Dodgers start to rebuild starting rotation by signing Hisashi Iwakuma
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Days after being out-bankrolled by the Arizona Diamondbacks, which, wise or not, is not unlike being roofed by your own third-grader, the Los Angeles Dodgers got back to what they do with regularity, and that is acquiring baseball players on Uncle Guggenheim’s dime.
While they worked at freeing Aroldis Chapman from the cash-strapped Cincinnati Reds (a trade that reached fruition Monday morning) and perhaps pondered how a team that got this expensive could have this many holes, the Dodgers reportedly came to terms with 34-year-old right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma, a very decent pitcher and, granted, not Zack Greinke.
The Dodgers have some work to do on their rotation, and it is unlikely anyone they bring in will be Greinke, which – wise or not – is the reality. So, perhaps, they do what they can with starting pitching. They slot Iwakuma after Clayton Kershaw and Brett Anderson after Iwakuma. They hope for the best in Hyun-jin Ryu’s recovery. They tap-tap-tap their fingers on the desktop waiting on prospect Julio Urias. They build a super bullpen in the meantime, then perhaps lay in wait for Kenta Maeda, or angle for Shelby Miller, or fall into something they like in Johnny Cueto or Mike Leake, all of which is to say it’s December and they’re the Dodgers and anything can happen.
It did last December.
Twelve months ago we sat in this very room – albeit in a different hotel in a different state with different Christmas music – and watched the Dodgers become something wholly different, and two months ago we watched them finish the same as they had the year before. And that was with Greinke.
They say they are reaching for something more sustainable than how it looks at the major league level. Corey Seager and Joc Pederson speak to that. It takes time. It takes patience. In that, they almost operate on two fronts: winning at this moment (or trying) and planning for a more reliable and streamlined process in the future. So far it’s amounted to a more robust farm system and a familiar early postseason exit.
In the early hours of the winter meetings, they concentrated on the former. Down one of the best starters in the National League, the Dodgers made their play for Iwakuma, who was 47-25 with a 3.54 ERA in four seasons with the Seattle Mariners. He missed more than two months last season because of a strained side muscle, but otherwise has been fairly durable. In 17 starts after returning from the disabled list, he was 9-4 with a 3.10 ERA. He no-hit the Baltimore Orioles in mid-August. CBS Sports reported the contract to be worth $45 million over three years.
Given the events of the previous few days, the Dodgers were better for the signing. The Mariners, who in spite of trading for Nate Karns last month, will need to find Iwakuma’s innings somewhere else. They had a strong desire to re-sign Iwakuma, and indeed there was talk Iwakuma would allow them a chance to match what he found on the market.
Then the Dodgers backed off on Greinke because of money, and went hunting for ways to soften his departure, and somebody was going to get roofed.
