Jim Bowden just told you the Dodgers are going shopping in July. So yeah — Eric Lauer isn't the plan, he's the evidence. I'm Cassidy, he's Joey, this is Dodgers Daily — and the rotation mess just grew a deadline budget. We've got Lauer's actual role, Bowden's buyer call, and that May 29 stretch sitting right in the middle of it all. None of that fits neatly together. Nineteen games in twenty days before the deadline even opens. Yeah, let's talk about that. Fabian Ardaya, writing in The Athletic:
Lauer is here out of necessity, a byproduct of the Dodgers’ starting rotation depth that has crumbled since the calendar flipped to May. The club did not have a single pitcher miss a turn through the rotation in April before Tyler Glasnow went down with back spasms, and before Blake Snell lasted just one start and needed elbow surgery.
The detail that jumped out to me in The Athletic piece is the Mark Prior connection. Lauer's onboarding included a conversation with Prior — who was his minor league pitching coordinator in San Diego. So this wasn't just a random waiver-wire grab; there was already a relationship there. Sure, and the Dodgers PR folks probably love that 'fresh start' line, because it's covering for a guy with a 6.69 ERA who got DFA'd by Toronto six months after pitching against LA in the World Series. The Prior link is real — I'm not saying it isn't — but Bowden calling them deadline buyers tells you what they think Lauer is. That's the part that got louder this week. We started by asking whether the front office had done enough, and now an outside analyst is saying they're going shopping in July. 'Buyers' can mean a lot of things, sure, but the 19-games-in-20-days grind starts May 29th, not at the deadline. So the space between 'Lauer starts Tuesday against Colorado' and 'we go get somebody real in July' is basically the whole gauntlet. Bowden just said the quiet part out loud. Here's Aaron Coloma at Dodgers Nation:
“Blake Snell returned briefly from the IL before going back on the shelf with loose bodies in his pitching elbow,” Bowden wrote. “LA lost their impact closer Edwin Díaz to elbow surgery but Tanner Scott and Alex Vesia have stepped up thus far. Their pitching depth has been tested, and the Dodgers signed lefty swingman Eric Lauer over the weekend to help them through this stretch.
Bowden at The Athletic put a label on what the front office has been circling around: the Dodgers will be buyers at the deadline, and the injuries are basically writing the shopping list. Snell's back on the shelf, Díaz is done for the year, and Lauer is the bridge for now. That pitching-depth story we've been following all week just got a price tag. Right, and that's the tension sitting under the whole thing — they sign a guy with a 6.69 ERA and a nice Petco backstory, and then an outside analyst says, 'yeah, they're going shopping in July.' That's not exactly a vote of confidence for Lauer as the answer. I'd push back a little on that. 'Buyers' doesn't automatically mean top-of-the-rotation arm. Bowden says injuries are going to shape the move, so it could be another bullpen piece, a back-end starter, even a swing guy. That word covers a lot of ground. Sure, but the 19-games-in-20-days stretch starts May 29th. July is still eight weeks away. You can't deadline-buy your way through the end of May, so between now and then Lauer is the plan — and that's exactly why this feels thin. If you follow the Dodgers, you know the city around the stadium matters too. Check out Los Angeles Politics and Urbanism Daily, covering City Hall, housing, homelessness response, Metro, public safety, and small-business permitting, wherever you listen to podcasts.
You'll find links to every story we covered today in the show notes, so if one caught your ear, you can dig into the full piece there. Thanks for spending part of your Thursday with us. That's Dodgers Daily Podcast for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.