Yoshinobu Yamamoto's rough spring training start exposes bigger Dodgers problem

The Los Angeles Dodgers were baseball's busiest team this past winter, with one of the major signings in the offseason being right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Unfortunately, Yamamoto had a bit of a rough outing on Wednesday against the Chicago White Sox. He allowed five runs over just three innings on six hits and walked three batters.

However, Yamamoto can't be blamed entirely for that.

While his outing certainly wasn't great by any stretch of the imagination, there may be a much larger issue facing the Dodgers that reared its ugly head on Wednesday. Many of the hits that Yamamoto gave up didn't leave the infield, and the Dodgers defense certainly didn't help his cause.

On Twitter, Rob Friedman posted a video of five of the six hits Yamamoto gave up and how in the end, it was the Dodgers defense that let him down.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto bit by Dodgers bad defense

While it's still only spring training and hardly a time to panic, the defense might be an issue that the Dodgers will want to clean up before they open the regular season.

In fact, some of the plays that were ruled hits off of Yamamoto probably should have been ruled as errors.

It's obviously not characteristic of the Dodgers defense to make so many mistakes. But what went wrong yesterday clearly wasn't entirely Yamamoto's fault. He obviously didn't have a great outing, but a poor defensive showing such as that certainly isn't going to help him in any way.

The Dodgers have a strong defense, but it definitely wasn't at its best behind the right-hander on Wednesday, and it will need to improve before the season begins.

Defensive struggles such as these could prove to be a major issue for the Dodgers if they are not properly addressed in the coming weeks.