It's easy. If you get another starter you don't bring Ryu back until May, see if Wood is still crap, if he is he's a reliever, if he's good tell Anderson he's out of luck and he's relieving. He's the one with the least value to us long term
At the moment Ryu probably won't start the season. If Wood has options, he's likely the man out... but that's if it even came to that. I've seen a lot of teams that look like they have "too much" pitching in January, and none of them had too much come August. We need another starter.
I don't think he would be in any position to dictate his role on the staff, we aren't talking about a Jansen/Chapman situation. He would be a great luxury to have around when they need to skip Ryu or Maeda (should they sign him) once a month, or in the event of injury.
That's true, I recall hearing the same thing, having Ryu coming back later, maybe may, might be better in the long-run. You're right, no such thing as too much pitching.
We've seen year in and year out that you need 10+ starters a year to fill in and this staff definitely has injury risk so it could easily be taken care of on its own with an injury or slow recovery. It might become a problem at one point and you can't just sign 6-7 legit starters but I feel as if one more starter makes for a good problem to have where they hopefully have ways to figure it out in all scenarios
It seems like the first 3 weeks of the season, you don't really need a 5th starter anyway. So have Wood be the 5th man/long man at first, sit Ryu til May when the season starts rolling and the weather warms up, if Wood isn't pitching like the guy he was just a season ago or close to it, move him to the pen full time until he is needed. Like I have said though, really hate to trade a kid with his value lowered and only a year after he was looking like a solid front of the rotation pitcher... that's also cheap and been really fucking good in relief.
What's with the deferred cash? We planning on going under 180 mil or whatever it is in a couple of years?
It makes the NPV (net present value) lower, so in reality the deal is worth about $45M, or $15M AAV. I'm sure they will try to get under $189M, maybe in 2018, at which point Ethier & Crawford will be off the books.
Kazmir’s 2016-18 projections by Matthew Moreno | Dodger Blue — 1 hour ago The Los Angeles Dodgers made their first significant signing of the offseason by agreeing to a three-year, $48 million contract with Scott Kazmir. Kazmir’s deal includes an opt-out clause after the 2016 season and deferred salaries. As it stands the lefty figures to slot in the Dodgers rotation behind Clayton Kershaw. Kazmir may be replacing Zack Greinke in that sense, but he isn’t replacing Greinke. That being said, the 31 year old has been among the better pitchers over the past three seasons as Mike Petriello of MLB.com chronicled. The southpaw is coming off somewhat of a rough season spent with the Oakland Athletics and Houston Astros. Kazmir finished the year 7-11 with a 3.10 ERA, 3.98 FIP and 1.21 WHIP. He made 18 starts with the Athletics and 13 with the Astros. Kazmir posted a 2.38 ERA, 3.16 FIP, 1.09 WHIP and averaged 8.3 strikeouts per nine innings with Oakland. His ERA, FIP and WHIP increased to 4.17, 5.19 and 1.39, respectively, after being traded to Houston. Despite a rough close to the 2015 season, the ZiPS projections provided by ESPN’s Dan Szymborski offer reason for optimism: Dan Szymborski @DSzymborski Dodgers turned in their project late, but Kazmir excellent work, even with marks off for lateness. 2:40 PM - 30 Dec 2015 Including projections from Marcel (Baseball-Reference) and Steamer (FanGraphs), here’s a glimpse at what next season may hold for Kazmir: Kazmir may not be the bonafide ace Greinke was, but his signing adds needed depth to the Dodgers’ starting staff, even if it’s at the cost of the rotation being full of lefties. At worst, he’ll be a one-year stopgap that nets the Dodgers a compensatory pick in the 2017 draft.
Nerds comfortable with opt-out clause in Kazmir’s contract by Matthew Moreno | Dodger Blue — 92 minutes ago The Los Angeles Dodgers took the first step in officially addressing their need for starting pitching by signing Scott Kazmir to a three-year contract on Wednesday. The deal calls for Kazmir, who turns 32 years old on Jan. 24, to earn $48 million. However, it includes deferred salaries and an opt-out clause after the first year. Kazmir spent the first half of the 2015 season with the Oakland Athletics, where he went 5-5 with a 2.38 ERA, 3.16 FIP and 1.09 WHIP in 18 starts. The southpaw was only 2-6 with a 4.17 ERA, 5.19 FIP and 1.39 WHIP over 13 starts with the Astros. While he was arguably the top free-agent pitcher still available, he hardly entered the offseason as a headliner. A strong 2016 season could easily change that as the class of free-agent starting pitchers won’t be nearly as deep as this year’s group. Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi pointed to the organization’s depth as reason there’s little concern over the possibility of Kazmir opting out after just one season in Los Angeles, via Bill Shaikin of the LA Times: “In Scott’s case, he and his representation are aware that next year’s free-agent starting pitching market will probably be a pretty good seller’s market,” Zaidi said. “From our standpoint, we have a lot of good young pitching that we feel is going to be ready to contribute at some point in 2016 and certainly by 2017.” Should the southpaw elect for free agency next year, the Dodgers would be in position to net a compensatory pick for the 2017 draft should they extend the qualifying offer and Kazmir decline it to sign elsewhere. In that event, one of Jose De Leon, Frankie Montas or Julio Urias presumably would be ready for a full season in the Majors.
