion for arbitration discussions and stay under the luxury tax. With all of these moves, this is how the depth chart would look for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
- Starting pitchers: Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Rich Hill, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Julio Urias (5)
- Bullpen: Kenley Jansen, Adam Ottavino, Kenta Maeda, Caleb Ferguson, Pedro Baez, Scott Alexander, Dylan Floro, Ross Stripling (8)
- Infielders: Cody Bellinger, Max Muncy, Enrique Hernandez, Corey Seager, Justin Turner, David Freese, J.T. Realmuto, Austin Barnes (8)
- Outfielders: Bryce Harper, Yasiel Puig, Alex Verdugo, Chris Taylor (4)
That would be the team’s best 25-man roster and doesn’t include arms like Dennis Santana, Tony Cingrani or J.T. Chargois. The team, even by trading two outfielders and signing Harper to a massive deal, would have enough depth.
Muncy and Hernandez would serve as the second base platoon, Muncy starting every game against right-handed pitchers and Hernandez playing in tough matchups against southpaws.
Only having four outfielders is not concerning to the Dodgers considering that Bellinger and Hernandez can both play the outfield.
Of course, the Dodgers always use a ton of platoons so it is hard to create a “starting nine” for this team. However, the best starting nine, which would come against right-handed pitching, is so good.
Verdugo (CF), Seager (SS), Turner (3B), Harper (LF), Muncy (2B), Realmuto (C) Bellinger (1B), Puig (RF) and the pitcher is not a lineup that pitchers want to see. Realmuto is a nice right-handed hitting piece to put between Muncy and Bellinger for matchup reasons.
That is a World Series winning team. I know the offseason is not that easy, but in a perfect world, this is the best route the team can go.