Now that the Los Angeles Dodgers have become back-to-back champions, it’s time to go for the three-peat. And with their future Hall-of-Famer Clayton Kershaw officially retired, they’ll need to replace him in the rotation.
Fansided’s Chris Landers believes they could break baseball by going out and getting another All-Star ace, this time in the Chicago Cubs’ Shota Imanaga.
“But you can never have too much pitching, and no team knows that better than the Dodgers given the injuries they've had to deal with in recent years. Plus, we know how much pull they have with players from Japan. If Imanaga's open to a shorter-term deal, don't rule out the rich getting richer just because they can,” Landers wrote.
This past season, Imanaga declined from his rookie season, posting a record of 9-8, an ERA of 3.73, 117 Ks, and a WHIP of 0.998 in 144 innings pitched. However, with the Dodgers already having Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell, and Tyler Glasnow in their rotation, putting a guy like Imanaga in the fifth spot would be insane.
The only caveats to this happening are if Imanaga would be ok with a short-term deal like Landers said, or if the Dodgers want to give one of their prospects or young stars a shot. However, they could just take those young arms and put them in their troubled bullpen to let them grow there, and then move in when contracts expire for their starters.
If the Dodgers really want to create a super rotation, they need to get on Imanaga ASAP. Otherwise, another team looking for a new ace will be knocking on his door as soon as they can as well.
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