Los Angeles Dodgers: Which star acquisition would help the most
By Jason Reed
The impact of Anthony Rendon:
Anthony Rendon changed things around a lot more than Gerrit Cole did. Adding Rendon moved him to third base, Justin Turner to first base, Max Muncy to second base and Gavin Lux either to the bench to be used as a substitute or to the minor leagues to continue to hone his craft.
I am not too sure what the Dodgers would do in this situation as it would give the team one infielder too many, but that is what we went with for this simulation.
As for the starting rotation, we added Kenta Maeda into the staff as we would assume that the Dodgers would use him as a starter, not a reliever, hence keeping him around without adding Cole. That gave us a starting rotation of Kershaw, Buehler, Maeda, Urias and May.
The results speak for themself. Maeda and Urias did very well in this simulation, as did Kershaw and Buehler. Kershaw finished with a 2.35 ERA, Buehler a 2.71 ERA, Maeda a 3.42 and Urias a 4.33.
The bullpen was better with the addition of Tony Gonsolin but it was the offense that really fueled this team. Rendon himself did repeat his MVP performance, as he hit 30 home runs, drove in 89 RBIs and hit .269, but he somehow made the rest of the team play better.
Cody Bellinger won the MVP for the second year in a row and Justin Turner won a gold glove at first base. The Dodgers still ranked low in batting average (14th with a .259) but ranked fourth in home runs and seventh in runs scored.
The team set a new franchise record with 107 wins but still could not get past the Philadelphia Phillies. They went up 2-0 in this NLDS against the Phillies, only to lose the next three.