Only four teams leaned more on their bullpen this season than the Dodgers, whose relievers combined for 648 innings — an average of four innings a game — and might have to carry a heavier workload if the team is to make a deep October run.
For all the firepower of a lineup led by Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers enter the postseason with one of the least imposing rotations of their 12-year playoff run, their staff ravaged by injuries to ace Tyler Glasnow, breakout rookie Gavin Stone and three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw.
Of the four starters lined up for the best-of-five National League Division Series, only Jack Flaherty seems capable of going six innings, and that’s no sure thing — the right-hander went six innings in only one of his last three starts, in which he gave up 10 earned runs and 14 hits, including three homers, and walked nine in 14 innings.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto looked like a front-of-the-rotation horse before a mid-June rotator-cuff strain sidelined him for three months. He went 6-2 with a 2.92 ERA in 14 starts before the injury but had had a choppy buildup after his September return, going four innings in his first two starts, three innings in his third and five innings in his fourth.
Erstwhile ace Walker Buehler has been inconsistent and often underwhelming in his return from a second Tommy John surgery and a left-hip injury and completed six innings only once in his last 11 starts.
Landon Knack has been a rotation savior of sorts, with a 3-5 record and 3.65 ERA in 15 games, but the rookie right-hander completed six innings in only two of his 12 starts and has never pitched in the postseason.
“We know that with the importance of these games, we might be leaned on a bit more heavily than other parts of the season, but we take it in stride, just like we have all year,” reliever Evan Phillips said. “We take a lot of pride in being relied on, counted on and picking up the rest of the team.”
The Dodgers posted a 3.53 bullpen ERA this season, the fourth-best mark in baseball, and manager Dave Roberts’ trust tree, the term he uses for his bullpen hierarchy, sprouted a few sturdy branches with the trade-deadline acquisition of closer Michael Kopech, the late-season dominance of setup man Blake Treinen and the emergence of Anthony Banda as a second weapon from the left side.
With a deeper bullpen and built-in off-days during the playoffs, Roberts should be able to lean on his highest-leverage arms to hold late-game leads and have enough quality arms to absorb five or more innings some nights or throw an occasional bullpen game.
“Obviously, they can’t pitch every game, and there are going to be some series where certain guys may have better runs throughout the lineup and be leaned on more,” said Andrew Friedman, the team’s president of baseball operations.
“But this feels like as good and deep of a bullpen as any we’ve had, and the point of having such a talented and deep group is that it allows us some flexibility to lean on them but not redline them.”
A closer look at the Dodgers’ projected playoff bullpen, broken down into three tiers: