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The Los Angeles Dodgers should have had some of the greatest pitching staffs in Major League Baseball history the past few years.
Since 2020, the team has had Clayton Kershaw, Julio Urias, Tony Gonsolin, Walker Buehler, Tyler Anderson, Trevor Bauer, Alex Wood, Max Scherzer, Bobby Miller, Dustin May, David Price, Noah Syndergaard, Andrew Heaney and Lance Lynn in their starting rotation.
Talk about an embarrassment of riches.
Kershaw has won three Cy Young Awards, Urias led the National League in wins in 2021 and ERA in 2022, Gonsolin finished 2022 16–1 with a 2.14 ERA, Buehler is 46-16 in his MLB career, Anderson went 15–5 with a 2.57 ERA in 2022, Bauer won the 2020 NL Cy Young Award, Wood went 16–3 with a 2.72 ERA in 2017, and Scherzer has also won three Cy Young Awards.
The rest of those names are or were either young pitchers with tons of upside, or veterans with great track records over their career.
Amazingly, of all those names, the Dodgers’ current pitching staff now only has Clayton Kershaw (who has been battling injuries), Miller and Lynn.
Gonsolin, Buehler, and May are out for the year. Bauer was essentially blackballed. Anderson, Wood, Scherzer, Syndergaard and Heaney have moved on to other teams. And Price, the 2012 AL Cy Young Award winner, retired.
Then there is Julio Urias.
At the age of 24, Urias went 20-3 with a 2.96 ERA. In 2022, at age 25, he went 17-7 with a league-leading 2.16 ERA.
This year, however, Urias saw his ERA spike to 4.60 and is now on administrative leave in response to his arrest for domestic violence.
That was the second time Julio Urias has been investigated for domestic violence. In 2019, was placed on paid administrative leave over allegations made against him. He was later suspended for 20 games for violating the league’s domestic violence policy.
Now, not even his own teammates know what is going on with him, according to Kike Hernandez.
“We know absolutely nothing, man,” Hernandez told the Foul Territory podcast last week. “We know what you guys know, and I’m being as transparent as I can be.
“We know absolutely nothing. We know what’s out there and we haven’t been talked to about it because the team doesn’t know.
“The team is waiting to hear what’s happening and it’s a very unfortunate for us, for him, for the victim, and hopefully, we can get some clarity here in the near future.”