Only four teams leaned more on their bullpen this season than the Dodgers, whose relievers combined for 648 innings — an average of four innings a game — and might have to carry a heavier workload if the team is to make a deep October run.
For all the firepower of a lineup led by Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers enter the postseason with one of the least imposing rotations of their 12-year playoff run, their staff ravaged by injuries to ace Tyler Glasnow, breakout rookie Gavin Stone and three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw.
Of the four starters lined up for the best-of-five National League Division Series, only Jack Flaherty seems capable of going six innings, and that’s no sure thing — the right-hander went six innings in only one of his last three starts, in which he gave up 10 earned runs and 14 hits, including three homers, and walked nine in 14 innings.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto looked like a front-of-the-rotation horse before a mid-June rotator-cuff strain sidelined him for three months. He went 6-2 with a 2.92 ERA in 14 starts before the injury, but had a choppy buildup after his September return, going four innings in his first two starts, three innings in his third and five innings in his fourth.
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Erstwhile ace Walker Buehler has been inconsistent and often underwhelming in his return from a second Tommy John surgery and a left-hip injury and completed six innings only once in his last 11 starts.
Landon Knack has been a rotation savior of sorts, with a 3-5 record and 3.65 ERA in 15 games, but the rookie right-hander completed six innings in only two of his 12 starts and has never pitched in the postseason.
“We know that with the importance of these games, we might be leaned on a bit more heavily than other parts of the season, but we take it in stride, just like we have all year,” reliever Evan Phillips said. “We take a lot of pride in being relied on, counted on and picking up the rest of the team.”
The Dodgers posted a 3.53 bullpen ERA this season, the fourth-best mark in baseball, and manager Dave Roberts’ trust tree, the term he uses for his bullpen hierarchy, sprouted a few sturdy branches with the trade-deadline acquisition of closer Michael Kopech, the late-season dominance of setup man Blake Treinen and the emergence of Anthony Banda as a second weapon from the left side.
With a deeper bullpen and built-in off days during the playoffs, Roberts should be able to lean on his highest-leverage arms to hold late-game leads and have enough quality arms to absorb five or more innings some nights or throw an occasional bullpen game.
“Obviously, they can’t pitch every game, and there are going to be some series where certain guys may have better runs throughout the lineup and be leaned on more,” said Andrew Friedman, the team’s president of baseball operations.
“But this feels like as good and deep of a bullpen as any we’ve had, and the point of having such a talented and deep group is that it allows us some flexibility to lean on them but not redline them.”
Here’s a closer look at the Dodgers’ projected playoff bullpen, broken down into three tiers:
Lock-down guys
Kopech, acquired from the Chicago White Sox, brought a much-needed edge and anchor to the bullpen, going 4-0 with a 1.13 ERA and six saves in 24 games for the Dodgers, striking out 29 and walking 10 in 24 innings and holding batters to a .118 average and .413 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.
With a fastball that averages 98.7 mph and touches 102 mph, the right-hander has the swing-and-miss stuff to escape jams like he did in Atlanta on Sept. 15, when, with runners on second and third and no outs, Kopech got Travis d’Arnaud to fly out to shallow left field and struck out Orlando Arcia and Jarred Kelenic.
Treinen, who missed most of 2022 and 2023 because of shoulder injuries, went 7-3 with a 1.93 ERA and 16 holds in 50 games, striking out 56 and walking 11 in 46 ⅔ innings, and the right-hander was virtually untouchable in his last 15 games since Aug. 24, allowing now runs and six hits, striking out 18 and walking two in 15 ⅓ innings.
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What makes Treinen so difficult to hit is the movement he gets on his two primary pitches, an 84-mph sweeper that drops an average of 41 inches with a 15-inch arm-side break, and a 94.6-mph sinker that drops an average of 27 inches with a 16.5-inch glove-side break.
Roberts often deployed Kopech against the heart of opposing orders in the eighth inning, but he used Treinen against San Diego’s two-three-four hitters — Fernando Tatis Jr., Jurickson Profar and Manny Machado — in the eighth inning of a 4-3 win over the Padres on Sept. 25 and a 7-2 division-clinching win the following night.
Phillips, who is 5-1 with a 3.62 ERA and 18 saves on the season, lost his closer job during a brutal July in which he gave up 10 runs and 14 hits, including four homers, in 7 ⅔ innings for an 11.74 ERA. The right-hander rebounded with an 0.73 ERA in 14 games in August but was more erratic with a 5.40 ERA in 11 September games.
Phillips is at his best when he can get hitters to chase his 85-mph sweeper, which features a 37-inch drop and 16-inch glove-side break, with two strikes. He struggles more when he can’t get his big bender in the zone.
Middle men
Banda may have finally found a home after bouncing between 10 organizations in nine years, the 31-year-old left-hander using his 97-mph fastball and swing-and-miss 86-mph slider to go 4-2 with a 3.08 ERA in 48 games in which he struck out 50 and walked 18 in 49 ⅔ innings.
Banda, who could be used as an opener in front of Knack, recovered from an embarrassing left-hand fracture — incurred when he struck a paper-towel dispenser with the back of his closed fist in frustration on Sept. 9 — to retire all seven batters he faced in two late-September outings after being activated.
Alex Vesia’s fastball velocity wavered at times — he averaged 93.4 mph with his heater, down from his 94.4-mph average in 2023 — but the left-hander went 5-4 with a 1.76 ERA and five saves in 67 games, striking out 87 and walking 33 in 66 ⅓ innings and holding hitters to a .148 average and .551 OPS.
Vesia’s walk rate is a little high, he gave up seven homers, and he needed 25 pitches or more to complete one inning seven times, but he also held hitters to a .106 average (seven for 66) in at-bats ending with his 85-mph slider.
Ryan Brasier, who missed 3 ½ months from early May to mid-August because of a calf strain, was not as dominant this season (1-0, 3.54 ERA in 29 games) as he was in 2023 (2-0, 0.70 ERA in 39 games).
But the 37-year-old right-hander can still run his fastball up to 95 mph, and he combined his heater with an 85-mph slider to allow only five earned runs and 12 hits in 16 ⅓ innings of his last 17 games for a 2.76 ERA.
Wild cards
The tail end of the Dodgers bullpen is more like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates — you don’t know what you’re going to get.
Joe Kelly, who missed 2 ½ months because of shoulder inflammation, has the potential to dominate with his 98-mph sinker, 87-mph knuckle-curve and 90-mph slider. But the 36-year-old right-hander was erratic throughout a season in which he went 1-1 with a 4.78 ERA in 35 games, striking out 35, walking 16 and hitting five batters in 32 innings.
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Daniel Hudson replaced Phillips as closer and went 4-0 with a 1.23 ERA and four saves in 23 games in June and July, but the 37-year-old right-hander is 0-1 with a 6.35 ERA in 18 games since Aug. 9, with 15 strikeouts, nine walks and five homers allowed in 17 innings.
Edgardo Henriquez, who opened the season at low-A Rancho Cucamonga and was called up in the last week of the season, is on the bubble — he probably won’t make the roster if the Dodgers keep outfielder Kevin Kiermaier as an extra position player.
But what the 22-year-old right-hander who allowed one run and two hits in 3 ⅓ innings of three games lacks in experience he makes up for with a fastball that sits in the 99-mph range and has touched 104 mph.
“Realistically, we’ll just be ready for as many games as we can,” Phillips said. “And when the situation arises and we’re asked to do more, we’ll be prepared for it.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
