Los Angeles Dodgers: Southpaw relievers to consider trading for
By Jason Reed
The one humanizing part about the Los Angeles Dodgers this year has been the bullpen, which could desperately use an upgrade on the left side of things.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have far and away been the best team in the National League thus far this year and are arguably the best team in the MLB. While the Minnesota Twins have a better winning percentage, the Dodgers are so talented that they should be regarded as the best in the league, at least right now.
Nearly everything has been going right for the Dodgers. The offense is not experiencing the same home run or bust struggle as it did last season and the bad nights are few and far between. This is very promising because even the best offenses have a lot of bad nights. The Dodgers have limited those.
The starting pitching has been absolutely remarkable as well. Hyun-Jin Ryu is the best pitcher in the league right now, Clayton Kershaw has been as consistent as they come and the Walker Buehler, Rich Hill and Kenta Maeda have all had more good nights than bad.
Overall, it has been great, aside from the bullpen. While the bullpen woes are a bit overblown since the rest of the team is so solid, the bullpen still is the worst area of the team.
In particular, the Dodgers need help in left-handed pitching out of the bullpen. Scott Alexander has been inconsistent this year, Caleb Ferguson has not looked good since hitting the IL and Julio Urias could be punished by the league for his domestic violence arrest if found guilty.
While the farm has produced southpaw relievers before, the Dodgers are likely going to turn to the trade market to try and bolster the ‘pen. Luckily for them, as is the case every year, there are going to be options.