Los Angeles Dodgers: Why Hyun-Jin Ryu won’t be a Dodger in 2020
By Jason Reed
2. Pitching is not a premium for the Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are the one team in Major League Baseball that has consistently been able to work out a solid staff of guys that not only fills the five-man rotation but often extends past it.
If the Dodgers were extremely weak at starting pitcher then I absolutely could see the team wanting to retain Ryu. However, there are plenty of arms to make up for him, which cushions the loss of potentially losing him.
Just right now, the Dodgers are looking at a rotation of Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, Kenta Maeda, Dustin May and Julio Urias. That is assuming that they go with Urias in the rotation and have Tony Gonsolin and Ross Stripling in the bullpen, but that can all be flip-flopped.
That also isn’t taking into consideration the possibility of the Dodgers bringing back Rich Hill on a cheap one-year deal to help eat up innings. There are options there, good ones at that, and the Dodgers aren’t going to lose sleep over losing Ryu.
Just look at the potential there as well. Buehler is entering his third year and proved definitively that he is ready with his solid postseason performance. Kershaw is still reliable in the regular season, Dustin May has electric potential and could be similar to Buehler and Urias has long been touted as a future Cy Young caliber-player.
The only concern would be not having a definitive “ace” on the rotation if Buehler still experiences hiccups and Kershaw continues to be a three ERA pitcher.
And that leads into the third and final point.