Dodgers: Insider is Still Concerned About LA's Roster Construction
By this point in the offseason you know the Dodgers are not shaping up to look like the team we saw on the field last season. Justin Turner is gone. Trea Turner is gone. Cody Bellinger, Tyler Anderson, Craig Kimbrel and more key contributors have moved on from the roster and onto new teams.
The club that won 111 games will give way to a team that could win somewhere in the pocket of 90-95 games while challenging for the NL West and firmly securing an NL Wild Card spot.
The make up of the club was a point of topic in a recent segment on AM570 radio. Dodger beat writer Fabian Ardaya was asked about the roster and just how far this team can make it in the National League this season.
"I mean it's certainly a talented team. Is it going to win 111 games like it did last year or 106 like it did the year before? Probably not. Not as currently constructed...but it's definitely going to be a team in contention. Are they going to run away with the NL West? I'm not sure it's going to be a year that they run away with the Division. That's the position that we're in."
Fair enough take. Add in the fact that the San Diego Padres spent wildly this winter and put together one of the best rosters in baseball and it's tough to see LA bringing home a tenth division title in eleven years.
Ardaya continued.
"They still have lots of holes in the roster that probably should be addressed whether it be through trade at the deadline or just within these next couple of weeks. But it's still obviously a talented roster that has a really good starting point."
The Dodgers will have a lot to prove in spring training. Not only to themselves but to the fan base. Gavin Lux will be in unfamiliar territory as the starting shortstop at the big league level. Walker Buehler will be gone for most if not all the season. And we're entering camp with no defined closer.
