LOS ANGELES — It is, in the words of Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy, “a nice problem to have,” and considering the sorry state of the team’s beleaguered bullpen and the inconsistency of the offense, the Dodgers will gladly deal with it.
The dilemma facing Manager Dave Roberts and the front office: how to squeeze five playoff-worthy starting pitchers – Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw – into a three-man rotation for a National League wild-card series that begins on Sept. 30.
“Well, it wouldn’t be fun,” Muncy said of the decision, “but on the other side of it, I don’t think you can make a wrong choice.”
It has been five years since the Dodgers, who had baseball’s best record from 2022-2024, began postseason play with a three-game series, the Dodgers sweeping Milwaukee to begin their march to the World Series title in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
The Dodgers were a wild-card team in 2021 but only needed a one-game victory over St. Louis to advance to a National League Division Series. Playoff fields were expanded to six teams in each league in 2022, with wild-card series bumped to a best-of-three.
With Milwaukee and Philadelphia virtual locks to finish with the NL’s two best records and earn first-round byes this season, the Dodgers will have to win a best-of-three wild-card series to advance to the NLDS against the Brewers or Phillies.
“It’s been a while since we’ve been in this situation, but that’s where we’re at,” Roberts said before Thursday night’s series opener against the San Francisco Giants. “We’re not gonna run from it, but yeah, those conversations are going to start happening.”
With nine games left in the regular season, Ohtani, Yamamoto and Snell appear to have a slight edge over Glasnow and Kershaw.
Ohtani, who pitches once a week, is scheduled to start Tuesday night at Arizona, which would line him up for a Game 1 wild-card start on Sept. 30. The two-way star is 1-1 with a 3.29 ERA in 13 starts since returning to the mound in mid-June and threw five no-hit innings against Philadelphia on Tuesday night.
Yamamoto is a Cy Young Award candidate who entered Thursday night’s start against the Giants with an 11-8 record and 2.66 ERA in 28 starts.
The left-handed Snell missed four months because of shoulder inflammation but has been dominant in his last two starts, allowing four hits, striking out 23 and walking four in 13 scoreless innings against Colorado and Philadelphia.
Strong arguments could also be made for Glasnow and Kershaw – Glasnow is 2-3 with a 2.66 ERA in 11 starts since returning from a shoulder injury in July, and Kershaw, a three-time NL Cy Young Award winner and 18-year veteran, is 10-2 with a 3.53 ERA in 20 starts after missing most of 2024 because of injury.
“He’s been a huge part of this year – we certainly wouldn’t be in this position in the standings without him,” Roberts said of Kershaw, who fortified an injury plagued rotation all summer. “I think the person, the experience, in whatever role he’s willing to take on, is a positive. I still feel there’s a role for him.”
The two starters who don’t earn wild-card rotation spots will likely join right-hander Emmet Sheehan, who is 6-3 with a 3.17 ERA in 13 games, in the bullpen, perhaps in “piggyback” roles that would ease the burden on a bullpen that ranks 20th in baseball with a 4.29 relief ERA and has 24 blown saves, the fifth most in the league.
“Those guys who make the big money will make those decisions,” Muncy said. “They get to play the matchups and all the analytics of it and say these are our best options. Part of what makes our clubhouse so great is everyone buys into what we’re doing. There’s not a lot of egos when it comes to things like this.”
ALSO
The Dodgers are preparing Roki Sasaki for a possible relief role in the playoffs. The rookie right-hander, who had a 6.75 ERA in five starts of a rehabilitation assignment for Triple-A Oklahoma City, pitched out of the bullpen on Thursday night. Sasaki struck out two and walked one, his fastball touching 100 mph, in a scoreless inning for OKC at Tacoma. … Muncy, who did not start three of four games after taking a 94-mph fastball to the back of the helmet in San Francisco on Saturday, returned to the lineup in the cleanup spot Thursday night. “I just needed a couple of days,” Muncy said. “You wear one in the back of your head, you think you’re OK, but as you get older, those things don’t go away as quickly as they used to.”
UP NEXT
Giants (LHP Robbie Ray, 11-7, 3.50 ERA) at Dodgers (LHP Clayton Kershaw, 10-2, 3.453 ERA), Friday, 7:10 p.m., Apple TV+, 570 AM