n Part 1 of the mailbag<\/a>. This time, we\u2019ll discuss whose performances will matter most this month as the back-to-back champs try to lock down their best 26 players come October.<\/p>\nWithout further ado \u2026<\/p>\n
(Some questions may have been edited for length and clarity.)<\/p>\n
Which Dodgers heading into September are on the bubble and competing for postseason roster spots? \u2014 SoCal B.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to say now. The health of players like Andy Pages and Dalton Rushing will impact decisions. And while Edwin D\u00edaz, Kyle Tucker and Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez aren\u2019t in danger of being left off the roster, their roles in October could change if they don\u2019t show improvement in September. That would impact the postseason roster construction.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s assume the Dodgers carry the typical 14 pitchers, including Ohtani and 12 position players (though as we saw last postseason, that wasn\u2019t always the case). If the Dodgers are all full strength on the final day of the season, expect Rushing and Hunter Feduccia to make up the left-handed side of the reserves. Expect Feduccia to remain the backup catcher while Rushing serves as a bench bat as he attempts to play through a minor UCL tear. The right side is for trusted veterans Miguel Rojas and Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez, bench players for most of the season but essential to the team in October. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and manager Dave Roberts value familiarity and experience (and the veterans\u2019 performances in Games 6 and 7 of the World Series show why).<\/p>\n
That leaves Alex Call and Alek Thomas on the outside looking in, though that picture could change based on Pages\u2019 health.<\/p>\n
On the pitching side, it\u2019s hard to see Eric Lauer cracking the list, despite Lauer being one of the most dependable arms this season. That Lauer looks to be outside the bubble has more to do with the left-handers that have more or less stamped their ticket on the roster: Tanner Scott, Alex Vesia, Jack Dreyer and most likely Justin Wrobleski, with Kris Bubic potentially in the mix.<\/p>\n
Who the Astros should hire as their next GM<\/p>\n
Keith Law<\/p>\n
Can you discuss right-handed postseason bullpen candidates given all the injuries, including the likelihood of postseason opportunities for Blake Treinen and Ben Casparius? \u2014 Evan S.<\/p>\n
We touched on the right side of the bullpen a bit in Part 1 of the mailbag, but it makes sense to expand on this given the number of names in the mix. Roki Sasaki\u2019s sudden blister will sideline him for at least two weeks but shouldn\u2019t impact his role as a reliever in October \u2014 which is how the club expected to use him all along. D\u00edaz will have plenty of opportunities to build his confidence in September, but he won\u2019t be usable if his performance mirrors what it was pre-IL stint.<\/p>\n
That leaves Evan Phillips, Brock Stewart and Edgardo Henriquez, the three most trusted right-handers on the active roster. Treinen is in the mix, as he started a rehab assignment on Aug. 15 and has yet to allow a run in five outings. Treinen could return within the first two weeks of September and should factor into the equation given his playoff experience.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t appear that Casparius is a candidate this time, nor is Gavin Stone, despite his encouraging progress in Triple A. Stone threw four innings of one-hit ball with five strikeouts in his most recent outing for Triple-A Oklahoma City. But given his injury history, the Dodgers are likely to take a cautious approach with his ramp-up \u2014 similar to how they did with River Ryan when he was still in the system.<\/p>\n
Have there been any internal discussions about benching Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez and letting Josue De Paula or James Tibbs III get some starts to see if either is ready? \u2014 Thai T.<\/p>\n
Not yet, but if Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s offense doesn\u2019t improve, the organization could start kicking the tires on a Tibbs call-up, especially with rosters expanding.<\/p>\n
He hasn\u2019t looked right since coming back from a hamstring injury he sustained in late May. His second-half OPS was down to .694 entering play Thursday, and he\u2019s struggled against righties, hitting .238\/.293\/.375. He is striking out nearly 28 percent of the time, and his 32 percent chase rate is one of the highest in the league. His defense has also taken a big hit, with his Outs Above Average listed at minus-4. While it\u2019s fair to say he is on the roster to hit, not field, that he\u2019s not hitting exacerbates the problem.<\/p>\n
As for why Tibbs over De Paula: He\u2019s closer to being big-league ready. Entering Thursday, Tibbs had played 121 games for Triple-A Oklahoma City, parking 27 homers with a .974 OPS. De Paula is lighting up the Double-A circuit, hitting .311\/.406\/.560 with 26 home runs in 113 games with Tulsa. Some organizations have skipped the Triple-A level entirely when promoting their top prospects. Not Friedman and the Dodgers. They won\u2019t rush arguably their best position-playing prospect for the sake of need.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the plan for the TV and radio booths next season? Should we expect to see and hear more Clayton Kershaw? \u2014 David N.<\/p>\n
Kershaw made two appearances as a sideline analyst on NBC national broadcasts. He received rave reviews in his regional sports network debut Tuesday on SportsNet LA, his first time commentating in the booth. Viewers praised Kershaw for his knowledge of the Dodgers organization, his ability to break down the tendencies of his former teammates and his overall expertise about the game. His comfort alongside Joe Davis helped.<\/p>\n
Tuesday served as a trial run of sorts, with Kershaw wanting to dip his toes more into broadcasting to see if it\u2019d be something he\u2019d be interested in doing more frequently. No plans have been made for upcoming broadcasts or next year\u2019s booth, but if Kershaw wants to be more of a presence, it will happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome back to our latest subscriber mailbag. With rosters expanding and the postseason looming, the Los Angeles Dodgers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[2323,363,99],"class_list":["post-828699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}