Los Angeles Dodgers Bullpen Disaster & October Outlook | Dylan Hernández

Hey, check out this tweet from Dylan Hernandez, LA Times columnist, joining us in five seconds. Very simple. Tanner Scott does it again. A lack of words from just about anyone right now when we’re talking about one of the biggest reliever signings moneywise of the offseason. And Dylan joins us right now. Dylan, when you saw what happened, what were your thoughts? If we force you to say more than one sentence, what were your thoughts? just wow, you know, I mean, it’s it’s kind of uh Otani in reverse, right? Where, you know, Otani kind of seems to amaze you and kind of take your breath away time and time again and you’re like, “Oh my god, he did it again.” Uh this is like almost that in reverse, right? Where you’re just kind of seeing like, you know, at some point he’s got to get it right, you think? You know, and uh yeah, he just kind of did it again last night. Is this the biggest bust signing? I mean, is this Can we call the signing a bust already? even if they go out and win the World Series because he signed a three-year deal and he was one of the guys that the Dodger fans were saying, “Oh man, we’re never gonna blow a lead with this because we have Scott and Trinan and Kirby Yates and Vessia and we have an unstoppable bullpen Copek and we’re never going to lose and now all of a sudden he’s blown what 10 saves and he’s his record is god awful.” 11 inning. Was it 11 innings giving up 11 runs or something crazy? Yeah, it hasn’t been good for sure, you know, and I think that right I mean this is the type of contract uh really that the Dodgers have kind of avoided giving to relievers outside of Kenley Jansen, right? Who was kind of a special case, right? This is we’re talk, you know, Jansen we’re talking about, you know, a guy that was kind of like on his way to the Hall of Fame all-time, you know, career saves leader for the franchise and really stabilize that bullpen. Yeah, this one can turn out to be pretty bad, right? I mean, I think that this isn’t the type of contract that you can unload. I think you got three more years after this. Um, you know, and just I think, you know, I mean, if you kind of go back and look at it, I mean, the irony is is kind of Otan’s fault in that, right? He faced Otani four times last year in the NLDS. Otani couldn’t hit this guy at all. And the Dodgers just said, you know what, hell with it. Let’s let’s go get this guy. Uh, you know, partially to take him away from other teams. And the thing just kind of backfired spectacularly. I mean, if Otani gets like one hit off this guy in the postseason, I’m not sure they give him $72 million. Finally, they can blame something that’s not going well on Otani. Everything else is peaches for Otani. But on Tanner Scott, is this a mishandling of Tanner Scott? Has the Dodgers mantra that works for so many people besides keeping pitchers healthy been did they handle him incorrectly? I don’t I don’t watch enough games and didn’t look up enough stats or is this all a Tanner Scott thing? Yeah, I actually think that that it was they did mishandle, right, in the sense that they didn’t have like a real ninth inning guy coming into the season. I mean, what made Tanner Scott so good in the playoffs last year was like, okay, Otani comes up, you bring in Tanner Scott left on left. Uh, yeah, you do have to kind of get through Muki after that, but then it’s Freddy Freeman, right? And and he really did a great job, right? The Padres’s kind of deployed him very strategically kind of throwing him against those lefties. uh you know, and I think at the beginning of the season, you get him kind of out of his comfort zone. Uh he starts getting hit and then things just kind of snowballed, right? I mean, I think at this point, um you’re just kind of watching kind of with the you know, uncharacteristic fear with what he’s pitching right now. Uh you know, it appears to be just as much of a mental problem now than anything. So yeah, I think this kind of goes back to the beginning and maybe, you know, again, the role that he had last year that earned him this deal, that’s not the same role really that he was asked to to perform this season. Dylan, first of all, what do they do right now? If it’s a one-run lead in the ninth, they’re not bringing in Tanner Scott and this is just a regular season. What if they get to the postseason? Will he be on the roster? And would it be Kershaw closing games? Would it be I mean I can’t believe I’m about to say this. Roki Suzaki in the bullpen to maybe close some games. I don’t know what what do they do because this was supposed to be again a lockown bullpen and who closes a game in the wildard round game one with a one-run lead in the ninth. Yeah, I think these are all great questions. I don’t think they know right now, you know. I mean, even coming into this week, I think it was very telling. You know, I asked um Dave Roberts, you know, kind of over the last week of the season, you’re only going to have so many, you know, high leverage innings. Uh, you know, do you do you use those innings to get guys like Tanner Scott and Blake Trinan, right? Or do you use them more on kind of like experimental guys, right? Like the the Roki Sasakis, uh, you know, maybe Will Klein, who just got called back up and, you know, looked okay in his first two appearances. Um, and, you know, Dave Roberts really didn’t have an answer at that point. I don’t I think at this point they’re just gonna Yeah, I don’t know. You know, I mean, I think that’s a really good question. I mean, I I kind of personally like the Kershaw thing just because we know at least he won’t like shrink from the moment. Uh, you know, that said, if you kind of look at him this year, the one inning that’s given him trouble is actually the first inning, right, in his start. So, you know, coming in cold like that, is he going to be able, right? This is something he’s never done before. Um, you know, Sasaki has never, you know, until last week that he pitched those two uh made those two relief appearances at Triple A, he had never pitched in relief in his life. Uh, so they’re at a very very desperate state right now. I mean, I my feeling is that no option is a good one at this point. You know, they’re probably, you know, like let’s just theoretically say they they do get to the World Series somehow. You know, my guess is that you’re going to have, you know, guys like Otani, Yamamoto, not just starting games, but maybe even closing out a game of series or something because I just don’t know how they’re going to fill up, you know, fill up these innings. You know, I know Alex Vessia has been like their most reliable guy. You know, if there’s one guy you’re going to kind of designate as like this is our guy in the bullpen, it’s Alex Vessia. Well, he had to pitch the eighth inning yesterday, right? He had to face Marte and Carol. I mean, he that was kind of the the meat of the lineup there. So, you can’t save him for the ninth in that situation. Um, yeah, and I don’t I don’t know what they’re going to do. I mean, I think and there’s really not enough time to really kind of figure out what you got going on here. You know, they brought in Jack Dryer, who’s looked pretty good kind of in lowle leverage situations. They pitched him in kind of a pressure situation last night. He gave up runs. You know, you know, Edgardo Enriquez certainly has like the, you know, the the the, you know, I would say the presence of a future closer. Uh, he’s pretty fast ball dominant at this point and he’s, again, he’s looked good in lowle leverage situations. Do you want to bring him this young kid in in the ninth? Uh, I don’t know. You know, and again, I I I think, you know, they’re going to need some luck, uh, you know, to kind of figure this out on the fly probably, uh, because they’re going to, you know, one of one or two of these experiments could go really really wrong. First of all, Dylan, Yamamoto’s not throwing on anything but six days rest. He ain’t closing Jack out. That guy hasn’t seen a mound outside of his six days of rest that he gets. But secondly, why do we need to have this conversation? They have the best starting rotation. Will the Dodgers allow those guys to stay in the game unlike every other year that we’ve seen the Dodgers where it’s like five and dive, see you later. Are they is Dave Roberts going to completely flip the analytical switch and go glass? Now, Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Show, you guys have been nails the last month. We’re keeping you in for six, maybe even seven or eight innings. I don’t think he has a choice, right? And you know, one thing I’ve kind of been telling people is I think in a way Roberts might be kind of be getting set up almost for a Grady Little moment, right? I mean, if anything, you know, kind of the irony here is right up until this point, Roberts has been criticized a lot for pulling the starters too early. Obviously, there’s input from the front office. I mean, he’s not making these decisions on his own. But, you know, kind of in this hypothetical situation, you know, like let’s be honest, right? Blake Snell, as good as he is in the playoffs, he’s kind of like a five inning pitcher. Uh right, let’s hypothetically say you’re in the sixth inning now. Uh and your option is to right continue to go with Blake Snell or bring in Edgardo Enriquez, who again is kind of a a very, you know, talented but um you know, pitcher with like a fairly limited arsenal at this point. Um my guess is that a lot of times now he’s going to kind of lean on these starting pitchers to kind of get through that inning. And you know, I I could see this just the way the game has evolved and everything that that could also kind of backfire. We don’t see guys, you know, I mean, the game has changed for a reason, right? I mean, the you got all these guys coming out of the bullpen throwing a hundred. Uh, you know, you kind of change them up according to kind of the matchups. Um, you know, guys obviously do better, you know, second time through the lineup, third time through the lineup. Uh, you know, and I do kind of wonder if Roberts is going to be in a position where he’s going to, you know, have to kind of bet on the starter just because of the lack of alternatives here. FT fam, it’s still time for you to check out what bathing suit you’re wearing and why it’s not Fair Harbor. Can we get a little showand tell from Eric Kratz? Nice. I mean, unfortunately, you can’t even see all the little intricacies. We got sharks, we got patterns, we got waves, we got sailboats. Oh, and they feel super buttery on your skin. Can you show us the liner so people can understand how it’s different because I’ve actually been talking it up. I was just on a vacation. I got the unique liner, too. I got the I got the baby blue. Joan, something about it. I don’t know. It like it pops. Head to fairh harborclo.com/foul20 and use code foul2020. FAL20 for 20% off your order. Once again, that’s fair hblo.com backfal20 for 20% off. Make sure you use that promo code foul 20 so they know FT sent you. How big of a deal is it that they’re going to have to play the wild card round for the first time in a while here? They’re they’re going to have to play those three extra games. Whether it’s against the Mets, the Reds, the Diamondbacks, whoever that six seed is, how important is that? Because that is just more innings on if Show’s lined up to be the game one guy, it’s more innings on show, more on Yamamoto, more innings on Snell, more innings on Glass. now, right? How they’ve always been able to kind of just skip to the next. We’ll just skip to the next round, right? We fast forward through that and only have to worry about three series. Now they’re going to possibly have to worry about four series. Yeah. No, I mean it’s, you know, we’ve Right. I mean, it’s baseball. Three game series. Anything can happen first of all, right? And and not only is it more innings for those starters, it’s also more innings that the bullpen’s going to have to cover. I mean, every time you go to the bullpen, there’s a chance that something really, really bad is going to happen, you know? And I think too what’s going to be kind of scary here for them is, you know, how do they line up as starting pitchers for that wild card series? Uh, you know, obviously there’s one idea that you go snail Yamamoto and then you kind of save Otani for game three basically hoping that you don’t have to use him at all in that wild card round, you know, or that if you do, maybe you use him as a reliever to kind of close out game two. Uh, but what if you lose those two games? I mean, you are you going to really end your season with Shi Otani not pitching? Uh that’s a problem, right? I mean, you know, we always kind of talk about you want to lose at least with your guys out there. Uh so yeah it also kind of adds this kind of layer of decision making which you know if anything right I mean we we’ve I think there’s been a lot of conversation how smart this front office is and I think to some degree they’ve earned that reputation but you know they’ve also had a pension for overthinking at times and this is the type of situation actually where I could see them thinking themselves out of starting Otani in one of those first two games and potentially even losing again with him not even having thrown a pitch in that series. Wow. Hey, I wanted to get a question in. Insane. That’s insane. He’s got to start game one. He’s been their best pitcher. Yeah. And he’s lined up for it. He’s lined up for it. I mean, he threw six innings last night. He’s lined up for it. Didn’t It hasn’t been affecting his offense as much as it has in the past, right? He’s I mean, if I’m them, I I go Otani, Yell, Yamamoto, or some some form of those three because they’ve been your three best. What? Look, I would go with Tonnie game one just to just just to be clear. But I think if you also kind of look ahead in the schedule, you pitch game one, you can pitch game two of the NLDS on five days rest, then you can pitch that that whoever starts at game two can come back for game five on four days rest. Right? So, if you look at their top three guys, Yamamoto, uh, Otani, Snell, um, you know, of that group, Snell is the only guy that’s pitched on four days rest like even like in his career, I think, you know, so I think because of that, I wouldn’t be shocked if they went with Snell with game one just to again because they’re kind of trying to roll this out forward. But again, I agree with you. I think you got to throw your best guy first. You got to win. You got to win that series. You got to worry about the DS and the LCS if you don’t win the wild card. Yeah. And also, by the way, in the wild card, I mean, people are freaking out about the bullpen. You got to get through the wild card round. Like, you don’t have to use any of the guys that people are complaining about. Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, etc., right? Like, you you could theoretically go, who are our best pitchers. Glass now, Snell, Otani, maybe Kershaw, EMTT Sheen. Like, you could just combine all those guys and have them pitch. We’ve seen it plenty of times before, right? I mean, Kershaw, what they do with Kershaw is fascinating, too. Whatever they figure out, whatever they decide to do with him, it’s bullpen. I know, but imagine him coming in and last game ever and he’s closing out the World Series. Crazy, but it could happen, right? That’ be awesome. Yeah. I mean, he was in the bullpen yesterday. Uh, and I my I you know, from what Dave Roberts said afterwards, sounds like he’s going to be in the bullpen again today. My guess is that they’re going to give him a trial run out there. uh you know and again like given their options at least you know Roberts kind of went on you know postgame talking about how he thinks his relievers are pitching afraid right and I think kind of the one thing with Clayton Kershaw that you know whatever the result he does not pitch afraid I mean even a couple years ago when he had that start in the NLDS against the Dbacks I mean right he he knew he was going to have to have sold shoulder surgery you know at the end of that season kind of doesn’t matter he will go out there and at least he will attack and and I think you And you know, if if that doesn’t work out, I think you can kind of live with it, right? As opposed to, you know, kind of the performance that we saw from Tanner Scott last night where, you know, he hit a guy then walks a guy. I mean, you know, I don’t think people want to see that. Obviously, the fear is that the bullpen has to get a lot of innings for the Dodgers. But one one position that we didn’t talk about is Will Smith. Will Smith missing significant time at the end of the season going into the playoffs. How big of a loss is this? Because in my opinion right now he is the best c best hitting catcher in the National League. Yeah, definitely offensively it takes away a lot. Right. And I think you know the fact that you know Max’s missed a bunch of times Hernandez has kind of been up and down. Um right each one of those guys that you can stack it really kind of lengthens the lineup and it kind of changes the feel even. Right. I mean, I think obviously, you know, I think the opposing pitcher, no matter what, you’re going to be kind of cautious there at the top of the lineup with Otani, Betts, and Freeman. Uh, but, you know, to me, what’s made the Dodgers offense as special as it is in recent years is the fact that after that, you know, you do have Will Smith, right? You do have Maxy, you do have, you know, Tasks Hernandez, you know, with Tommy Edmonds in there, right? He’s a he’s a tough at bat. And so, yeah. No, I I totally agree with you. And, you know, Will Smith is one of those guys. I mean, we’ve seen it this year. uh you know if the other guys aren’t hitting he’s a guy that can win a game for you by himself with his bats. So yeah, that’s going to be that that is going to be kind of a a big thing. And you know, again, it’s one thing I think if the if you’re right, your pitching was all fine and you were confident that you could okay hold the other team to okay, you know what, we’re not going to give up any more than two, three runs. You don’t know that now, right? I mean, they they might have to be in they’re in this position now where they might have to outslug their opponents. And if that’s the case, you know, obviously you take out, like you said, the best hitting catcher, you know, one of the best hitting catchers in baseball.

Los Angeles Times columnist Dylan Hernández joins Foul Territory to break down the Dodgers bullpen crisis. From Tanner Scott’s nightmare season to how Dave Roberts might lean on Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, and even Clayton Kershaw in October, Dylan explains why L.A. may need its starters to finish games. We also dig into Will Smith’s injury impact, how the Dodgers will line up their Wild Card rotation, and whether this could derail a World Series run.

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