The Dodgers’ different huge want this offseason, Gomes confirmed Wednesday, is beginning pitching.
And whereas the free-agent market is wealthy with veteran expertise, the group is monitoring star Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki, too.
A 23-year-old right-hander with a triple-digit fastball and profession 2.02 ERA in his native nation’s Nippon Skilled Baseball league, it’s unsure if Sasaki will likely be posted for MLB golf equipment to signal this offseason. But when he’s, he’ll come as a discount, since league guidelines for worldwide free brokers underneath the age of 25 would prohibit him to signing solely a minor league contract with a modest signing bonus (just like when Shohei Ohtani, then additionally 23, signed with the Angels for $2.3 million in 2017).
Sasaki, whom Gomes declined to debate Wednesday since he’s nonetheless underneath membership management in Japan, has been lengthy coveted by the Dodgers and closely scouted by their executives in recent times.
And with the Dodgers thought of favorites to signal him if he does come to MLB this winter, he might characterize the entrance workplace’s dream acquisition: A younger, gifted, cost-controlled pitcher to bolster a beginning rotation beset by accidents in recent times.
The Dodgers, after all, can have different avenues if Sasaki doesn’t turn into their newest Japanese acquisition.
Two-time Cy Younger Award winner Blake Snell could be the obvious title for the Dodgers to pursue. Final spring, the group made a late play for the left-hander earlier than he signed with the San Francisco Giants. And although the soon-to-be 32-year-old is anticipated to fetch the sort of nine-figure contract that eluded him final offseason, his monitor document of sturdy success (he’s high 15 within the majors in each ERA and begins since 2017) ought to make him a precedence goal for the Dodgers once more this winter.
If not Snell, the Dodgers might pivot to different huge names.
Corbin Burnes is a former Cy Younger winner whom the Dodgers had commerce curiosity in final yr, although is projected to command much more cash than Snell, which could value him out of the Dodgers’ plans.
Max Fried is a Harvard-Westlake product who has a profession 3.25 ERA, but in addition battled forearm accidents the final two seasons, one thing the Dodgers should weigh given the opposite health-related query marks already populating their pitching employees.
The subsequent tier of free-agent starters contains Jack Flaherty (the Dodgers’ key commerce deadline acquisition this previous yr), Nathan Eovaldi (a veteran the Dodgers had been monitoring on the commerce deadline earlier than buying and selling for Flaherty), Yusei Kikuchi, Sean Manaea and Luis Severino.
After which there’s Walker Buehler, whom the Dodgers stay concerned about re-signing even after declining to increase him a one-year, $21-million qualifying supply this week.
The Dodgers may very well be open to nonetheless paying Buehler one thing in that ballpark, relying on how the remainder of his market develops. And Gomes emphasised that Buehler’s contributions within the postseason, together with closing out Recreation 5 of the World Sequence on at some point of relaxation, “does not go lost on us.”
On the similar time, nevertheless, it’s doable Buehler might fetch proposals past what the Dodgers are keen to match, particularly since he isn’t encumbered by the qualifying supply (which, if he had declined, would have required different groups to forfeit draft compensation to signal him).
Like most issues this time of yr, the Dodgers stay in wait-and-see mode for now.
