The Dodgers are unlikely to have Julio Urias for the rest of this year as an investigation begins regarding his arrest for domestic violence. He was placed on administrative leave on Wednesday “until further notice.”
However, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman doesn’t think the situation will affect the Dodgers’ competitiveness during the postseason.
He affirmed his confidence in the pitching and the team to reporters on Tuesday.
“There are still so many unknowns that we haven’t wrapped our arms around that yet. We feel like we have really talented arms both in Triple-A, on the IL and on our active roster that we feel like we’re going to have a lot of talent on our pitching staff in October. We might not know exactly who the 13 are going to be right now. But we feel very confident that we will be bringing some big-boy stuff to the table and the ability to match up in different ways to put our offense in a position to shine.”
This season the Dodgers have searched for quality starting pitching just about everywhere they could find it. Bobby Miller, Gavin Stone, Emmet Sheehan, Michael Grove and Ryan Pepiot have all gotten opportunities as rookies to make an impact on this pitching staff, and it’s likely we see multiple of them on the postseason roster.
Additionally, Walker Buehler is continuing to work his way back from having Tommy John surgery in August of 2022. On Sunday, he was brilliant in two innings at AAA. According to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, Buehler will pitch another two innings. If he can remain healthy through his rehab assignment, Buehler should be able to contribute to the Dodgers during the postseason.
After earning a spot in the Dodger starting rotation, Pepiot suffered an oblique injury that took four months to heal. In his three major league start this year, though, he has been fantastic.
Sheehan and Stone have performed well in limited opportunities, and should receive more opportunities in September. Between all the rookies, Clayton Kershaw and Lance Lynn, the Dodgers will have their fair share of arms to start postseason games. Hopefully Kershaw can get healthy, though, and Lynn can solve his home run problems.
Photo Credit: Joe Puetz-USA TODAY Sports
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