Los Angeles Dodgers: Which star acquisition would help the most
By Jason Reed
Gerrit Cole’s impact:
Adding Gerrit Cole did not change the make-up of the Los Angeles Dodgers that much. While there are holes that are still on the roster depth-wise, the Dodgers were pretty much the same team with Cole. The starting rotation consisted of Cole, Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Dustin May and Julio Urias and the lineup was the same song and dance.
The one inherent problem with using a video game to simulate this is that the video game is not necessarily caught up with the Dodgers. For example, the young players such as Gavin Lux, May and Alex Verdugo are not rated as high as their performance next season may earn since they have not yet proven it.
That led to the Dodgers just being a wild-card team with Gerrit Cole. The team went 83-79 with Cole as the ace and a lineup that underperformed, which is possible if all of the young guys slump — we saw it in the playoffs.
The Dodgers finished 15th in batting average, 18th in runs scored and 18th in home runs. The team could be worse offensively than we think next season, but I do not think they will be this bad.
Pitching-wise the Dodgers were not as good as expected. The team ranked 12th in ERA, although in large part due to the bullpen. They ranked first in complete games and fifth in strikeouts.
Cole led the MLB in pitching WAR and was 10th in ERA with a 3.00. Kershaw was second with a 2.29 and Buehler was tied with Cole with 3.00.
The Los Angeles Dodgers lost in the wild-card game to the Philadelphia Phillies. However, Gerrit Cole was named National League Cy Young.