Dodgers: Andrew Friedman Speaks On State of The Bullpen Nearing The Deadline

Once before in June, Dodgers’ president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman spoke on the Los Angeles bullpen. Now, we are just over a week from baseball’s trade deadline.

Furthermore, Friedman is speaking again on the same tepid subject. This time, he talks to Bill Plunkett of the OC Register about the muddled trade market for relief pitching.

The makings of #Dodgers October bullpen is already on the roster (Jansen, Kelly, Baez, Maeda, Urias). Supplementing that group before next week’s deadline is the challenge https://t.co/yiQPS5p0T9

— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) July 22, 2019

Without question, baseball’s parody has created a problem for teams like the Dodgers who need to find capable relief help.

This is the strangest market that I can remember. Just with the number of teams seemingly in it, within five games of a playoff spot. I’ve had way more conversations with teams that are more on the fence and haven’t decided if they’re going to be on the buy side or the sell side.

For those that want to see the Dodgers make a move – this likely means dealing a top prospect. While many in Dodgers circles feel a reluctance, a look at the recent past shows the organization is willing to do this in the right situation. Friedman has no problem referencing this notion.

I would argue we’ve traded more prospects than any team in baseball the past four years. And while we’d love to have a completely flawless team where we didn’t feel like we needed to engage with the other teams, that’s not the case – and I guess it probably never will be where you just don’t feel you couldn’t do something to make yourself better in July. But there are certainly players that we feel like adding them will help us in our pursuit of winning a world championship and that’s what we’re working towards.

Plunkett goes on to chat about the current bullpen stablemates – and the likely ones to make the postseason roster. Indeed, Kenley Jansen, Pedro Baez, Joe Kelly, Julio Urias, and Kenta Maeda are likely to be in uniform in October. However, a few open spots remain; and how Friedman goes about filling those spots in the next several days could very well define a legacy.

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