No, The Dodgers Aren’t Trading A Starting Pitcher

Guys. Guys. Come on.

Beachy, 28, was non-tendered by the Braves in December after missing the entirety of last season due to Tommy John surgery. He is likely to miss the beginning of this season as he continues his rehab process, but will provide rotation depth behind Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Hyun-jin Ryu, Brandon McCarthy and Brett Anderson for the Dodgers next season. Some in the industry believe that Los Angeles could be looking to move a starter at some point in the near future, with Ryu and Greinke seeming to be the most likely possibilities due to the contract statuses of Kershaw, McCarthy and Anderson.     (emphasis added)

We talked about the Brandon Beachy signing yesterday, and I really liked it. Even Steve Dilbeck couldn’t find anything to complain about, so you know it was good. I had already had a starting rotation depth post in the works that you’ll see sometime this week, but the short version is something like “there’s plenty of depth and health concerns in an otherwise talented rotation,” and having a quality pitcher like Beachy (hopefully) ready to step in at some point during the season if (when) someone gets hurt is far, far, preferable to trading prospects for the next Roberto Hernandez or Kevin Correia.

We also know that the 2016 rotation is somewhat uncertain. It’ll start with Kershaw, Ryu, and McCarthy, but Greinke has an opt-out that likely gets used. Anderson is only here on a one-year deal. Obviously, neither he or Beachy can be relied upon at this point. Zach Lee and Joe Wieland seem better utilized as depth than penciled into the rotation. It’s too soon to know what Julio Urias‘ status is going to be. Likely, the Dodgers will be in the mix for one of next winter’s unbelievable collection of free agent starting pitchers — David Price, Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija, Doug Fister, Jordan Zimmermann, Rick Porcello, and so on — but that doesn’t help them in 2015, unless they pay a very high price in prospects to get one in July.

If you trade Ryu, you’re trading one of baseball’s most undervalued assets, and you weaken the rotation. If you trade Greinke, you’re not going to get as much as you might think in return because of the opt-out, and you weaken the rotation. If you think the back end of the rotation right now is questionable because of health issues, then just imagine it without one of the top three. Could this change in July as you gain more information about health and status and the market? Sure. Sooner than that? Of course not. There’s things that pass the smell test and things that don’t, and this is one of the ones that doesn’t.

This has been “spring training is the worst dear lord is it Opening Day yet” theatre. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled programming.