With Manny Ramirez safely in the fold, the next step for the Dodgers is to try to upgrade their shaky pitching staff. Derek Lowe and Brad Penny left via free agency over the winter, and the rotation is now without an ace. Takashi Saito was non-tendered and wound up in Boston with Penny, leaving inconsistent Jonathan Broxton to close.
"We need a starter or a reliever, either way," general manager Ned Colletti said. "We have candidates in-house. But if we find someone else with experience at the big-league level, we'll give it some thought." For now, the ace of the rotation is Chad Billingsley, who led the club with 16 wins last season and is a legitimate No. 1 starter in the making. But while he made tremendous strides in his third big-league season last year, he still isn't quite there yet, as evidenced by his performance in last year's NL Championship Series.
Behind him are Hiroki Kuroda, who might get the opening-day start, and lefties Clayton Kershaw and Randy Wolf. The spring training battle is for the fifth spot, which the club will need to fill because the Dodgers begin the season with eight consecutive games before their first off day.
The presumed candidates are right-handers Jason Schmidt and Claudio Vargas and left-handers Eric Milton and Shawn Estes. But if veteran right-hander Jeff Weaver continues to pitch as well as he has in spring training -- he was signed to a minor league contract to compete for a relief spot -- he might be in the mix, as well, especially given that he has spent most of his career as a starter.
Barring a trade for a reliever, the Dodgers also have a free-for-all in the bullpen, where only Broxton, Hong-Chih Kuo, Guillermo Mota and Cory Wade are guaranteed spots.
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