Adding Axford doesn’t make Dodgers bullpen October-ready
LOS ANGELES — The muscle is blinding. The power is inspiring.
The deal for mashing Manny Machado was followed by a deal for slugging Brian Dozier on Tuesday, and the Dodgers trade deadline tinkering resulted in a batting order that is
World Series-worthy.
“We’re looking good, man,” closer Kenley Jansen marvelled.
Yeah, well, until you really look.
In attempting to put the finishing touches on a complete October team, the Dodgers only got it half right.
They’re thick in the chest but frail at the knees. They’re powerful early but vulnerable late. They can absolutely crush, but it is far more uncertain whether they can close.
Great job with that lineup, guys, but what about the bullpen?
The Dodgers did everything this trading season except the one thing they absolutely needed to do.
They needed to ensure that a hard-fought lead on an October night isn’t handed to someone who has no idea what to do with it.
They needed a setup guy for Jansen. They needed one of the several available closers who could supply a strong enough bridge to Jansen that the
Dodgers could avoid a repeat of last fall’s two bullpen-blown World Series losses.
“We were hoping to add a bullpen arm with some end of the game experience,” GM
Farhan Zaidi said Tuesday.
Yet, in what could wind up being the most questionable inaction of the front office’s busy four-year regime — even more than the 2015 failure to acquire Cole Hamels — they didn’t grab one.
Zach Britton went to the New
York Yankees. Joakim Soria went to the Milwaukee Brewers. Brad Hand went to the Philadelphia Phillies. Keone Kela went to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Raisel Iglesias, perhaps their most coveted arm, stayed with the Cincinnati Reds. Ryan Madsen and Kelvin Herrera, two other potential targets, didn’t leave the Washington Nationals.
The Dodgers scoured the league’s bullpens for what they know could have been their most important arm this October and they came up with ... John Axford?
He was acquired from Toronto on Tuesday for a minor league pitcher. The Port Dover, Ont., native is supposed to be a great guy. He had 25 saves as recently as three seasons ago in Colorado. But Axford is 35 and coming off consecutive struggling summers and will probably be relegated to middle-innings matchup duty.
The Dodgers needed more than that, and they know it, and now everyone has to spend the next two months holding their breath.
Bad October bullpens can not only lose games, but disintegrate teams. Without an additional arm, this fall’s Dodgers bullpen could enter the post-season as the team’s scariest one since then.
Entering Wednesday’s games, the Dodgers bullpen earned-run average ranks seventh in a league where the leaders in that stat are playoff contenders Arizona, Chicago and
Milwaukee.
The Dodgers bullpen has some decent arms, but some are inconsistent arms, and others are crunch-time untested arms. The front office knew this when they started chasing relievers this summer, but they lost every battle. Each loss can probably be rationalized, but, after a 30-year title drought, each loss is also difficult for Dodgers fans to swallow.
They really couldn’t get Britton because they didn’t want to go over the luxury tax and hinder their ability to sign free agents next winter? Next winter? They’ve spent so much money already, and they’re so close, why wouldn’t they want to make a move that could make it all pay off ?
Other teams wanted a competent major-leaguer or a top-10 prospect? With the window closing fast on this particular Dodgers team, what price would be too much?
Regardless of how they lost, they lost, and here’s what happens now.
They mix. They match. They cut. They paste. They piece a bunch of odd parts together and hope it holds. They try something that can work for the occasional playoff game, but rarely is strong enough to withstand the rigours of an entire series.
“I don’t know that we’re going to evolve into a team that has a pure eighth-inning guy, as opposed to kind of, matching up and playing out the end of the game that way,” Zaidi said.
Anything is possible, but everything is risky. It’s going to be more interesting than it should be. It’s going to be more tenuous than necessary.