Kuzul

When examining the Los Angeles Dodgers on the surface, it’s difficult to find anything significantly wrong with the team.

Not only do they rank among the top of the league in runs scored and ERA while having committed the sixth-fewest errors, the Dodgers have also maintained control of the National League West for most of the season.

But no team is perfect and with the trade deadline now just a month and a half away, the Dodgers may want to consider two minor issues.

Crowded Outfield

Heading into the season, the Dodgers’ starting outfield consisted of Yasiel Puig in right field, rookie Joc Pederson in center field and veteran Carl Crawford in left field.

The alignment quickly got shuffled when Puig went down with a hamstring injury in mid-April, and Crawford joined him on the shelf shortly thereafter with an oblique tear.

Veteran Andre Ethier, who had been essentially relegated to bench duties ever since Puig arrived in 2013, stepped in and has put together a nice bounce-back season so far. He is slashing .287/.366/.491, and his eight home runs have already doubled his 2014 total.

Manager Don Mattingly has also been trying to mix in the capable bats of outfielders Scott Van Slyke (currently rehabbing a back injury) and Alex Guerrero. With Puig and Crawford missing most of the first two months, the issue basically resolved itself. 

But Puig recently returned to the lineup, solidifying two of the three outfield spots alongside Pederson, an early front-runner for NL Rookie of the Year. The only position left up for grabs is left field, and there will be an obvious dilemma when Crawford and Van Slyke climb back into the fold to compete for playing time with Ethier and Guerrero.

The dilemma will be four outfielders for one spot. Even in a platoon strategy, that’s still two right-handed hitters (Guerrero/Van Slyke) and two lefties (Crawford/Ethier) competing against each other.

While the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman values depth, even he might realize the impending outfield surplus is probably untenable. 

So the questions then become who to trade and for what.

Starting Rotation Depth

If there’s one area in which Los Angeles could use some future help, it’s the back end of the starting rotation.

The Dodgers lost Hyun-jin Ryu and free-agent addition Brandon McCarthy to season-ending injuries, forcing fellow newcomer Brett Anderson to slide from the No. 5 spot in the rotation to No. 3 behind Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke.

Anderson has been satisfactory, posting a 3.57 ERA in 12 starts. But the southpaw’s lengthy injury history is a constant cause for concern. As Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times points out, Anderson’s 12 June innings are more than all of his June innings combined during the past five years.

The stopgap solutions that Mattingly has thrown into the fire—right-handers Mike Bolsinger and Carlos Frias—have performed admirably considering their lack of experience.

Bolsinger, acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks in the offseason, had thrown just 52 MLB innings prior to 2015. He began the season in Triple-A but has turned in a 4-1 record with a 2.25 ERA and 1.10 WHIP in 12 starts for the Dodgers since his promotion.

Frias entered this season even greener, with only 32 innings of prior MLB experience. But he, too, has held his own, compiling a 4-3 record and 3.86 ERA in eight starts.

Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi understand that Anderson’s next injury could be just around the corner. They also know full well that the surprising Bolsinger/Frias tandem might falter as the workload increases.

It’s why the Dodgers should consider adding a more proven arm to stabilize the back end of the rotation in case the aforementioned scenarios manifest themselves.

Trade Logistics

Los Angeles would probably like to trade away an outfielder in order to clear what will soon become a logjam. That’s easier said than done, however.

Although Ethier has re-established his trade value after two seasons with declining playing time and production, he is still owed $35.5 million through 2017—including a $17.5 million club option in 2018. Crawford and the $41.75 million he is due over the next two seasons will be nearly impossible to move, leaving Van Slyke and Guerrero as the two likeliest players to be flipped for some starting pitching.

Guerrero has become somewhat of a secret weapon for the Dodgers, slashing .282/.312/.615 with 10 home runs in limited action. While his statistics are surely attractive to other teams, the clause in his contract stipulating that he may become a free agent at the end of any season in which he is traded may hold up a potential deal.

Van Slyke possesses the cheapest contract of the bunch and is accustomed to coming off the bench. His career OPS of .805 indicates what kind of hitter the 28-year-old can be with regular playing time. Last year, he led Los Angeles in slugging percentage and OPS.

While pitchers on struggling teams like Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija will likely see their names cast into trade winds because of their contracts, the Dodgers might be interested in less-heralded hurlers come next month.

One realistic target could be Scott Kazmir of the Oakland Athletics, someone with whom the Los Angeles front office is quite familiar. Friedman worked with him in Tampa Bay, and Zaidi—formerly part of Billy Beane’s brain trust in Oakland—was instrumental in bringing him to the Bay Area.

The veteran left-hander has pitched well for the cellar-dwelling A’s, posting a 2.79 ERA in 12 starts. On the flip side, Oakland could use a player like Van Slyke to help bolster a regressing offense that currently ranks 17th in OPS. With the ability to play all three outfield positions, Van Slyke would also become an immediate offensive upgrade over current left fielder Sam Fuld.

Los Angeles will almost certainly need to include a collection of additional pitching prospects like Zach Lee, Ross Stripling or Zach Bird to facilitate this deal.

If Oakland wants Ethier—a player the A’s originally drafted—the Dodgers would need to eat a significant portion of his bloated contract, similar to the $32 million chunk they bit off this past offseason in the Matt Kemp trade.

All stats courtesy of ESPN.com unless otherwise linked/noted.

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Los Angeles Dodgers second baseman Howie Kendrick is dealing with a knee injury. Although doctors didn’t find any structural damage, a timetable for his return to the lineup is unclear.  

Continue for updates.

Status Uncertain After MRI

Friday, June 5

Ken Gurnick of MLB.com reports an MRI showed no signs of serious injury to Kendrick’s knee:

Matthew Moreno of Dodgers Nation notes manager Don Mattingly kept a trip to the disabled list on the table if the infielder doesn’t notice improvement:

Kendrick joined the Dodgers as part of an offseason deal with the crosstown rival Los Angeles Angels. He’s enjoying another solid season at the plate with a .347 on-base percentage and five home runs through 52 games.

Quite simply, it’s difficult to know when he may be available for the Dodgers again. He could wake up Friday, feel better and jump right back into the lineup. Or, if the issue is still bothersome, he may need a stint on the DL to give it some rest.

The situation should become clearer in the next few days.

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The reasons for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ recent retooling are plentiful. 

For starters, they wanted a better overall team, from the bullpen to the offense to the defense to the bench. A better clubhouse atmosphere, one possibly more conducive to long-term winning, was another goal. Some financial flexibility going forward, even for a team with a record payroll, was also an advantage, as was clearing some of the old regime’s personnel for a front office increasingly trying to put its stamp on the entire roster.

So far, through 46 games, the Dodgers seem to have accomplished what they were after. For the most part.

But all the organization’s shuffling—front office and uniformed employees—was to accomplish one primary goal when history is written: win a World Series. Immediately.

Over the last two seasons, the St. Louis Cardinals have been the team stopping the Dodgers from doing so. Because of that, recent history is more important and hindering than traditional baseball beliefs for some players.

“I dream about them every day,” Dodgers superstar right fielder Yasiel Puig told reporters about the Cardinals during the offseason. “If we can beat them, we can win the World Series. We have to pass through them. They’re our principal rivals, not San Francisco, not anyone else.”

That quote obviously made headlines, especially with the San Francisco Giants, the Dodgers’ traditional rivals, winning their third World Series in the last five seasons last year. But Puig made a valid point.

While the Giants have championships, the Cardinals are the class of the league. They have made the postseason four straight seasons, knocking out the Dodgers in the last two. They’ve won two titles since 2006 thanks to a strong core of homegrown players and key trade and free-agent acquisitions.

They also go into their weekend series against the Dodgers with the best record in the majors, once again looking like the Senior Circuit’s team to beat.

“We can’t let them beat us three straight times. No way,” Puig continued, understanding the Dodgers led three postseasons games after six innings last fall but still lost to the Cardinals in four. “They’re a good team, and we all admire them. They have very good pitchers, very good players. If we beat them, we can win the World Series. We just have to get through them.”

The Dodgers’ remake, which included trading Matt Kemp (second in the majors in weighted runs created plus in the second half last season) and Dee Gordon (an All-Star second baseman), has them running well.

They go into the series tied for baseball’s third-best record, second in the NL. Their offense leads the league or is in the top five of several offensive categories. They have a starter vying to start the All-Star Game, and it’s not Clayton Kershaw. Their once-brutal bullpen, almost totally redone in the offseason, is arguably the best in the majors. Joc Pederson, the man who replaced Kemp in the outfield, is a strong front-runner for Rookie of the Year. 

“We have depth now,” manager Don Mattingly said. “We didn’t have that before. One guy gets hurt and the next guy is tearing down the door behind him. A guy gets hurt and someone else steps up.”

The Dodgers still might not be good enough to beat the Cardinals in another October fight. Despite their depth, they are a battered club with outfielders Puig and Carl Crawford on the disabled list with no timetable for their return and starters Hyun-Jin Ryu and Brandon McCarthy out for the season. St. Louis ace Adam Wainwright is also lost for the year.

That is why they produce pitching matchups for their weekend in St. Louis that casual fans will not recognize.

Pitching matchups for Dodgers at Cardinals this weekend: FRI – Bolsinger/Lackey SAT – Frias/Wacha SUN – Anderson/Martinez

— Eric Stephen (@truebluela) May 28, 2015

Cardinals win on a throwing error & avoid Kershaw & Greinke vs the Dodgers this week. So things are normal on that front.

— Matt Clapp (@TheBlogfines) May 28, 2015

What should have been a strength—the rotation—is now a significant concern for the Dodgers, and not because Clayton Kershaw has a 3.86 ERA. He actually leads the majors with a 2.13 expected FIP and is ninth in Fangraphs WAR despite an ERA that dipped under 4.00 just this past week.

While fill-in starter Mike Bolsinger has been impressive in four starts (0.71 ERA), the Dodgers’ new, normally tight-lipped front office has made no secret it is in the market for starting pitching.

“We’re actively vetting the market, doing everything we can to augment our depth,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. “Acquiring starting pitching depth is my No. 1 priority.”

The problem is virtually every team with a desirable asset still sees itself one hot two-week stretch away from contention, if it are even currently out of it. And now with Scott Kazmir and Johnny Cueto dealing with shoulder and elbow issues, respectively, teams like the Dodgers have to wait to see how they recover.

Another problem with acquiring a front-line kind of arm is it might very well cost the Dodgers an elite prospect, and that is something the front office has been unwilling to pay. Even if it is willing to listen to counter offers, players like Pederson, Corey Seager and Julio Urias are essentially untouchable.

Unfortunately for the Dodgers, it is likely they will need another strong starting pitcher to stick behind Kershaw and Zack Greinke if they plan to upend the Cardinals, or anyone else, in a postseason series. Ryu was that guy, and a healthy and effective McCarthy was the backup plan.

How the Dodgers fare this weekend in St. Louis will not determine if they are capable of beating their “principal rivals” when it counts most. How their roster looks come the first week of October will.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired first-hand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers may sit atop the National League West, but that’s not preventing their front office from exploring trade options. Juan Uribe, who is in the final year of his current deal, was reportedly traded to the Atlanta Braves. 

Continue for updates.   

Uribe Reportedly Dealt to Braves

Tuesday, May 26

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported that Uribe had been traded to the Braves:

Rosenthal first reported that negotiations were taking place earlier Tuesday, and noted that a deal had nearly been completed on Monday night. 

Uribe is off to a slow start in 2015. He’s hitting .247/.287/.309 with one home run in 29 games and has battled hamstring injuries despite avoiding the disabled list. 

The 36-year-old veteran has never been the most durable player, having played less than 135 games every year since 2011, but his ability to hit for average with some power and play strong defense at third base has allowed him to carve out a solid 15-year career. 

The Dodgers have Justin Turner already on the roster as a replacement for Uribe, as well as top prospect Corey Seager in Triple-A who could come up at some point this season and play on the left side of the infield. 

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If he’s so inclined, Zack Greinke can end his six-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers after only three seasons at the end of 2015. He just better make sure he has a really good season first.

Seven starts in, it wouldn’t be fair to call his 2015 season “really good.” It’s been more like “superb.”

Greinke‘s seventh start went down Monday night against the Miami Marlins at Dodger Stadium, and it ended with him contributing to a dramatic 5-3 Dodgers victory with seven innings of one-run ball. He was denied his sixth straight win when the Dodgers bullpen turned a 2-1 lead into a 3-2 deficit in the ninth inning, but he at least secured his 15th straight non-defeat dating back to last season.

More relevant to this discussion, though, is how Greinke maintained his status as arguably the National League‘s top pitcher in the early going.

Greinke entered Monday’s start with a 1.54 ERA, which was already the best in the Senior Circuit. He exited with a 1.52 ERA, which is still the best in the Senior Circuit. He also ranks fourth in innings with 47.1 and first in RA9-WAR—that being FanGraphs‘ runs allowed-based version of Wins Above Replacement—at 2.1.

Granted, Greinke‘s 2015 season is far from over. Health permitting, he likely has another 25 or so starts still to make. Much could change in these 25 or so starts.

So far, however, Greinke is pitching like a guy who wants to find a massive payday in the coming winter.

As Eric Stephen of True Blue LA reported in February, Greinke isn’t going to make a decision on the opt-out clause in his six-year, $147 million contract until the end of the year. But there is no player in baseball more practical than him, and his willingness to follow the money is well known. If he determines that opting out at the end of the year is in his best interest, he’ll do it.

In his own words, according to Stephen: “I’m sure [the Dodgers are] open to me taking a cheap deal also. It’s just a matter of seeing what is working.”

Given that opting out would mean turning down $77 million in guaranteed money through the 2018 season, Greinke would have to be sure of a bigger payday awaiting on the free-agent market. This, of course, is another way of saying he better keep pitching like he’s been pitching.

Thing is, that might actually be doable.

There are reasons to be skeptical of Greinke‘s NL-leading 1.52 ERA. It’s a flimsy stat to begin with, and not all of his peripheral numbers pass the smell test.

Most notably, Greinke isn’t striking many guys out. He’s only striking out 7.4 batters per nine innings, quite the drop from the 9.2 K/9 rate he had last year.

On a related note, Greinke‘s velocity is down. At the start of play on Monday, FanGraphs had his average fastball clocked at 90.5 miles per hour, well below last year’s average of 91.9. And given that he’s 31 years old, that missing velocity may not be coming back.

As such, it’s easy to point to Greinke‘s .220 batting average on balls in play (BABIP) as not only the key reason for his success, but also the source of his inevitable downfall. As Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports noted, conventional wisdom suggests that number is doomed to go up:

If Greinke does indeed start experiencing worse luck on batted balls, his ERA will pay the price. And if his ERA pays the price, he may not be able to seek his price in free agency.

But while it’s easy to assume that Greinke will start getting hurt in the BABIP department, what this article presupposes is: Maybe he won’t?

Yes, pitchers don’t have a ton of control over what happens when the ball leaves the bat. But they can have some. The ability to manage contact is a skill that’s getting more attention these days, in part because we finally have figures that properly highlight how good pitchers are at it.

For example, FanGraphs has Soft%, or a pitcher’s percentage of soft-hit balls. Heading into Monday’s action, here’s what the top of the MLB leaderboard looked like:

At the start of the day, there was Greinke among the five best soft-contact merchants in the game. The average batted ball velocity data at Baseball Savant further supported this, as Greinke‘s average of 85.3 miles per hour off the bat was the fifth-lowest among qualified starters.

This would appear to be new territory for Greinke. His career Soft% is only 16.8, and his previous career best was only 22.0 back in 2011. If he stays on his current pace, he’ll shatter that.

Given that and the whole small sample size thing, maybe you feel like screaming the F word (that’s “fluke” in this case). But in reality, this actually looks like a case of Greinke getting smarter by…well, by dumbing things down.

In his first two seasons with the Dodgers, Greinke‘s repertoire of pitches was as varied as any in the game. Per Brooks Baseball, he threw five different pitches at least 10 percent of the time. 

But this year? Greinke entered Monday throwing only three pitches at least 10 percent of the time: his four-seam fastball, slider and changeup. Split things up into batter handedness splits, and you can see where this difference is coming from:

Though Greinke has technically gone from being a five-pitch pitcher to a three-pitch pitcher, realistically he’s more like a two-pitch pitcher. Right-handed batters are getting fastballs and sliders, and left-handed batters are getting fastballs and changeups.

Why go so simple? Seemingly because he has a similarly simple approach in mind for how he wants to execute these pitches.

In 2013 and 2014, Greinke‘s fastball/slider pattern against right-handed batters looked like this:

What you see there is a lot of pitches away. That pales in comparison, however, to what Greinke is doing with his fastball/slider pattern against right-handed batters in 2015:

Greinke was going away from right-handed batters with his fastballs and sliders in 2013 and 2014. Now he’s going way away, to a point where he’s not even faking an effort to keep them honest with pitches inside.

Not surprisingly, he’s doing pretty much the same thing with his fastball/changeup combination against lefties. Here’s 2013-2014:

And here’s 2015: 

Slightly different images, but the same story. What was already an away-heavy approach has become even more away-heavy. 

Now, it’s possible that Greinke isn’t doing this intentionally. Maybe he wants to be more around the zone but just hasn’t been able to execute. Maybe it’s early-season rust or something.

But I doubt it. Greinke is very rarely not in command. And given that his practical mind is also a learned mind, this would appear to be a case of him chasing soft contact by going where the numbers say to go.

Generally speaking, right-handed batters and left-handed batters have a harder time hitting outside pitches for power than they do hitting inside pitches for power. And while batted ball velocity doesn’t say that outside pitches are necessarily harder to hit with authority, the raw power numbers from Baseball Savant confirm that power production has been harder to come by on outside pitches than on inside pitches in 2015:

So you know all the soft contact Greinke is getting? That doesn’t look like such a fluke after all. He’s making an effort to stay as away from hitters as much as possible, and the numbers say that’s where a pitcher should be going if he wants to avoid getting hurt.

So far, this approach has translated in a super-low BABIP and, in turn, a super-low ERA. And while Greinke‘s ERA more than likely isn’t going to stay below 2.00 all season, it’s a good bet that he’ll be able to exit 2015 with his third straight sub-3.00 ERA.

And if he does, exercising that opt-out clause will be a no-brainer.

Yes, the winter’s free-agent market is going to be saturated with talented starting pitching. But if Greinke does opt out, there’s no question he’d be right there next to David Price, Johnny Cueto and Jordan Zimmermann among the best of the best. And if James Shields can get $75 million coming off a 3.21 ERA in his age-32 season, Greinke could surely do better coming off a 2.00-ish ERA in his age-31 season.

But this is a matter for later, of course. Greinke will cross that bridge when he gets to it. For now, he’ll probably just keep staying away.

Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted/linked.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers finished the first month of their 2015 campaign right where they left off last regular season—atop the National League West standings.

It’s been somewhat of an unexpected first few weeks for the Boys in Blue, who were projected to experience a drop-off in power when they traded away Matt Kemp and let Hanley Ramirez walk in free agency.

Instead, Los Angeles leads the NL in home runs and has also received surprising production out of its new-look bullpen—a point of weakness last year.

Here are the three biggest takeaways from the first month of the Dodgers’ season.

Joc Pederson is the Real Deal

When the Dodgers traded away Matt Kemp last winter, it became clear that the organization was fully committed to rookie Joc Pederson becoming a major contributor right away.

So far, that gamble has paid off.

Pederson has already smacked seven home runs through Monday—six more than Kemp—and appears to have solidified himself as the team’s center fielder of the present and future.

Manager Don Mattingly recently moved the 23-year-old to the lead-off spot in the batting order, and the switch produced immediate results. Pederson became the first Dodgers rookie to hit a home run in four straight games (with an at-bat) since Bill Sudakis in 1969, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. One of the home runs was a grand slam, the first for the Dodgers in 286 games, according to Eric Stephen of True Blue LA.

His 1.043 OPS ranks seventh in the MLB—ahead of names like Mike Trout, Bryce Harper and Giancarlo Stanton.

“Donnie told me from day one that it’s about putting together quality at-bats,” Pederson said, per Joe Resnick of the Associated Press. “They weren’t worried about the results. They saw what I could do. I still need to continue to put together quality at-bats. We’re only a month into the season. So it’s not how you start, but how you finish.”

Pederson isn’t just getting it done with that bat, either. He has looked comfortable patrolling center field all season, making seamless reads and several diving catches without an error to date.

Bullpen Has Been Better Than Expected

The Dodgers’ Achilles heel from a season ago has quickly become one of their strongest assets so far in 2015.

That’s right. Entering Tuesday night’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles relievers have combined for a 1.90 ERA—fourth-best in the majors.

The Dodgers’ bullpen recently saw its 26-inning scoreless streak snapped earlier this week. But a small blemish hasn’t taken away from the quality relief that this collection of unheralded pitchers has provided in the early going.

There are several new faces waiting for their name to be called this season, many with little MLB experience.

Right-handers Yimi Garcia (0.66 ERA) and Pedro Baez (2.45 ERA) have emerged as trustworthy options despite having combined for just 25 games of major league experience prior to this season.

Paco Rodriguez, a second-round draft pick in 2012, and rookie Adam Liberatore, acquired from Tampa Bay in the offseason, are southpaws who have also turned in nearly spotless relief.

These low-cost success stories represent a refreshing change from the highly paid failures of last season—namely Brian Wilson and Chris Perez.

New President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman has encouraged Mattingly to base pitching changes off matchups rather than innings, according to Mark Saxon of ESPN.com. Instead of naming a seventh-inning guy or an eighth-inning guy, the Dodgers simply react to the situations presented in the late innings.

“Everybody (in the bullpen) is ready to go from the fifth inning on,” said veteran reliever J.P. Howell, a lefty specialist with a 1.23 ERA, per J.P. Hoornstra of the Los Angeles Daily News. “No superstar stuff. That’s how I like it.”

This fluid strategy may become slightly more rigid when closer Kenley Jansen returns from a foot injury and picks up sole ninth-inning responsibilities.

Alex Guerrero Needs to Play Everyday

The secret is officially out on Alex Guerrero, as the Dodgers’ bench extraordinaire earned National League Rookie of the Month honors for April.

He batted .423 with a 1.077 slugging percentage and five home runs. But the most notable number was his 26 at-bats. It’s a rather small amount of action for a player who has offered elite production.

The Dodgers signed the Cuban defector to a four-year, $28 million contract following the 2013 season. He spent most of last season in the minor leagues, limited to fewer than 350 total at-bats because of an infamous ear-biting incident. He finished the season batting .329 with 15 home runs at Triple-A.

Guerrero’s barrier to entry remains Juan Uribe, the Dodgers’ Opening Day third baseman. The veteran is in the final year of his contract with the Dodgers, and the team values his defense and leadership in the clubhouse. Uribe is currently slashing .279/.318/.361 with one home run.

Additionally, Los Angeles recently won the bidding war for fellow Cuban defector Hector Olivera, signing him to a six-year, $62.5 million contract, per Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com. Olivera can play third base and second base—Howie Kendrick’s position for at least this season.

The Dodgers have gotten creative in order to insert Guerrero’s bat into the lineup, playing him in left field now that Carl Crawford will be sidelined for the foreseeable future with a tear in his oblique. But this solution isn’t suited for the long term, and Guerrero’s trade value is probably as high as it will be all season—he even admitted so.

“Now it changes for me,” Guerrero said through an interpreter, per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. “Because pitchers are going to adjust the way they’ve been pitching me. They didn’t know me before.”

This has led some to believe that the Dodgers might try trading Guerrero, perhaps for starting rotation depth. Brandon McCarthy will miss the rest of 2015 with a torn ulnar collateral ligament, and Hyun-jin Ryu has yet to take the mound this season because of shoulder inflammation.

However, the hitch in a potential trade is a clause in Guerrero’s contract stipulating that he can become a free agent at the end of any season in which he is dealt. Guerrero is due $4 million this season and $5 million in each of the next two seasons.

All stats courtesy of ESPN.com unless otherwise noted.

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Through the first three weeks, the Los Angeles Dodgers have not disappointed. They have the third-best record in the National League, and their 13-8 mark is good for a two-game lead over the Colorado Rockies in the division. However, they have not quite done it how we expected.

Injuries have forced a series of unpredictable lineups, and manager Don Mattingly has been forced to get creative. General manager Farhan Zaidi has built a roster that enables the team to adjust, and the adversity the Dodgers have faced has given us a bit of a window into the problem-solving this team will use.

*Stats via FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

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Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Carl Crawford announced Tuesday that he has a torn oblique and doesn’t currently have a timetable for his return to the field.

Continue for updates.

Crawford Says He Has Torn Oblique

Tuesday, April 28

Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times provided the details on Crawford’s rather severe injury situation, adding that a timetable hasn’t been determined yet:

The Los Angeles Times‘ Bill Shaikin alluded to Crawford’s injury-plagued past along with an estimate as to when fans can expect the four-time All-Star to return:  

The Dodgers confirmed that utility player Kike Hernandez will take his spot on the roster. 

Crawford has either struggled on the field or had a tough time staying healthy ever since leaving the Tampa Bay Rays following the 2010 campaign. This season has seen the Dodgers outfield bitten by the injury bug, with Crawford now joining Yasiel Puig on the disabled list.

At least L.A. has depth to turn to in its rotation. Veteran Andre Ethier is still in the fold, as are Scott Van Slyke and Alex Guerrero, who will likely vie for reps in left field.

Van Slyke has had a hit in the past six games in which he’s appeared entering Tuesday’s action, but Guerrero will get the start against the San Francisco Giants, per Shaikin.

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It’s a good thing the Los Angeles Dodgers have arguably the best one-two pitching punch in Major League Baseball with Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke atop their staff. They’re going to need it.

In the wake of the lingering-since-spring-training left-shoulder injury to southpaw Hyun-Jin Ryu, expected to be the club’s third starter, and the more recent, more severe season-ending elbow tear suffered Saturday night by No. 4 starter Brandon McCarthy, the contending Dodgers are going to have to address their rapidly eroding rotation.

And probably sooner than later, as Bill Plunkett of the Los Angeles Times puts it:

McCarthy, who signed a lucrative contract with L.A. as a free agent this past offseason, left his outing over the weekend in the sixth inning of a game the Dodgers eventually won over the San Diego Padres.

Immediately after throwing a pitch that Justin Upton hit for a home run, the tall righty began to shake his right arm and then called the club’s coaching staff and trainers out to the mound. After a brief discussion, McCarthy came out.

“I expected [McCarthy] to go on the DL [Monday], but we thought more along the lines of tendinitis than something like [a torn ulnar collateral ligament],” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said Monday in his interview with reporters. “I felt like that’s what I was going to hear, then we would have to fill [in for McCarthy] for a little bit of time and get back to it. But obviously, the news was not good.”

The expectation is that McCarthy will need to undergo Tommy John surgery, per Earl Bloom of MLB.com, which could keep him out through the first half of 2016.

Meanwhile, the NL West-leading Dodgers (12-7) are merely very early in the first half of 2015, and already a team that has won the division each of the past two years and has World Series hopes needs to be searching for pitching depth either internally or possibly via trade between now and July 31.

Oh, and the Dodgers also have to keep their fingers crossed that Kershaw and Greinke can sustain the status quo as two of the sport’s very best and most durable.

After those two, the only other pitcher projected to be a part of the rotation at the outset of the season is Brett Anderson, who might well be the most injury-prone starting pitcher in baseball in recent years.

Over the previous three seasons, the 27-year-old left-hander has made just 19 starts and thrown all of 123 innings—combined. Anderson more or less is a disabled-list stint waiting to happen, but now the Dodgers need him to be a somewhat stable third option behind the top two.

That is, at least until Ryu returns. The 28-year-old Korean lefty, who was both good and steady in his first two seasons, is making progress but very slowly as he comes back from a shoulder impingement. Ryu threw 20 pitches off a mound Sunday in his first action since being shut down in mid-March, according to Ken Gurnick of MLB.com.

As for McCarthy, it’s not like he has been the pillar of health, which is why it was surprising to many when the Dodgers inked him not only for $48 million but also for four years this winter.

The 31-year-old has pitched in parts of 10 seasons in the majors, and only last year did McCarthy finally make it past 25 starts and over 175 innings in a single one. He has been on the DL a Ferris Bueller-like nine times.

Still, the Dodgers, in all likelihood, could have been anticipating some sort of ailment or injury for McCarthy—just not one of the season-ending variety. And certainly not after just four starts.

That leaves Mattingly and, especially, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman to scramble to find a way to make up for about, oh, 28 turns and 180 or so innings. And that’s just for McCarthy.

A peek at L.A.’s 40-man roster shows the following names as potential fill-ins, at least in the short term:

• Scott Baker, a 33-year-old veteran who sports a 4.24 career ERA and who last made even 10 starts in 2011
• Mike Bolsinger, who already has made one start for the Dodgers in 2015 but otherwise is 27 years old and in his third season at Triple-A
• Zach Lee, 23, the club’s first-round pick in 2010 who is off to a strong start at Oklahoma City (1.00 ERA, 0.84 WHIP) but who has yet to debut and is considered a mid-rotation arm at best
• Joe Wieland, a 25-year-old the Dodgers acquired along with Yasmani Grandal from the Padres in the Matt Kemp deal who has 39 career innings in the majors

There’s also Brandon Beachy, the once-promising Atlanta Braves right-hander who is trying to return from a second Tommy John surgery by this summer.

In other words: not a whole heck of a lot. Until Friedman can come up with a more stable solution, expect the above four to be on call, possibly shuttling back and forth between L.A. and OKC.

Longer term, there’s at least a possibility, it would seem, that top prospect/phenom Julio Urias could be called upon at some point.

But even if the precocious left-hander continues tearing up Double-A at age 18 (20.2 IP, 13 H, 5 ER, 26:3 K:BB), that likely wouldn’t happen until after the All-Star break. And even then, maybe only if things don’t get better for Ryu or go south once again for Anderson. Baseball America managing editor JJ Cooper offered this about Urias:

That leaves external options via trade. There will be—scratch that, there already is, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times—chatter and speculation about the usual suspects, like Johnny Cueto of the Cincinnati Reds, Jordan Zimmermann of the Washington Nationals or Cole Hamels of the Philadelphia Phillies. And any of those three, among others, are possible targets down the line.

But the Friedman-led front office has indicated in the past that there’s no interest in trading one of the franchise’s top two building-block prospects, shortstop Corey Seager or Urias, when both are massive talents on the verge of helping the big league club at minimal cost. Such a big-name pitcher is going to require a big-time return. Says USA Today‘s Bob Nightengale:

Could desperation in the form of a setback with Ryu or another injury to Anderson—or worse, Kershaw or Greinke—change that? Sure, but that remains to be seen.

Perhaps rather than honing in on another star starter, the Dodgers would be better served targeting one or two capable mid-rotation arms. Someone like Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Kyle Lohse, Oakland Athletics lefty Scott Kazmir or Reds righty Mike Leake, to name a few.

None of those three are sexy superstars the Dodgers have come to be associated with, but they’re all proven pitchers who would be major improvements over what L.A. currently is calling the back end of its rotation. What’s more, all three are free agents after the season, which would make them much easier gets, and that’s up Friedman’s alley.

Besides, with a one-two like Kershaw and Greinke, and with Ryu eventually as the No. 3, the Dodgers don’t need another star-caliber starter. They do, however, need innings.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Los Angeles Dodgers made headlines this offseason with a flurry of personnel moves. Three weeks into the 2015 season, these recent additions have provided varying contributions.

Although the sample size is still relatively small, we’ve decided to hand out an April report card for the newest Boys in Blue.

This evaluation follows the order in which Los Angeles acquired these players during the winter.

All stats courtesy of ESPN.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

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