Dodgers once again facing starting pitching concerns as they prepare for the playoffs

Coming into the 2024 season, the Dodgers’ starting pitching was their biggest question, and with just two weeks left before the start of the postseason, L.A.’s rotation is once again its biggest concern going into October. Sure, Shohei Ohtani and Co. can be counted on to score runs in bunches, but you also have to stop the other team’s offense from doing the same.

The concern is not due to a lack of talent. When healthy, the Dodgers have top-tier starting pitching with elite stuff and depth. However, the Dodgers’ recurrent injury woes — whether due to bad luck, an organizational inability to keep starters healthy or something else — have prevented them from reaching their full potential as a staff.

Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Gavin Stone, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Walker Buehler and Bobby Miller have all missed time this season due to various injuries that landed them on the injured list. The team also lost rookie right-hander River Ryan to Tommy John surgery in August, Tony Gonsolin is out for the season while rehabbing from Tommy John, and Dustin May has missed all of 2024 due to a variety of ailments, including surgery to repair an esophageal tear.

If not for right-hander Jack Flaherty, whom the Dodgers acquired at the trade deadline, they’d be in even worse shape. And so the question now is what does L.A.’s rotation look like when the NLDS starts on Oct. 5? The only obvious answer is Flaherty would start Game 1, but what happens after that?

The rest of the Dodgers’ rotation is a big puzzle. Stone had been the team’s healthiest starter and one of their most consistent arms all season. The rookie was likely in line for a playoff start before he went down with right shoulder inflammation last week. At this point of the season and given the nature of shoulder injuries, there might not be enough time for him to make a return in October.

Glasnow (right elbow tendinitis) and Kershaw (bone spur in left big toe) are both expected to return before the end of this month, and if healthy, they should both factor into the team’s postseason rotation plans. Of course, given each of their injury histories, that’s a big if.

The good news is that the Dodgers might have had their biggest rotation question answered this week with the return of Yamamoto, who looked great in his outing Tuesday against the Cubs. Although the Dodgers lost 6-3, their $325 million man struck out eight batters over four innings of work and topped out at 97.9 mph.

"Today’s outing turned out much better than I expected,” Yamamoto told reporters in L.A. after his start. “It’s more about relief today. I got to come back and finish what I need to do.”

Offered manager Dave Roberts: "I feel much better about the rotation tonight than I did 24 hours ago.”

If Yamamoto can continue to pitch like he did in his first start since June, he’ll get a start in the NLDS and, just as importantly, he could be an X-factor in L.A.’s quest to get back to the World Series.

The other side of the Dodgers’ equation is determining which starter ends up pitching out of the bullpen or falls off the NLDS roster entirely. Right-hander Walker Buehler has shown flashes of his old form but hasn’t been particularly consistent since returning from his second Tommy John surgery. Bobby Miller has not looked as sharp this season as he was during his rookie year. How the Dodgers will deploy those two arms in October is another matter that needs to be sorted out over the season’s final two weeks.

Being in wait-and-see mode this late in the season isn’t what any team wants, especially not a team that was in this same position last year and in other recent years. We’ve seen this movie before, and it ended with the Dodgers’ pitching proving to be their kryptonite in October. But unfortunately for L.A. fans, the Dodgers don’t have many options at this point. They have the last two weeks of the regular season and the first few days of October — assuming they win the NL West and secure a wild-card bye — to try to get healthy and figure out their rotation plans before Game 1 of the NLDS.

Once again, L.A.’s success or failure this postseason likely depends on its rotation, which might be the biggest mystery on any playoff team going into October.