With Clayton Kershaw on the DL, Dodgers turn to trade market
LOS ANGELES — This town eats pitchers. Not pitchers like, what, carafes, the kind that carry water, though if you could make one out of kale watch out. The kind that carry baseball seasons.
On Thursday it was Clayton Kershaw, who’d made 20 percent of the Dodgers’ starts, was mostly responsible for 33 percent of their wins, and now will squeeze onto a disabled list that’s at clown-car capacity.
Kershaw of course leads baseball in ERA, innings pitched, WHIP, strikeouts-to-walks, shutouts and plenty of other areas. He’s won 11 games and the mercurial Dodgers have won 14 of his 16 starts. His daily model of preparation and dedication is the one the other 24 aspire to, which is not insignificant. It is the rare every-fifth-day teammate who possesses the clubhouse and on-field authority to lead, and Kershaw is not only the Dodgers’ most valuable player, but could also be the National League’s, which is rarer still.
So, yeah, a clunky start in Pittsburgh, followed by news of a sore back, followed by an unscheduled return to L.A. to see a specialist, followed by a vague diagnosis and an epidural injection and two weeks (at least) of rest is a season changer. Any attempt to determine the extent of the change — three months still are out there, after all — would amount to guesswork, though this is where we point out the Dodgers’ record when Kershaw watches from the dugout rail is 29-35.
Life without Kershaw begins Friday night at Dodger Stadium against the Colorado Rockies, against whom Kershaw is 17-5 with a 3.20 ERA (17 of 31 starts were in Denver) and one no-hitter. To that end, the Dodgers on Thursday acquired well-traveled 31-year-old right-hander Bud Norris from the Atlanta Braves for a couple minor leaguers. Norris is an average pitcher who fell out of the Braves’ rotation in April, fell back into it in June, and has a 2.15 ERA over five starts since.
Norris’ long-term value — and that’s looking ahead over three months, and assuming Kershaw returns in a reasonable amount of time, and assuming others do as well — might be in the bullpen, where his ERA was 1.96 in 12 appearances for the Braves between starting gigs.
Operating a month before the trading deadline, the Dodgers did not acquire — or have not yet acquired — Julio Teheran, the Braves’ best starter, or for that matter any of the league’s other higher-end starters thought to be available. The Dodgers passed last summer on the likes of Cole Hamels, Johnny Cueto and David Price, and then were exposed after Kershaw’s and Zack Greinke’s turns.
It is a reasonable assumption president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman will seek further pitching options. Remember about this town eating pitchers? Here’s the rotation the Dodgers could field from their DL alone:
Kershaw
Brandon McCarthy
Brett Anderson
Hyun-jin Ryu
Alex Wood
As a result, Norris’ start — presumably against the Rockies on Friday night — will give the Dodgers 10 different starting pitchers in 82 games. Four of those 10 — Kenta Maeda, Julio Urias, Ross Stripling and, Wednesday, Brock Stewart — had not pitched before in the big leagues. Still, and primarily because of Kershaw, they have the fifth-best starters’ ERA in the National League.
