Andrew Friedman Keeping The Faith That The Dodgers Bullpen Will Right The Ship

The Dodgers bullpen has struggled to start the season. Entering May, the team’s bullpen has a 4.76 ERA, which ranks 25th in all of baseball.

It hasn’t just been one guy, either, as multiple key arms from last year have had rough starts to the new campaign. The two biggest, however, are LHP Alex Vesia and RHP Yency Almonte.

In 13 appearances, Almonte has pitched 11.2 innings, and has an 8.49 ERA and 1.89 WHIP. He has six walks and just seven strikeouts

As for Vesia, in 12 appearances, he’s pitched 9.1 innings, and has an even worse 8.68 ERA and 2.89 WHIP.

Despite the early season struggles in the pen — and especially with Vesia and Almonte — Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman isn’t losing hope. He told Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register that they’re not planning on making any changes right now, and trust their guys to figure this out.

"We’re at the point right now where we still very much believe in the group," Friedman said. "We’re just not doing some things as well as we did last year that we’re going to lock in on. And obviously, at some point, if we’re not right about that then we’ll make changes and figure it out. But we’re still very optimistic in terms of where guys are, what those levers are to pull to help get them back to where they were."

It is interesting that he implied changes could come if the struggles continue. However, for now, he has full faith in this group, as does Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.

So, that brings up the question:

Are They Right to Trust the Bullpen?

Relievers are the most volatile position in the MLB, and it’s showing with the Dodgers this season. Almonte and Vesia were two of the team’s best relievers in an NL-best bullpen in 2022 and, this year, are costing the Dodgers big time.

But there are reasons to be optimistic.

In Vesia’s case, he's struggled before, including early in the 2021 season, before being sent down to Triple-A. When he ultimately came back up, he was one of the more dominant lefty relievers in the game. So, if his struggles continue, the Dodgers can take that same approach with Vesia, and get him back after a “get-it-right” trip in Triple-A.

As for Almonte, there’s a little less reason to be optimistic, as he somewhat came out of nowhere for the Dodgers last year. Before last season, Almonte had a 5.30 career ERA in 114 appearances. Then, the Dodgers found something with him, and turned him into a 1.02 ERA reliever in 33 appearances.

So, this season, it could be some regression to the mean for Almonte, who had by far his best career year with the Dodgers last season. However, there is still hope that the Dodgers could find something to fix in his approach, and get him back to being dominant, or at the very least, a solid reliever.

So, for now, I agree with Friedman that there's no reason for concern yet. But if Vesia’s struggles continues into May, he may need a week or so in Triple-A.

In Almonte’s case, however, he’s out of options. So if he doesn’t get right by June, he could be at risk of being picked up by another team if the Dodgers wish to send him down. So that would put them in a tricky position.