Los Angeles Dodgers’ biggest competition for Gerrit Cole
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Dodgers might be in the market for Gerrit Cole and are going to have some strong competitors for Cole’s services.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have been so consistent throughout the decade because of the team’s ability to always have a great pitching staff. It helps that Clayton Kershaw has won three Cy Young Awards and an MVP, but from top to bottom, the Dodgers have continually been great on the rubber.
The team is in a weird situation in the offseason. The Dodgers have plenty of arms already locked down for 2019—Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Kenta Maeda, Julio Urias, Dustin May, Ross Stripling and Tony Gonsolin—that will be options to start on any given day.
That is not counting Hyun-Jin Ryu and Rich Hill, who are impending free agents.
However, after falling short in the NLDS, the Dodgers should be inclined to bring in a top-of-the-line arm. The front office has done a great job in setting up the spending and the team has the money to spend for an elite arm.
And if the Dodgers are going to get an elite arm then there is no better option than Gerrit Cole, who is arguably the best free-agent pitcher in quite some time.
Cole already distanced himself from the Houston Astros by saying he is not an employee of the team after losing Game 7 of the World Series while wearing a Scott Boras hat, which seemingly guarantees what we all thought was going to happen: Cole is going to walk.
Cole is going to have a lot of teams interested, and rightfully so. Maybe Cole ends up just going to the highest bidder, maybe he considers other factors. Regardless, here are the Dodgers’ biggest competition for the Southern California native and the narratives that make each team a threat.