MLB Rumors: Los Angeles Dodgers in the market for starting pitching?
By Hayden Kane
The Los Angeles Dodgers have been linked to a potential trade for Tampa Bay Rays’ ace David Price for a while now.
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Those rumors emerged because of the money more than an actual perceived need for the Dodgers. The team already touts an elite top three in their rotation, after all, with Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, and Hyun-Jin Ryu. When it came to Price and the Rays needing to move him sometime this season, people asked themselves: “Well, which team would be ambitious enough to give up prospects, absorb Price’s big salary, and sign him to a lucrative extension?” The Dodgers immediately came to mind because of their $230 million payroll and their uber-aggressive moves in the last couple years.
With the dog days of the 2014 season approaching, however, it sounds like Dodger’s general manager Ned Colletti might be in pursuit of Price or a trade for another starting pitcher because the team sees it as an area of need. That despite the solid work of veterans Josh Beckett and Dan Haren in the back of their rotation thus far. According to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports:
"But does anyone seriously expect Josh Beckett and Dan Haren to hold up the entire season?The loss of Chad Billingsley, who will undergo season-ending surgery to repair a partially torn flexor tendon in his right elbow, hurt the Dodgers’ depth. The team lacks a prospect as polished as Marlins left-hander Andrew Heaney, who made his major-league debut Thursday night. The situation, in the words, of one club official, is “precarious.”So, expect the Dodgers to be in the market for a starter."
If the Dodgers come up empty handed, counting on guys with track records like Beckett and Haren is not a terrible option. But this rumor does seem to lend additional credence to the notion that Price in a Dodgers’ uniform just might happen, whether the rest of the league wants to see that or not.