After officially naming Clayton Kershaw as the opening day starter on Monday, manager Dave Roberts continued on to list the rest of the rotation in order.
Your 2020 #Dodgers starting five:@ClaytonKersh22 @buehlersdayoff @DAVIDprice24
Julio Urias@Awood45— Alanna Rizzo (@alannarizzo) March 9, 2020
That rotation in full goes as follows:
- Clayton Kerhsaw, left-handed pitcher
- Walker Buehler, right-handed pitcher
- David Price, left-handed pitcher
- Julio Urias, left-handed pitcher
- Alex Wood… left. handed. pitcher.
That there’s a lot of LHP’s in the rotation.
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Roberts spoke about the perceived concerns with a mostly left-leaning rotation and whether he thinks it’s actually a problem.
I don’t think so. I think that it doesn’t seem, from the outside looking in, as optimum as far as the balance. But every day is different. Each of these guys has a different mix.
These are our five best pitchers and I feel good about it.
As noted by Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register (who already did the heavy lifting here), Los Angeles had four left-handers in their starting rotation at times during the 2018 and 2017 seasons (Kershaw, Rich Hill, Ryu and Wood) as well as 2016 (Kershaw, Wood, Urias, and Scott Kazmir).
A potential fix or alternative could be swapping righty Ross Stripling into the rotation in place of Urias or Wood. That scenario was explored here. However, it seems that Doc and the front office has confidence running out 4 lefties in a row.
NEXT: Kershaw, Buehler, and Doc Talk Opening Day Starter at Length
